The elusive formula for great hiring, w/Workday's Aneel Bhusri

**Joyce Nethry** (0:07)
We get a distillate component called iso-amyl alcohol, and that iso-amyl alcohol in the barrel is going to go through oxidation and esterification reactions to become iso-amyl acetate.

**Reid Hoffman** (0:21)
That's Joyce Nethry, and she's describing the science behind something that I count as my biggest vice. Though, I'm careful not to overindulge.

**Joyce Nethry** (0:30)
Bourbon is beautiful. If you can imagine a beautiful golden amber color with a gorgeous aroma of some vanillas and caramel and butterscotch.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:44)
I'm receiving a strong oak motif with a hint of rose petals and marzipan.

**Joyce Nethry** (0:50)
It's just, bourbon is beautiful.

**Reid Hoffman** (0:53)
Joyce is uniquely qualified to talk about both the art and science of bourbon. She's a chemical engineer turned master distiller.
Two years ago, Joyce and her family founded Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Their bourbon making process starts with corn grown on their own land.

**Joyce Nethry** (1:15)
Bourbon has to be made of at least 51% corn. So we grow a beautiful heirloom varietal of corn called Bloody Butcher.

**Reid Hoffman** (1:24)
Aside from its extraordinary name, Bloody Butcher corn is the perfect anchor for Joyce's bourbon. But it isn't the only grain in the mix.
Joyce carefully considers how each ingredient will react with the others and contribute to the taste of the final product.

**Joyce Nethry** (1:42)
We're using rye, gives you some spiciness. Wheat is a smoother, more calm grain versus the rye, which our water is limestone filtered, iron free, beautiful water sourced from a creek. And our barrels literally been put on fire, like putting your bread into a toaster. A little bit of nuttiness you get from that toasting.

**Reid Hoffman** (2:04)
It's a simple list of ingredients, but the formula is complex.
The end product comes from a cascade of chemical reactions.
And to make a truly great bourbon, you have to pay intense attention to the initial ingredients, their quality, their quantity, and how they interact with each other. And then you have to wait.

**Joyce Nethry** (2:26)
Part of the quote-unquote crap shoot of it all is you don't know exactly what you're going to have until, you know, two, three years later. Now, before we actually built the distillery, we did do an experiment, and that bourbon aged to two and three-quarter years.

**Reid Hoffman** (2:42)
When they cracked open the first barrel, the suspense in the distillery was as heavy as the sweet smell of the bourbon.

**Joyce Nethry** (2:50)
After the years of planning, when we actually got to run our first batch and have it come out gorgeous, we danced a little jig and...

**Reid Hoffman** (3:04)
Joyce knew that the choices she made on her initial ingredients would lead directly to the quality of her final product. And if you're a founder, then you're also a master distiller, concocting the intoxicating mix of ingredients that will take you to scale.
Instead of artisanal grains, you're choosing the people you work with. The quality, the personality, and the talents of your first hires will set the tone of your culture for years to come. That's why I believe that the first 150 hires will make or break your business. It's up to you, the founder, to get everyone right.

**Chris Renner** (3:47)
You gotta have incredible talent at every position.

**Reid Hoffman** (4:17)
This is Masters of Scale. We'll start the show in a moment after a word from our premier brand partner, Capital One Business.

**Chris Renner** (4:30)
I was sitting at the dinner table with my wife, Shannon, and I said, honey, we're going to start a construction company. And she said, sweetie, you don't swing a hammer.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:41)
That's Chris Renner, founder of Pinnacle Companies, the largest builder of vacation homes in Breckenridge, Colorado, a destination for skiers worldwide. At the time, he was a management consultant advising a local construction company, and it occurred to him that a hammer might not be the most essential tool.

**Chris Renner** (4:57)
In my conversations with the owner, I said, does everybody do it like this? And he said, my tools haven't changed in 40 years. And I'm looking at him thinking, oh man, they should.
I was thinking laptops in the field and webcams and real-time communication. And what I was watching was the shuffling of papers in the front seat of a pickup truck. And I just thought, there is such a better way to do this.

**SPEAKER_5** (5:30)
Chris had a spark of inspiration that he couldn't ignore. And even though he had no construction experience, he set out to upend the way the industry operated. What he didn't realize was that the business he was setting out to create would be much more than a construction company.