It's hard to build new things

A conversation between Sari and Alex

I’m sharing this for accountability even though my hands are shaking. My goal in 2025 is to become the world’s most transparent founder. To kick things off, I’m recording a Q&A next week (audio or video, I’m not sure yet). If you have a question for me about Sublime, being a mom of three and founder... or anything vaguely related, please comment on this newsletter or send me a note in response to this email. Nothing is off limits.

Happy Saturday,
Sari

---

In the meantime, enjoy an excerpt from my conversation with Alex for Whoa, Volume One,

Sari Azout—

It's very hard to build new things. The default when you're starting something is nobody cares. And your job is to make them care. And it sucks because you care so much about this thing. You have this crystal clear vision. And your job is to overcome indifference. And that’s just a hard journey.

But if you don't believe that it's possible, you've disqualified yourself from winning. So I don’t know, I try to operate with an ‘optimistic but dissatisfied’ mindset.

Alex Dobrenko—

I want to drill in on dissatisfied because I guess there's a lot of different ways to be dissatisfied. Like, you’re my boss, and I never feel like you’re dissatisfied or negative and depressed in a way that bleeds out onto everyone, you know?

Sari—

The hardest part about being in a leadership position in a company is it requires this constant calibration of arrogance and humility. The arrogance to believe that we are going to build a more sublime internet but also the humility to know that there are many things that we will be wrong about. And it's hard because it's often not clear at what point you need to exercise more of one or the other.

When it comes to people, there's different ways of leading. You can lead with fear, or you can lead with love. Both can work.

There are plenty of companies that operate out of fear, and that style works for some people. But it's not mine. I think that for me, it's more important to lead with love. Now, it’s hard because ultimately the market will vote on whether we have a right to exist. And on a daily basis I question whether we are making the right bets, whether I am leading the team in the right way.

But I think rather than be the lonely person shouting from the top, it's like, let's have these conversations. Let's figure this out together, that feels like the best way to get to where we want to be.

To read, listen, and watch the full conversation, grab your copy here if you’re in the US, and here for international. It comes with the full uncut conversation via a private podcast too!