Gilad Tiefenbrun is the second-generation CEO of Linn, the iconic, heritage hi-fi company founded in Scotland in the early 1970s. In this conversation, Gilad joins Chris Hare for a rich discussion about engineering, succession, culture, and the deeper human values that shape great leadership.
At the center of the episode is a deceptively simple Linn principle: lose less. It began as an audio insight about preserving more of the original signal, but over time it became something much larger, a philosophy for product design, manufacturing, sales, stewardship, and leadership. Gilad shares how that idea shaped Linn’s approach to modular, upgradable products, long-term customer relationships, and the company’s resistance to the waste created by so many modern businesses.
But this episode is also about what it means to love more. Gilad talks candidly about entering a company culture marked by stress, conflict, and fear, and helping reshape it into something healthier and more collaborative. He reflects on the enduring influence of his father, the complexity of succession in a family business, what he learned from his years in engineering at Symbian, his collaboration with Jony Ive, and why the deepest measure of a life is not possessions or even experiences, but people, interactions, and love.
This is a conversation about the magic of premium hi-fi, certainly. But even more, it is about how to get to the end of life having lost less: less signal, less integrity, less time to fear, less humanity to conflict, and less of what matters most.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- How Linn’s founding principle of lose less shaped not only its products, but its thinking about waste, longevity, and value.
- What Gilad found when he entered the company, and how he helped move the culture away from confrontation and toward healthier collaboration.
- Why fixing process, not perks, is what actually improves morale and helps teams feel they are winning.
- What Gilad’s collaboration with Jony Ive reveals about what he values most
- Why Gilad believes life is ultimately about people, interactions, and love, not experiences, status, or accumulation.