Amodei: Anthropic won't hire jerks or prima donnas

Anthropic rejects talented jerks

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company turns down deeply technically talented people who don't fit its culture. He told JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon the startup has been very disciplined about this.

“We don't want people who are jerks. We don't want people who try to steal the show and don't work well with others.”

Four types Amodei won't hire

Amodei said Anthropic rejects people who are jerks, try to steal the show, don't work well with others, or aren't oriented towards public benefit. Talent and culture are the most important things for a company.

“We don't want people who aren't oriented towards the public benefit.”

Amodei spends half his time on culture

The CEO, who previously worked as vice president of research at OpenAI and senior research scientist at Google Brain, now devotes forty to fifty percent of his time to talent and culture priorities.

High-trust, low-ego environment

Anthropic describes itself as a high-trust, low-ego organization where teams operate in a truth-seeking environment and the best argument wins, not the loudest voice or most senior title. Amodei holds all-hands meetings every two weeks.

“Everyone feels that we're being honest with them.”

Retention through shared values

Anthropic's approach to culture has helped with retention.All seven cofounders, including Amodei, remain at the company, along with over three-quarters of its first one hundred employees.

Employees return after leaving

Amodei said it's relatively frequent for employees to come back after leaving Anthropic. Two major product employees left and returned after two weeks, saying they didn't appreciate what they had.

“Sorry, we didn't appreciate what we had.”