#1310 Lexy Franklin | Former Facebook Exec Will Help You Get A Promotion

Lexy Franklin is the Founder & CEO of Sidebar, and a former Facebook employee who has tons of lessons learned from one of the greatest companies in all of Silicon Valley. In this conversation, we talk about professional development, future of work, importance of small groups for career growth, lessons from Facebook, and how Sidebar can accelerate your career. ======================= Base is making it their mission to bring a billion people onchain. But what exactly is Base? It's an Ethereum L2 offering a seamless experience for both builders and users. With near-zero gas fees and rapid transaction speeds, Base is shaping the future of the onchain world. Base is a canvas for everyone, with hundreds of apps in the Base ecosystem, whether you're an emerging creator, a seasoned developer, or someone exploring the onchain space for the first time, Base is designed to bring your ideas to life. So, if you're looking for a platform where the future of onchain is being built daily, Base is your destination. Join in and make onchain the next online. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠base.org⁠⁠⁠ and follow along on Twitter at @BuildOnBase to see cool things to do onchain, everyday. ======================= BetOnline.ag is a proud sponsor of the the Pomp Podcast. Use crypto to bet on sports, play poker and enjoy casino games at BetOnline. Visit https://promotions.betonline.ag/pomp and use promo code POMP100 to receive a 100% matching bonus on any crypto deposit. BetOnline boasts no crypto transaction fees, and processing is anonymous, instantaneous and secure. ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 265,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/ ======================= View 10k+ open startup jobs: ⁠⁠https://dreamstartupjob.com/⁠⁠ Enroll in my Crypto Academy: https://www.thecryptoacademy.io/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone? This is Anthony Pompliano. Many of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, which is my effort to find the most interesting people in the world and sit with them for hours while I ask questions in an effort to learn. So it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to the show on your favorite audio platform, watch episodes on YouTube, and tell your friends and family about the podcast. My goal is to help millions learn from the world's most interesting people. So let's get into today's episode. Today's episode is with Lexy Franklin. He is the founder and CEO of Sidebar, and he is a former Facebook employee who's got tons of lessons learned from one of the greatest companies in all of Silicon Valley. In today's conversation, we talk about professional development, the future of work, what people are doing to actually get ahead,

• 0:47Anthony Pompliano?

  why Lexi built a product that puts peers into small groups and helps them accelerate their careers, and also helps them learn about all the things that will make them better operators. Lexi is incredibly thoughtful. They've built an amazing product, and they have some incredible people that are already on there. I've gone ahead and I've taken a look at it, and I have to say I'm blown away by how high quality both the information and the people are. Lexi shares all the secrets behind how they built the product, how they think about the algorithm, and why you, as an individual, may want to consider using Sidebar. Here is my conversation with Lexi Franklin.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 1:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Today's episode is brought to you by Base. Base is making it their mission to bring a billion people on-chain. What exactly is Base? It's a layer-two offering, a seamless experience for both builders and users. With near-zero gas fees and rapid transaction speeds, Base is shaping the future of the on-chain world. Base is a canvas for everyone with hundreds of apps in the ecosystem, whether you're an emerging creator, a seasoned developer, or someone exploring the on-chain space for the first time. Base is designed to bring your ideas to life. So if you're looking for a platform where the future of on-chain is being built daily, base is your destination. Join in and make on-chain the next online. Learn more at base.org or follow along on Twitter at BuildOnBase.

• 2:26Anthony Pompliano?

  Again, that's at BuildOnBase to see cool things to do on-chain every single day. This episode is brought to you by BetOnline. Do you like making a profit from sports betting? Well, set yourself up to take home the most profit possible using crypto to fund your sports betting, casino and poker account at betonline.ag. You can avoid costly transaction fees, get your payouts lightning fast, and do it all securely and anonymously with the highest deposit and withdrawal limits in the industry. If you want to get in on the action, do it the smart way with crypto at betonline.ag. Head to the website, sign up with promo code POMP100 to get 100% bonus on your crypto deposit today.

• 3:07Anthony Pompliano?

  If you go and you deposit, they'll give you 100% bonus if you use promo code POMP100. BetOnline, the game starts here. BetOnline.ag, go check them out today. All right, guys. Bang, bang, I've got Lexi here. Lexi, one of the big themes with the rise of the internet is more access to information. And as people get more information, they can use it for one of two things in my mind. Like, they could do a lot of dumb things on the internet and they kind of just like waste their time and they rot their brains and they doom scroll on the internet. But then this is other category, which is self-improvement or professional development. To me, the people who are curious, the people who want to be ambitious at work, like, they're constantly learning, they're constantly reading, they're constantly talking to people, et cetera. Talk a little bit about that space on the internet in general.

• 3:52Anthony Pompliano?

  You're building a business that is helping people do this, but like, there's like a broader trend that you're kind of like riding the coattails of a little bit, which I think is one, good for a business to be built here, but also two, it just seems like that is something that was much, much harder to do, you know, 15 or 20 years ago before the internet and specifically a lot of consumers were on the internet. And so now it's become much simpler and easier to do.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. And I think what's really interesting about this is when we just think about work in general and the relationship to work to our lives, right? You know, we spend on average 90,000 hours of our lives working. It's just the vast majority of time we spend awake on the planet, right? And yet, we're so busy working, there's so many things, there's just more work, feeling more work. It's like, well, how do we really learn? How do we really grow? How do we really continue to just be great at what we do? I mean, I think what's so been so powerful about starting Sidebar and really thinking about this and looking at the overall market is that there are so many people on the planet who are just so committed to be excellent at what they do.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Like, these are people who are just driven to be the best that they possibly can be at whatever they're doing. And specifically at whatever they're doing at work. And so what I think you see is across the internet, all of these pieces, all of these things that are sprouting out, whether they're networks, whether they're programs, whether these other parts of the internet, whether they're these kind of large Slack channels, or they're on LinkedIn, or they're in Facebook groups, or they're in all these places where people are just trying to learn as quickly as they can and try and get better and try and iterate on their crafts.

• 5:24Anthony Pompliano?

  How much of the success of these kind of like peer groups is I am obsessed with being excellent at what I do, but part of chasing excellence for me is also being great at being able to teach what I know to other people. And like, that's helping me like hone my craft. It's kind of like, you know, if you really want to understand something, like teach it to somebody else, is that a component of this?

• 5:45Speaker 02

  I think it's an absolute component of it. I mean, I think one of the magic pieces of Sidebar that we see is that, you know, very rarely in life do you find things that are both altruistic and self-serving at the same time. And I think that that creates this kind of magical type of experience sort of thing. And you know, what you're talking about is altruistic in the sense that it feels so good to help other people. Like, there's the sense of we all have this kind of hard-earned tuition-paid work knowledge that we're accumulating and learning through our trials and tribulations, through our growth, through our hard kind of work that we do throughout our careers. And it's really powerful to share that. It's really powerful to help someone else, you know.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  One of the things that's so incredible about starting a company is you realize there's all these other founders who come out of the woodwork to just help any way they can, right? There's this like huge culture of paying it forward and paying it back. I mean, it's just like, it's incredible. And I think that you see that with that, the how good it feels to help other people. And on the same time, there's also this kind of interesting self-serving aspect, which to your point, you just get way better at something when you teach it to someone else. You have to be way more fluid, you have to be able to articulate it a lot clearer. And so there's this kind of magical give and take of great, I can get better at my job by helping someone else. And it also feels really good.

• 7:02Anthony Pompliano?

  When I look at certain industries, there are very rigid, almost in some ways regulated ways to continue to do development. So continuing education credits in law, in medicine, many other fields. Things like the tech industry, it's kind of more like, you know, choose your own adventure. Like maybe you want to get better, maybe you don't, we're not going to really tell you what to do. So how do you think about pre sidebar? Like what are people doing for self-development? How many people are actually engaging in this stuff? And like, what does that world look like for somebody who's like, I want to get better at my job? Like, where are they going?

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I think like, let's break it down. So I think that there's a few different places that people are going to, right? Like, one is they're going in their current companies. They're trying to talk to their managers, they're trying to talk to to other people, they're trying to just like fit it in in between work. But what you're going to see over the last three years, there's been such a substantial change of how we work. Where, you know, with the move to remote, remote work, there's this really interesting stat that it's, you know, about forty percent of people are participating kind of in remote work. And that's looking to double in the next year. Like, it's just this huge transformation of how people are working. And what that means is like, there's less time with your managers, like there's less connection with your peers. So that as a channel is getting weaker over time that we see.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  I think another thing that you try to do is you try and talk to friends or your partner. But I think what's one of the things that's difficult about that is that it's really easy for those relationships to Not have as much context about the day to day of your role. Or for it to kind of take over and dominate that conversation, right? Like when you're working on something that's just tricky and hard to define. It's, it can be like, well, I really need to talk to someone who has the expertise. You know, one of the really interesting things that's been growing a lot um throughout kind of tech is this idea of coaching and executive coaching. And I think coaching is really powerful because it's a really powerful and interesting way for us to talk about what's going on in our lives. What's going on at work?

• 9:06Speaker 02

  And how do we basically think about? The way that we're holding ourselves as leaders, the way that we're holding ourselves on our day to day and kind of self examining. What what that processes and what that looks like? I think coaching is like a really positive step in the right direction. I think what we see is that for a lot of questions that are kind of very tactical and practical about the day to day of work, right? I need to go make a decision about this tomorrow. I need to go figure that I need to go decide what to do with uh this, you know, situation at work. I need to move this metric and I'm like trying to work on this product thing and I'm not exactly sure what to build. The more context that someone has, the closer they are to problems like that, the more lived experience that they have, the more powerful the feedback is.

• 9:50Speaker 02

  And so that's kind of what we see is that, you know, there are these options that exist. You can also, there are lots of Slack channels um that people can join of these different communities, right? Product community, marketing community, growth communities that are all great, but sometimes in a lot of them, it's really hard to discern the signal from the noise, right? You're a part of this thing and maybe you're giving, giving, giving, but are you getting back? And so one of the things for sidebar that was really important for us is we call sidebar a program and not a network, right? Networks have benefits, but programs have outcomes. You know, I think it's the difference between a gym membership and a fitness program with a personal trainer. You know, a gym is an amazing, beautiful tool, right? It creates this incredible autonomy that I can go, I can go to the gym anytime I want.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  But like also, I haven't done pushups in like a year, right? It's only on me versus a fitness program with a personal trainer. The trainer knows exactly what you're working. They know your exact goals. There's a program, there's social accountability, there's steps along the way. And we just thought that there was a really interesting opportunity to um structure these interactions. Because what you hear about a lot of these interactions, whether it's talking to friends or trying to talk to a manager or doing like other external things is that they start out fine and then they peter out without the structure.

• 11:06Anthony Pompliano?

  When you think of Sidebar today, can you describe what is Sidebar? And like, I'm somebody, I want to get better at my job. I want to chase excellence. Uh, I come to Sidebar, I sign up. What happens? Like, what am I getting? And like, what does that experience look like?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  So Sidebar is a leadership program that accelerates your career. It's where people who are at the top of the field go to grow through a small group, through a virtual platform and through this facilitated curriculum that's personalized to them. You know, we've built this platform that matches people, it matches you to the right people for you in order for you to just substantially get better at your job. And like, it has goal tracking, it has messaging, it has this virtual platform, it has all these sessions that are customized to the member. And I think one of the big differentiators, the defining characteristics for Sidebar is the power of peers. So Sidebar provides these small peer, peer of focused groups of about eight to 10 people

• 12:05Speaker 02

  with expert facilitators that are focused on tactical value, right? They're focused on outcomes over networking. You meet like twice a month and you see these real results in your career. You know, one of the things that I fundamentally believe, and I think we fundamentally believe at Sidebar, is that peers is this tremendously untapped resource. Like, I would argue that nothing in life gets you further uh in your career than learning from your peers. Because in these small groups, you're able to learn these diverse insights from everyone's work experience, where when you're working on this problem, they're able to just explain similar situations they've been in and provide like their shared learning. So let me give like a concrete example. Let's say that I'm going and I'm leading a new team.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  And usually when you're growing really fast in the company, you just tend to get More and more things that are sent to you, right? New teams, you're leading new areas, you're having to manage in transition. I'm leading a new team, I'm trying to solve a concrete problem. And it's the first time I've ever seen it before. So most people, how we think about this is that we would just go and try and solve it to the best of our abilities, right? Use all of our intelligence, use first principle of thinking and just be like, I'm gonna solve this. Like, I'm the first person to ever interact with this problem and I'm gonna do it as well as I possibly can. But that's actually not the most efficient way to do it and it can take a lot of time, right? Versus if I was in a peer group and I was able to talk to you and you would be like, I've seen that problem before. I actually spent two years of my life on that. Like, I don't even think you're in the right mountain range. Like, here's how I think about it.

• 13:34Speaker 02

  Try this, this and this and you can go integrate that and, and try that tomorrow. Like, that's the value that we really see. And so what I kind of think about is this, the power of peers is peers encourage us. Peers hold us accountable, peers push us. And research tells us that when you're in these small groups that create this safe space, it's just an incredibly effective place to learn. So there's this amazing stat. We remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, and 90% of what we learn in a small group setting. And so we think that that's really the magic of sidebar is creating these really well-mapped small groups of peers that are laser-focused on outcomes.

• 14:19Anthony Pompliano?

  When I think of everything I've ever learned in a small group, it could be a dinner, right? And it's me and a couple of friends talking, whatever. There is something magical about putting people who have similar work experiences in a small group and also being able to be honest, both in terms of the questions that you care about, but also the answer, and I'll give you a good example. I've been at many founder dinners and nobody wants to like ever bring this up until it comes up. And someone will be like, yeah, I'm like negotiating my pay package with the board. And then every founder at the table has got an opinion and they've got like super specific advice, things that work, things that didn't, advice they had gotten like, it just like gushes out of people, right? And I always think like, man, if that one person wasn't like courageous enough to ask the question,

• 15:05Anthony Pompliano?

  none of this would have been shared. But also it's like, who's at the table and this like intimate setting got the answers? And I wonder, uh, if it was one-on-one with someone, I don't know if you would get nearly as good of advice as if you got, you know, four or five people to all do it at the same time.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  Well, I think that resonates with me so much, sort of thing. And like, there's just so many of these things, you know, this is the vast majority of time we spend awake on the planet, right? And there are millions and millions and millions of people who are driven to just do the absolute best job that they can at their jobs, right? You know, what I think is so interesting about this is that we spend so much time on this, but where do we talk about it? Like, where do we authentically share that? Where do we, you know, as a founder, like, pay is a really good example. Like, another really good example is when your board is telling you, hey, they're giving you all this direction and you're trying to be like, great, what really matters and really doesn't? And how do you think about that? Like, how do you basically like, distill what's really valuable, but also like, maintain focus?

• 16:04Speaker 02

  Like, these are these things that are so impactful and so incredible and matter so much. But where do you get to talk about those things? Or, as you know, a senior leader and a senior manager, like, a really concrete example is, you know, one of our members came in and they felt like that they had plateaued at the director level. They're doing an amazing job, but they just feel like they plateaued at a director level. What do you do in that situation? What's the conversation you have with your manager? Do you stay? Do you go? Do you double down? How do you broach that subject? Or, another idea is around feedback, right? Like, imagine that you have a manager and you want to do the best job that you possibly can, but you just don't know exactly how to connect with them, right? Like, what are the four questions to ask? How do you think about that? Like, you can't go to your manager about that. If you go to your friends, maybe they know the answer, but they don't really have context.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  When you're in these small groups that are matched really well with other people who are at the similar scope of jobs, they're solving similar problems on a day-to-day basis, it just creates this magic. And I think, to your point, it's really, really important that the vulnerability is there. That's one of the things that I've been the most surprised about in Sidebar. It's just on day one, people are super honest. And you come into these, and it's just, you know, there's all these meetings and you have this time that's set aside for yourself to double down on, to just really be like, this is my time to grow. And people are really focused, they're really prepped, the programming is really structured, so they come in and they're very honest about the things that they're working on. And that authenticity in a group is just even more powerful than it is one-on-one.

• 17:34Anthony Pompliano?

  When you have these groups going on, it's not just people talking amongst themselves, right? There is a facilitator who's there as well. And like, what are they doing? Are they like the boss? Are they, you know, telling people what to talk about? Or are they kind of just like completely silent in the background? How does it work?

• 17:52Speaker 02

  Yeah. So one of the things that we think is really important is that structure leads to value. And so if you've ever been part of, or if you've ever been part of a small group where you created on a chat thread or something like that, and you're excited about all these people, you know, the data tends to show, and we talked to a bunch of people qualitatively as well, is that those just peter out over time because there's not enough structure there, regardless of how great the people are. And I think the same is true, like, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but when you, when you go out to all your friends, uh, when you go out to dinner with all your friends, and it's not quite planned, and you have all these really smart people together, and it's just like, it's like a cluster, like no one knows what the plan is, or what to do, or what to think about, sort of thing. You're just like, who's in charge here? And so the first and foremost goal of the facilitator

• 18:35Speaker 02

  is to make sure that there's a clear, what we call hand on the tiller. Someone's in charge, right? Like, people come in, there's a really clear agenda. We send agendas ahead of time, and there's actually agendas for three years of the program. So people know exactly what's coming up. The group has opportunities to update and augment and change what they want to work on, but it's really structured. And the goal for the facilitator is really to hold that safe space, where people come in, everyone talks, they know kind of what the next steps are. We've built all this technology, so it's really clear whose turn it is, what's coming up next. So you get this sense where this time is maximized for you to learn from each other. We kind of believe, and we iterated our way through a bunch of versions of this, is that the facilitator's job is not to be the smartest person in the room.

• 19:21Speaker 02

  Their job is not to come in and be like, I have the answer to all the problems. People are really showing up for their peer groups. But our facilitators are brilliant and amazing, and their job is to hold space, hold people accountable, push when it's necessary, and just create the environment in order for people to get really good really fast and to solve their problems.

• 19:41Anthony Pompliano?

  And so when people are having these conversations, like, how much of it is professional versus personal versus, you know, just kind of something else? And the reason I think about this is, As the future of work is being debated, as people have gone more remote, it seems like personal and professional stuff is melding together. You know, I've had conversations with friends in these kind of more intimate groups. And somebody may be talking about starting a business, but they actually are like, oh, but my wife or my husband, this is a great idea, or this is a horrible idea, right? And like part of the advice on like, should I start the company or not entails like, do I want harmony at home? Right? And there's like very intertwined, uh, kind of components now between personal and professional life.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  I mean, I think it's super intertwined, right? I think that the distinction between work and life is, is it's, it's not like a really hard line. And especially in this remote world, you know, with 40% of people working remotely and that going to double, like a lot of us are working from home. And so like that interaction is super important and super critical. And so, you know, people come in and I think the way I think about it is work is the gateway. Right? Work is the initial way to start that conversation. Work is the way to bring up what you said, right? Which is like, what about CEO pay? But then when you're talking about that, all these things come up, right? There's personal emotions, there's family, there's balance, there's integrity. There's all these pieces that come out that aren't just defined by the boundaries of work. Like, let me give you a really good example.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  So we had a member who joined who was just really eager to figure out their next career step. They had explored consulting, they explored fractional leadership, full-time roles, but they were really interested in passive income. Like for them in their life and where they were, that's what they wanted, sort of thing. They began searching for kind of existing businesses to purchase. And we do something where it's a member spotlight, where a member can kind of share and their whole group is able to like help them brainstorm and think through next step. And during a member spotlight, she presented her top options and the group coached her through this decision-making process. Now, this is a life-changing journey, right? Like what she does and what we do in work, like these are big questions. And ultimately she chose this franchise opportunity and just closed the deal, right?

• 21:52Speaker 02

  This is a big six-figure investment and a complete lifestyle change shift. It's not going to just change work, it's going to change all of life. And it was just clear that the advice, perspective, support in the sidebar group directly contributed to this huge change in her life. And so that's an example of kind of how I see this working.

• 22:11Anthony Pompliano?

  When these groups are successful, what are those outcomes? You talked earlier about kind of putting the right people in a room with structure, with the facilitator, et cetera. Promotions like multi-billion dollar outcome, like how do you almost like kind of gauge whether it works or not?

• 22:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, so let me, let me just walk through some examples, right? Cause like we, like our community is absolutely incredible. And so let me just kind of walk through some examples. So, you know, we had a member who sold their startup to like a very large, well-known company in the travel space for hundreds of millions of dollars, right? So we, you know, there is the example I just shared previously about someone really trying to plot the next step in their life and deciding to figure out a side business and buy a franchise and set that up. You know, we've had members who are like, they're in their corporate jobs and they're deciding to leave their corporate jobs to build their own company, right? And then they're talking with their group and they've gone ahead and raised their first round of funding and hired a small team to begin building. On the other side, we've had entrepreneurs who are like, you know, I actually would like

• 23:12Speaker 02

  to join a big company and they've gone through the process of selling their entrepreneur business and then go to go work to go find a job at a bigger company. Um, you know, we had a member who tactically was like, I just want to give it better at my pitch at a conference to get clients. So their big goal for the year was one more client, which was like, that was like their big goal. And, you know, after the conference, they had seven potential client opportunities and another 10 follow-ons. So you just see these outsized huge gains in their life. You know, one way I would think about this is that I tend to believe that 85 to 90% of the time, we know what we're doing at our jobs. You know, we generally know like, great, I'm going to do this, I'm going to go do this, I'm going to go figure this out.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  And 10 to 15% of the time, it's just less clear. It's murkier, like how to capture that value. It's just, it's not as clear. And for me personally, those are the things that I'm staying up late at night thinking about. Those are the things that I'm just moving over and over again. That's where I tend to get a bit stuck. And sidebar is really now in that 10 to 15% of time, the value unlock potential is tremendous there, right? These are the tricky things that I just like, can't quite figure out, but if I could figure out, create these outsized returns. Sidebar is for that 10 to 15%, right? It's for those things where you just can't quite figure it out and you need the power of peers, the power of perspective to help you unlock it.

• 24:34Anthony Pompliano?

  The matching is obviously very important. How does the matching algorithm work? Does it, you know, uh, look at where somebody's located? Does it look at what they like? Do you tell the algorithm, hey, I want to be with people who have certain achievement level or skill? Like, how does matching work?

• 24:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we're like huge believers in building this with our community, right? Like, one of the things that's super important to us as kind of product people and as a team that's building this product is to really make sure that we're building with everyone. So the first thing we did, Samantha, who's our head of user research, who's absolutely brilliant, was just survey so many different people, right? What really matters from a matching perspective? We surveyed current members. We surveyed other people who've experienced other platforms and other experiences. And we're like, what's really important? And when you think about, okay, what matters in a small group? It's number one, it's not a great group if you feel like you know all the answers, right? And you're just teaching other people and helping people because that feels good to help other people. But you also want to get the outside returns in your life as well.

• 25:35Speaker 02

  You want to be able to give and get. The second thing is that if it doesn't feel like there's anyone like you, like you don't feel like these are like, this is like my people sort of thing, you know, in the sense, it's just like, you're like, well, I might show up to one or two groups, but this isn't really impactful for me. You know, sidebar is a commitment and it's, that's really important for us. People sign up for a year, uh, uh, and it's actually a multi-year program. And, but like, you know, you have year one, year two, year three. And so you're really focused on, I really want to make these changes over a long period of time. And so the way we thought about matching was this, was if you look at matching right now, today, a lot of the feedback you get is that matching is either based on location,

• 26:19Speaker 02

  like this is the San Francisco Bay area version of, of this group sort of thing. Or matching is based off of job type, which is like, everyone is like a VP or above. Now, that's good in the sense that it's directional of, we want to get people who are dealing with similar problems. But there's not all VPs in every company are created equal. Some VPs have 200 people reporting to them. Some people have two people reporting to them. VPs are tackling really complicated business problems. Other VPs are tackling much different things that are more focused on international and growth and all these other pieces. Like those things matter. So at Sidebar, we really take into a few things into account. The first is like, what are the type of problems you're tackling on a day-to-day basis, right? What are the things that you're having to deal with?

• 27:02Speaker 02

  And what would it look like to be matched with peers who are having to tackle those similar problems? What are the type of questions that may come up? Or the type of things that you may not, you may need help on? And who are people who can provide those specific answers? I think we also look at goals, right? Where do you want to be in a year? Like, what are you trying to learn? What are you trying to develop? What are you trying to grow into? And then I think diversity is really critical and important for us. Sidebar groups are diverse across a variety of different aspects. They're diverse across gender, across ethnicity, across race, across whether or not people have kids and the age of the kids, across where they live. And so you end up getting this overarching feeling of, I'm with all these people that I'm not sure I would have been able to meet on my own. Like, in order to get a sidebar group,

• 27:46Speaker 02

  it might take 10 or 15 years to go meet these people and get all of that structure set up. But they're solving similar problems that I am. And they're a little bit ahead of me in terms of some of the goals that I'm working on. And they have this incredibly diverse perspective.

• 28:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What are the downsides? Like, being in these groups, have you guys seen things that you're like, okay, we need to craft the product in a certain way? We need to craft the groups in a certain way. I can imagine a world where some people are not great at like sifting through a lot of advice. So, you know, it's kind of like, hey, you throw a question out there. Uh, I'm thinking about this thing at work. And then you get 10 different people or five different people with different pieces of advice, like, they can be overwhelmed. So like, what are some of the downsides or challenges that people have in these groups?

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I think that there's like two parts to the answer of that question, sort of thing. So one is like, what I hear is like the structure of the groups themselves and how do we structure the product? And two is the type of problems that people can bring. So I think that from a structured perspective, you know, this is one of those beliefs where I think us just really being super humble, listening.

• 28:53Speaker 02

  Listening very deeply to our community and just running group after group after group and just making each one a little bit better than the next sort of thing. Like our proc team is exceptional and our engineering team is exceptional. And we're just listening all the time and being like, oh, we can make that better. We can make this better. We can make this better. A few to highlight is, you know, one of the things that really matters is just laser focus on outcomes. Like versus it just be a network where it's for networking sake, like you have to be able to apply this and get better at your job. And so our like key focus on outcomes means that we actually have this policy when someone shares. Before everyone kind of gives all the answers, we need to first fully understand, okay, what's the problem we're really trying to solve, right?

• 29:35Speaker 02

  The group needs to be able to repeat back and really understand, yeah, this is a great problem, but what's the aspect that would be most valuable to you? Like, where's the pain point here? Um, and then so we start with a bunch of questions. So the first part of it is just asking a lot of different questions and then actually repeating back and being like, is this the type of information that would be really helpful for you? You know, we have a lot built into the structure of once people receives that feedback, there's check-ins with the facilitators, which is like, is that valuable? Is that what you needed? Do you need to direct this in a different way? So this isn't just like checking a box of great, someone asked a question and there's like 20 things overwhelming. It's like, no, do you have like a clear action item and next step? So we actually built this into the product itself. We have this new product that just launched called Goals and Actions.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  And so a goal is something that you write down that you want to accomplish over a period of time. And so, you know, when I was at Facebook, um, I worked on the growth team and we did this amazing thing. Where you would have to stand up in front of everyone and say what you were going to get done by what time to like this room of 25 people. So you're like, hey, I'm Lexi and I'm the PM and I'm going to make sure that, you know, the executive team knows X, Y, and Z. And I'm going to get this done Wednesday by 11, 11 a.m. And so Wednesday at 12 would roll and our stand-up would roll and they would be like, Lexi, did you do this? And like, you only don't do that once, like the social pressure is pretty strong to just be exceptional and for the arrow to hit the center of the target. And so that's social.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Accountability is something we built into the system. And so at the end of every call, we have goals, right? Which is where do you really want to be in three months? Where do you really want to be in six months? Where do you really want to be in a year? And what are the actions that you're going to take by what date to go accomplish that goal? Like, how do we break that down? So if someone's goal is, I want to be the CPO of my company in the next year. That's this amorphous big thing to try and tackle. But how do we break that down? What are you going to do in the next two weeks? And so at the end of every call, we check in and we're like, great. What are you going to do in the next two weeks? And at the beginning of the next call, we're like, how did that go? Do you need support? Do you need help? So there's just this through line of it's not this high level kind of goal that's hard to achieve. It's these individual things with due dates, right?

• 31:46Speaker 02

  With time schedules to go and get them done. And I think that that's something that we iterated on with the community and continue to do so. But it's really helpful to kind of build that into the system.

• 31:57Anthony Pompliano?

  What are some of the other things that you learned at Facebook? Obviously, the the growth team there is legendary. The the company culture is something that I think if people haven't experienced it, it's hard to to kind of fathom just how powerful it was in terms of getting things done. But what are some of the lessons you took away that that you're implementing at Sidebar?

• 32:17Speaker 02

  I mean, so many lessons, right? Like, I I think that working at Facebook was like the biggest honor. Like, I loved working there and the people there are just incredible. And and I think that there's a few things. One of them is just speed. Like, I think Facebook is so focused on how quickly you move, sort of thing, and move with thoughtfulness, right? But I think at the same time, like as a young startup, just I had a mentor told me who who had this great anecdote once, and they were like, you know, how do you beat a grandmaster in chess? And I was like, I have no idea. And they're like, well, the only way you can do it is if you have eight moves for any one move that they make, sort of thing. And I thought that that was a really good lesson. And then I went to Facebook and I saw it in action, right? Just the speed at which you execute, the thoughtfulness.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  You know, you know, I'm a big fan of this concept of, you know, doing small things and then larger things, right? Um, Jim Collins talks about shoot bullets. Then cannonballs, right? Like, what's a really quick test that you can run to understand? Hey, are we even in the right direction, right? Like, how are we thinking about this? Um, another really big insight that I had, um, so there's this amazing, uh, book called Get Together that was written by a lot of people who were at Facebook before. And they really talk about building with a community and how important that is. And I think sidebar at its core is community products. And so really, really, our members being just front and center of who we think about every day,

• 33:44Speaker 02

  who we build for, like, we are deeply invested in their success. And so this concept of we could easily build a feature and get really excited about it and love it on the whiteboard, um, but that doesn't really matter. And then there is this ethos, uh, Facebook or Meta that I really appreciated, which like, it doesn't count unless it makes an impact, a positive impact in people's lives, right? It's really nice to have a slides that look cool. It's really nice to have a design that look cool, but we got to get out the door and it really has to make an impact in people's careers. It has to accelerate their success. And so there just is that laser focus that I really appreciate. I think the social accountability was another big one, sort of thing, which we built into the product, that idea that you're not alone.

• 34:24Speaker 02

  You know, in work, I think that there's this feeling that we're spending this 90,000 hours of our lives. And when we get to that moment, that's new for us, that we don't know the answer, that's in that 15%, it can feel really lonely. It can feel really lonely to be, it can feel really lonely to be the CEO of a company. It can feel really lonely to be a senior leader, like, who do you talk to? And I think for us, we wanted this feeling of, with your small group, you're just not alone. There are eight to 10 people who have your back. They believe in you, even when maybe you don't believe in yourself in that moment. And I think that that was really important, um, for that experience. And then the last thing that I would say is that, you know, when I was at Facebook, I was surrounded by the smartest people I had ever met. It was incredible and you watched these people do these amazing things.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  They would just throw a hundred mile an hour fastball and you're like, wait, how'd you do that? Like, I would really like to learn that. Like, I would really like to break that down and work in my craft, because I want to add that tool to my toolbox. And it's just so busy. There's so many things going on. There wasn't quite the exact Right, um, way in order to be like, oh, I want to go learn that skill. How do I go learn that skill? And this is something that for me, this was before the pandemic, right? After the pandemic, kind of finding that space to improve just became 10x harder. And so for us, we really saw this huge opportunity, which is like, if you had that structure, you go to small group and be like, you know, I'm working on this thing. Like, what do you all think? How do I learn this? How do I tactically apply it?

• 35:49Speaker 02

  And then, you know, you have this advice where you're just like, oh, just go try this. I tried this sort of thing. Like, that's really amazing. Like, that's really helpful. Like, so I, I, you know, one of the things with my small group that was really valuable was one on ones. So you have all this time in a company and a one on one, right? And there's all this advice out there about how to run a good one on one. But if you Google all of this, like Google is just hard. You're just like looking for all this information. And this is just a symptom of kind of work in general, right? When you have these answers, like you're just trying to figure out the answer, but there's not this added context around it. So I asked my group, I was like, who's good at one on ones? What do you think? Like this is a half an hour for every member of my team. Like every two weeks, it's super valuable. It's really, really expensive time. I want this to be best. What do I do?

• 36:32Speaker 02

  And they were like, I got you. Here's a template. Here's this. Here's what I think about. Don't do this. I spent two years on this. And then I iterated on it. It wasn't just that one moment, but over time you're like, wait, this actually works really well for us. And that's a tactical thing where I just didn't know who else to ask.

• 36:48Anthony Pompliano?

  When you think of the practicality, it seems like that's a really big part of this. Um, that seems to be a component that, uh, makes it not high level, not kind of fluffy, but something I can like take away and go implement today. Is that like a big part of the value proposition of these small groups?

• 37:07Speaker 02

  I think it's a huge part of it. So maybe I can dive into a few different pieces that I think are really important. So one is, I think, just how sidebar is different. And I think the practicality is a big reason, right? We, we call sidebar a program and not a network. So networks have benefits, but programs have outcomes, right? And I think that, you know, we can use that gym membership versus fitness program with personal trainer, right? Fitness program with a personal trainer has really clear outcomes you're driving in. Write them down ahead of time. You're like, this is where I want to be. You check in consistently on whether you're hitting them, sort of thing. There's this sense of, yeah, it's not kind of theoretically, it'd be really nice for me to learn more machines in the gym. But in a fitness program, I'm literally sitting there and learning it. And if I'm not learning it, it's like, well, what do you need to do in order to go faster?

• 37:53Speaker 02

  I think what's exciting about sidebar is the reason we're laser focused on this is that it works. You know, ninety-three percent of people who are a member at sidebar report a significant positive change in their career. So there just is, and I think it's directly connected to this core loop of learning something new, being able to apply it, being able to get data on that, bring that to the group, iterate on it, and then trust the group even more, share more information, and just like complete that circle. And you know, the magic kind of starts with what we talked about before. It starts with matching, right? You have to get the right people together and using that technology and that vetting process. Sidebar is vetted, right? It's not for everyone. You have to apply in order to get in.

• 38:34Speaker 02

  You get these top minds together who are just like curious and on fire and really want to help each other succeed. But I think that then you add the structure, right? Because if we just were good at matching, but there wasn't structure, there wasn't facilitator, it would peter out. And so you get this curriculum that's like really personalized to everyone on what they want to learn and how they want to grow. There's these clear goals and then you have these peers to hold you accountable. And so I think it's that system that is really critical for us. Now, one last thing that I'll say is that this idea of, and I think this is really true, is that, you know, there's a billion people around the world who have day-to-day blockers that slow them down, right? We're all experiencing this individually.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  You know, there's like so many things that on a day-to-day basis, I'm like, oh, I have to figure this out. I'm not quite sure how to do that, right? Where do you go to talk about that? Like, I can't go onto LinkedIn and be like, dear LinkedIn, I'm really struggling with setting up the structure for this board meeting and getting our strategy really clear so we can get good feedback. Like, what do you all think? Like, this stuff is way too intimate in order to share, right? So where do I get to share authent- authentically on these things that I'm struggling with on a day-to-day? This own work and I think that it can just feel like we're tackling these things on our own. And we just fundamentally believe that doesn't need to be the case. We believe that there's all these people who are surrounding you who can really help. They just need the structure and they're facing identical problems in their careers. They just need the structure to talk about it together.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  And so you can go through this process of spending 10 years to try and find the right people and create your own kind of board and like think about it in all these different ways. Or and like maybe find them or maybe not. But that's like a huge thing to leave up to chance. Like sidebar just finds your people for you today.

• 40:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Where can we send people to find you on the internet or find out more about sidebar?

• 40:22Speaker 02

  Sidebar.com. So like if they go to sidebar.com, um, that's sound, that's absolutely great. Uh, and you know, you can follow us on, we're, we're on all the platforms. Um, but yeah, sidebar.com and we're really energized about this. You know, I'm incredibly personally a passion about this and our team is just in incredibly dedicated, you know, I just want to make one comment about that, which is, you know, when I went to start sidebar, one of the things that I was so hopeful for was that I would just get to work with people where you fell over because you were so excited to be around them. And like, I've never worked with a group of people like this, like our team is just absolutely amazing. They're so focused, they care so much about members.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  And so what I think is so interesting about sidebar is that it's not this kind of set it and forget it product. Right? Where it's just like, it's at scale, it's already like a done deal. It hasn't changed in two years. It's just static. It's incredibly dynamic. There's this incredible team that's spending every day that we have just trying to make it better, just trying to make that tweak, just trying to make that value addition a bit more. And so I think that you see us, you know, I mean, I think in the last two weeks, we shipped like 25 or 30 proc changes. Right? We revamped the programming where like the facilitation team is training consistently. There just is this amazing loop of making it better and better and better.

• 41:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. The um, passion and enthusiasm only comes through, I think, in talking to you, but every single person I've interacted with at the company, it's just like very obvious that you guys care, you're excited, and uh, there's a element of like, this is going to work because it has to work, which I think is always important as well.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  I mean, I think that I completely believe that sort of thing, you know, a lot of our investors were early at Facebook and they were early at Pinterest. And I would talk to them and I was like, you know, how'd you do such a great job? Like, what did that feel like, sort of thing? And their answer was really apropos, I thought, which was like, you know, it was the revolution, we believed in the revolution, sort of thing. And I think that that concept as a startup, right? Which is like, we fundamentally believe that people will dramatically accelerate their careers if they have a group of peers that they can like, that's just the truth we think is real in the world. And we're just so excited for everyone to have this. Like, we don't want anyone to feel like they're on their own at their jobs. Like, we don't want anyone to feel like they're hitting a wall, right?

• 42:43Speaker 02

  We want them to feel supported, connected, and with clear action aims to go after the life that they want. The one true life that exists beyond all the others that they really care about. And so whether that's within a job and just like growing really fast, whether that's within work, you know, there's this really interesting, uh, there's this really interesting moment where when Steve Jobs is launching the Think Different campaign, he's talking about Nike, actually. And he's like, well, who does Nike honor? And he says, Nike honors great athletics, and they do that through honoring great athletes. And I think there's this question of like, well, who do we really honor at Cyber? And I think we honor people who are out there, they're doing the work, right? They want to be great, not because that they will get a gold star, they already are great. They don't want to

• 43:28Speaker 02

  be great because intrinsically, they just want to do the best work that they possibly can. You know, these are people who wake up at 6:00 AM to get the presentation right, not because anyone's watching, because that's like who they are. And I just think that there's millions and millions and millions of people like this. And we just want to make sure they have the support to accelerate as fast as they can in their careers.

• 43:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Um, I'm excited for you guys. I think this is a no brainer. I think that you guys are doing a fantastic job. And I highly suggest anyone go check it out, sidebar.com.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  Thank you so much. I'm super grateful and I love spending time with you. Your passion is equally inspiring to me.

• 44:03Anthony Pompliano?

  We'll do it again in the future for sure.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  Awesome. Thanks so much.