---
title: "First Block with Garrett Lord, Co-founder and CEO of Handshake"
description: "First Block features Garrett Lord, co-founder and CEO of Handshake, discussing the company’s path from his early rejection by hundreds of universities and periods living out of a Ford Focus to building a career platform serving 17 million users and nearly 1 million companies. He describes Handshake’s culture as “Olympic pace,” arguing that extreme clarity about standards is preferable to consensus because it helps the right people self-select and avoids diluting what makes the company special. The conversation also covers scaling through leadership, Handshake AI, and the future workforce. Lord’s central advice is to stack daily effort even when operating at 60% and to go all in on major opportunities, particularly as AI reshapes the economy."
---

# First Block with Garrett Lord, Co-founder and CEO of Handshake

[Notion](https://yomu.fyi/company/notion) · Anastasia Crew · Dec 17, 2025

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

First Block features Garrett Lord, co-founder and CEO of Handshake, discussing the company’s path from his early rejection by hundreds of universities and periods living out of a Ford Focus to building a career platform serving 17 million users and nearly 1 million companies. He describes Handshake’s culture as “Olympic pace,” arguing that extreme clarity about standards is preferable to consensus because it helps the right people self-select and avoids diluting what makes the company special. The conversation also covers scaling through leadership, Handshake AI, and the future workforce. Lord’s central advice is to stack daily effort even when operating at 60% and to go all in on major opportunities, particularly as AI reshapes the economy.

## Context

The episode examines Garrett Lord’s journey from a working-class upbringing and living out of his car to building Handshake, along with his views on talent density, culture, leadership, and the changing workforce.

## Approach / What changed

The content presents an interview with Garrett Lord, organized around his startup milestones, including founding the company, early effort, talent, leadership, Handshake AI, and the future workforce.

## Takeaways

- Garrett Lord says consistent effort compounds over years, even when a person is operating at 60% rather than 100%.
- Handshake’s culture is described as “Olympic pace,” with extreme clarity about standards intended to help the right people self-select.
- Lord argues that playing it safe is especially risky while AI is reshaping the economy, and advises founders to go all in on major opportunities.

**Tags:** [AI](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai)

- Source: [Notion](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-garrett-lord)
- Source URL: https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-garrett-lord
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-09T05:21:52.856Z

[Read original post](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-garrett-lord)