Grit

#195 CEO Salesforce AI, Clara Shih: Above the Clouds


Listen Later

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 Benioff

  • Links:

    • Connect with Clara
      • Twitter
      • LinkedIn
    • Connect with Joubin
    • Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
    • This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    GritBy Kleiner Perkins

    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9

    4.9

    191 ratings


    More shows like Grit

    View all
    This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

    This Week in Startups

    1,298 Listeners

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

    539 Listeners

    The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

    The a16z Show

    1,101 Listeners

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

    2,342 Listeners

    Founders by David Senra

    Founders

    2,196 Listeners

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast

    234 Listeners

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

    10,222 Listeners

    Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

    Dwarkesh Podcast

    555 Listeners

    ACQ2 by Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

    ACQ2 by Acquired

    296 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    141 Listeners

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

    458 Listeners

    AI + a16z by a16z

    AI + a16z

    33 Listeners

    TBPN by John Coogan & Jordi Hays

    TBPN

    141 Listeners

    Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

    Uncapped with Jack Altman

    41 Listeners

    Cheeky Pint by Stripe

    Cheeky Pint

    59 Listeners