"If you are not working 7 days per week, you are going to lose". Corgi Insurance is the most intense workplace culture in startups. - The company works 7 days per week. - Founder (@nico_laqua) lives and sleeps in the office. - He built a cafe in the office because there was no local cafe that was open 24/7. - 2/3 of the first 30 team members have the Corgi logo as a tattoo. Today I went behind the scenes with Nico, who has used this culture to scale the company to a $2.6BN valuation in just two years. My condensed notes below: 1. If You Are Not Working 7 Days Per Week, You Are Going to Lose: Whatever you can get done in 5 days, you'll get more done in 6 and 7. If you are trying to solve the world’s hardest problems, a standard 5-day workweek will not cut it. 2. Work Trials Repel the Mediocre: Corgi forces candidates into mock work trials over the weekend. If seeing a full office on a Saturday scares them, they don't belong. True intensity acts as a natural filter to attract killers and repel clock-watchers. 3. Lead from the Front Lines You can’t demand 7-day weeks while sitting on a yacht. Nico sleeps 3–4 hours a night on a mattress inside the office. If you want your troops to bleed, you have to be in the trenches with them. 4. Culture Only Means One Thing: Winning Forget superficial jargon like "hackers" or "ex-founders." Strip away the corporate fluff. A great startup culture is aggressively optimized around one single word: Winning. 5. Lifespan vs. Victories Building something world-historic requires radical sacrifice. When asked if he'd rather build a trillion-dollar company and die at 50, or fail and live to 80, the answer was easy. "I would rather measure my lifespan in victories." 6. Reject the Comfort of "Quiet Quitting." If you are operating in a hyper-growth environment and your days off happen to be Saturday and Sunday every single week, you are quiet quitting. To win, you must deliberately bypass the off-ramps of personal comfort and low volatility. Corgi isn't for everyone—and that’s exactly the point.

We’ve closed a $230 million Series C financing with participation from @khoslaventures, @lightspeedvp, @ycombinator, IQT, and @QuietCapital, all pre-existing investors in Science, among others.

America is the greatest country in the world. But we need more founders working on real problems. If you are in the early stages of building something that matters, you have to be in El Segundo.🇺🇸 Apply to the Spring Cohort in bio.  Deadline February 20th.

Here's my conversation with @MichaelOvitz, co-founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). 0:00 Introduction 0:09 The Genius of Marc Andreessen 3:03 The Art of Conversation and Adaptability 4:00 The Evolution of Cloud Computing 5:38 The Power of Co-Founder Relationships 9:01 The Importance of Personal Growth and Drive 13:39 The Rockefeller Connection 30:37 The Nobu and Wolfgang Puck Stories 37:31 The Art of Spotting Talent 44:58 Starting Out in a Competitive Environment 46:39 Early Lessons in Business and Teamwork 48:09 The Importance of Knowledge and Curiosity 51:25 The Impact of Technology on Learning 57:35 Building Relationships and Integrity in Business 1:01:13 The Role of History and Transparency in Success 1:07:17 The Power of Big Thinking and Disruption 1:26:25 The Influence of Art and Culture on Business 1:27:45 The Coke Commercial Revolution 1:28:38 The $3 Million Check Incident 1:31:29 Mentorship and Integrity 1:32:52 Self-Reflection and Personal Growth 1:34:56 The Power of Perseverance 1:38:31 The Drive for Success 1:43:19 Enduring Ambition and Curiosity 2:00:40 A Tribute to Michael Crichton 2:06:58 Closing Thoughts Includes paid partnerships.