Why boring work is inevitable

Founder's Journal

Morning Brew

Careers, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 139: Alex talks about the unsung hero of startups: boring work. He shares how society forgets that much of entrepreneurship involves doing boring work privately, to become celebrated publicly. He also breaks down three under-discussed aspects of boring work: It’s an unavoidable part of building a business, especially in the early days. Some founders stay in boring work for far too long, even when they no longer need to. Boring work is a gift that every entrepreneur should feel grateful for. — Show Notes: (0:00) A note from our sponsor (2:26) Welcome back to Founder’s Journal (3:15) Danger of celebritizing entrepreneurship (5:38) Boring work is unavoidable (8:57) Staying in boring work too long (13:00) Boring work is a gift — Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Gusto. Head to www.gusto.com/alex — Check Out Alex’s Stuff: • storyarb - https://www.storyarb.com/ • CTA - https://www.creatortalentagency.co/ • X - https://x.com/businessbarista • Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-lieberman/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up, everyone? This is Alex, the host of Founders Journal. As you may know, I built
0:05.0	Morning Brew from my senior year of college until we sold the business in 2020. And now I'm
0:10.6	building a variety of businesses in different spaces and different stages. I'm basically averaging
0:16.3	one to two new businesses per year, and because of that, I have had the opportunity to test
0:21.8	a ton of different products and services, ultimately landing on a core software stack that
0:27.9	serves as my business operating system whenever I start a new company.
0:32.6	I have my go-to banking service.
0:34.6	I have my go-to formation service.
0:36.5	I have my go-to domain hosting service.
0:39.0	But probably the most important of them all is my HR service, Gusto. If you're a longtime
0:45.5	Founders Journal listener, you know how much I think about people in the context of business.
0:50.8	A business is nothing without its people, which means a platform that helps me manage and
0:55.5	take care of my people is invaluable. And that means I've tried every HR platform under the sun,
1:02.5	always with the same exact goals in mind. First, I want a product that's intuitive and delightful
1:08.9	to use. As a non-HR person, I find the intricacies of
1:13.0	payroll, benefits, taxes, compliance, and expenses to be painful. So I just want something
1:19.1	that makes my life easier. Second, I want it to be affordable. I'm a bootstrapper at heart.
1:25.0	I started morning brew with $0, and I started Storyarb with $0 as well, which means I don't have infinite dollars to drop on SaaS products.
1:34.3	And third, I want a platform that acts as my one-stop shop for all things people.
1:39.2	I want it to handle payroll, benefits, hiring, onboarding, and taxes, all while integrating with all of
1:46.5	the other tools in my business stack, whether it be QuickBooks, Slack, or Google Workspace.
1:53.0	Well, Gusto hit the trifecta, which is why I am a customer and use it for every single one
	...

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