I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Press Pass: Our once-a-month, members-only newsletter that pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of Tangle.
In the seven years I’ve been running Tangle, we’ve never lost a full-time employee.
That changed last month.
Over just a couple of weeks, we found out we’d be losing Associate Editor Lindsey Knuth (featured in February’s Press Pass) and our Head of Business Development Alex Starr (featured in March’s Press Pass). Lindsey is leaving for law school next fall, and we’re currently trying to hire her replacement. Alex departed the first week of May after getting an offer he couldn’t turn down to work at the intersection of his skills in writing, sales, and “vibe coding.”
Losing employees is an odd thing. It comes with both a sense of sadness and pride — like seeing a band you listened to before they had any fans become famous. “Oh, I was right, they were good!” you think to yourself. But also, you’re sad because you know everything is about to change and you can’t do anything to stop it.
I’ll miss both Alex and Lindsey because they were not just great employees but great people, too. And while the downsides of losing great people like that are real, hiring is also one of my favorite parts of the job. I started Tangle after failing to get seven different jobs — all of which I had gotten final interviews for — and then finally throwing my hands up and saying, “I can’t do this anymore; I’m just going to create something on my own.” I was defeated, depressed and losing confidence, but not getting those jobs ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I reflect on those days a lot — some of the darkest of my life — as I lead a team of 12 full-time employees and have the budget to hire more. I try to never lose sight of where I was and maintain gratitude for where I am. In that spirit, I’m already having a ton of fun meeting potential new hires and looking around for folks to poach who can make Tangle an even better operation than it already is.
Amid the chaos of employee turnover, I also just wrapped up a mini “speaking tour” that took me to five colleges in five weeks. I tried to capture how much of a whirlwind those five weeks were (for posterity) by listing all the flights, train rides, and car trips I’ve taken since my wife and I closed on our first home. Here’s the list:
