…most great people actually are ammunition. But what you need in your company are barrels. And you can only shoot through the number of unique barrels that you have. That’s how the velocity of your company improves is adding barrels. Then you stock them with ammunition, then you can do a lot. You go from one barrel company, which is mostly how you start, to a two barrel company, suddenly you get twice as many things done in a day, per week, per quarter. If you go to three barrels, great. If you go to four barrels, awesome. Barrels are very difficult to find. But when you have them, give them lots of equity. Promote them, take them to dinner every week, because they are virtually irreplaceable. They are also very culturally specific. So a barrel at one company may not be a barrel at another company because one of the ways, the definition of a barrel is, they can take an idea from conception and take it all the way to shipping and bring people with them. And that’s a very cultural skill set.
— Read on stratechery.com/2025/ais-uneven-arrival/
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