Foundry is a premium business intelligence publication featuring 551 articles from the best founders and investors. Topics cover leadership, strategy, fundraising, growth, AI, and more.

What topics does Foundry cover?

Foundry covers leadership, investing, AI and technology, product development, founder stories, mindset and career, marketing, hiring, fundraising, strategy, and more. Articles feature insights from founders like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang.

Can I submit a story to Foundry?

Yes. You can submit a story at thefoundrybrief.com/submit. Foundry publishes articles featuring insights from founders and investors across all industries.

Peter Thiel: If You Were Joining a Startup, Here's What to Look For

By Peter Thiel · Mindset & Career · 1 min read

Do you like the people? Do you think you can become good friends with them? One law firm partner told Thiel — everybody here hates everybody else, but they all make lots of money. That's how professional they are. Thiel says startups need more than that.

Key Points

The most important thing: do you like the people? Can you become good friends with them?
A law firm where everyone hated each other but made lots of money — that's 'just professional'
Startups need more than just professional — they need to be more than things that 'just work'

Do you like the people? Do you think you can become good friends with these people? That's such a critical part to getting these things to work.

Do You Like the People?

Thiel: If you're looking to join an early-stage startup or a high-growth company — what should you be looking for? This is the subjective part. Do you like the people? Do you think you can become good friends with these people? That's such a critical part to getting these things to work.

Do you like the people? Can you become good friends? That's critical to making it work.

The Law Firm Where Everyone Hated Everyone

Thiel: One of the law firms I interviewed with in New York — one of the partners told me it was a place where everybody hated everybody else, but they all made lots of money. And this was an illustration of how incredibly professional they were. They didn't really like any of their other partners, but it all still worked.

I think we need things that are more than just professional. More than things that just work. That's always something to think about really hard.

Everybody hated everybody else, but they all made lots of money. That's how professional they were.