The Elevator #004: Sari Azout
"Work, for me, is a form of self-expression. I don’t want to leave this world without having done the thing only I can do."
Sari Azout is the founder of Sublime, a creative knowledge tool and, in her words, “a human creativity company.”
I’ve known Sari for a few years, and I’ve always appreciated the way she moves between the practical and the philosophical, building Sublime as an expression of creativity.
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1 –– WORK
How would you describe your relationship with work?
I love work, and I get along best with people who work really hard and love their work.
They say that people on their deathbeds never wish they had spent more time working. I can’t relate to this at all. I certainly believe that no one wishes they had spent more time earning a wage at an office or being a cog in the machine.
But when I think about what would be weighing on my mind if I knew today were my last day to live, I think I’d mostly wonder whether I’ve worked enough.
Work, for me, is a form of self-expression. I don’t want to leave this world without having done the thing only I can do.
Before you sit down at your desk, how do you get ready for the workday?
I have three kids ages 4–11, so I have two-ish hours of mom duties before I get to my desk. My mornings are loud. After drop-off, I call my mom, make tea, and savor the silence for a few minutes before I get my day started.
Was there a specific moment you changed your whole approach to work? If so, what was the moment?
I spent years working bullshit jobs before I found my way to Sublime. I was an international student at Brown and the only way I could stay in the U.S. was by getting a visa which was mostly sponsored by the big banks/consulting firms.
I started my career in investment banking, on the 47th floor of an office building in Times Square, surrounded by men who had done cocaine all night and took black cars home at 2am. I then spent years doing high-paying consulting jobs where I would present polished decks to executives, get the accolades, and then the decks would just collect dust in drawers.
It was all weightless. At some point I thought, “I have more to offer the world than this,” so I quit and eventually found my way to Sublime.
Sublime is more meaningful for me, but in nearly all other dimensions, it is harder. It’s harder to build one company than to advise 100. But it’s hard in a good way, not a dumb way!! There’s a particular kind of madness that comes from working long hours on something you think is bullshit. When I’m building Sublime, I feel in alignment with the universe.
2 –– WEALTH
What’s been one of your greatest investments? Interpret however you would like.
Building a family.
Silicon Valley talks a lot about the virtues of building a company, but building a family is the real embodiment of the builder philosophy.
What’s something you have learned about money that you wish you had known earlier?
I think I’m lucky in that I met a lot of extremely wealthy people early on in my life and saw up close that more money is not the answer. I wouldn’t want to trade places with any of them.
What bet are you making right now, financially, creatively, or personally?
I’m betting that being low status for a few years is a good trade to not have to live in the legible trap of a big C firm. I’m betting that constraints breed resourcefulness and that turning down money is the right approach to building Sublime (exist strategy > exit strategy, baby!). I’m betting on the long game. That following one’s principles and curiosity over years and decades can lead to big and beautiful and wildly unexpected opportunities. My friend gave a graduation speech at a local high school and she said don’t live each day like it’s your last. Live like you’ll make it to 100. Think in centuries. Isn’t that beautiful?
I’ve been leaving breadcrumbs for years — releasing essays, talks, zines, products, events, etc… I am still working out what it all is. The work has been so illegible but I can feel the dots connecting and the universe conspiring in my favor.
The larger bet I see for Sublime is that as intelligence gets commoditized, it’s the below-the-neck stuff that will rise in importance: creativity, judgment, taste, agency, intuition, and the ability to believe in what you can’t measure.
When it comes to AI, we hear an awful lot of talk about efficiency, speed, lines of code produced, etc., but very little about how the technology can make things better, not just faster.
You have the tech bros on one side who think AGI will solve everything and that there is nothing left for humans to do, and the purists resistant to change on the other.
I want Sublime to be the place people think about when they think of technology without compromising their humanity.
Whether it’s Sublime sessions with the greats, our app to collect and create from what moves you, or the ideas we push forward in our newsletter, it’s all in service of helping people make the things that only they could make, and make them well.
3 –– WELLNESS
How do you disconnect or unplug from being online?
Luckily, being a mom of three doesn’t give me a choice. My weekends are for sacred family time: tending to sleepovers with friends, driving to and from soccer games, kids’ birthdays, etc.
Is there a practice, tool, or teaching you use or follow regularly?
I do Shabbat dinner every Friday night with my extended family and have done it my whole life. It’s my favorite part of the week.
Do you have any spiritual or self-development practices?
A combination of yoga, Judaism, psilocybin journeys, and having children have exploded my spiritual range. I feel more spiritually alive now than I ever have.
4 –– WISDOM
Who are your go-to sources for good information that most people do not know about?
I don’t really follow the news, but there are some writers I will drop everything to read, like Adam Mastroianni , Jasmine Sun , and Henrik Karlsson
I also really like Brie recently launched newsletter, Early Days, about the characters and companies people should know about. The tone feels personal in a way I think more things will.
I have discovered interesting people and books through Rick Rubin’s podcast Tetragrammaton. Most recently, I discovered Angus Fletcher and his book Primal Intelligence, which has been blowing my mind.
What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to that is shaping how you think?
I am currently preparing for a talk on the limits of intelligence. In preparation for it, I have been reading a lot of old philosophical and religious texts: Hannah Arendt, Michael Polanyi, Immanuel Kant, Mary Oliver, and some lesser-known PDFs like Karl Popper’s Clouds and Clocks.
I am also fascinated by the hard problem of consciousness. I started with An End to Upside Down Thinking, but I’m very deep down this rabbit hole now.
My consumption these days is probably 25% books, PDFs, and essays written pre-AI; 25% LLMs; 25% stuff I find on Sublime related to what I’m working on; and 25% independent newsletters.
What’s your favorite app or product right now? Why?
Podcast Magic is an app we (Sublime) built to capture insights from podcasts using screenshots. Feels magical every time!
I’m really enjoying Sabbath, my friend Ben’s new app to block addicting apps one day a week. It is very thoughtful and well crafted.
5 –– WHAT’S NEXT
What are you practicing right now that you are still bad at?
Everything! Managing people, being patient with my kids, my forearm stand, being bored without reaching for my phone, surrendering control, equanimity—the easy stuff ;)
In one paragraph, what does your next chapter look like?
I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Like my friend Anna Gát said, the great thing about achieving small things is that you know the big things are just as achievable. They just take more time.
What is one piece of wisdom you would like to share with the other entrepreneurs reading this?
Keep going. You can spend years wandering through curiosity without direction and then suddenly end up in a place where it’s clear that every seemingly arbitrary tangent was leading up to this exact moment.
🛗 Reader Giveaway: Win a year of Sublime
I’m giving away a year of Sublime.
To enter, leave a comment below answering:
→ What are you building right now, and what ideas are inspiring you?
I’ll choose one response after entries close 7 days from now, August 14.
People and resources mentioned:
Sublime · Sublime’s newsletter · Code for Creatives × Sublime · Adam Mastroianni · Jasmine Sun · Henrik Karlsson · Brie Wolfson’s Early Days · Anna Gát · Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton · Angus Fletcher’s Primal Intelligence · Hannah Arendt · Michael Polanyi · Immanuel Kant · Mary Oliver · Karl Popper’s Clouds and Clocks · An End to Upside Down Thinking · Podcast Magic · Sabbath
Rooftop –– Interviewing 100 Founders.
I’m interviewing 100 founders through The Elevator about work, wealth, wellness, wisdom, and what’s next. If Sari’s story made someone come to mind, send this to them or nominate someone for a future ride!
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Existing strategy > exit strategy