The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

Latest Episodes:

Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12 Jul 10, 2024

Show notes

How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ.

Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify.

Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger.

Chapters:

01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada

06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses

07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech

11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People

13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM"

21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies

31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify

37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again

43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant

50:00 - Wrap Up questions

57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap

_________________________

Connect With Kaz

https://x.com/canadakaz

Kaz@shopify.com

Connect With Tyler & Sterling

https://x.com/thogge

https://x.com/sterlingmsnow

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He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Learned | Blake Murray, Divvy CEO | I/O Pod Episode 11 Jun 04, 2024

Show notes

NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast May 07, 2024

Show notes

Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau.

How has he done it? Scott shares his investment philosophy influenced by other greats like Dick Kramlich and John Doerr: understand an individual's life story, decision-making process, and future goals as key in making successful investment choices.

Chapters:

00:02:17 What Are The Characteristics Of Unicorn Founders?

00:10:16 "I Look For Passion-Driven Missionaries"

00:16:05 Building Tableau's Success: Lessons in Slow, Purposeful Growth

00:27:13 Make Your Investors Your Partners. Navigating Board Relationships

00:40:55 The Era of Decreasing LP Commitments

00:52:39 Tyler and Sterlings Recap

Connect with Scott and NEA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottdsandell

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU3mQDqk3QyB4WeDQwZ1YQ

Connect with IO Pod

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/

This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners

https://pelionvp.com/

The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot Are Funding The Next Generation | Ep. 9 Apr 10, 2024

Show notes

How Mercury's CEO Immad Akhund Changed the Startup Banking Experience And Got Into Investing || Ep. 8 IO Pod Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

From TrialPay, Affirm and a16z | Alex Rampell on Investing & Entrepreneurship | Ep. 7 IO Podcast Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Alex Rampell may be the most true version of an investor-operator. Alex's first entrepreneurial endeavor started as a child when he built and sold shareware out of his parent's house. Eventually he added more businesses to his portfolio before launching the payment platform TrialPay after college and eventually Affirm. Today, Alex invests in some of the largest companies at Andreessen Horowitz and he shares with Tyler and Sterling what he looks for in entrepreneurs and shares tactical advice from his days building.

Chapters:

(00:03:00) How Alex Started His First Company in Middle School

(00:14:46) Investing in People: The Key to Startup Success

(00:18:33) Building Relationships for Business Success

(00:21:23) The Advantage of Naivete in Entrepreneurship

(00:26:41) Interconnected Attributes for Building a Successful Business

(00:28:44) Building a Strong Entrepreneurial Framework

(00:36:04) Mitigating Risk of Overdependence on Initial Customers

(00:42:20) The Battle for Market Dominance

(00:46:05) The Crucial Role of Distribution for Startups

(00:57:17) The Challenge of Convincing Buyers

(01:00:38) Leveraging fear to drive successful acquisitions

Going All In On OpenAI, Rippling and Others | Bedrock Capital's Geoff Lewis On How How He Makes Investments | Ep. 6, IO Pod Jan 03, 2024

Show notes

Geoff Lewis is a titan in the VC world as both the lead investor and founder of Bedrock Capital, the firm backing some of the world best-known tech companies. Geoff joins Tyler and Sterling on the podcast to share his insights on venture capital and what it takes to consistently make money for LPs. Geoff discusses the unique decision to raise Bedrock's fund size in a time when other funds are downsizing, the importance of assessing founders and their unique qualities, and the challenges and rewards of starting a venture capital firm. He also shares his thoughts on the future of social media, the venture capital industry, and the power of authenticity in building strong partnerships.

Chapters

00:04:10 - Why Bedrock Is Upsizing Their Fund Structure.

00:06:54 - How Geoff Assesses Entrepreneurs and Raises Capital.

00:10:10 - Building Relationships Brings Smart Investments

00:14:13 - Achieving Work-Life Integration For Entrepreneurs.

00:17:49 - Why The Best Founders Are Authentic

00:21:29 - Different Investment Styles in VC

00:26:44 - When To Double Down

00:38:04 - The OpenAI Situation

00:40:37 - Geoff's Hot Takes

00:57:08 - Rapid Fire and Wrap-up

We think you'll love this conversation. Don't miss hearing from one of the industry's top investors and operators.

How To Build A World-Class Revenue Org with Mark Cranney, Former a16z Partner | IO Podcast Ep. 5 Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

How did this small town farm kid go on to lead the revenue orgs for Silicon Valley's biggest companies? Mark Cranney credits his success to the lessons he learned growing up: work hard and run things efficiently. Mark shares the playbook he's used to build billions in pipeline through his career as an executive, sales leader and most famously as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. If you're a founder, there's no better person to learn from than Mark.

Chapters

00:37 Introducing Mark Cranney

04:45 Find Sales Leaders Who Can Perform

07:03 What To Look For In Potential Hires

13:03 Find Courageous People To Join Your Team

17:07 The Sales Playbook - Are You Running It Or Can You Put It Together?

22:51 Putting Together The Revenue Org At SignalFx

25:15 How Mark Uses Company Bootcamps To Build Cohesion

31:47 Getting Everyone To Buy Into the Vision

37:25 Common Mistakes First Time Founders Make With Their Sales Org

48:27 Wrap up and Takeaways

Read 'Hard Thing About Hard Things'

Connect With Mark

Find Highlights from the show on TikTok

Check out our website

Brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners

Henry Ward, CEO of Carta | How This Second Time Founder Built A $7.4 Billion Company | Episode 4 Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

This isn't Henry Ward's first shot at entrepreneurship. In fact, the first company he founded failed. But Henry says the things he learned were pivotal for starting Carta, a multi-billion dollar company that's a darling of the venture world. CEO of Co-founder Henry Ward sits down with Tyler & Sterling and recounts his journey to entrepreneurship and shares critical advice for other builders who are in the game -- from establishing a strong company culture to the how of developing stronger insights.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:45 Henry's path to Carta

06:21 Developing Insights: "There's A Lot of Stuff You Discover A Long The Way"

08:20 The Best Founders Fill A Need For Customers They Didn't Know They Had

12:48 Finding Product Market Fit at Carta

16:30 Fundraising Strategy: "The Pitch Matters, But Not As Much As Finding Someone Who Cares About The Problem"

19:03 How To Attract The Right Type of Employees To Your Startup

28:32 Establishing Strong Culture At Your Company

40:22 What are some "Henryisms"?

42:40 Advice to Current Founders

47:50 Tyler & Sterling's Takeaways