Steinberg's Recruitment Bait-and-Switch

Alex Lieberman and Sam Parr share similar stories about media executive John Steinberg reaching out to them, seemingly interested in their newsletter businesses, but actually trying to recruit them.

Alex's story: "Austin and I got an email from John Steinberg's Gmail account with the subject line 'Intro to founders' and the body just said 'Like what you're doing.' We looked him up on LinkedIn and realized he was a big deal. We thought he was excited about us and might invest, but when I went to his office—a tiny closet of a WeWork space—instead of discussing a partnership or investment, he started interviewing me.

He asked, 'Okay, so Fitbit earnings come out, you need to get an expert on the story to talk about what this means. Who are you talking to? How are you finding them?' I told him I'd figure it out, but then I said, 'To be honest, I'm not interested in a job at Cheddar. I thought we were going to be talking about a partnership with Morning Brew or you guys investing in us.'

I'll never forget his response. He said, 'To be totally honest, the cost of the legal fees to do this deal would be more than what I would pay for you guys.' And I was like, 'Damn, he's right right now.'"

Sam's story: "I had an extremely similar story. In 2016, I got in touch with Ben Lerer who started Thrillist. I thought he was going to buy The Hustle right out the gate, and I'm thinking, 'Hell yeah, $5 million!' But he brings in the president of the company, and it turns into an interview—the exact same thing.

I said, 'Oh, I thought you were going to buy us,' and he replied, 'Brother, this is a newsletter. This will never make more than like $2 million a year.' He told me, 'You should come join us. We're a real company. If you want to make this work, you have to join our company.' That has forever been a chip on my shoulder."