Jack Altman on Founding Lattice ($3B), Motivating Employees and Growing up with Sam
EP 80 of The Logan Bartlett Show: Untold stories from tech's inner circle
Jack Altman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lattice (an HR software company most recently valued at $3B). We had a fantastic conversation about effective hiring practices, managing a team, his worst fundraise in the Series B, becoming a multi-product company and more.
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✉️ Episode Memo
Why founders should separate “fundraising mode” from other business activities:
Don’t have one-off conversations with VCs. Lack of practice and unprepared metrics make you look bad even if it’s an unofficial pitch meeting. Plus, these sporadic interactions can distract from other priorities, like finding product-market fit. Instead, arranging fundraising meetings in parallel and fully diving into “fundraising mode” makes for a smoother process.
Jack’s best hiring tips:
1. People rise to the expectations you hold for them whether they’re high or low.
Doubting and coddling can lead to subpar performance. Expressing confidence in someone's abilities encourages them to excel. As a manager, your goal is to set people up so they feel like you believe and trust in their capabilities.
2. Check references early and often.
In his 8 years running Lattice, Jack has never encountered a situation where a candidate provided 10+ strong references and didn't perform well. When a candidate offers a lot of references right away, it's a great indicator compared to those who take days to provide just 2-3. The beauty of references? They're impossible to fake.
On working hard:
Jack hustled through 110 hour weeks as an investment banker and found excessive work is unpleasant, unsustainable and not even optimal. It’s unlikely you’ll make your best decisions the Friday morning after grinding through a stressful week of 5 hours of sleep a night.
Jack believes “having people be in a long term marathon with the company is worth a lot,” and has observed peak productivity in years 3, 4, and 5. Balancing hard work with longevity encourages people to stay with a company longer, which is often underrated.
⭐ Highlight: The easiest way to skyrocket employee performance
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