This one is for you really, really early-stage founders. Fifth-grader Adi Garg interviews his dad about startups and venture capital and chocolate.

Two-time founder/CEO, and Berkeley computer science professor, Ion Stoica chats with Ashu about what it means to have an impact and how to go from academic to entrepreneur.

Sudheesh Nair and Ajeet Singh discuss the tricky process of handing off the CEO baton. They also go deep on how to build a world-class sales organization.

Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, puts people and relationships at the forefront of her business strategy. In this episode of the podcast, she tells me what she’s learned as a two-time CEO and how important it is to create a good company culture with diverse talent.

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Jennifer Tejada joins PagerDuty

https://www.pagerduty.com/newsroom/pagerduty-appoints-saas-industry-veteran-jennifer-tejada-as-ceo/

PagerDuty’s IPO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/04/11/pagerdutys-ipo-values-it-at-18-billion--heres-why-it-had-doubters-early-on/#492fc12632b3

Jennifer rings the NYSE opening bell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtRKFLOHXuU

Inclusivity as good business strategy

https://www.inc.com/ryan-jenkins/here-are-benefits-of-inclusion-how-to-create-an-inclusive-culture.html

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity

Kevin Johnson led two companies in very different stages of growth. Here’s how he did it and what he looks for in new hires.

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Ratuken buys Ebates

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ebates-m-a-rakuten/rakuten-says-to-buy-u-s-rebate-site-operator-ebates-for-1-billion-idUSKBN0H40JM20140909

Kevin Johnson becomes CEO of Udemy

https://about.udemy.com/press-releases/udemy-board-appoints-kevin-h-johnson-as-new-ceo/

Managing through influence

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/how-to-lead-with-influence-instead-of-authority

Two-time founder Mohit Aron tells me how blueprints and checklists can guide your startup in its earliest stages.

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Mohit goes into more detail about his entry point framework

https://rajeshsetty.com/2017/06/29/mohit-aron-evaluating-ideas/

Cohesity is on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/14/cohesity-2019-disruptor-50.html

More about Geoffrey Moore, creator of the “technology adoption life cycle”:

http://www.geoffreyamoore.com/

Burton Goldfield tells me his CEO strategy: know the results you want and build your company towards achieving them.

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TriNet goes public

https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/27/san-leandro-trinet-ipo-gives-east-bay-a-new-1-billion-company/

Aaron tells me how to scale your company while maintaining its culture and the benefits of going public.

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More about Andy Grove’s 10X theory

https://thekeypoint.org/2018/03/19/only-the-paranoid-survive/

Aaron talks more about maintaining company culture while scaling

https://firstround.com/review/Aaron-Levie-on-How-to-Scale-10x-as-a-CEO-Built-a-Billion-Dollar-Business/

A Box employee makes his mom proud

https://blog.box.com/make-moms-proud

Box finally goes public

https://money.cnn.com/2015/01/23/investing/box-ipo-tech-stocks/index.html

Dorm room startup co-founder Aaron Levie tells me how he made the decision to pivot Box from a consumer product to an enterprise solution.

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Getting Mark Cuban

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-cold-email-brought-mark-cuban-to-box-11554474601

Aaron’s 2006 email to an investor about the need to pivot

https://www.fastcompany.com/1787627/starred-how-box-cofounder-aaron-levie-enticed-vcs-mark-cuban-battle-microsoft-google

Aaron talks to Harvard Business Review about Box’s pivot to enterprise

https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/12/boxs-ceo-on-pivoting-to-the-enterprise-market.html

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan tells me why and how happiness is an essential part of his multi-billion-dollar company.

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Glassdoor names Zoom the best tech company to work for in 2019

https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/best-tech-companies-2019/

… and the second best company to work for overall

https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm

Zoom’s first customer

https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2013/08/15/stanford-continuing-studies-takes-education-online-with-zoom-video-conferencing/

Yes, there really is a happiness crew

https://www.builtincolorado.com/2018/07/27/spotlight-working-at-zoom-video-communications-culture

Zoom goes public, happiness (and stock prices) increase

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/zoom-video-rockets-to-nosebleed-valuation-after-ipo-but-ceo-says-he-is-comfortable-with-it-2019-04-18