Kyle Mau

We've now had 2 employees in 2 months quit without giving 2 weeks notice. And look, nobody can force you to stay. But I genuinely think how you leave people matters. Commitments matter. Reputation matters. You don't get to treat every relationship as disposable just because you technically can.

In 12 months the country I lived in got invaded, my mom got cancer, and my company tripled. February 2022: Russia invaded Ukraine. We fled the country. April: My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. May: I separated from my business partner and rebuilt the company under the HireUA name. October: Revenue had doubled from June. December: Tripled. February 2023: We crossed $100,000 a month. I look back at that period and sometimes wonder how the hell all of it happened. Some of the worst experiences of my life coincided with some of the biggest progress I'd ever made professionally. Life is a strange fucking thing.

I complained about a problem to my wife. An hour later YouTube served me the answer. Maybe it's coincidence. Maybe YouTube just knows my interests frighteningly well. Either way, we're getting to a point where technology can put an answer in front of you before you've even thought to go looking for one. That's pretty impressive.

AI tools were supposed to free up my time. Now I feel guilty when they're not running. You start feeling like every hour they’re NOT running is an hour you’ve wasted. I’m noticing this in myself. Instead of just enjoying the fact that I don’t have to do all the work, I’m thinking: “Shouldn’t I have something running right now?” I don’t even need to be doing the work to feel guilty anymore. Apparently I’m now responsible for making sure the computers don’t take an afternoon off either. It’s a pretty messed-up place to end up with tools that are supposed to make your life easier.

The people who love you most usually give the worst business advice. Some of the people who supported me most when I started building businesses had never run one themselves. I was lucky to have that support. But loving you and knowing what to do about a business problem are two different things. That's part of why I value talking to other Founders. Not because friends and family don't matter. Because sometimes you need to talk to someone who's actually dealt with the thing you're trying to figure out.

Your best closer might be the worst person to build your outbound strategy. These are two completely different skills. One hears a customer objection and figures out what to say. The other figures out: * Who we should target * How we should reach them * What message we should test * What metrics matter * Why the campaign isn't working * What to change next You can be excellent at the first and completely lousy at the second. Yet Founders constantly assume that because someone performs well in a role, they can eventually design and manage the entire function. Not necessarily.

Every candidate says they're 'good with AI.' Ask them these 3 questions. Can they give an agent the right raw material? Can they tell when it missed the point? Can they explain what needs to change? Opening a chat and asking for ten tweets is a very low bar. You need someone who can get useful work out of it.

Accepting a bad month is not the same as giving up on it. Your revenue drops. Accepting that it happened doesn't mean you sit there and do nothing. It means you look at what actually went wrong, figure out what you can influence, and make the appropriate changes. Without freaking out and trying to rebuild the entire company. You can accept reality without being happy about it. Those are two different things.

'Just post more content' is the worst growth advice in business. Who needs to see it? How do they become a prospect? What gets them onto a call? How many customers is this producing? If the entire plan is “hopefully the algorithm rewards us,” you’re leaving a pretty important part of your business to chance.

Your commission-only closer will never nurture a lead for 18 months. Here's why. Have you thought about whether you've designed a job that makes that worthwhile? Taking a ready-to-buy call and nurturing a prospect for a year and a half are not the same assignment. Someone has to own the second one too. Otherwise, you have a sales process for people who are ready today and a pile of forgotten conversations with everyone else.

We went 3 years without a single employee quitting. Then one left, and everyone followed. Then our longest-tenured employee had to leave because she needed a visa and more permanent employment arrangements in another country. She was devastated. Gave her two weeks' notice. Handled everything professionally. And then something interesting happened. Other people started leaving too. Some were ready for new opportunities. Others weren't keeping up with what the company needed anymore. It was almost like the first departure broke some invisible barrier. I'd never experienced that before.

We are having a family debate here. Do you guys actually LIKE vegetables? Like, do you have random cravings for any is the following: bell peppers, corn, cabbage, cucumbers, cauliflower etc?

"Capacity does not create an obligation to fill it with random shit." Founders build complexity because it makes them feel employed. 📍 amazon.com/dp/B0HLLKNL1F

Sales gurus are obsessed with creating urgency. Push harder. Overcome objections. Ask better questions. Close the deal. Okay. But what if the customer genuinely doesn't need what you're selling right now? Not every objection is something you can overcome. Sometimes the problem you're trying to solve simply isn't a problem for them yet.

When you hire overseas, don’t assume someone shares all your context about American customers and how your business operates. Ask what they understand. Find out what needs explaining. That matters much more when you want them making decisions instead of following instructions. Before you decide they can’t own the job, check whether you’ve given them enough context to make a good decision.

Seth had waited 3 months for his development agency to fix an integration. The developer we found solved the main issue in 4–5 days. Hire-UA.com/case-studies/set…

Alex hired a client success manager and a WordPress developer for his firearms software business. He puts the annual payroll savings at $160–200k. Hire-UA.com/case-studies/mon…

You can have 11 employees, an Operations Manager, a Sales Rep, a recruiting department, a marketing team... And still be the only person who actually makes the company grow. That was a problem I built at HireUA. I created the leads for Sales to close. I created the content for Marketing to distribute. When a placement got stuck, I came in to rescue it. Everybody was working. But I still had to produce the inputs AND rescue the outputs. Basically, I'd built a real company's payroll with a freelancer's dependency on me. That's a very expensive way to be self-employed.

The more specific your hiring requirements, the smaller your talent pool. Pretty obvious, right? Yet companies constantly do this: * Must have 10 years of experience * Must have worked in our exact niche * Must have used our software * Must have scaled to our exact revenue * Must be available immediately You start with an ocean of candidates. Then a lake. Then a pond. Eventually you're fishing in your driveway after the sprinklers went off. And wondering why nobody's biting.

Zach hired a podcast guest coordinator who started taking on SEO and marketing strategy too. He estimates the hire saves $20–30k a year versus hiring locally. Hire-UA.com/case-studies/we-…

Video Editors are COOKED AI is coming for them