Grit

#206 CEO & Founder Rivian, RJ Scaringe: Electrified


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Guest: RJ Scaringe, CEO and Founder of Rivian

“I’m very comfortable with things not being in their end state,” says Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe. The company’s challenging mission — to help make 100% of the world’s cars electric — will take a long time, and a lot of willingness to build the metaphorical plane in midair. 

As Rivian has grown from one person to seven to 17,000, though, RJ admits that there’s a lot more pressure to not screw up. “There’s all these conflicting emotions I had ... is this the right product?” he recalls. “Is it the right strategy? Am I capable of doing this? But at the end of the day, I try really hard not to let that be overly distracting.”


Chapters:

  • (01:58) - Starting from scratch
  • (05:35) - Auto tech innovation
  • (08:03) - The supply chain
  • (09:52) - Rivian’s deal with Volkswagen
  • (14:28) - Outsourcing
  • (16:10) - Capable EVs
  • (19:06) - Brand and customer satisfaction
  • (21:05) - That nagging feeling
  • (27:26) - Raising capital
  • (31:31) - RJ’s father
  • (32:35) - The dark side of cars
  • (34:43) - Tesla’s influence
  • (37:13) - Financial challenges
  • (42:38) - Entrepreneurial mindset
  • (44:59) - Hard decisions
  • (46:46) - Don’t screw this up
  • (49:56) - 25,000 decisions a day
  • (52:16) - Daily routines
  • (54:57) - Who Rivian is hiring
  • (55:34) - What “grit” means to RJ

  • Mentioned in this episode: Porsche, Alex Honnold, Amazon AWS, Mercedes, Elon Musk, Lotus, U.S. News and World Report, MotorTrend, J.D. Power, Ford, Blue Origin, SpaceX, MIT, Jeff Bezos, and the Tesla Roadster.


    Links:

    Connect with RJ

    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn

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    Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

    This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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