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Max Levchin on firing: “Whenever there’s a doubt, there’s no doubt”

July 08, 2025

All founders will hire the wrong person at some point. When asked what signals he looks for to realize he’s made a hiring mistake, Max responds with a quote from the movie Ronin:

"Whenever there's a doubt, there's no doubt."

He explains:

“When you're staring at a peer - or if you're the CEO, at a direct report - and you catch yourself thinking, I wonder if you're here next year. This person shouldn't be here today. Unfortunately, it's that binary.”

Importantly, this is not the same as hating a person’s guts at times - Max caveats that brilliant people cause that sort of emotional response. Wondering if a person will still be at the company next year is different:

”Boring people, untalented people, not hardworking people, people that don't have the company's best interest in mind, people that are undermining each other. Those people make you think I should have fired you yesterday… No one's ever said I wish I had fired that person later… When there's a doubt, there is no doubt. That's also applicable just about every other situation in life, but in people it's infinitely applicable.”