grit

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 Glen

Links:

• Connect with Glen
  • 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

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

• Connect with Filip
  • 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

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

• Connect with Wade
  • 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

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 future

Links:

• Connect with Kim
  • Buy Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
  • Pre-order Radical Respect: How To Work Together Better
  • 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

Guest: Daniela Amodei, President and co-founder of Anthropic

With a reported valuation of as much as $18 billion, Anthropic has the resources to be one of the dominant AI companies in Silicon Valley; however, it was conceived as a public benefit corporation and always tries to strike a balance between hypergrowth and responsibility. Anthropic’s flagship LLM, Claude, must adhere to a “constitution” of values that prioritize the good of humanity. And even though every company wants to “do AI” right now, President Daniela Amodei says some of them should slow down. “I keep coming back to this idea of, ‘How much are you buying the hype?’” she says. “’How grounded are you in the reality of what's actually happening?’ And sometimes in business conversations, we tell a potential customer, ‘We don't think we're right for you.’”

In this episode, Daniela and Joubin discuss her brother Dario, staying grounded, hypergrowth startups, Claire Hughes Johnson, mechanistic interpretability, Paul Graham, AI training, what AI companies can learn from social media, Stripe, the pool of venture capital in the Bay Area, leading people, giving feedback to all your coworkers, interview questions, and Sheryl Sandberg.

In this episode, we cover:

• Holidays with the Amodei family (01:15)
• The tech industry bubble (05:35)
• Inside the AI hurricane (09:53)
• Scaling as a superpower (14:39)
• Complementary abilities (16:39)
• Claude 2 and constitutional AI (20:05)
• Making AI trustworthy, safe, and powerful (28:58)
• Generative AI’s high cost (31:03)
• Anthropic and OpenAI’s massive responsibility (37:50)
• The impact of new technology (42:32)
• Public benefit companies (46:55)
• Extremely lean go to market (53:36)
• AI as a business-led industry  (01:00:37)
• Customer obsession (01:06:58)
• Where do you want to use your innovation? (01:11:31)
• Who shouldn’t use AI? (01:14:33)
• “Everything to everyone” (01:18:15)
• Working with Daniela (01:22:26)
• Interviews at Anthropic (01:25:38)
• Intense performance reviews (01:29:47)
• Middle managers are underrated (01:35:46)
• “Tell me about yourself” (01:39:47)
• Who Anthropic is hiring (01:42:33)

Links:

• Connect with Daniela
  • 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

Guest: Dev Ittycheria, CEO and President of MongoDB

When you think about who you were and the decisions you made two, or four, or eight years ago ... how do you feel? Dev Ittycheria, the President and CEO of MongoDB, says he’s embarrassed about certain things he did — and that’s a good thing. “If you’re not [embarrassed], that means you’re not really growing that fast,” he says. He recalled one of his mentors, former BladeLogic chairman Steve Walske, explaining that everyone has an overinflated opinion of themselves, and the great leaders keep the gap between that opinion and reality narrow. One of the hallmarks of such a leader, Dev says, is that they have the intellectually honesty to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, which others perceive.

In this episode, Dev and Joubin discuss looking for bad news, chips on your shoulder, Ivy League schools, being an outsider, highly educated parents, “aging out,” Bruce Springsteen, Chief People Officers, Frank Slootman and John McMahon, passive aggression, vulnerability as strength, imposter syndrome, open-source licenses, introverts, and time management.

In this episode, we cover:

• Shlomo Kramer and the “burden of persona” (00:59)
• Why BladeLogic started in Boston (04:30)
• The psychological edge (07:08)
• Dev’s family and education (08:56)
• “Am I good enough?” (13:11)
• “Do not squander this opportunity” (16:22)
• Dev’s wife (19:32)
• Fear of irrelevance (21:23)
• Relevance after retirement (26:06)
• Why CEO is a lonely job (28:14)
• Trusting your team (31:43)
• The meaning of life (35:16)
• Judgment and introspection (38:16)
• Taking people to the woodshed (40:54)
• What matters to other people (44:39)
• Taking risks at MongoDB (51:08)
• Founder-led businesses (53:26)
• What type of company is MongoDB? (57:39)
• Work-life harmony (01:00:20)
• Who MongoDB is hiring (01:03:17)

Links:

• Connect with Dev
  • 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

Guest: Frank Slootman, CEO and Chairman of Snowflake and author of Amp It Up

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman doesn’t recall a time in his childhood where new achievements were celebrated — because, according to his father, putting everything into your work and “leaving it all on the field” was the only choice. “The problem with it,” Frank says, is that “it becomes a ‘never enough’ dynamic, because when is it enough?” To this day, he comes home on Friday night and asks himself, “Did it mater that I was there? ... If I’m just a passenger on the ship, that’s my nightmare.”

In this episode, Frank and Joubin discuss acting with urgency, Shlomo Kramer, negative role models, Elon Musk, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, aptitudes and weaknesses, ServiceNow, and the life spark of business.

In this episode, we cover:

• Being tough on yourself (00:59)
• Sailing and inner peace (03:00)
• Confronting your demons (09:07)
• Scaling Data Domain (11:15)
• Judging talent (15:20)
• That gnawing feeling (18:16)
• Daring greatly and rejecting pride (21:04)
• “Did it matter that I was there?” (25:02)
• How you play the game (27:59)
• The best version of yourself (29:59)
• Learning from the best (34:06)
• Sales as inspiration (37:52)
• Retirement and Tom Brady (39:09)
• The fog of war (41:16)
• Snowflake vs. Data Domain (44:31)
• Respect for luck (48:48)
• Who Snowflake is hiring (50:42)

Links:

• Connect with Frank
  • LinkedIn
  • Buy Frank’s book, Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks

Almost everyone in the second generation of biotechnology entrepreneurs, says Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly, works in that field because of one thing: Jurassic Park. The Michael Crichton novel-turned-Steven Spielberg movie captured both the wonder and beauty of bioengineering, and the challenges of bending DNA to your own ends. “You didn’t invent biology,” Jason says. “You need to have humility in the face of it ... because life will find a way. It will do things you don’t expect. It’s not a computer.” 

In this episode, Jason and Joubin discuss the Wall Street rollercoaster, designer cells, the history of biotech, Herbert Boyer and Genentech, ChatGPT, extinct flowers, Sam Altman and YCombinator, first principles thinking, compounding risk, Patrick Collison, super-voting shares, capital intensive businesses, Pets.com, and why biology is like “freakishly powerful alien technology.”

In this episode, we cover:

• Being private vs. being public (00:58)
• How bioengineering works (04:27)
• Jurassic Park (08:51)
• Biotech breakthroughs (12:15)
• Why this field is not well-known yet (16:57)
• “The ChatGPT moment for biotech” (22:05)
• Meaningful stuff takes forever (26:23)
• Ginkgo’s first five years (29:02)
• Why the company went public (36:20)
• Short sellers, Warren Buffett, and Elon Musk (42:08)
• Applying AI to DNA engineering (47:57)
• The long-term future (55:57)
• Who Ginkgo is hiring (58:39)

Links:

• Connect with Jason
  • 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

Guest: John McMahon, author of The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO

A hell of a lot of people work in sales. But until recently, says five-time CRO and The Qualified Sales Leader author John McMahon, it was rare for colleges and universities to offer a sales degree. Salespeople had to learn on the job from experienced coaches, and adapt. And their bosses, John explains, had to themselves as agents of transformation. “If somebody’s really smart, they’re going to pick up the knowledge,” he says. “If they have what I call a PHD — persistence, heart, and desire — they’re going to learn the skills ... You’re going to have to do thousands and thousands of repetitions before you’re going to get good.”

In this episode, John and Joubin discuss lazy LinkedIn cold calls, Tom Brady’s retirement, being “married to your job,” Carl Eschenbach, crying, sales as a calling, corporate culture vs. coaching culture, adaptable workers, opportunity vs. title, Bob Muglia, transactional leaders, sad rich people, cookie-cutter advice, handshake evaluations, and David Cancel.

In this episode, we cover:

• CRO to CEO? (02:21)
• Ego and relevance (04:25)
• Escaping the 90-day grind (06:25)
• Persistence and physical discipline (09:05)
• Daily habits and positive energy (14:12)
• Why John quit BMC (17:09)
• Poor communication (21:17)
• Was there another way? (24:37)
• Identifying sales talent (28:36)
• Showing that you care (32:58)
• Sales leaders as hockey coaches (39:46)
• Firing people (44:25)
• Interviewing the right type of salesperson (49:14)
• Snowflake and Chris Degnan (51:22)
• “What’s the book on you?” (56:03)
• Managing from a position of power (58:01)
• The three “whys” (01:00:31)
• Why John never went VC (01:04:33)
• Is he really done? (01:07:17)
• Shlomo Kramer (01:10:20)
• Having impact (01:13:11)
• Bad advice (01:16:19)
• Working with marketing (01:19:32)
• Sizing people up (01:21:26)
• Can CEOs give up? (01:26:51)
• Coaching sales “artists” (01:28:29)
• What “grit” means to John (01:30:48)

Links:

• Connect with John
  • LinkedIn
  • Buy The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Happy 2024! It was a pleasure to kick off Season 2 of Balanceness with my confidante and sister Samantha Miller, MSW, RSW, a clinical social worker, who has worked in a number of settings including chemical dependency, partial hospitalization programs, and private practice. Samantha currently provides hospice and bereavement services, which entails bereavement support and clinical services for those with a life limiting illness and joins us to shed some light on the levity and beauty of her work. 

When thinking about how to kick off this season’s podcast, I couldn’t think of a better topic than resilience. I don’t know about you, but I never emerge from the winter break feeling refreshed. The pre-holiday end of season work sprint, gift buying, traveling, kids out of childcare, and extended time away from creature comforts with extended family leaves me feeling drained. I feel conflicted about stepping into the new year with a new ‘tude when all I really want to do is return to homeostasis. So, how better to discuss my bounceback than with someone with an expertise in trauma treatment and mindfulness interventions? In this episode, we discuss the overlap of balance and resilience, how childhood experiences shape our coping mechanisms and the practice of getting out of our heads. This episode is great for anyone who needs a reminder to put one foot in front of the other, to drop the judgment (of yourself or others) and to recognize, name and laugh in the face of adversity. I hope this episode gives you some inspiration and tools for conquering 2024. Happy listening. 

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

Guest: Angela Duckworth, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“There’s got to be a cost” when you pursue your passions, says University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth; in fact, the word “passion” comes from the Latin word for “suffering.” But that doesn’t mean that gritty people are unhappy. After the time needed for sleep, daily exercise, friends, and family, Dr. Duckworth explains, “what’s left is more than 40 hours.” Informed by her research and her own happiness, she tries to discourage her students from settling for a 9 to 5 life: “There’s so many people that exemplify a life of dedication, and hard work, and of happiness, and humor, and friends, and family, that I think we should tell young people, ‘Look, don't assume that's not possible.’”

In this episode, Angela and Joubin discuss being punctual, Danny Kahneman, AP Calculus, moving the finish line, teaching grit to children, Arthur Ashe, Diana Nyad, passion and sacrifice, hiring gritty people, “change your situation,” Marc Leder and Rodger Krouse, Invictus, ChatGPT, neural autopilot, and Steve Jobs.

In this episode, we cover:

• “I have a thing with time” (01:36)
• Being the GOAT (06:37)
• Mr. Yom (09:27)
• Chef Marc Vetri (14:15)
• The Devil Wears Prada (16:03)
• Talking about grit (18:12)
• Satisfaction, loneliness, and happiness (20:24)
• Success as a journey (28:23)
• The cost of hard work (32:52)
• Angela’s 70-hour work week (36:31)
• Charisma and loving what you do (40:55)
• Why high achievers have supportive partners (47:07)
• The next book (55:25)
• Pick the right market (57:45)
• Therapy questions (59:53)
• The Incredible Hulk vs. James Bond (01:02:45)
• Automating decisions (01:05:43)
• What “grit” means to Angela (01:09:39)

Links:

• Connect with Angela
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Additional reading:
  • Redefining Success: Adopt the Journey Mindset to Move Forward
  • Buy Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: David Cancel, founder and former CEO of Drift; founder of Rey

After HubSpot acquired his company Performable in 2011, David Cancel became his acquirer’s Chief Product Officer — and didn’t give any thought to how long he’d be in that role. When he started eyeing the exit a few years later, he was told that wasn’t an option: HubSpot had already filed to go public, and an officer of the company leaving in the first 18 months would raise major red flags. “Maybe this is what’s led me to be an entrepreneur,” David recalls. “I can never feel trapped … Someone telling me, ‘you can’t leave,’ I was like, boom. Switch went off in my head … and I was like, ‘I’m out.’” The filing was ultimately delayed and David was able to quit just before the IPO; one day later, he started his next company, Drift.

In this episode, David and Joubin discuss the accountability of doing something, creating constraints, the Whitney Museum, imposter syndrome, Tony Hawk, John Romero, wandering without a map, conservative spending, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Phil Jackson, the voices in your head, Shlomo Kramer, righteous independence, cancel culture and diversity, gut vs. data, and killing ideas with discipline.

In this episode, we cover:

• Action and distractions (00:50)
• Observer and outsider (05:36)
• Advising entrepreneurs (11:18)
• “It has to be bigger” (13:23)
• David’s new company, Rey (16:38)
• Remote vs. in-person work (21:24)
• Who David will hire first (25:39)
• Fundraising and bootstrapping (27:39)
• The timeline for Rey (31:48)
• Rebuilding Hubspot’s code base (33:36)
• Leaving HubSpot at the IPO (42:54)
• “You’re not done” (48:19)
• HubSpot’s infamous exec meetings (54:44)
• David’s hardest year and selling Drift (59:26)
• The upmarket mistake (01:03:13)
• Saying no to good ideas (01:08:12)
• What “grit” means to David (01:11:52)

Links:

• Connect with David
  • 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

Guest: John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins

After Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr first invested in Google — $12.8 million for 13 percent of the company — he told co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that they needed to hire a CEO to help them build the business. After they took meetings with a variety of successful tech execs, they came back to Doerr and told him “We’ve got some good news and some bad news.” The good news was that they agreed on the need for a CEO; the bad news, Doerr recalls, is that they believed there was only one person qualified for the role: The then-CEO of Pixar and interim CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. 

In this encore presentation of the 100th episode of Grit, John and Joubin discuss the urgent need to act on the climate crisis, getting turned down by Kleiner Perkins, CEOs as sales leaders, the microprocessor revolution, balancing between work and family, the opportunity of AI and sustainability, what makes Jeff Bezos special, Bing Gordon and the invention of Amazon Prime, the Google CEO search, how the iPhone nearly killed Apple, Steve Jobs’ greatest gift, Bill Gates’ philanthropy, and how Doerr divides his time.

In this episode, we cover:

• John’s two books — Measure What Matters and Speed & Scale — and applying OKRs to the climate crisis (02:39)
• How John got to Silicon Valley and what he learned from his entrepreneurial father, Lou (08:55)
• “I didn’t want to be in venture capital” (16:27)
• Joining Kleiner Perkins at the dawn of personal computing (20:03)
• The internet, cloud computing, smartphones, and the next big tech wave: AI (24:41)
• How John met Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (29:46)
• Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and teaming up with Mike Moritz from Sequoia (38:26)
• John’s friendship with Steve Jobs and the creation of the $100 million iFund for iPhone apps (45:12)
• “Family first” and setting personal OKRs (50:10)
• Working with Bill Gates outside of Kleiner Perkins (52:51)
• Brian Roberts, Comcast, and hustling to make at-home broadband nationwide (59:28)

Links:

• Connect with John
  • 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

Grit and Resilience : One Woman's Story

Eva Simons 'Embraces the Suck' After a Tragic Mauling to Reboot Her Life

Sometimes life punches you in the face and your dreams shatter.  That's what happened to my friend Eva one afternoon last year.  Eva shows true grit and fortitude.  Her inspirational story will encourage you to embrace the suck when life throws you curveballs.

Adventure travel, by its nature, often requires that you summon your own grit and spirit.  My hopes are this story will encourage you to reinforce your own resilience.  

I am also releasing a Bonus Episode of my companion podcast, the Adventure Travel Show, on Grit and Resilience to show you ways to strengthen your own resilience.

COMPLETE SHOW NOTES  See important details, links and photos from this episode.

Get FREE Travel Planners for ATA adventures (and each month you will get an email from Kit with links to all future Travel Planners (no spam promise!).  Get the monthly newsletter here.

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Improving Resilience and Grit

Adventures can be unpredictable at times.  One thing you'll definitely need whenever you go on an adventure is grit.  Toss in some fortitude and resilience, too!  

Fortunately, grit is a skill you can learn.  On today's show, we dive deep into ways that we can improve our own resilience.

This is an encore presentation of an episode that ran on my companion podcast, the Adventure Travel Show, which teaches you the skills you need to go on your adventures.

COMPLETE SHOW NOTES  See detailed information covered on today's show.

Get FREE Travel Planners for ATA adventures (and each month you will get an email from Kit with links to all future Travel Planners (no spam promise!).  Get the monthly newsletter here.

CONTACT KIT

Resources 

Promo Codes and Recommended Tour Companies

Travel Insurance:  Quickly and easily compare rates and policies from different companies

Buy Me a Beer Want to support the program?  You can always buy me a coffee or beer - thanks!

Amazon Kit's Picks   Please use my Amazon link to access your Amazon account.  Even if you don’t purchase any of my recommendations, I get credit for anything you DO purchase - at no additional cost to you, you’ll be helping to support the show and keeping it AD FREE:)

SUBSCRIBE to the Adventure Travel Show (the “How to’s of adventure travel)

SUBSCRIBE to Active Travel Adventures (fantastic adventure destinations)

Join the Active Travel Adventures Facebook Group

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The year is wrapping up and as we go into next year, there are five books that can help you to start the year off on the right foot and prevent you from being subject to burnout in 2024.

All of these books have helped me to not only understand burnout, but provide me with tools and resources to make quicker decisions, focus on what's most important, build, effective habits, and finish my work quickly and easily. On top of it all to have the grit needed to persevere while pursuing my passion.

You love all of these books, and find that they are handy guides to helping you to pursue a life without burnout, and get things done, in less time, and making more time for the things that you enjoy.

Links and Resources
Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Finish by Jon Acuff
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Planners on Purpose Book Club Playlist

Thank you so much for listening, we'll see you on the next episode, stay on purpose!

To learn more about Planners on Purpose, visit our website.

Guest: Shlomo Kramer, founder and CEO of Cato Networks

Shlomo Kramer has founded three companies to date — Check Point, Imperva, and most recently Cato Networks — and taken the first two public, with plans to do the same with Cato. By any measure, he is a successful entrepreneur, but he defines “success” as “a burden you need to shake off every day.” And the easiest way to do that he’s found is to keep moving, keep failing, and keep creating. The material wealth he’s created, he explains, was never the goal: “It was never about things. It was about ideas and making them real.”

In this episode, Shlomo and Joubin discuss the contexts of our actions, the IDF, taking three companies public, ideas vs. things, kibbutzes, Gong, Sumo Logic, serial entrepreneurs, leading by example, consumer cybersecurity, trusting others, Albert Einstein, “making it to the pass before winter,” and Israeli directness.

In this episode, we cover:

• The delta between micro and macro (00:54)
• Working in wartime Israel (03:18)
• The burden of persona (06:37)
• Shlomo’s family (13:19)
• The time between startups (16:30)
• Self-fulfillment (18:31)
• “What am I going to do next?” (21:14)
• Rebelliousness (24:58)
• Palo Alto Networks (29:42)
• Loyalty and competition (31:32)
• Building trust relationships (35:02)
• “The last one” (37:41)
• Shaq, Tom Brady, and Carl Eschenbach (42:15)
• Tough feedback (46:50)
• Shlomo’s friends (48:18)
• Intellectual honesty (50:14)
• What Cato does (52:37)
• Hiring and work culture (55:23)
• Ignoring startup advice (58:15)
• Ideation and being present (59:22)

Links:

• Connect with Shlomo
  • 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

Guest: Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins

“I’m an engineer, so I have doubts about everything,” says Glean founder and CEO Arvind Jain. Well ... almost everything. Since launching Glean in 2019, he has held to the belief that “all of us are going to have really powerful AI assistants” in the future. With a several-year lead on generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Glean has built a growing club of CIO fans. With the broad acceptance of AI over the past year, Arvind says, “the level of confidence is higher than ever before.”

In this episode, Arvind, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss golfer hats, ideas vs. execution, X1, energy audits, small towns in India, IIT, proving yourself, Rubrik, rejecting product-led growth, “workplace assistants,” CIO fans, internet ’94, Parker Conrad, and work as a hobby.

In this episode, we cover:

• Arvind’s newfound fame (01:08)
• The state of the AI business (03:42)
• “Why now?” (06:05)
• Building great products (09:16)
• Company-building (11:27)
• Arvind’s childhood (14:37)
• Competition and hard work (16:44)
• Leaving Google (18:46)
• Glean vs. Rubrik (20:53)
• The future of work (27:22)
• “Holy shit” moments (29:25)
• Finding positivity (32:51)
• AI hype (34:31)
• How to pick a venture capitalist (38:55)
• Turning off (42:24)
• Hiring and the meaning of “grit” (44:41)

Links:

• Connect with Arvind
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Mamoon
  • 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

Guest: Scott Cutler, CEO of StockX

What’s the point of climbing a mountain, or heli-skiing in the Swiss Alps, or biking in the Tour de France? StockX CEO Scott Cutler has done all three, and for him, the answer is momentary perspective. “When you’re descending, you don’t see, but you know what is above,” he says. “You have experienced and have seen what you saw at the peak and you take that with you into the next experience.” He stressed that the pleasure of being at the top is a fleeting incentive to do it again, not the destination; in life, and in our careers, he argues, the journey is about continually facing new challenges and getting brief glimpses from the top.

In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss out-of-touch VCs, the challenges of marketplaces, Josh Luber, Dan Gilbert, almost missing flights, gaining perspective, scary blackberry bushes, work-family balance, daily workouts, sleeping on planes, e-commerce in the U.S. vs. China, and digital ownership.

In this episode, we cover:

• Special shoes (01:07)
• Scott’s past jobs at the NYSE, StubHub, and eBay (05:47)
• Detroit and frequent flying (10:02)
• Over-optimizing your time (15:25)
• Why do you climb a mountain? (18:00)
• Scott’s childhood and his own kids (22:39)
• Routines and energy (30:15)
• StockX and the future of e-commerce (36:52)
• Going public (43:24)
• SPACs and NFTs (46:21)
• What’s next? (50:11)
• Persistence (52:06)
• Who StockX is hiring (54:34)

Links:

• Connect with Scott
  • 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

Guest: Brian Long, former CEO of Attentive and author of Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook

Brian Long’s most recent company, Attentive, was originally designed to help clients communicate with their distributed workforce — but about six months in, he and his co-founder realized that that business would not grow as quickly as they had hoped. So, they decided to pivot to SMS marketing, at the cost of a few dubious employees and a well-known Fortune 500 client. The successful pivot confirmed Brian’s belief that it’s possible to over-commit to one solution, when in fact there may be bigger and better problems to solve. “I’ve just seen so many entrepreneurs spend years of their life building something being stuck with it,” he says, “and then trying to figure out how to fit it into something that doesn’t work.” 

In this episode, Brian and Joubin discuss zero to one building, the problem with how entrepreneurs solve problems, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Matt Mochary, Tom Mendoza, transactional relationships, the dangers of ego, optimists and realists, best man speeches, defining a unique culture, reverse selling, Lunar Holdings, Peter Reinhardt, marketing conservatively, and business book sales.

In this episode, we cover:

• New York vs LA (00:54)
• How Brian feels, six months after stepping away from the CEO role (02:37)
• Product-market fit and TAM modeling (06:07)
  Build last (09:05)
• The qualities of great entrepreneurs (13:24)
• Tap Commerce and starting in sales (15:49)
• Listening and remembering names (20:40)
• The day after selling Tap Commerce (23:32)
• Starting another company, Attentive (25:07)
• Resilience and optimism (29:21)
• Fear, doubt, and the worst-case outcome (32:50)
• What Brian would tell his 29 year old self (37:13)
• Hiring and pivoting at Attentive (41:17)
• Text message marketing (45:49)
• How Brian interviews people (50:12)
• His new holding company, Lunar and its first startup (51:52)
• Don’t go social (55:21)
• What Brian is personally excited about and what “grit” means to him (01:01:57)

Links:

• Connect with Brian
  • LinkedIn
  • Buy Brian’s book, Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm