Warren Buffett once famously offered some unconventional advice on how to become successful: “I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches—representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you’d punched through the card, you couldn’t make any more investments at all.” This came to be known as the "20-Slot" Rule. The beauty and genius of this rule is that it forces you to think very carefully about what you buy and forces you to bet big on what you’ve really thought about.
In psychology, the Ringelmann effect refers to the tendency for individual productivity to decrease as group size increases. That’s because as larger groups form, we as individuals stop paddling as hard and feel less responsible for our output. Smaller, agile teams are more likely to carry their weight, are better able to make decisions, and execute tasks in a shorter amount of time.
We believe the “20-Slot” Rule is a fantastic mental model for hiring decisions. In particular, what resonates with us about this strategy is the idea of making very concentrated bets and going all out when the right opportunity presents itself. We believe that in order to win, we have to bet (hire) very selectively. We will patiently wait for extraordinary candidates and pass on 'good' candidates. When we find candidates that we like, we will bet heavily on them and empower them with high levels of creative freedom, responsibility and resources.
Only hiring extraordinary people by definition implies not having a very large team. As believers of the Ringelmann effect, we are OK with that. To be clear, we will not limit the size of our team to 20 or any such arbitrary number, but we will only add members to the team when we feel that they incrementally increase the average quality of the entire team. We believe in the power of small, close-knit, highly functional teams.
We appreciate that extraordinary candidates like you typically have many opportunities available to them. To this end, by joining Uplift we can offer you:
Purpose: Our software helps people stay sober, recover from grief, lose weight, fight diabetes and generally find support during life's most difficult and challenging moments. The impact our work has is very tangible and you will be a part of a team that makes this all possible.
Compensation: Simply put, we want to invest in our people and our compensation in terms of salary, equity and benefits reflects this.
Culture: An offshoot of the "20-Slot" Rule is a small team. The benefits of a small team are less time spent on meetings and politics and more time on building our product and having fun. As founders we are direct, have a zero drama tolerance policy and empower our employees with extraordinary levels of trust.