#113 Mo Islam: On Learning from the Apollo Era, Killing Them with Kindness, and How Humility Saves Startups | Co-Founder of Payload

About Mo Islam

“Hubris kills startups and humility saves them. No matter what your success level is or may not be, it's really important to always be humble about what you're building and what you're doing because it can change at the drop of a hat.” – Mo Islam

Mo Islam is co-founder of Payload, which is building a media empire dedicated to covering the business and policy of space, as in outer space. We discovered Payload and immediately subscribed to their daily newsletter after it was recommended by Delian Asparouhov, co-founder of Varda Space Industries, in Episode 71. We asked Delian what newsletters and websites he used to stay on top of everything going on in space, and he had only one answer: Payload Space.

Mo Islam has a fascinating background in finance, having worked at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank before co-founding Payload. In this episode, Mo shares why hubris kills startups and humility saves them, what he's learned from incredible investors like Philippe Laffont at Coatue, and why he loves the book Engines That Move Markets, which we had never heard of but immediately ordered after recording this episode with him.

For more, explore the transcript of this episode.

Chapters

In this episode, we deconstruct Mo Islam’s peak performance playbook—from their favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on their life. In it we cover:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:40 – Clearing up misconceptions about space
00:03:06 – Kill them with kindness, embrace the boredom
00:05:30 – Learning from Phillippe Laffont and Engines That Move Markets
00:07:33 – Hubris kills startups; humility saves them
00:09:18 – Focus on what you love
00:12:02 – Learning from the Apollo era
00:13:15 – Relying on to-do lists and the Notes app
00:15:53 – Do what matters, change people’s lives for the better

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Player FM, Podcast Addict, iHeartRadio, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

An Idea Worth Trying

Mo relies on Apple’s Notes app for his daily to-do lists and notes. Having one spot to keep ideas and tasks helps him ensure nothing falls through the cracks as a founder.

Our Favorite Quotes

Here are a few ideas we'll be thinking about weeks and months from now:

“Build a playbook. It can be boring. It could be nothing. There could be not much unique about it. But if you can relentlessly execute on it, then you can build a really big business. Don't be distracted by the fancy stuff. Just execute and the money will come.”
“Embracing the boredom is something that I experience and really want to highlight, because I think a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs think running a business is exciting, and there's always something new. To an extent it is, but the other side of the coin is really executing on the playbook. Once you build the playbook, every day you just focus on executing and not deviating.”