Mitch Gordon

CEO/ founder @VertoEducation. Dedicated to transforming #HigherEd. Curious, always. Informed citizen. Lover of the outdoors.

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

G. K. Chesterton explains that reading gives a man more lives than he was born with:

“A man who has read a thousand books is armed for life; a man who has read none is easy prey. The man who has read a thousand books has lived a thousand lives. He has seen cities he has never visited, spoken to men who died centuries ago, and walked in worlds that no longer exist. Reading does not merely inform him; it enlarges him. It stretches the boundaries of his own experience until he becomes something more than himself.”

[Mark Suster @msuster]

Wow. I struggle to find time for enough podcasts

Glad I made an exception for @bhalligan & @nejatian at recommendation of @rabois … so good

[Tara Viswanathan @TaraViswanathan]

Packed Alpha School info session in SF today.

“If you’re hiring a tutor, we’re not doing our job.”

“If a student isn’t learning, it���s our fault, not the student’s.”

I don’t understand how one cannot be incredibly excited about this.

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

@celinehalioua It definitely works for me as well… long hikes outside help too.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Jim Carrey got real about the chase: "The first half of life is all about adding—cool car, nice clothes, things people admire. It looks great… but it never fulfills you. Happiness doesn't live there."

Then he flips it: After wrestling depression, he says he's free of it now. No depression at all. Just the full weather of being human—sadness, joy, elation, gratitude—all passing through like clouds. None of it sticks long enough to crush him.

In this short, honest 59-sec clip [link to video], he reminds us: The stuff we stack up doesn't fill the hole. Real peace comes when you stop trying to own every feeling and just let them move through.

Feels like he cracked the code most of us are still searching for.

What's one thing you used to chase that you now see doesn't actually bring the peace you thought it would? No judgment—just curious what you've noticed lately.

[Brett Berson @brettberson]

If you want to scale as an exec, work yourself out of a job as fast as you can. Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, COO @vercel nailed this advice, "The best piece of advice I ever got that stuck with me is you need to work yourself out of a job. As you're scaling, you're comfortable doing the job you've become good at. But if you keep doing that job, that is no longer the job at $100 million versus $25 million. And so I think the minute you feel you have deeply mastered something is probably the point at which you should be figuring out how somebody else does that. Either you're teaching it to somebody below you who's going to be able to move in and take that off your plate, or you're starting to think about how do I hire for that — so I now have the bandwidth to go learn the next thing."

[Brett Berson @brettberson]

At hypergrowth companies like Vercel, Harvey, and Cognition, executives face a brutal challenge: keeping pace with a company that might grow 5-10x in a year. That means hiring aggressively without lowering the bar, figuring out how to mature the org without slowing down, operating at different altitudes, solving novel problems, and much more. Their role changes quarter to quarter, and the margin for error is razor thin.

I'm really excited to launch our newest podcast, Executive Function, which explores a simple question: what is the difference between a good and truly great scaleup executive? We learn what these exceptional execs are doing differently, how they approach their work, how they make decisions, and how they make a difference for their companies.

The first episode drops later this week. Learn more at: https://t.co/4a0T6lNgAi

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

@providenceluvr Isn’t. Talking about real, deep stuff the best kind of conversation in any context? All the inane small talk and posturing is way worse than the deep stuff.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

Phones are corrupting children.

Loved this book by @JonHaidt. His critique of the smartphone childhood is rigorous and credible.

I don’t fault parents, they’re doing their best and are trapped in a system they didn’t create.

I want a societal structure that grants people like Jonathan more power not because he gets it by being Machiavellian but because he’s fundamentally an adept advocate for human vibrance.

Some really useful guidelines for parents and children outlined.

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

@hubermanlab I’d love the full video of this!!

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

@Aella_Girl @Mubarak_mubious The same is true for anti-perspirant. You smell bad because the anti-perspirant creates a vicious cycle. Better not to use it at all! Plenty of good natural alternatives.

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

It could be some of both. There are definitely neurological differences but I think it’s likely that meditation is something everyone can connect deeply to, like the taste of food or riding a bike. But for a lot of people it probably requires a longer period of time to “get it”. I’d bet 99% of people would have a deep experience on a 7+ day meditation retreat (and the word would be a much better place if everyone did this).

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

11 months after his release from the concentration camps, Viktor Frankl gave a set of lectures on moving beyond optimism and pessimism to find life's deepest source of meaning. They were lost for decades, never before published in English—and now they are: https://t.co/3ZkFb3gs0f

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

@jasonlk Gold. This is so true. And much of the time “strategist” just means “professional talker/ executive politician” as opposed to actually building and getting things done.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The ultimate long-term competitive advantage is having fun. You can never bet against the person who just seems to have fun doing the work.

[Tara Viswanathan @TaraViswanathan]

Sometime in my 20s my mom told me “you’re too old to blame your parents for anything you don’t like about yourself,” and I think that’s the most important thing she’s ever said to me.

Agency will set you free.

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

Aldous Huxley, just leaving this here

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

I feel like we’re assuming a lot here. As a parent you need: 1) Firm Boundaries and consistency and 2) Love and kindness. Neither by itself is sufficient.

The issue with your parents (and mine!) is discipline/ boundaries without mature emotional parents ans consistent love and kindness.

But in this case, I don’t know. Maybe they do have both and maybe not

[Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin @jasonlk]

Ok politics aside (which I know will be tough for many, but) ... go apologize. Go fix a broken relationship. Just say you are sorry.

It's the first Sunday of 2026. A time to do better.

Even relationships that seem totally broken can sometimes be repaired. In business, at home, at work, with old friends. Sometimes at least.

An honest, sincere, caveat-free apology can go a long way.

If there's one relationship you broke in 2025 (or even before) that you regret breaking, just go apologize. Pick up the phone, or at least, the email. No caveats. No passive voice. Own it. Apologize.

No one does this. It works. Not always. But often. Often enough.

[Mitch Gordon @MitchGordonGo]

This is incredibly well said.

[Adam Robinson @RetentionAdam]

$10M ARR is the FU MONEY of SaaS.

At $10M ARR bootstrapped, you and your co-founder clear $1M+/year in salary and dividends easily.

You can sell instantly for $30-40M. There are hundreds of EBITDA buyers at this level vs. a handful at $1B valuations.

From here, you can do whatever you want.

Hire a CEO and work 1 hour/week. Grind 100 hours if that's your thing. Raise $50M from a position of strength. Scale to $25M ARR with 25 people and pay yourself $10-15M/year.

Most companies never get here because VCs show up early with decacorn dreams and money you don't need.

That capital interferes with the one thing that makes you great: product-market fit.

Bootstrapping to $10M ARR is easier and less risky than creating a VC-backed unicorn, with a far higher probability-weighted outcome.

If you can find PMF and use customer money to get to $10M, you can do anything you want with your life.