How to Find Superstar Talent
Marc Lore on the hidden patterns that mark someone out as a top 5% hire.
“Amazing in-depth insights.” — Deepen P, a paying member
Friends,
In 1992, Steve Jobs gave a lecture at MIT that included an intriguing detail: for virtually every one of his best hires, it took about a year to get them on board. “What happens is I usually meet somebody that I think is very, very good and you can’t get them,” Jobs explained. “Then you go and try to find other people and nobody measures up.”
Not every founder follows that same playbook, and what works for one company may fail in a different environment. In this final correspondence with Marc Lore, the Wonder CEO shares his playbook for identifying, attracting, and retaining “superstar” employees. After 25 years and thousands of hires, he’s developed what he calls “X-ray vision” for identifying the top 5% of talent, learning the hidden patterns that mark someone out as a high performer.
Beyond scanning for superstars, we explore how Marc builds effective cultures, what he learned from Amazon and Walmart, and why you should hire a Chief People Officer earlier than you think.
Lessons from Marc
Culture must be consistent, not necessarily unique. Marc has worked at Amazon and Walmart – two companies with radically different but successful cultures. The key insight: great cultures aren’t about being different; they’re about being consistent. You need to know who you are, understand what types of people thrive in your system, and build structures that motivate them accordingly.
Superstars are recognizable but rare. After hiring thousands of people and reviewing tens of thousands of resumés, Marc has developed “X-ray vision” for identifying top talent. The pattern: true superstars (top 5%) appear only once every twenty candidates, but they’re easily recognizable by their track record of demonstrable success in every role.
Tenure and trajectory matter more than experience. Marc looks for candidates who stay long enough at each job (4-5 years) to prove impact and get promoted multiple times. He also analyzes career moves: superstars make moves that are undeniably upward – better company, bigger role – not lateral transitions that suggest settling.
Performance management isn’t optional at scale. While early-stage startups can operate informally, scaling requires systematic performance management. Marc’s team at Wonder can forecast promotions 12 months out based on peer scores and time in the role, giving employees clear visibility into their advancement pathway.
Interview superstars differently. When Marc identifies a genuine superstar candidate, he shifts his interview focus from assessing competence (already proven by their track record) to evaluating culture fit and selling them on the opportunity. The conversation becomes about mission alignment, role definition, and why this company will win.
Transparency as a competitive advantage. Wonder’s radical transparency – sharing everyone’s compensation, board materials, and financial data – isn’t just cultural virtue signaling. It’s a strategic choice that attracts people who thrive in high-information environments and creates deeper employee engagement through trust and context.
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Mario’s letter
Subject: The ‘P’ in ‘VCP’
From: Mario Gabriele
To: Marc Lore
Date: Monday May 19, 2025 at 16:43 PM GMT
Marc,
I always learn something important from these correspondences, but your last two letters have delivered some of the most actionable advice of any guest so far. You have a real gift – earned through experience – of breaking down strategic challenges into crisp, rational frameworks. I am certain that I’ll be sharing your prioritization methodology and capital plan with many future entrepreneurs.
In this final letter, I’d love to focus on the thorniest aspect of company-building: people. We’ve touched on aspects of people management in our previous correspondences without digging in deeply yet. Given its importance in your “VCP” (Vision, Capital, People) methodology, it strikes me that there’s more for us to discuss.
As you know better than I do, so much of a startup’s success depends on its people. You cannot hope to outcompete better-resourced incumbents or create an entirely new paradigm with subpar talent. You need to find differential talent, motivated to work beyond themselves in service of the company’s mission. Often, you need to discover these people before they’ve fully demonstrated their value to the broader market, after which point you’ll likely face greater competition to hire them.
Because of this, the best CEOs inevitably become obsessed with talent. Many of the best startup founders I’ve met end up spending at least two days of the week just on this aspect of the job, fanatically looking for great people, discovering which signals to pay attention to and which to ignore, and convincing talent to join them.
Recruiting the best people is often an exercise in patience. In his incredible MIT lecture in 1992, Steve Jobs explained that for virtually every one of his best hires, it took about a year to get them aboard. “What happens is I usually meet somebody that I think is very, very good and you can’t get them,” Jobs said. “Then you go and try to find other people and nobody measures up. You know you’re going to be settling for second-best if you compromise. I’ve always found it best not to compromise.”
This seems to be a lesson that other exceptional entrepreneurs have learned. Patrick Collison noted that “the biggest thing [Stripe] did differently...is just being ok to take a really long time to hire people.” That meant taking more than six months to bring aboard its first two employees, and spending several years snagging others.
Does this chime with your experience? Across your 25 years as a venture-backed entrepreneur, I imagine you’ve discovered your own preferences and devised your own efficiencies. How do you find exceptional people that the rest of the market might not have noticed? What non-obvious signals do you pay the closest attention to? And when it comes to closing someone, what techniques have you learned?
Thank you for joining us for this series. It has been a real pleasure!
Best,
Mario
Marc’s response
Subject: The ‘P’ in ‘VCP’
From: Marc Lore
To: Mario Gabriele
Date: Monday May 25, 2025 at 18:15 PM EST
Mario,
My job as a CEO is to identify, attract, and retain the very best people in the world. And not just retain them but get the very best that they’ve got to give. When you do that and put them into a solid VCP structure with a strong Vision and a good Capital plan, they’re ready to run. As a CEO, you sit back and watch the magic happen. (And, of course, keep tweaking the VCP.)
When it comes to building a great People function, it starts with setting the right cultural foundation. You have to spend time defining this early in your company’s life. Otherwise, you regret it. That’s one of the reasons why, when founding Wonder, I brought aboard our Chief People Officer Kristin Reilly really early – to help set those foundations.
Somebody once asked me: What defines a great culture? I’ve had a chance to be a part of a few high-performance organizations at Amazon and Walmart. Both have great cultures, but they’re very, very different. What I’ve come to realize is that, above all, great cultures are consistent. You know who you are, you know the types of people that work well in your system, you find those people, and you build a structure that motivates them. The people who work in Walmart’s system are very different from those who work at Amazon, but that’s okay. If you don’t know your culture early on, then you’ll end up hiring the wrong people.
Building a culture starts with having the right mission and values. Unlike your vision, your mission is never achievable. It’s the ultimate why driving your company – a North Star to run towards that never changes. It should be something that gets people fired up to work every day.
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