Can-Do, High Standards, Intensity

Three cultural values that enable hyper-growth: attitude, bar, and commitment

Brendan Foody
Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history

Can-Do, High Standards, Intensity

"We've always set these ridiculously ambitious goals, and then somehow the trajectory of the company forms around those goals." - Brendan Foody

What It Is

Three core organizational values that Brendan Foody credits with enabling Mercor's record-breaking growth from $1M to $400M+ in 16 months. These values work together: ambitious goals (can-do), exceptional people (high standards), and full commitment (intensity) create a reinforcing system for hyper-growth.

How It Works

1. Can-Do Attitude

Set ridiculously ambitious goals and believe they're achievable.

"I remember when we were talking to Benchmark before they led our Series A, we were at 1.5 million in run rate. And I said we'd be at 50 million in run rate by the end of the year. And they said we were absolutely insane... Plus or minus two weeks, we hit it."

The mechanism: "Somehow the trajectory of the company forms around those goals." Ambitious targets attract ambitious people and create focus.

2. High Standards

Be extremely selective about who joins, especially early.

"We have an incredibly high hiring bar where we hire tons of former founders, people that have incredible experiences."

Key practices:

  • Hire people with exceptional backgrounds (former founders, leaders from top companies)
  • The top 10% of people drive the majority of impact—optimize for finding them
  • "Initial talent density shaped so much of what the rest of the org looks like as you scale it up"

3. Intensity

Commit fully to the mission, recognizing what legendary companies require.

"If you look at the early cultures of the legendary companies, thinking of Meta or Google, they have these incredible, intense early-stage cultures of people just moving heaven and earth."

Important nuance: This is about ownership, not hours.

  • "Output-oriented of what do people achieve rather than input-oriented of the specific hours they work"
  • "We've never mandated hours. It's more been a byproduct of people that care a lot"
  • "If they need to leave early and get dinner with their kids or travel on the weekend, of course that's totally fine"

How to Apply It

Can-Do Attitude:

  1. Set goals that feel uncomfortable to say out loud
  2. Communicate them clearly to team and stakeholders
  3. Let the goals attract people who believe they're achievable
  4. Measure against them without making excuses

High Standards:

  1. Be extremely patient with first 10 hires—this sets the talent density baseline
  2. Hire former founders and people with demonstrated exceptional results
  3. Accept that the best people are expensive and have options
  4. Once you have PMF, accelerate hiring while maintaining the bar

Intensity:

  1. Look for people with genuine ownership mentality
  2. Focus on outcomes achieved, not hours logged
  3. Find people who "burn the midnight oil" because they want to, not because they're told to
  4. Expect intensity to be a natural byproduct of caring, not a policy

When to Use It

  • Building a founding team culture
  • Hiring for hyper-growth companies
  • Evaluating fit with high-growth startups (as employee or investor)
  • Diagnosing why a company isn't scaling despite resources
  • Setting company values during early stages

Source

  • Guest: Brendan Foody
  • Episode: "Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history"
  • Key Discussion: (00:46:04) - The three values explained in detail
  • Additional Context: (00:48:18) - Nuance on intensity and hours
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

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