Rand Fishkin built Moz into a $30M revenue company with 130 employees, then walked away after 17 years of board conflicts and a battle with depression. Today, as co-founder of SparkToro, he runs a profitable company with just three people, has already repaid his investors, and is building a video game studio on the side. In this episode, Rand reveals why he prioritizes liking his coworkers over hiring "A players," the specific questions he and his co-founder answered before starting SparkToro, and his controversial belief that the entire VC model is fundamentally broken.

What You'll Learn

1. Why Rand prioritizes personal connection over skills and experience when hiring, and how Google's Project Aristotle research backs this up
2. The unconventional funding model Rand created for SparkToro and Snackbar Studio that he open-sourced for other founders to use
3. Why Rand believes there are no A players or B players, only A fit, B fit, and C fit, and how former "underperformers" became rock stars at other companies
4. The specific pre-founding questions Rand and his co-founder answered before starting SparkToro, including "what happens if one of us gets hit by a bus?"
5. Why Rand's number one advice for first-time founders is to go to therapy, and how emotional maturity shapes company culture
6. The case against return-to-office: how Rand spends $20,000 every six months to bring his team to Italy and still saves money compared to a co-working space
7. Why the games industry is extremely anti-AI and how using AI art can tank your game sales
8. How Rand recruited Snackbar Studio's lead game designer over four years of following, engaging, and eventually flying him to Italy

Where to find Rand Fishkin:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin

Website: https://sparktoro.com/

Book: Lost and Founder

Where to find Luiz Cent:

Website: https://latamcent.com/Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

In this episode, we cover:

00:00: Trailer Episode 2 Who We Hire - Rand Fishkin

05:00: Working with really smart people is not as fun as working with people you enjoy

11:00: When does the VC model actually make sense? Pharma, clean tech, and AI infrastructure

18:00: The TinySeed model: 130% returns in five years by avoiding moonshot bets

24:00: The four-year recruiting process: how Rand convinced an Assassin's Creed designer to co-found Snackbar Studio

30:00: Google's Project Aristotle: psychological safety as the number one predictor of team performance

36:00: There are no A players, only A fit: why former underperformers become rock stars elsewhere

42:00: Architecting companies differently: why Snackbar has more structure than SparkToro

48:00: Rand's number one advice for founders: go to therapy

#SmallBusinessGrowth #FounderMindset #RemoteWorkCulture #BootstrappedStartup #PsychologicalSafety