Buffer Transparency Backfires
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Sam Parr shares a story about Buffer's radical transparency approach and its limitations.
"Buffer did the whole transparency shtick - they revealed everyone's salary and did it even more extreme. I think they did it as a marketing move because their product was okay, good enough, but they needed a cool angle to stick out. And it worked really well for them.
But I think it probably hurts them after a while. It's really hard to do that after 100 or 150 employees because people are like 'I don't want my stuff all out there.' When we sold our company, I didn't exactly reveal how much I made because I didn't want to be a target, I didn't want people to take advantage of me, I didn't want to be judged in a particular way, I didn't want that type of attention. So I'd rather just say round whole numbers instead of exact figures."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.