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#194 CEO & Founder Sunshine, Marissa Mayer: Innovative Instincts Jun 10, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Marissa Mayer, CEO and Founder of Sunshine and former CEO of Yahoo

When Marissa Mayer was first hired as the CEO of Yahoo, the company had lost nearly a quarter of its workforce in the preceding six months. Early on, she was chatting with employees in the cafeteria and one of them got her attention by smacking her tray. “Is it go time?” he asked. He was asking if the board and C-suite were ready to lead the company forward, but Marissa thought he had one foot out the door. “I had just come out of this meeting where they were like, ‘Everyone’s leaving!’” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh no, please don’t go, I’ve only been here for four days!’”

In this episode, Marissa and Joubin discuss the number 12, contacts and photo sharing, fear of AI, soccer moms, maternity as a “disability,” mothers’ rooms, Jim Citrin, Project Cardinal, HTML5 vs. native apps, Ross Levinsohn, Lori Puccinelli Stern, Joe Montana, David Karp, Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, hiring at Google, Amit Patel, Hamilton, John Doerr, and the Google APM program.

Chapters:

(00:52) - Reading your own press
(04:55) - Marissa’s lucky number
(07:19) - Her latest startup, Sunshine
(15:03) - Burnout, resentment, and rhythm
(21:46) - The opportunity to become CEO of Yahoo
(27:00) - Inverting maternity leave
(31:14) - The big interview
(36:44) - An epic dinner party
(42:51) - The voicemail
(47:18) - Farzad “Zod” Nazem and David Philo
(50:25) - Last day at Google
(53:52) - “Is it go time?”
(59:03) - Buying Tumblr
(01:04:46) - Alibaba and Verizon
(01:06:24) - Larry and Sergey bucks
(01:11:05) - Eric Schmidt’s advice
(01:12:59) - In the room at Google
(01:18:36) - Teaching and identifying talent
(01:24:32) - Who Sunshine is hiring

Links:

Connect with Marissa
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#193 Former CEO Nextdoor, Sarah Friar: Four Circles Jun 03, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor

Sarah Friar has worked with some of the top leaders in Silicon Valley, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Block CEO Jack Dorsey, and most recently Nextdoor founder Nirav Tolia, who just replaced her as CEO in May. And one of the things that sets top performers apart from the rest, she argues, is their compassion and their responsiveness. When her former EA’s husband was diagnosed with cancer, Sarah texted Benioff — who she had just left behind to work at Square — for help. Within seconds, she recalls, he arranged an appointment at UCSF. “That is an amazing moment of compassion,” she says, “where he did not need to take that time.”

In this episode, Sarah and Joubin discuss public markets vs. VC, George Floyd, working with the board, singular focus, Goldman Sachs, being in “flow,” the freedom of not getting the thing you want, Walmart, Steph Curry, Graham Smith, Charlie Rose and Donald Trump, ugly babies, Elon Musk, Ladies Who Lunch, CNBC, commuting from home, white noise, “frequent Friars,” @TechEmails on Twitter, and the “zone of gratefulness.”

Chapters:

(02:04) - Why Sarah left Nextdoor
(08:18) - The stock market and success
(10:21) - Going through hell
(14:48) - Life is not an A/B test
(16:09) - Multiple tours of duty
(19:21) - Ikigai
(22:02) - Perfectionism and drive
(25:54) - Sarah’s next operating role
(28:35) - Big transitions
(30:35) - Personal burn rate
(35:34) - “Are people gonna take my call?”
(38:40) - Leaving Salesforce for Square
(41:27) - Loyalty
(45:33) - Leaving the right way
(47:44) - Square and Swiss cheese companies
(50:03) - Growth companies
(52:38) - Apolitical workplaces
(53:42) - Leaving Square
(55:38) - Loneliness
(57:18) - Daily routines
(01:05:03) - Working on weekends
(01:08:30) - Hyper-responsiveness
(01:11:47) - Resumé virtues and eulogy virtues
(01:15:33) - What “grit” means to Sarah

Links:

Connect with Sarah
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#192 CTO & Co-Founder Discord, Stanislav Vishnevskiy: Ship It May 27, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Stanislav Vishnevskiy, CTO and co-founder of Discord

For many years, the conventional wisdom was the gaming was not social because it was something you usually did at home. “But people who play games are often the most social,” says Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy. “They’re spending 10, 20 hours with other people online, hanging out.” As a teenager, Stanislav logged more than 1,000 days playing his favorite video game and socializing with friends around the world, but with 200 million monthly active users, the social platform is appealing to a lot more than hardcore gamers. “People online who need to get together and collaborate ... [want] tp have control and create a place,” he says. “That’s not just a gaming need, right? That’s pretty much any community.”

In this episode, Stanislav and Joubin discuss “Discord moments,” hanging out online, IRC and AIM, Fates Forever, good and bad stress, leadership coaches, Claire Hughes Johnson, socializing online, heart surgery, Slack, Jason Citron, in-browser voice chat, Reddit, authentic CX, hiring slowly, Mitch Lasky, “playing moneyball,” React, content moderation, deprecation plans, and collaborative projects.

Chapters:

(02:09) - Discord’s scale and importance
(07:35) - What is Discord?
(09:43) - Hammer and Chisel
(13:18) - How Stanislav’s role has changed
(15:17) - Imposter syndrome
(17:47) - Doing stuff for the first time
(21:22) - Final Fantasy XI and Stanislav’s parents
(25:12) - YOLO
(27:02) - Games as social networks
(30:49) - The evolution of Discord
(35:58) - Inherent virality
(39:04) - Building the company
(41:39) - The COVID effect
(43:08) - Hiring for slope
(46:43) - Pivoting back to gaming
(51:27) - The Discord Store and Nitro
(54:30) - Emotional stakes
(56:09) - Midjourney and AI art
(59:58) - Virtual worlds
(01:01:30) - Who Discord is hiring and what “grit” means to Stanislav

Links:

Connect with Stanislav
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#191 CEO & Co-Founder Intercom, Eoghan McCabe: Second Beginning May 20, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Eoghan McCabe, CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder of Intercom

“We are not ready for the degree to which our world is going to change,” says Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe, “in insane and incredible ways.” When he co-founded the company in 2011, the Irish-born entrepreneur was making it easier for companies to offer human customer service to their customers. But Eoghan believes “every single type of knowledge work” will soon be done by AI, and Intercom is well on its way to that destination: 45 percent of all tickets are being answered by bots now, and he expects that number to climb to 70 percent by 2026. “The agents no longer have to do the repetitive, painful, boring work,” Eoghan says. “They can focus on the more human, creative, interesting work that requires their empathy and creativity.”

In this episode, Eoghan and Joubin discuss fitting in, Archana Agrawal, authentic comms, taking risks, returning to the company you founded, politics at work, celebrating innovation, therapy for founders, and Ram Dass.

Chapters:

(01:04) - Insecurity and success
(06:16) - What Intercom does
(08:20) - Reinvention and “big company values”
(15:50) - Becoming an AI company
(16:53) - 2011 vs. 2024 in San Francisco
(21:03) - AI for customer service — and more
(25:07) - “The shitty gift that being attacked brings”
(30:25) - Expectations vs. reality, part one
(33:16) - What success means now
(36:08) - Running away
(39:56) - Coming back
(41:58) - Being busy is BS
(44:10) - Expectations vs. reality, part two
(45:44) - Self-mastery
(50:38) - Sanding off the rough edges
(55:08) - Who Intercom is hiring and what “grit” means to Eoghan

Links:

Connect with Eoghan
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#190 Co-Founder Cost Plus Drugs, Mark Cuban: Mavs to Meds May 13, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Mark Cuban, co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs and costar, Shark Tank

“I just love to compete,” says Mark Cuban. “And the day I stop is the day I’m dead.” Previously the co-founder of MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com, Cuban is probably best known to the public today for competing with the likes of Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran on the reality TV show Shark Tank. But his real focus — and his real enemy — these days is the pharmaceutical industry. His latest company, Cost Plus Drugs, aims to be far more transparent than established PBMs, or Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Mark clearly relishes eating their margin. “Everybody talks about disrupting healthcare,” he says. “This is the easiest motherf**king industry I've ever tried to disrupt because it is so opaque, and everybody is so captured by the scale of these big companies.”

In this episode, Mark and Joubin discuss Luka Dončić, Synthesia, the Sony hack, the American Dream, TikTok propaganda, MicroSolutions, throwing away watches, keeping kids grounded, Black Mirror, keeping up, Ali Ghodsi, the NBA, MGM, gambling in Dallas, the Adelson family, CES, transparency, and Alex Oshmyansky.

Chapters:

(00:55) - Game day and superstitions
(03:08) - Email responsiveness
(05:48) - Shark Tank
(09:21) - Retiring young
(10:57) - American Airlines’ lifetime pass
(12:55) - Sports and blue-collar work
(16:02) - Compete or die
(17:43) - Why Mark hates meetings
(19:57) - Immortality through AI
(23:05) - The new AI wave
(25:07) - Startup founders and low-hanging fruit
(29:24) - Selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo
(31:35) - The Dallas Mavericks
(34:52) - Selling his majority stake
(37:08) - The missing link in pharma
(41:27) - Disrupting a huge industry
(43:57) - The problem with debt
(44:59) - What “grit” means to Mark

Links:

Connect with Mark
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#189 Co-Founder Watershed, Taylor Francis: Worthy Missions May 06, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Taylor Francis, co-founder of Watershed

One day when he was 13, Taylor Francis walked out of the movie theater, and he was pissed off. He had just seen Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and internalized a “generational call to arms, that my parents had screwed our generation” by causing the climate crisis, he says. 14 years later, he was working at Stripe and felt another call to arms: The 2020s would be a crucial decade for slashing carbon emissions and combating global warming. So, he and his co-founders Avi Itskovich and Christian Anderson all left Stripe to start Watershed, which helps companies measure and reduce their emissions.

In this episode, Taylor and Joubin discuss Patrick Collison, Dan Miller-Smith, hiring challenges, Jonathan Neman, “golden age syndrome,” John Doerr and Mike Moritz, the Climate Reality Project, steady partnerships, DRI cultures, shared context, social distancing, information sprawl, and the founders’ “woe is me” narrative.

Chapters:

(01:02) - Magnetic missions
(06:40) - How enterprise sustainability works
(08:40) - Watershed’s first client, Sweetgreen
(11:04) - Reflecting on the early days
(16:36) - Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth
(18:53) - Mobilizing teenagers
(22:16) - The origins of Watershed
(27:04) - Leaving Stripe and raising money
(31:41) - Interchangeable co-founders
(33:06) - The ground truth
(35:25) - The Dunbar Number
(38:22) - Watershed’s operating principles
(41:56) - Intensity, priorities, and sacrifice
(47:37) - Moving faster
(50:26) - Sustainability is a part of business
(52:21) - The topology of emissions
(58:08) - Who Watershed is hiring

Links:

Connect with Taylor
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#188 CEO & Co-Founder Synthesia, Victor Riparbelli w/ Josh Coyne: Gorilla in the Room Apr 29, 2024

Show notes

Guests: Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia; and Josh Coyne, partner at Kleiner Perkins

When Victor Riparbelli wants to learn something, he’ll start with a YouTube video or a podcast: “I maybe buy the book on Amazon as like the fifth step,” the Synthesia CEO says. His company is trying to change the text-first (or text-only) way information is conveyed at work, making AI avatar-narrated videos to replace documents like customer profiles and HR manuals. Victor says that as the technology improves over many years, it could replace text entirely. “I think for most people, if they had a choice, they would probably prefer to watch video and listen to audio.”

In this episode, Victor, Josh, and Joubin discuss Seedcamp, Annie Case, Rubik’s Cubes, AI video dubbing, Instagram filters, emotive avatars, Ilya Fushman, Atlassian, Grammarly, the Gutenberg Parenthesis, European startups, email responsiveness, acqui-hires, and being “lonely at the top.”

Chapters:

(01:33) - Loose screws
(02:45) - How Victor and Josh met
(04:35) - AI hype cycles
(06:57) - What Synthesia does
(08:22) - Copycats and competition
(14:34) - Winner take all
(16:38) - Synthesia’s origin story
(21:36) - Category creation
(23:41) - The next era of AI video
(28:51) - The uncanny valley
(30:07) - Watching videos at work
(33:17) - Scaling video and audio content
(37:45) - Emailing with Mark Cuban
(45:15) - Battle scars
(48:47) - Customer obsession
(50:54) - Pressure to succeed
(54:41) - Deep passion
(57:16) - Who Synthesia is hiring

Links:

Connect with Victor
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Josh
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#187 President & COO of AG1, Kat Cole: Wings to Supplements Apr 22, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Kat Cole, COO of Athletic Greens

You can’t make smart decisions if you don’t know the truth — the “true truth,” as Athletic Greens COO Kat Cole puts it. “As you get bigger and you have success, innovator’s dilemma, you end up talking to yourself instead of really being rooted in what’s going on.” That’s why she has embraced the anxiety of the unknown, channeling what she doesn’t know about the market into productive questions for her team and her customers. Anxiety can be harmful, she concedes, but “there’s a healthy version of believing you never really know what’s going on, and you never really know the true truth, because things change so quickly.”

In this episode, Kat and Joubin discuss Huberman Lab, ultra-endurance athletes, Chris Ashenden, founder-owned businesses, “fancy jobs,” international trips, unplanned succession, private equity, the Atkins diet, inheriting a bad situation, omni-channel marketing, working with franchisees, fully remote companies, “if not for...,” and why Athletic Greens has only one SKU.

Chapters:

(01:04) - Podcast superfans
(06:54) - AG1 and Kat’s professional journey
(11:14) - Her “Jerry Springer childhood”
(14:31) - Learning, moving, thriving
(16:18) - The Hooters business school
(24:05) - Leaving Hooters and joining Rourke Capital
(28:46) - Cinnabon’s dark years
(35:55) - The three questions
(41:11) - MiniBons
(45:37) - Anxiety and uncertainty
(48:40) - The wad of paper story
(50:26) - Favorite interview questions
(54:49) - The temptation to do more

Links:

Connect with Kat
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#186 COO Asana, Anne Raimondi: Recovering Perfectionist Apr 15, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Anne Raimondi, COO and Head of Business at Asana

Asana COO Anne Raimondi feels pressure to perform in her job “every day, all the time.” But that pressure doesn’t come from her fellow executives; she imposes it on herself, trying to think carefully about how much each of her decisions will impact her team. “I have a lot of privilege and choice,” Anne says, “of how I spend my time, the resources available to me, and am I doing enough? ... Am I doing the most with the opportunities I have, and making as positive an impact as I can?”

In this episode, Anne and Joubin discuss returning to the office, Scott McNealy, the dotcom bust, Myers-Briggs, Star Trek: The Next Generation, empowering leaders, Blue Nile, Robert, Chatwani, tech leaders with children, Bain Capital, time management, being “in the moment,” Dave Goldberg, Dustin Moskovitz, staying curious, and being prescriptive.

Chapters:

(01:05) - Hybrid remote policies
(05:34) - Employees’ emotional journey
(09:39) - Thoughtful answers and betazoids
(13:17) - Anne’s immigrant parents
(14:50) - Regrettable feedback
(17:46) - Leaders who cast a shadow
(19:36) - Company-hopping
(24:14) - Startups and stability
(28:42) - Pressure to perform
(31:08) - Insecurity and parenthood
(37:12) - Allocating your time
(39:43) - Co-founding One Jackson
(45:36) - Amanda Kleha
(47:01) - Great founders
(52:18) - “It is not glamorous”
(54:03) - From board to operating at Asana
(57:10) - Feedback for founders
(01:00:25) - Recurring meetings
(01:03:07) - Who Asana is hiring

Links:

Connect with Anne
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

#185 CEO & Founder Netskope, Sanjay Beri: The Trenches Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

Guest: Sanjay Beri, CEO and Founder of Netskope

“You can be waiting your whole life to do something, and then your life’s over,” says Sanjay Beri. After nine years at Juniper Networks, he left his comfortable job, moved his family to a house with a pricier mortgage, and launched the cloud security firm Netskope. His entrepreneurial story would make anyone stressed, he acknowledges, but “at some level, you have to be wired to enjoy it… that's why I tell everybody who joins, ‘It's not for the faint of heart.’”

In this episode, Sanjay and Joubin discuss Reddit, banker friends, professional legacies, the wrong way to raise capital, authenticity, Ponzi schemes, “fool’s gold,” high-risk hiring, hitting pause, your “other family,” and changing roles.

Chapters:

(00:54) - 2024 IPOs
(05:43) - Long on cybersecurity
(07:59) - Netskope’s mission
(10:22) - Sanjay’s first company, Ingrian
(12:07) - The writing on the wall
(15:02) - Mamoon Hamid
(20:21) - Stress and perspective
(24:53) - Sanjay’s mother
(28:41) - The trenches vs. the clouds
(30:53) - Guts, Resolve, Integrity, Tenacity
(32:10) - Hiring for grit
(38:06) - The lowest point
(41:18) - “Always on”
(43:49) - The hot desk office
(46:13) - Scaling people
(49:30) - Politics and integrity
(53:03) - Who Netskope is hiring

Links:

Connect with Sanjay
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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