📚 Issue #101: How To 10X Your Delegation
Claremont serial entrepreneur Sam Corcos shares his best practices on delegation, using virtual assistants, and other ways to skyrocket productivity.
💬 Welcome to issue #101 of Between the Lines
Good morning & happy Thursday. Time is rarely on your side… especially as an entrepreneur or founder. These days, however, it’s easier than ever to delegate parts of your workload and 10X your performance.
This week, Claremont entrepreneur Sam Corcos sat down with Tim Ferris to discuss his best practices for managing his time and the important lessons he’s learned to increase his productivity – coming up with the most comprehensive tactical guide to delegation. It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Pat
👤 Community Spotlight: Sam Corcos
Claremont grad and serial entrepreneur Sam Corcos (CMC ‘11) is the CEO and co-founder of Levels, an a16z-backed startup that shows you how food affects your health, using continuous glucose monitors and other biosensors.
Sam recently joined Tim Ferris to create the most comprehensive tactical guide to delegation. They discussed Sam’s best practices for managing his time, his experience working with virtual assistants, and the important lessons he’s learned when it comes to creating leverage.
When did you start taking delegation seriously?
Well, so, true story, it came from reading your book almost exactly 10 years ago. And I posted an ad in Craigslist for an EA. I had nothing for her to do. I just knew from reading your book that this is a skill that I need to develop. I ended up hiring Lori, who’s been working with me now for 10 years.
She showed up and I thought, okay, what do we do now? What now?
And I made it my mission to find things that I was doing that I could hand off to her. And some of the most common things that Lori does for me now are probably the most helpful. One is during the course of the year when I see something that makes for a really good Christmas present for somebody, I’ll just send her a note and say, “Hey, get this for my brother for Christmas.” And then November comes around and there’s the scramble to think like, oh, man, what do I get for Christmas? And she says, “Well, you already purchased these 11 things for all these people.” It’s like, oh, cool.
You’ve tried a lot of different things, but what are some of the more common mistakes that people make or if we take a step back, why people don’t delegate in the first place, perhaps?
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of them. I think one is imposter syndrome. I’m reminded of a recent conversation I had where somebody was struggling to delegate, and one of the things they said is, “Well, who am I to tell them to do this task that I don’t want to do?” I find reframing is usually a good way to do it. One would be, “If I delegated this to you, how would you feel?” And they said, “Well, it’d be really great, it shows that you trust me enough to do this task.” And I said, “Well, by not delegating this to that person, you’re actually stunting their career growth and you’re not giving them that opportunity to prove themselves.” And so those sorts of re-frames can be helpful.
Another one is people feel like they don’t have enough for a full-time person to do. It’s very common. They’re like, “What would I even have them do?” And usually when you really push them and they finally get one, they say, “Why have I been waiting so long? This is so much better.” But a big part of it is, remember that they are working for you to help you be more productive. And where a lot of people struggle is they end up creating busy work when it’s really not useful for either person to be doing work that is not adding value. So if you find yourself in that situation, just say, “Hey, I only have 20 hours of work this week. Read these books, take a vacation.” Just something that they can do. It’s like, “Hey, do anything else other than create more work for me.” That’s really the way that the relationship needs to go in order for that to be effective.
Check out Sam’s full interview on The Tim Ferris Show to learn more about how he increases his productivity. 👇
📣 Claremont Announcements: LFF Pitch Competition
If you’re a Claremont Latine founder, here is a chance for non-dilutive cash along with amazing contacts. Claremont entrepreneur Alex Ruiz (PO ‘97) is the co-founder and CEO of 3GO – a personalized security service that protects its members’ online identities and assets. Alex was also recently selected as one of the board members for the LaFamilia Foundation, and they’re currently holding a pitch competition with a $25K non-dilutive cash prize to the winner.
🏷️ Claremont Discounts: BioVenture Nexus
Shoutout to Claremont alumnus and Orbillion Bio co-founder Samet Yildirim (KGI' 13) for procuring a 25% discount code for the Claremont community to this year’s BioVenture Nexus conference in downtown LA.
BioVenture Nexus is where you’ll have the opportunity to connect with industry leaders, leading investors, top researchers, and visionary entrepreneurs transforming the future of synthetic biology, biotech, food tech, bioprocessing, AI, startups, and venture capital.
When: October 5-6, 2023
Where: JW Marriott - The Ritz Carlton, Los Angeles, CA
DISCOUNT CODE: BIONEXUSCLAREMONT25
Check out the website for more information about the event, or register with the link below if you’re interested.
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Drafter & Agile Six
Claremont entrepreneur and former VC Peter Atkin (PO) and Chris Barton are the co-founders of Drafter – an early-stage engineering software built to simplify and automate 2D drawings, ensuring accuracy and reducing creation time. Drafter allows hardware teams to control quality, increase time to market, and lower the cost of producing high-quality products. Peter and Chris are looking for a rockstar Full-Stack Engineer to join their founding team. If you’re interested in an opportunity to lead the development and work on a cutting-edge product with a talented team, check out the opening here:
Agile Six, co-founded by Claremont grad and COO Brian Derfer (PO ‘90), is a full-spectrum digital services company whose mission is transforming government and private sector relationships. They work with government agencies to create customized digital solutions that help build the civic tech marketplace –partnering with clients like the Centers for Medicare, Medicaid Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Agile Six’s coaching services and workshops also influenced the development of a new voluntary primary care model that will be launched next year. They’re hiring more data folks to join their team:
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Congratulations to HiBob and Claremont serial entrepreneur Ze’ev Rozov (PO ‘87) on their recent $150M funding round. HiBob is a platform that offers HR and benefits solutions, including benefits administration, payroll, and employee engagement. Ze’ev is currently the COO of the company, overseeing partnerships, acquisitions, and strategic growth.
Everything else you need to know💡
Claremont biotech expert Abasi Ene-Obong (KGI) just announced the launch of his new genomic startup, Syndicate Bio. This new startup is a platform biotech driving genomics and precision medicine initiatives across the world’s most diverse regions. Abasi is also the co-founder and previous CEO of 54gene, an African genomics company.
Can’t get enough of Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🤖 Artificial Intelligence And The 2024 Elections…. AI and deepfake detection expert Ben Colman (CMC) shared his insights on what will likely happen next year with AI and the elections. He discussed the importance of legislation barring AI-generated media from American election materials and how platforms need to implement methods of preventing AI-generated disinformation. Ben is the CEO and co-founder of the leading deep fake detection platform, Reality Defender.
⚠️ The Threat To Our Daily Devices….. Claremont grad Skip Sanzeri (CMC) shares the different threats to the internet-connected devices we use daily. Skip is a quantum computing expert and is also the founder of QuSecure – a post-quantum cybersecurity company that protects enterprise and government data from quantum and classical cybersecurity threats. In his article, Skip shares what to look out for and what we need to do to secure our devices.
🧓 Aging Versus Climate Change….. Claremont grad and biotech VC Sebastian Brunemeier (PI) recently shared his insights on why he believes age-related diseases pose an even greater and more immediate threat to individual well-being than climate change. He also highlights the advancements in cellular biology that suggest the possibility of extending human life. Sebastian is the General Partner & co-founder of Healthspan Capital and CEO & founder of ImmuneAGE Bio – a startup focused on immune system rejuvenation.
👩💻 A Digital Safe Space For Women….. TechCrunch recently sat down with Olivia DeRamus (PI) to talk about the founding story of her company and its mission to create a safer digital space for women. Olivia is the founder and CEO of Communia – an online social network for those who identify as women. The app is a hybrid of everyone’s favorite social media companies, allowing users to craft private blog-styled journal entries like Tumblr or write public impulsive posts like X.
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