Afleveringen
-
Guest: Jay Chaudhry, CEO, chairman, and founder of Zscaler
Much of the media coverage of Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry is quick to identify him as the wealthiest Indian-American person, with a net worth of $10.8 billion. But to hear Jay himself tell it, that number has never been very important to him: “My family had no money,” he says of his childhood in India. “I had no attachment for money. There was no feeling of ‘I must buy this, buy this.’ ... And it hasn’t changed a bit.” Perhaps surprisingly, he says not caring about money is one of the big reasons for his financial success: With no attachment to money, “I could take risks.”
In this episode, Jay and Joubin discuss startup “gambling,” Jay’s wife Jyoti, scarcity and risk, wasting time, “bonding walks,” family vacations, self-confidence and self-criticism, gardening, seven-minute aerobics, Marc Andreessen and Netscape, and IBM.
Chapters:
(01:54) - Selling SecureIT to Verisign(06:49) - Jay’s humble beginnings(09:12) - The worst way to describe him(11:42) - Working harder than ever(14:15) - Authenticity and selflessness(16:36) - Family time(18:53) - Happy childhood(21:33) - Setting an example (24:48) - Customer meetings(27:30) - Conviction and execution(31:07) - Do your best(33:16) - Turning off your brain(38:23) - Getting experience(40:17) - Who Zscaler is hiring(41:12) - What “grit” means to JayLinks:
Connect with JayConnect with Joubin
TwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected]Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
-
Guest: Bill Magnuson, CEO and co-founder of Braze
The deployment of smartphones around the world was more impactful than any other technology to date, says Braze CEO Bill Magnuson — and that has big implications for emerging fields like generative AI. “If we get to the point where they [LLMs] really can be useful, human-like companions ... they will be usable by everyone that has smartphone technology.” In other words, the question is not business opportunity or scale: It’s capability.
In this episode, Bill and Joubin discuss earnings days, Aaron Levie, MIT, customer churn, shower thoughts, technical co-founders, lacking context, AGI, “hands on keyboard,” the T-Mobile G1, app marketing, the 2008 financial crisis, Bob Iger, World War II, Peter Reinhardt, Watershed, and international offices.
Chapters:
(00:51) - Morning people(05:09) - What Braze does(06:59) - From CTO to CEO(08:17) - Waking up and commuting(10:49) - Leading vs. engineering(12:35) - Cognizant of believability(19:52) - LLMs and the human brain(25:46) - The AI ceiling(28:43) - The historic deployment of smartphones(37:58) - The benefits of youth(40:18) - Taking the leap(43:35) - Read more sci-fi(46:38) - Survivor bias(48:55) - Big risks at scale(52:30) - Who Braze is hiring around the world(55:32) - What “grit” means to BillLinks:
Connect with Bill
TwitterLinkedInConnect with Joubin
TwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected]Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
Guest: Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI
In 2020, Clara Shih quit Hearsay, the company she founded and ran for 11 years; in hindsight, she says “I probably should have quit a little bit sooner.” But at the time, she cared a lot — too much — about what everyone else thought. “There's a lot of guilt around leaving initially and feeling bad for feeling bad,” Clara says. But her worries subsided when her replacement and former COO, Mike Boese, guided the company with “class and grace” to an exit: A $125 million+ acquisition just this week by Yext.
In this episode, Clara meets Joubin on the top level of Salesforce Tower to discuss Sarah Friar, AI “frenemies,” practice and discipline, quantifying hard work, burnout, turning off, Intercom, elite operators, “Serviceforce,” ChatGPT, hiring for hunger, kids and achivement, Thomas “TK” Kurian, Slack, David Schmeier, Juan Perez, Nvidia GPUs, Silvio Savarese and Frontier AI, Starbucks, and Sheryl Sandberg.
Chapters:
(01:04) - Apple’s OpenAI partnership(03:18) - Organizing your life (04:45) - Working smarter(07:49) - Hindsight(08:58) - Hearsay’s acquisition by Yext(11:23) - What everyone else thinks(14:25) - Productive worry(17:27) - Coming (back) to Salesforce(20:47) - Paranoia and immigrant hustle(25:42) - Quitting(26:39) - Meetings and infusing AI(29:38) - Internal time savings(31:48) - The Matthew McConaughey ads(33:48) - Different horizons(37:35) - France and sovereign AI(38:46) - How Clara uses AI to keep up(40:33) - Dis-intermediating Netflix(41:27) - Who Salesforce AI is hiring(42:05) - Advice from Howard Schultz and Marc BenioffLinks:
Connect with ClaraTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 hiringLinks:
Connect with MarissaTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 SarahLinks:
Connect with SarahTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 StanislavLinks:
Connect with StanislavLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 EoghanLinks:
Connect with EoghanTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 MarkLinks:
Connect with MarkTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 hiringLinks:
Connect with TaylorTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 hiringLinks:
Connect with VictorTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoshTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 KatTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 hiringLinks:
Connect with AnneLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
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 SanjayLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Scott McNealy, former CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems & co-founder of Curriki
Scott McNealy never wanted to be CEO of Sun, and in his 22-year tenure before selling to Oracle, he knows there were times he failed to execute, or to rein in the once-iconic Silicon Valley firm’s worst impulses. But like his pro golfer son, Maverick, Scott doesn’t like to look back: “Golfers will always look back and blame the wind, a divot that wasn't repaired, a bad rake job, a mower cut that wasn't done properly, a gust of wind,” he explains. “If you blame yourself for all of the mistakes you make. You will hate yourself ... I look forward.”
In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss Scott Cook, Maverick McNealy, why big companies are riskier than startups, Al Gore, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Kodak, Dick Kleinhans, Harvard University, “bozo invasions,” Myers-Briggs, making an example, Motorola car phones, the Moscone Center, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA’s valuation, farewell letters, “you have no privacy,” open-source education, and toothpaste.com.
In this episode, we cover:
(01:00) - John Doerr(02:47) - Fathers, sons, and sports(07:29) - Living in the piñata(10:48) - Why Scott left Sun(13:49) - The heyday of Sun Microsystems(18:24) - Vinod Khosla and founding Sun(21:24) - How Scott became CEO(27:21) - Profitable in three months(30:02) - Inferiority complex(32:20) - Executive exits and fun at work(35:49) - Managers and recognition(38:18) - “HR hero” Crawford Beveridge(40:35) - How Carol Bartz became VP of marketing(43:07) - Sharing in success(45:25) - Scott’s love life & meeting Susan(50:54) - The dotcom boom and crash(53:45) - Unicorn CEOs and IBM’s offer(55:49) - Competitors and hindsight(58:20) - “The planet system”(01:00:13) - Too many employees(01:04:06) - Larry Ellison and selling to Oracle(01:07:01) - Blaming yourself and looking forward(01:10:11) - Curriki(01:12:12) - The AI boom(01:14:42) - “Grit” and insecurityLinks:
Connect with ScottTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness
Cisco bought Jyoti Bansal’s first company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, making him a very wealthy man. But after two African safaris, a week of Michelin-starred meals in Tokyo, and more adventures all around the world, he realized that spending his money didn’t truly make him happy. After some soul-searching, he realized what he really enjoyed: “I liked to build companies. That is my craft ... If someone enjoys playing gold for six hours, I would enjoy working on a startup for six hours.”
In this episode, Jyoti and Joubin discuss the evolution of Grit, Carlos Delatorre, Tom Mendoza, Glean, growing up in India, traveling the world, three-star restaurants, soul-searching, automating gruntwork, paying for nice hotels, red-eye flights, product-market fit, Jeff Bezos, the “three-layered cake,” Frank Slootman, raising the bar for distribution, technical debt, structural efficiency, and taking pride in your work.
In this episode, we cover:
(00:59) - Top-tier CROs(04:18) - The video game levels of startups(07:24) - Selling AppDynamics to Cisco(09:16) - Keeping up with high-growth companies(12:10) - The chip on Jyoti’s shoulder(16:15) - How he thinks about money(18:02) - Do what you enjoy every day(22:32) - “What would make me happy?”(24:56) - Starting BIG Labs and Harness(29:16) - Adjusting to a new reality(34:13) - Work-life balance(36:30) - What gets easier — and harder — over time (41:44) - Product vs. distribution(46:46) - Paying it forward(48:29) - The next level (50:24) - The four lists(53:45) - Assigning clear responsibilities(56:06) - Jyoti’s favorite interview question(57:41) - Who Harness is hiringLinks:
Connect with JyotiLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Clint Sharp, CEO and co-founder of Cribl
New employees are joining the remote data platform Cribl every week, and as the staff grows, CEO Clint Sharp has noticed a problem: He can’t file a bug report without a lot of caveats. When there were a handful of users, no one would bat an eye at the CEO posting a bug on Slack, but now he has had to learn how to phrase things because people assume he’s “irate and we should change everything we’re doing,” Clint says. “I’ll post something and there’s a flurry of DMs that are happening in the background, like ‘Oh my God.’” Unless the tone of his bug report is clear, workers with more experience at Cribl then have to reassure the newbies: “Calm down. When he does this, he’s not upset. He’s one of the power users of the product.”
In this episode, Clint and Joubin discuss being on the road, niche audiences, top-of-funnel problems, “come to Jesus” meetings, moving the goalposts, building for building’s sake, “down and to the right,” mediating re-orgs, flat organizations, filing bugs as the CEO, setting the example, Henry Schuck, Baldur’s Gate III, legal narratives, Hacker News, Cisco, Doug Merritt, Gary Steele, Rippling, and dead trends.
In this episode, we cover:
(01:08) - Running a remote company(02:57) - Cribl’s management meetings(05:56) - Looking back and recognition(08:08) - Growing quickly and what Cribl does(11:21) - Traction(14:53) - Solving a new problem(17:56) - Friends and family funding(21:45) - Why not shut it all down?(24:36) - Healthy arrogance and control(31:02) - Serial entrepreneurs and founder-CEOs(33:38) - What Clint loves about the job(35:31) - The hardest parts(38:41) - Core values(41:43) - Favorite interview questions(44:26) - Drawing boundaries(47:18) - Vacation and work-life balance(52:53) - Splunk’s lawsuit against Clint(56:26) - “Their brand is synonymous with expensive”(58:41) - Who owns the data?(01:01:59) - Building platforms(01:07:35) - “I’m so sick of AI”(01:11:25) - Who Cribl is hiring
Links:Connect with ClintTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Glen Tullman, CEO of Transcarent
Before he was CEO of Transcarent, Glen Tullman presided over the biggest digital health merger of all time: His previous company Livongo was acquired in 2020 by Teledoc for $18.5 billion. Over his decades of experience in health tech, he has developed saying: Hire low, fire high. When one of his friends was offered a job and said he wanted to consider another offer, Glen withdrew Transcarent’s offer because he didn’t want to be the highest bidder — in other words, hire low. But whenever he has to let someone go, he sees it as his responsibility to “help them go off and do something else that’s great, and be successful.” Firing and replacing executives, he said, is “just part of growing ... it doesn’t have to be ugly.”
In this episode, Glen and Joubin discuss conservative values, John Doerr, Teledoc, failures of leadership, Steve Case, Bill Gates, changing expectations, Travis Kalanick, incentive bonuses, Bucknell University, massive layoffs, criticizing in public, anonymous charity, cycling events, Michael Jordan, Bill McDermott, Barack Obama, private jets, and hiring without titles.
In this episode, we cover:
(01:11) - How Glen splits his time(03:55) - Looking back and leaving Livongo(09:03) - Would he do it again differently?(13:42) - Energy at work(18:00) - Failure and starting over(21:16) - What Transcarent does(25:29) - Taking on the system and stress(30:33) - Turning Allscripts around(33:48) - “We educated you to make a difference”(38:06) - The birth of electronic prescriptions(42:52) - Hire low, fire high(47:47) - Radical honesty (53:04) - Charitable efforts(57:55) - Glen’s competitive childhood(01:00:55) - His family and priorities(01:08:24) - Would Glen go into politics?(01:12:32) - “I hate to sleep”(01:15:06) - Peloton meetings(01:17:32) - Trading money for time(01:24:11) - Sharing credit(01:25:54) - Who Transcarent is hiring(01:28:05) - What “grit” means to GlenLinks:
Connect with GlenLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Filip Kaliszan, CEO and co-founder of Verkada
Great founders try to grow personally at least as fast as their companies do — but sometimes, says Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan, that’s just not possible. By the time the company had about 200 employees, he says, “the scale of the business and the rate of the growth of the business ... outpaced my rate of learning, or my ability to consult the right people.” But over time, he has worked to fix past errors and earn everyone’s trust: “I can be only as good as the rate at which I fix my mistakes,” Filip says.
In this episode, Filip and Joubin discuss “the good old days,” first principle thinking, the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bay Area bubble, going public, Aaron Levie, going down rabbit holes, power dynamics, idea validation, Brian Long, Hans Robertson, DIY entrepreneurship, commercial kitchens, cash efficiency, VR headsets, zeitgeist-y platform shifts, Mark Zuckerberg, and John Doerr.
In this episode, we cover:
(00:50) - Verkada’s office culture(04:37) - The loss of community(10:37) - Not going remote during COVID(16:37) - Palo Alto Networks(22:15) - Does Filip like being CEO?(26:02) - Time management and flow state(29:47) - The problem with huge meetings(31:59) - Fundraising for Verkada(34:02) - Building a “camera company”(37:29) - Zero to one(41:17) - The first 10 people(42:48) - Allocating capital wisely(46:19) - Hiring in-house(51:17) - Biggest screw-ups(54:00) - The feeling of failure(55:05) - Customer therapy(56:39) - Divide and conquer(01:00:47) - The Apple Vision Pro(01:05:05) - Mark Zuckerberg’s response(01:09:25) - Who Verkada is hiring and what “grit” means to Filip
Links:Connect with FilipLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Wade Foster, CEO and co-founder of Zapier
When Wade Foster and his co-founders launched Zapier, he was 24, and doubted himself constantly. He consulted mentors like Paul Graham and Jay Simons, studied entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs, and also took inspiration from an unlikely source: Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. “[He] had this fighting style, ‘The Way of No Way,’” Wade says. “He would study all the different fighting styles, and he would say, ‘None of them is the best or the worst ... My job was to take the best of each and then discard the rest, and make it my own.’”
In this episode, Wade and Joubin discuss fully remote companies, long-term thinking, hyperscaling, product-market fit, broken products, secondary offerings, “delocation packages,” interview questions, mind-breaking growth, doubting yourself, LLMs, hackathons, and adding a sales team (eventually).
In this episode, we cover:
(01:10) - Living in central Missouri(04:15) - Will Wade do this forever?(10:23) - Startup envy(13:09) - “Do people actually want this?”(18:44) - What Zapier does(20:15) - Taking outside capital(22:43) - Why Zapier is fully remote(28:01) - The pace of hiring(30:35) - Why résumés can be a trap(37:09) - When to promote from within(41:06) - Scaling problems(43:47) - Self-confidence and mentors(47:37) - Reacting to ChatGPT(53:43) - How Zapier’s team uses AI(58:12) - Who Zapier is hiring
Links:Connect with WadeTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm -
Guest: Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and Radical Respect: How To Work Together Better
After her first management book Radical Candor became a worldwide bestseller, Kim Scott found herself giving talks to all kinds of companies about how they could apply her advice and build a stronger, kinder culture. But then, after one such talk, the CEO — a longtime friend and former coworker — came up to Kim with an asterisk. As a Black woman, she explained, “as soon as I offer anyone even the most compassionate, gentle criticism, I get assigned the ‘angry Black woman’ stereotype.” Kim realized in that moment that her book needed a prequel of sorts, explaining what you need to have before you can create radical candor: “You're not going to care about people who you don't respect,” she says.
In this episode, Kim and Joubin discuss regret minimization, Juice Software, Sheryl Sandberg, saying “um,” moments of connection, Dick Costolo, negative truths, James March, snobbery, Charles Ferguson, Shona Brown, Fred Kofman, Christa Quarles, Jason Rosoff, Andy Grove, founders as outliers, Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs, glows and grows, the Post Ranch Inn, failing your colleagues, sexual harassment, DEI, and intellectual honesty.
In this episode, we cover:
(01:04) - Loud voices (03:59) - Writing a bestseller(07:48) - Why Kim wrote Radical Candor(14:21) - How to show you care(18:04) - Coaching tech CEOs(21:24) - Ruinous empathy and obnoxious aggression(25:40) - Leaving things unsaid(30:30) - Not an academic(35:21) - Learning from failed startups(38:55) - Performance reviews(42:30) - Why feedback feels risky(49:21) - How to reject feedback(53:11) - Creating space for feedback at home(56:08) - Running and sleeping(59:45) - Radical Respect and Kim’s other books(01:04:27) - The hardest story to share(01:06:44) - Optimism about the futureLinks:
Connect with KimBuy Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your HumanityPre-order Radical Respect: How To Work Together BetterTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm - Laat meer zien
