What is The Profile?

The Profile is a media company and weekly newsletter devoted to the most extraordinary people alive — founders, investors, executives, and iconoclasts who’ve built something the world hadn’t seen before.

Polina Pompliano writes the definitive profiles of the world’s most extraordinary people, exploring the psychology of power, ambition, and modern success.

Every Sunday, we go deep and feature profiles that answer these questions: How does this person actually think? What do they know that others don’t? What did it cost them?

Who writes it?

I’m Polina Pompliano. Before starting The Profile in 2017, I spent years at FORTUNE magazine writing more than 1,300 articles and running Term Sheet, the flagship daily newsletter covering venture capital and private equity.

I left to do one thing well: profile the most extraordinary people in the world.

Since then, I’ve built The Profile into one of the most-read newsletters for founders, investors, and operators who believe that studying exceptional people is one of the highest-leverage things you can do.

I also wrote Hidden Genius, a book distilling what hundreds of the world’s top performers have in common. Spoiler: it’s not the habits.

What readers say

“I don’t think there is a newsletter I love more than The Profile.” — David Hoang

“Not all business and life lessons can be distilled into equations. I love The Profile because it offers such a human way of learning from other people’s paths.” — Lola Wajskop

“Nothing makes Sunday mornings better than a coffee and The Profile.” — Ali Hamed

oh and here’s a testimonial from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson himself: