Supra Insider

What do you do when you’re putting in the same hours, running the same playbook, and the numbers stop moving?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez talk through the slowdown their business hit over the summer and how they worked their way out of it. They walk through the blockbuster April that became a false baseline, the moment in late June when the trend was undeniable, and what the analytics revealed once they finally looked properly: traffic was down, and the traffic they had wasn’t converting.
They explore why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs rather than from working hard, what momentum actually is and why losing it is so hard to shake, the content system they built that produced consistently bad posts, and the realization that no amount of good execution rescues a weak idea. They also lay out the protocol they’d use the next time one of them stops having fun.
If you’re running a business through a flat stretch, building a content engine that isn’t landing, or working with a partner and wondering how to say the hard thing out loud, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:32) Marc on the first signal: more hours going in, and the numbers refusing to move
* (03:28) The blockbuster April they mistook for a new baseline
* (05:51) What the analytics showed once they looked properly: traffic down, conversion worse
* (08:56) Why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs
* (09:45) Naming it out loud, and why that gave them permission to change things
* (12:50) Ben defines momentum, and why he couldn’t enjoy a beach vacation without it
* (17:50) Why paid acquisition was premature, and how go-to-market became a content problem
* (23:21) The system they built to draft posts end to end, and why the output was bad
* (26:19) Spending zero time at the idea level, and executing ten out of ten on a two out of ten
* (29:17) Morning writing blocks: using their most productive hours on the actual bottleneck
* (33:56) How a LinkedIn post about rejection turned into an episode booked on the spot
* (45:09) Why “why are you interested in this?” produced a post ten times better
* (50:15) Working up the leverage ladder, and the co-founder benefits they didn’t expect
* (1:12:12) The protocol for next time: name it, check in, find ground truth, scope a step
* And more!
Links:
* Ben’s post about how he handles rejection: https://benerez.substack.com/p/how-i-handle-setbacks-and-coach-resilience
* Episode about Rejection:
https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/120-how-to-stop-taking-rejection
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What are hiring managers actually looking for right now, when everyone has a polished resume and nobody knows what the job will look like in a year?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez welcome back Jori Bell, VP of Core Experience at Hampton, where she runs the peer group experience for high-growth founders. Jori sits at an unusual intersection: she has spent the past year hiring for her own team while also coaching product leaders through the existential side of this market. She explains the mindset she screens for, borrowed from the drama triangle, and why she would rather hire someone adaptable than someone who has done the exact job before.
They explore why a brand name on your resume opens doors but no longer closes them, the “why you” question most candidates never answer well, what actually makes an outreach message worth acting on, and what a year of hiring taught her about connections, in-person onsites, and treating a job posting like a marketing campaign.
If you’re job searching and unsure what to lead with, hiring and rethinking your process, or a product leader trying to figure out what this moment asks of you, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:28) Jori’s three vantage points: leading Core at Hampton, coaching product leaders, and her own path
* (03:37) The drama triangle, and why she hires for a creator mindset over a victim one
* (06:54) Why brand names open doors but no longer close them
* (10:29) What to do when your company restricts your tools, including extending STAR with the hypothetical
* (13:07) Why LinkedIn is now the first artifact she looks at, and the resume comes later
* (14:49) Storytelling as marketing: the headline, and the “why you” most candidates fail to answer
* (21:31) Specialization versus adaptability, and why having done the job can be a hindrance
* (26:26) What actually stands out on LinkedIn, and it isn’t the profile
* (31:39) If you need something from someone, do the work and make it dead simple
* (37:13) Leaving people excited, and the mind-meld moment that earns a second conversation
* (45:40) A year of hiring: connections, in-person onsites, and the clown car
* (49:25) Where she lands on take-homes versus case study interviews
* (58:14) Running a job posting like a marketing campaign, with a hit list for outreach
* (1:09:48) Gratitude Corner: Jori thanks her coach, Mike Lewis
* And more!
Links:
* Jori’s Substack, Product Therapy: https://www.joribell.com/
* Jori’s hiring for: https://joinhampton.com/careers/Moderator-Success-Lead
* Mike Lewis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikelewis/
* Jori’s first appearance on Supra Insider:
https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/67-untangling-identity-from-job-title?r=486xld
* Jori Bell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jori-bell/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

Why do so many strong candidates make it deep into an interview process and then quietly lose it on the take-home?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez record one of the morning writing blocks they usually have off the record. Ben has been coaching people through take-homes and noticed almost everyone approaches them the same way: clear the calendar, disappear into a cave, submit. He walks through what he sees when people send him the assignments that didn’t pass, and the two distinct problems those submissions tend to have.
They explore how much you can plan before the prompt even arrives, why you often have more say over the timeline than you realize, and the support system Ben now tells people to build in advance, with one person checking whether the story lands and another qualified to judge whether the ideas are any good. Marc pushes on when to act on which kind of feedback, and Ben makes the case that nobody can evaluate an idea they can’t find.
If you have a take-home coming up, you’re coaching someone who does, or you’re a hiring manager wondering what separates the submissions that stand out, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:25) Marc breaks down the different flavors of take-home assignment
* (04:40) Why take-homes are the least predictable vector in an interview loop
* (06:46) The default approach: treating it as a heads-down solo assignment
* (09:20) Plan day by day, and use the agency you have over when the clock starts
* (10:14) The spectrum of candidate calendars, and why everyone still gets the same five days
* (14:04) The two reasons submissions fail: legibility and weak substance
* (16:53) Why the bar has moved, and how AI raised both the floor and the ceiling
* (21:24) Recruit one or two people to help before the prompt arrives
* (22:08) The 30-minute session to chew on the prompt together
* (25:42) The two reviewer roles: legibility and subject matter expertise
* (34:28) Why none of this guarantees a pass, and why it’s still worth doing
* (39:38) The story is the packaging, and why nobody can judge ideas they can’t find
* (44:31) Why a strong artifact has the longest shelf life in any interview loop
* And more!
Links:
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What if part of the drive that built your company began as a childhood defense mechanism?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown, a psychotherapist, complex trauma specialist, and NYU adjunct faculty member whose second book, Psyche’s Awakening, comes out in September. Founders started finding her without her ever setting out to work with them, and she explains what she has noticed in that rare window into a guarded mind: that success often functions as a thermostat for psychological safety, and that the goalpost tends to keep moving even after the exit.
They explore whether healing your wounds costs you the edge that got you here, what a gut feeling actually is and how Gillian connects intuition with nervous-system regulation, and why some companies rely more on process and less on intuition as they scale. Gillian also walks through how she helps people find the patterns underneath their behavior, using questions Marc and Ben put to her about their own lives.
If you’re a founder wondering what’s underneath your drive, an operator trying to build somewhere that feels psychologically safe, or anyone curious how childhood patterns show up at work, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:49) How founders became Gillian’s clientele without her ever setting out to attract them
* (05:19) Success as a thermostat of psychological safety, and what people chasing chips actually want
* (10:33) What surfaces after the exit, when the goalpost moves and you’re finally alone with yourself
* (12:14) Marc’s fear that healing costs you your edge, and sublimation from Phelps to Schwarzenegger
* (14:25) Listening for your “I am” beliefs and mapping your psychological Achilles heel
* (23:16) What a gut feeling actually is, and why intuition needs a regulated nervous system
* (29:49) Why companies trade intuition for process as they scale
* (39:43) Ben’s origin story, and how Gillian reframes the work he does now as a corrective experience
* (43:04) Is a wound ever fully healed? The scar tissue metaphor and repetition compulsion
* (48:37) Marc brings up their worst argument, and Gillian names it as an abreaction
* (54:08) How to find your own wounds, plus the erotic-emotional map
* (58:39) On choosing a partner: don’t mistake contention for passion
* (1:04:11) Gratitude Corner: Gillian thanks her daughters Genevieve and Juliet, and her husband Grant
* And more!
Links:
* Pre-order Psyche’s Awakening: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/psyches-awakening-dr-gillian-oshea-brown?variant=44639204999202
* Gillian’s website: https://www.drgillianosheabrown.com/
* Gillian’s Substack: https://drgillianosheabrown.substack.com/
* Gillian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.gillianosheabrown/
* Gillian’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.gillianosheabrown
* Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgillianosheabrown/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What does it tell you about a company when every single person it hires, in every function, has to pass the same interview about culture?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez set the guest format aside for a conversation Marc started because he noticed something new. After two years of coaching people through interview loops, this was the first time he’d seen Ben genuinely fascinated by one specific interview at one specific company. Ben walks through what he’s pieced together about Anthropic’s culture interview: the no-exceptions policy, the rapid-fire format of ten or more questions in a single 45-minute slot, and the fact that anyone at the company, from marketing to IT, can be trained to run it.
They explore the questions that actually get asked, what Ben believes is being evaluated underneath them, why “why Anthropic” demands more depth than the same question anywhere else, and whether the filter holds as the company gets hotter and more candidates learn to say the right things. Then they turn to the question Ben finds most interesting: why almost no other company does this, and what happens inside a company when employees are calibrated to evaluate culture.
If you’re preparing for an interview at a frontier lab, thinking about how your own company screens for values, or just curious what a well-designed culture filter looks like from the outside, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (02:55) Anthropic’s no-exceptions policy: every candidate, every function, the same interview
* (04:55) The format: ten to fifteen questions in 45 minutes, not two or three deep stories
* (13:15) The two Dario Amodei essays candidates are pointed to, and the light and shade framing
* (16:17) A sampling of the questions that actually get asked
* (19:15) How Ben coaches the revenue versus safety question by first questioning the premise
* (23:55) What he thinks they’re evaluating: communication, intellectual honesty, and authenticity
* (26:59) Walking through Anthropic’s seven values and what each one signals
* (31:39) Why “why Anthropic” demands more depth than the same question anywhere else
* (39:40) The cult comparison, and why you mostly have to convince them you belong
* (44:12) Missionaries versus mercenaries, and whether the filter holds as the company grows
* (46:52) The bigger question: why doesn’t any other company do this?
* (55:55) The flywheel: calibrating employees as interviewers reinforces culture internally
* (1:13:49) Why the STAR method backfires here, and how to read the rapid-fire dynamic
* And more!
Links:
* Two essays required for Anthropic’s Interview:
* Machines of Loving Grace by Dario Amodei (2024): https://darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace
* The Adolescence of Technology by Dario Amodei: https://darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology
* Anthropic’s values: https://www.anthropic.com/careers
* Acquired on Sequoia Capital: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com