SoCal Β· Building Stuff

The laziest motivated
person you'll ever meet.

Ex-national security. Bought a garage company from a 75-year-old. Now I run Sagan, write a newsletter, and talk too much on Twitter. My parents called me the laziest motivated person alive. They were right.

Jon Matzner
Keep going
All Tooth No Tail Trucks vs Trains Theory of Constraints Kiss a Lot of Frogs Rapidly Costco for Global Talent Yallah Habibi Made-to-Measure Islay Scotch Energy All Tooth No Tail Trucks vs Trains Theory of Constraints Kiss a Lot of Frogs Rapidly Costco for Global Talent Yallah Habibi Made-to-Measure Islay Scotch Energy
The Short Version

Counterterrorism to Costco.
It makes sense, I promise.

I spent my late 20s and early 30s in North Africa and the Middle East doing national security work β€” WMD prevention, counterterrorism, learning Arabic. I'm grateful to have served my country.

Then I came home and did the most logical thing possible: started buying old-school local businesses. Learned a lot, got good, sold a few, and here we are.

Turns out the real leverage was in the hiring and systems piece. So I built Sagan β€” basically Costco for global talent. 2,000+ hires later, here we are. Now I mostly tweet about it, write about it, and podcast about it while raising three kids under three. I'm fine. Everything's fine.

2,000+
Humans Hired
20+
Countries
200+
Newsletter Issues
3!
Kids Under 3
The Bookshelf

You are what you read.

These are the books that broke my brain, changed how I operate, or I just genuinely loved. No fluff, no "must-read lists." Just the ones that stuck.

Business & OperationsSci-Fi & FictionMilitary & HistoryPhilosophy & Mind
The Goal
The Goal
Eliyahu Goldratt
Goldratt's Rules of Flow
Goldratt's Rules of Flow
Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag
It's Not Luck
It's Not Luck
Eliyahu Goldratt
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way
Jeffrey Liker
Traction
Traction
Gino Wickman
The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project
Gene Kim
Working Backwards
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar
Measure What Matters
Measure What Matters
John Doerr
No Rules Rules
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings
Creativity, Inc.
Creativity, Inc.
Ed Catmull
Blitzscaling
Blitzscaling
Reid Hoffman
Radical Candor
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Essentialism
Essentialism
Greg McKeown
Slow Productivity
Slow Productivity
Cal Newport
Predictable Revenue
Predictable Revenue
Aaron Ross
Playing to Win
Playing to Win
A.G. Lafley
Profit First
Profit First
Mike Michalowicz
Dune
Dune
Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah
Dune Messiah
Frank Herbert
Neuromancer
Neuromancer
William Gibson
Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas
Iain M. Banks
Red Rising
Red Rising
Pierce Brown
The Lies of Locke Lamora
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Scott Lynch
Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
The Fall of Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Dan Simmons
Blindsight
Blindsight
Peter Watts
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton
The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Gates of Fire
Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield
Shadow Divers
Shadow Divers
Robert Kurson
Empire of the Summer Moon
Empire of the Summer Moon
S.C. Gwynne
The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History
Will & Ariel Durant
Goodbye, Darkness
Goodbye, Darkness
William Manchester
My American Journey
My American Journey
Colin Powell
Platoon Leader
Platoon Leader
James McDonough
It's Your Ship
It's Your Ship
Michael Abrashoff
Never Finished
Never Finished
David Goggins
Discipline Equals Freedom
Discipline Equals Freedom
Jocko Willink
Eleven Rings
Eleven Rings
Phil Jackson
The Score Takes Care of Itself
The Score Takes Care of Itself
Bill Walsh
Behave
Behave
Robert Sapolsky
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Steven Pinker
Outlive
Outlive
Peter Attia
The Surrender Experiment
The Surrender Experiment
Michael Singer
Anything You Want
Anything You Want
Derek Sivers
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard Feynman
Candide
Candide
Voltaire
The Art of Clear Thinking
The Art of Clear Thinking
Hasard Lee
Pirate Hunters
Pirate Hunters
Robert Kurson
Barbarian Days
Barbarian Days
William Finnegan
Drive
Drive
Daniel H. Pink
Hidden Potential
Hidden Potential
Adam Grant
Think Like a Freak
Think Like a Freak
Steven Levitt
Wanting
Wanting
Luke Burgis
Chaos Monkeys
Chaos Monkeys
Antonio GarcΓ­a MartΓ­nez
Boomerang
Boomerang
Michael Lewis
Good to Great
Good to Great
Jim Collins
In-N-Out Burger
In-N-Out Burger
Stacy Perman
Becoming Trader Joe
Becoming Trader Joe
Joe Coulombe
The Innovator's Dilemma
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton Christensen
Am I Being Too Subtle?
Am I Being Too Subtle?
Sam Zell
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant
George Horace Lorimer
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Matthew Crawford
The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
Zero to One
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
Shoe Dog
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
The 48 Laws of Power
The 48 Laws of Power
Robert Greene
Extreme Ownership
Extreme Ownership
Jocko Willink
Can't Hurt Me
Can't Hurt Me
David Goggins
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson
Who Not How
Who Not How
Dan Sullivan
Built to Sell
Built to Sell
John Warrillow
On the Shortness of Life
On the Shortness of Life
Seneca
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling
Meditations
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
The Long Walk
The Long Walk
Slavomir Rawicz
The Dead Hand
The Dead Hand
David E. Hoffman
The Inheritance
The Inheritance
David E. Sanger
Agent Zigzag
Agent Zigzag
Ben Macintyre
The Tiger
The Tiger
John Vaillant
Sherman
Sherman
B.H. Liddell Hart
Influence
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
John le CarrΓ©
Rules for Radicals
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky
The Arab Awakening
The Arab Awakening
Kenneth M. Pollack
Smiley's People
Smiley's People
John le CarrΓ©
Instant City
Instant City
Steve Inskeep
Kingpin
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen
Ghost in the Wires
Ghost in the Wires
Kevin Mitnick
Boyd
Boyd
Robert Coram
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Martin McGartland
Snow Crash
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
The Right Stuff
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe
Antifragile
Antifragile
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Balthasar GraciΓ‘n
Hyperion
Hyperion
Dan Simmons
The Leverage Stack

Three bets. Same thesis.

I keep coming back to the same three ideas. The order matters.

01
Boring
Businesses
The Uglier the Better

Garages. Trades. Home services. If there's a guy named Doug running it off a clipboard, I'm interested.

02
Global
Talent
Costco, Not a Staffing Agency

Different countries, different strengths. South Africa for sales, Philippines for ops, LatAm for customer-facing. Direct hire. Full-time. Embedded in your team. Not "virtual assistants" β€” real professionals who happen to live somewhere with a different cost of living.

03
AI &
Automation
Theory of Constraints, Everywhere

Find the bottleneck. Automate it. Find the next one. Theory of Constraints applied to everything. Trucks vs trains. All tooth, no tail.

Ventures

What I'm building (and yelling about)

Sagan

The membership of choice for high-growth founders.

Global talent. Professional development. AI and automation. Direct hire across 20+ countries, no BPO markup, no staffing agency games.

Lazy Leverage

The newsletter. 200+ issues and counting.

Leverage, hiring, AI, and building businesses that don't require you to be the bottleneck. Free forever.

𝕏 / Twitter

Where I think out loud.

I write a lot here. It's become the platform where I've built some of my strongest business relationships.

Lazy Leverage Podcast

Conversations on leverage & life

Co-hosted with Peter Lohmann. Weekly episodes. AI, hiring, getting out of your own way.

Quotes I've Collected Over the Years
β€œIf you can reverse a decision easily, make it quickly. If you can’t reverse a decision easily, make it slowly.”
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Podcasts & Press

People let me talk on their shows

Global talent, boring businesses, AI, and whatever else people want to talk about.

πŸŽ™
Lazy Leverage Podcast
Co-Host Β· Weekly
β†’
πŸŽ™
Owned and Operated
Guest Β· 2 Episodes
β†’
πŸŽ™
Beyond 8 Figures
Guest Β· 2 Episodes
β†’
πŸŽ™
Scuttlebutt
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
The Cashflow Contractor
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
Real Estate Rockstars
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
Verne HQ
Interview
β†’
πŸŽ™
Multiply Your Success
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
Indie Acquisitions
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
The Embassy Wealth Podcast
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
Construct Your Life
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
The Small Business Mentor
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
The Freedom Formula
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
SMB PE Expert Interviews
Guest
β†’
πŸŽ™
David C Barnett
Live
β†’
Let's Parlay

DM me. I'm probably up.

Global talent, AI, boring businesses, or whatever you're cooking β€” I'm around. Best way to reach me is Twitter. Second best is subscribing and replying to the newsletter.

DM on 𝕏 β†’SubscribeLinkedIn