In this episode, Sam Corcos & Maz Brumand from Levels join Vinay Hiremath, Co-Founder & CTO of Loom, to discuss the importance of aligning responsibility with authority in leadership roles. They emphasize the need for a performance management culture that holds people accountable for their decisions and actions. The team also talks about the dynamics of influence without authority and how to add value as a consultative role. They highlight the importance of trust and alignment towards a ...
Mar 31, 2023•48 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Sam Corcos, Co-Founder and CEO of Levels, and Zac Henderson, Head of Legal, discuss the importance of collaborative escalation in resolving disagreements effectively. They note that sometimes departments within a company have goals that are somewhat in conflict with each other. It's about finding the middle ground and figuring out what decision needs to be made by someone not in one of those two departments. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you w...
Mar 24, 2023•42 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Levels' CEO Sam Corcos, Head of Design Alan McLean, and Head of Mobile Engineering Hui Lu discuss the importance of urgency in startups and organizations. They explain that while urgency is critical to building a successful startup, it's often mistaken for anxiety or panic. They explore the difference between urgency and prioritization, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between what's urgent and what's important when deciding what tasks to tackle. They...
Mar 17, 2023•47 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Ben Grynol and Zac Henderson discuss the importance of working with executive assistants (EAs) for effective time management. They emphasize the significance of communication and trust when delegating tasks to an EA. EAs are a leverage point to save time and brain space, and the ability to save time is the most powerful aspect of working with an EA. A good EA should be able to adapt and learn quickly to make their client more efficient. The most effective style of delegation is ...
Mar 10, 2023•25 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Tom Griffin, Hui Lu, and Josh Clemente discuss the importance of treating people like adults as a cultural value. They define this as trusting employees' judgment and allowing them to navigate their work independently without paternalistic oversight. Trust and transparency build strong relationships, while autonomy allows employees to manage their time and work output. Balancing guidance and discretion is key to not being too rigid in policies. The team also discusses scenar...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Levels Editorial Director, Mike Haney, speaks with Stephanie Nickitas, a former professional tennis player, CrossFit gym owner, and coach, about her journey to achieving optimal health through consistency and nutrition. Stephanie shares her insights on the importance of consistency, mechanics, and intensity in CrossFit, and how focusing on her metabolic health has helped her achieve her health goals. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tool...
Feb 24, 2023•36 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Josh Clemente, the Founder of Levels, and Sam Corcos, the Co-Founder and CEO of Levels, discuss the concept of leadership, effective decision meetings, and why everyone should exhibit leadership qualities regardless of their title or position in the company. They explore the difference between a leader and someone who shows leadership, and why the distinction between the two can create a false dichotomy. They also delve into the best practices for conducting decision meetings, i...
Feb 17, 2023•58 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Multitasking is not a productive way to spend a workday. At Levels, we work hard to protect everyone’s time so they can accomplish their goals. Listen as Ben Grynol chats with Sam Corcos and Michael ‘Miz’ Mizrahi about the pitfalls of context-switching at work. They talked about distractions while working remotely and the best ways to prevent context switching, especially in an asynchronous work environment, and dove into ways to minimize distractions to maximize output. Levels helps you see how...
Feb 10, 2023•56 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Company culture is hard to get right. And the further along your company is, the harder it becomes to make any significant changes to the culture. If you want to build a team that can work together well, culture building has to be intentional. In this episode, Tim Kendall, one of our investors and one of the earliest employees of Facebook, and Sam Corcos discuss building company culture, incentive alignment, and the importance of being able to change your mind. Levels helps you see how food affe...
Feb 07, 2023•49 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Nutritionist Dulce Dagda joins Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew to discuss the importance of finding the right approach to nutrition and health. Dulce shares her journey into the field and explains how she helps improve the health of the elderly through nutrition and health promotion. Dulce started her podcast and YouTube channel to share her knowledge on fitness, healthy tips, and biohacking with the Spanish-speaking community, highlighting the challenges they face, such as higher rates of pre-diabetes a...
Feb 03, 2023•39 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Successful companies need to hire employees who are invested in the long-term outcomes and future of the business, rather than their own short-term gains. But in order to find people you can trust to work toward the company’s best interests, you need to instill a sense of integrity into your company’s culture. In this episode, Ben Grynol and Michael Mizrahi discuss the importance of acting in the company’s best interest and how to find employees who share your values, based on the principle from...
Jan 31, 2023•37 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Writing is a complex process that allows you to explore your thoughts on a deeper level because it calls for a different kind of focus and concentration. In this episode, Sam Corcos chatted with “The Writing Guy” David Perell about the best approaches for when, where, and why to use writing in certain forms of communication. They talked about the mental barriers to writing, especially when it requires deep thought and articulation, as well as the best approaches for when, where, and why to use w...
Jan 27, 2023•55 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast When you work in multiple startups—especially when you’re in a leadership or CEO role—there’s a lot to learn as you progress through life as a founder on the C-Suite level. Here’s what Julien Smith, co-founder and CEO of Practice, a business management platform for coaches, and Levels CEO Sam Corcos have learned over the years from leading startups, from product intuition to leaning into your core competency and outsourcing the rest, and learning to hire the right people for the job. Sam and Jul...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast When establishing a company from the ground up in a remote-first environment, values and culture serve as the fundamental basis upon which everything else is built. In this episode, Sam Corcos talked with Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab Inc. to discuss their take on building and scaling remote teams. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and contin...
Jan 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast For the majority of her adult life, Mo Jeans didn’t pay attention to her health until she read a book that prompted her to make dietary changes and pay more attention to how the foods she eats affect how she feels. From there, Mo got her certification in functional medicine and became interested in using a CGM to help her monitor her sudden lack of blood sugar stability as she entered perimenopause. Mike Haney and Mo Jeans continue the discussion from Mo’s member story feature, talking about how...
Jan 17, 2023•32 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Burnout is real. But it can often be alleviated by working smarter, not harder. Startups can be very demanding of their employees—so how do you go into an exciting world full of pivots and hard work without burning out or compromising your mental health? Alex Lieberman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew, is all about pursuing efficiency and enabling team members to work in the ways that serve them best. In this episode, he speaks to Levels CEO Sam Corcos about the importance of m...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast In the corporate world, there’s a very strict hierarchy of professional services in departments like legal and finance. But at Levels and other startups, things are very different. Head of Legal, Zac Henderson, and Senior Finance Manager Ryley Walker discuss: The differences between corporate vs. startup for professional services The Levels values of short toes and assuming positive intent Being an open-door professional resource to encourage collaboration Core “soft” skills needed to thrive at ...
Jan 10, 2023•53 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast The productivity and email world is obsessed with the “inbox zero” phenomenon, but everyone has their own process for managing emails and prioritizing tasks. Sometimes, it’s due to the vertical or industry a person works in, and other times it’s because companies have different cultures and values they talk about when it comes to approaching work and communications. The Levels team values these 3 factors of communication: Asynchronous or “async” communication, thorough project documentation, and...
Jan 06, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Listen as Levels Member Carl Banks outlines the healthy approach that he takes around food—outlining his new dietary approach from the last few years, using daily CGM data to inform what he eats and what he does, and using that data to help him pay attention and not obsess. Listen as Carl discusses with Mike Haney his background in biophysics, his take on the social structures that deter people from achieving wellness, and how he succeeded in losing weight and keeping it off. Levels helps you se...
Jan 03, 2023•31 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast When is it okay to delegate tasks to executive assistants (EAs)? At Levels, all team members have access to a pool of EAs through the company Athena, but it can be difficult to assess whether tasks delegated to EAs are appropriate. In this conversation, CEO Sam Corcos and Head of People Ops Michael ‘Miz’ Mizrahi explore the boundaries of delegating personal tasks, document when it’s not okay to utilize company EA time and talk about when it may be okay to delegate some of your core work to your ...
Dec 30, 2022•51 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast What’s more effective for startups: An in-person environment or a remote one? And which of these types of work cultures are more likely to IPO? Delian Asparouhov, co-founder of Varda and principal investor at Founders Fund explains why he thinks in-person startups, especially at the product market fit stage, are more likely to be acquired and IPO when the team operates in person. This remote versus in-person debate with Levels CEO Sam Corcos covers the benefits of different types of work environ...
Dec 26, 2022•49 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Earned, paid, and owned media are some of the ways a start-up business might attract new customers and keep current ones. Growth leaders and CXO’s must understand how to strike a balance between performance marketing and brand equity development. Ben Grynol spoke with Nik Sharma, CEO of Sharma Brands, to discuss the advantages of each strategy and various sorts of growth levers. 🎙️ What Nik Sharma & Ben Grynol discuss: (09:16) - Understand the LTV of newsletter subscribers (12:40) - Intent ...
Dec 23, 2022•54 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast When building a community, there's one principle that lays the foundation for every community and culture around the world: People Like Us Do Things Like This. It's a sense of tribalism and a concept that Seth Godin (a global thought leader, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker) brought to the world more than 10 years ago. Here, Seth Godin and Ben Grynol talk about marketing, community, and what it was like to grow up in Buffalo, NY. Levels helps you see how food affects your h...
Dec 22, 2022•49 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast A startup needs to create and establish a company culture in the beginning in order for the team to thrive and grow as the company scales. Understandably, it may seem counterintuitive to focus on intangible things like culture in the early days of a startup, but it’s key. Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph is a standout leader to talk to about this; he helped build Netflix’s culture 20 years ago. To this day, CEOs still reference Marc’s Netflix culture playbook. Listen as Sam Corcos and Marc Rando...
Dec 21, 2022•54 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on Levels - Inside the Company, where we have in-depth conversations about how the Levels startup team builds a movement from the ground up in the health a...
Nov 29, 2022•47 sec•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 
