# Northwood hires for smart risks, ownership and low ego

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/northwood-hires-for-smart-risks-ownership-and-low-ego/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Bridgit Mendler](https://realalpha.app/people/bridgit-mendler/) · Bridgit Mendler is co-founder and CEO of Northwood. · Co-founded Northwood Space, building shared satellite ground infrastructure; earlier a Disney Channel actress and singer.
- Host: [Erik Torenberg](https://realalpha.app/people/erik-torenberg/) · General partner, Andreessen Horowitz · Helped build Product Hunt; founded On Deck, Village Global and Turpentine.
- Show: a16z Podcast
- Episode: [Inside The $100M Bet on the Future of Space | Northwood CEO on a16z](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/), Mar 23, 2026
- Moment: 36:00 to 40:32 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/northwood-hires-for-smart-risks-ownership-and-low-ego/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2160

## Quote

> “The first one is that we accomplish **unreasonable things on unreasonable timelines**.”
> — [Bridgit Mendler](https://realalpha.app/people/bridgit-mendler/) at [36:11](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2171) · a16z Podcast

## Takeaways

1. Move quickly through smart trade-offs, not force alone.
2. Expect ownership beyond completing assigned tasks.
3. Low ego and early flag-raising help teams coordinate.

## About this segment

Bridgit Mendler lays out expectations for difficult timelines, ownership and teamwork. A field-deployment example shows how those values translate into execution.

From “Inside The $100M Bet on the Future of Space | Northwood CEO on a16z”, Mar 23, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[36:06](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2166) what types of people you're trying to bring on, how you think about team building. Yes. I'll give a little window into my expectations that I share with people when they interview for Northwood. The first one is that we accomplish unreasonable things on unreasonable timelines. They surface level like, sure, okay. Everybody can kind of get on board with that. but uh you know it's not just a matter of like applying more force to the problem um it's about taking smart risks so it's not just force it's also cleverness it's like understanding the problem deep enough to know what the trades are that you can afford to make um and so people that are able to do that kind of uh mental calculation and kind of like take take big leaps is really how you can actually move quickly.

[36:58](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2218) The second one is the end to end ownership of your work. And for me, really, what that translates to is, you know, people who are going to be bought in in a deeper way to the outcome beyond just checking some boxes off the list. I've like kind of been reflecting on like where does that come from for me like why is that something that matters for me and I think you know it traces back to when I was uh you know pursuing my first passion growing up as a kid uh my mom was a huge supporter of me in a way that kind of went went beyond just demonstrating that she supported what I cared about but actually enabling me to do it in a way that like went beyond reasonableness. So, um, I, uh, you know, I wanted to be an actress. She's a full-time working mom, sometimes like the main breadwinner and like literally could not step away from her job. Like a lot of parents would have probably

[37:58](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2278) like put me in an acting camp and just been like, good luck, cool. Um, and then, and then maybe just thrown up their hands. But she like, you know, was on the phone coordinating travel and like caretakers and, you know, booking me plane tickets and, um, you know, figuring out how to get me the resources to accomplish my dream, um, in a way that was, you know, pretty ridiculous at times. Um, and I think that that's been like something that has really stuck with me is, uh, the amount of care that she had investment in, in my, my dream and where I wanted to go is something that, you know, I get inspired by from a mission perspective, like the amount of care that people on our team have invested in the outcome that goes so far beyond um you know the description on on their job description and you know that means that like on our north dakota trip

[38:54](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2334) where we were you know back deploying our first antenna people like stayed up you know more than 24 hours on multiple occasions and you know a span of a week where uh we just needed to to get the system running and then the third one is um uh we're looking for a categorical outcome not not just an incremental outcome and i think like what that comes back to is like if you want to do something that moves the world forward you need to have a team um that's something that i learned back from my time in entertainment you know like i i was uh working on a tv show and i'm just like one cog in this really big operation like there's no way you could get a tv show on air without a whole coordinated team of people to make that possible um and then if you want to function effectively as a team you need a lot of trust and so what's really critical to me in having teams

[39:49](https://realalpha.app/v/jHECsr9GCs8/?t=2389) that trust each other is uh you know basically like a low ego environment like when people come in the door they need to they need to be able to um admit their faults in a way that like is just purely pursuing understanding what the problem is understanding what the goal is um and and also be bold enough to raise flags when there's issues in a problem set so um yeah i think that teamwork the amount of care and the ability to be clever and take smart risks is kind of like the foundational pieces of of our culture that's great note to to to wrap on um the story about your mother is