Grit

Canva CMO Zach Kitschke was the company’s fifth employee, joining right before the product launched to the public — or, that was the plan anyway. Emerging technologies like HTML5 and negative feedback from early testers delayed the debut of the design startup, but in the 10 years since its launch Canva has become one of the most successful companies to ever come out of Australia. “One of our values is to set crazy big goals and make them happen,” Zach says.

In this episode, Zach and Joubin discuss Zach’s first job in small-town bureaucracy, how he got introduced to Canva before the company was hiring anyone, helping teammates achieve their potential, “culture carriers,” the pressure of comparing your companies to others, Canva’s “underwhelming” launch night and finding product-market fit, the four pillars of success in Canva’s culture, localization as a growth strategy, predictable anxiety, the hypergrowth gap, and “the two-step plan.”

In this episode, we cover:

• What Canva does, and where the idea came from (08:08)
• Zach’s first impressions of Canva co-founders Mel Perkins and Cliff Obrecht (12:49)
• Making bets on unproven people in an organization (16:41)
• Setting “crazy big goals” and readying Canva v1 for launch (21:17)
• The pre-launch inferiority complex  (27:30)
• An important cold email from the Huffington Post (33:59)
• Wearing many hats in a startup and building company culture (36:17)
• Learning on the job and managing a hypergrowth company (45:23)
• How does Canva’s growth compare to what Zach expected? (51:09)
• Canva’s unique approach to work-life balance, and Mel and Cliff’s philanthropic “two-step plan” (59:23)

Links:

• Connect with Zach
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, the first Indian SaaS company to be listed in NASDAQ — and when he’s in his home country, he gets the celebrity treatment. Freshworks’ 2021 IPO was a milestone for the country’s tech sector, and Mathrubootham has also attracted a “take a selfie with me!” level of fame for trying to change the conversation about entrepreneurship there. “You can be successful in business without doing bad things,” he says. “Being a good person and winning is not mutually exclusive.”

In this episode, Girish and Joubin discuss the silver lining of COVID lockdown; learning how to make mistakes and fight for what you want; why Girish started Freshworks after finding success at Zoho;  the challenges of starting a small business in Chennai in the early 2010s; the “modern jail” of being a CEO; immediate job offers; “Indian cowboys”; why multi-product startups should hire in India; why moving to the US was like competing in the Olympics; and why the IPO is not the endgame.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in a “tier-two town” and social norms in India (06:03)
• Why entrepreneurial people don’t always fit in at big companies (13:00)
• Being a celebrity businessman in India, breaking up biases, and the pressure of being an idol (20:49)
• 500 crorepatis and generating wealth for employees (24:27)
• Why Girish started Freshworks, originally known as Freshdesk (28:09)
• Keeping up morale & being scrappy when Freshworks didn’t have much funding (36:35)
• Nostalgia for the early days and the luxury of time (39:44)
• “Ripoff or not” and doing battle with a respected analyst (45:29)
• Growing from one product to many, and the support needed to do that (49:58)
• Deciding to build a billion-dollar company, and moving from India to the US (58:43)
• Why Girish has re-committed himself to Freshworks for at least seven more years (01:04:24)
• Finding happiness in small things and not letting others control your feelings (01:07:57)

Links:

• Connect with Girish
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Riot Games CMO Jason Bunge knows you might roll your eyes when he says this, but he doesn’t care, because it’s the truth: Marketing doesn’t get enough respect. Although many companies have convinced themselves that they don’t need a traditional marketing division, they’re very wrong. “If you care about your brand [and] you care about your customer,” he says, “you need great marketing. And you need actually great marketers to tell you what that is.”

In this episode, Jason and Joubin discuss learning to be confident, why Jason left EA for Riot Games mid-pandemic, what he got out of business school, the stability of working at a big company like Microsoft, the best video game console, League of Legends vs. soccer, producing live eSports events, the craft of marketing and the brands that really “get it,” the crypto messaging problem, the Marvel playbook, and self-determination theory. 

In this episode, we cover:

• Jason’s childhood as a “military brat” and a “chameleon” (02:07)
• Taking risks and accepting change as an inevitability (06:35)
• Two big lessons he learned at Saatchi & Saatchi (11:56)
• Two risks that didn’t pan out: Working at Skype and Trulia (17:00)
• Riot Games’ founding and its expansion into eSports and TV (23:30)
• The global gaming audience and the power of live events (26:54)
• Why passion is more important than growing the audience (32:31)
• Being owned by Tencent and giving equity back to workers (37:28)
• How Jason has defined — and defended — his role as Riot’s first CMO (40:10)
• Web3 and NFTs in gaming, and the problem with the metaverse (46:48)
• Phones, PCs, and the form factor of gaming (53:35)
• The Netflix series Arcane and expanding the stories of League of Legends characters (56:38)

Links:

• Connect with Jason
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Before Peter Reinhardt started his current company, Charm Industrial, he was the CEO and co-founder of the customer data platform Segment, which almost died in its first year. Why? He was afraid to ask customers to pay more than $10 per month for it. A savvy sales advisor pressured him to raise the price by 1000x, which worked wonders. By early 2022, Segment — now owned by Twilio — was commanding seven-figure contracts.

In this episode, Peter and Joubin discuss the hierarchy of majors at MIT, building telescope arrays, the disastrous first demo of Segment, why founders sometimes forget to eat, the problem with the straight-A student mentality, playing ping-pong with the security guard, evaluating a potential acquisition partner, shedding anti-sales bias, the shortcomings of nature-based carbon offsets, and starting a “reverse oil company.”

In this episode, we cover:

• The thing that makes Peter happiest: Solving all kinds of problems, from accounting to noise to carbon dioxide (08:50)
• How leading a startup has narrowed his emotional band (13:58)
• “Freewheeling curiosity” and the breakthrough idea that led to Charm Industrial’s existence (15:47)
• Segment’s origins as a classroom lecture tool and an analytics tool (19:18)
• The disagreement that almost broke up Segment’s founding team, and unlocked the company’s potential (26:36)
• “You have to raise your price by a factor of a thousand” (31:31)
• The packaging issue that nearly derailed Segment’s growth, and Peter’s initial problematic mindset (35:15)
• Why Peter sold Segment to Twilio: “All that matters is what the customers are telling you” (43:32)
• Why great sales looks like great problem solving (47:41)
• Being vulnerable and honest about hard things (53:19)
• The power of Charm Industrial’s mission & finding a better carbon capture solution (57:15)
• The “massive profit engine” that needs to turn over to avert climate disaster (01:03:35)

Links:

• Connect with Peter
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Clari CEO Andy Byrne says he never wants to look back and see that he put more into his work than his family. But that doesn’t mean he can’t learn a thing or two from running a 600-person multi-billion dollar business: Inspired by business books, he and his wife Julie set goals, methods and OKRs for their family, and even asked their kids to grade them on how well they were hitting their targets. “I feel like our job is to help our families realize their fullest potential first, and then work is second,” Andy says.

In this episode, Andy and Joubin discuss buying homes in San Francisco; leading a company when you have tragedy in your personal life; Man’s Search For Meaning; internal vs. external expression; machine learning in enterprise; the “golden triangle” of reps, managers and execs; Andy’s legendarily effective board meetings; how constraints create opportunity; and the metrics of marriage.

In this episode, we cover:

• How luck makes you look smart (04:47)
• The “dark year” in Andy’s life and coping with negative stimulus (09:51)
• Reframing seemingly huge problems as moments in time (16:27)
• How Clari helps CEOs and CROs answer “the most important question in business” (22:45)
• Getting from product fit to go-to-market fit (27:14)
• Leading a 600-person company, and Andy’s fiduciary duty to their families (33:49)
• Actually, the CEO is not “the loneliest job in the world” (41:14)
• Managing through — and leaning into — a market downturn (45:00)
• Why Andy and his wife run their marriage like co-CEOs (49:24)
• Living your life with intention (56:00)

Links:

• Connect with Andy
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

In the early days of Okta, co-founder Frederic Kerrest was courting a 3,000-person company in Louisiana, which was considering Okta and one other vendor. When he learned who he was up against, he said, “We love competing with them ‘cause we beat them every time.” That arrogant boast lost him the deal, and taught him a humbling lesson: Your confidence is not superior to your customer’s needs.

In this episode, Frederic and Joubin discuss literally walking down memory lane in San Francisco, who his new book “Zero to IPO” is for, the value of time, the happiest nations on Earth, why Frederic prioritizes  writing personal thank-you notes, why it’s better to be lucky than good, pivoting to an upmarket strategy, the letdown of being at the top, the problem with “product-led growth” in enterprise, “sharpening the contradictions,” and staying present.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Frederic wrote “Zero to IPO,” and why he leads it with a story about failure (08:23)
• Entrepreneurship is a pie-eating contest (13:07)
• Frederic’s direct communication style and the dichotomy between time and money (15:19)
• His passion for hockey, and why he used to park his car around the corner (24:35)
• Getting thrown out of two Okta board meetings in a row (29:03)
• Surviving awful quarters and service outages (36:10)
• How Frederic’s arrogance lost him a huge early deal (42:20)
• Would he build a company from scratch all over again? (45:39)
• Why Frederic doesn’t take phone calls on the weekends and the “oxygen mask rule” (54:06)
• “Nothing happens until somebody sells something” (57:20)
• Is Frederic personally affected by Okta’s stock price? (01:02:09) 
• The key players who receive a “ball bearing award” at Okta (01:07:22)
• How taking on additional projects and working with a professional coach has extended Frederic’s time at Okta (01:11:48)

Links:

• Connect with Frederic
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

In April, a young girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Yakima, Wash., and later told police she was picked up by a stranger in a car. The case might have gone cold there, if Yakima hadn’t just installed Flock Safety cameras: The cameras were able to pinpoint a car matching the girl’s description, and picked up the alleged abductor outside an elementary school campus, says Flock CEO Garrett Langley, who says stories like this have validated his company’s mission of stopping crime in our communities.

In this episode, Garrett and Joubin discuss a “huge life hack” that Garrett recommends to every CEO with young kids, quarter-life crises and how to rediscover your purpose, the biggest problem in public safety, how Flock Safety is solving thousands of crimes every year, the politics of surveillance camera placement, how Flock cameras became a feature of political campaigns, and how the company almost went out of business before its Series B.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Garrett’s executive assistant is his mother (02:06)
• “I had no idea that people started companies” (13:07)
• Garrett’s quarter-life crisis after two great startup exits (16:59)
• How Flock Safety helps law enforcement make communities safer (23:49)
• Solving a child abduction in Washington state (27:27)
• Why Garrett and his co-founders started Flock (31:22)
• The impact of Flock cameras on communities that don’t trust the police (36:35)
• Political controversies and community engagement (39:18)
• Making cities safer and talent drain from local police departments (47:11)
• The challenges of fundraising for a police-tech startup in Atlanta (53:42)
• “Protect the whole community” (01:00:12)
• The public markets downturn (01:03:33)

Links:

• Connect with Garrett
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Leyla Seka has a clear idea of “what makes me great” as the COO of Ironclad: She’s incredibly direct with her team. Although many people are not comfortable with getting direct feedback, she says, “I can’t do my job if I can’t tell you what I’m seeing.” And in the end, she sees her job as one of seeking out the truth, to make her business better.

In this episode, Leyla and Joubin discuss developing peccadilloes as you get older, why a former boss told her “if you’re in a bad mood, don’t come to work,” what a COO actually does for her team, working through the first dotcom bust, why Leyla doesn’t think she’s better than anyone else, the long battle for equal pay, the “victim mindset” in the tech industry, empowering others who don’t have confidence in themselves, and why you can’t outwork every problem.

In this episode, we cover:

• Maintaining a positive attitude, and dealing with low-energy days (07:57)
• “The culture of the company is why you stay” (12:02)
• Overthinking things, good communication and letting go of anxieties (17:50)
• Leyla’s previous jobs and her parents’ unusual careers  (24:55)
• Keeping ego out of it and focusing on the “next best action” (31:10)
• Fighting for equal pay for women at Salesforce (39:19)
• The double-edged sword of innovation at Salesforce (49:19)
• How Leyla makes stars out of the underestimated people on her teams (55:40)
• Leaving Salesforce and starting Operator Collective (59:55)
• How she started working at Ironclad, and what the company does for customers (01:04:19)
• The biggest challenge Leyla has faced in her first six months at Ironclad (01:08:36)

Links:

• Connect with Leyla
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

When Alex Norstrom started working at Spotify in 2011, CEO Daniel Ek told him there were three goals: Growth, growth, and growth. But Alex — now the Chief Freemium Business Officer — argued that his team would be better motivated by an “impossible goal,” something like reaching 100 million users. To which Daniel replied: “Let’s do it. Your goal is to get us to 100 million users. Please begin.”

In this episode, Alex and Joubin convene at Spotify’s brand-new Stockholm studio to discuss his first job, the “shadow” mentorship program Alex runs, how Facebook changed everything for the gaming company King, thinking about the “bigger picture,” the tremendous effort happening behind the scenes before Spotify launched in each new country, “optimizing for surprises,” Joubin’s embarrassing Spotify playlists, why we’re still in the early innings of podcasting, Alex’s lowest point at Spotify, partnering with FC Barcelona, and culture as currency.

In this episode, we cover:

• The surprising lack of media coverage of Alex despite his prominence at Spotify (05:56) 
• Working at his mother’s Chinese restaurant and his relationship with food (12:21)
• The early “fiascos” in Alex’s career, and how he came to work at Candy Crush Saga creator King (18:01)
• How Spotify CEO Daniel Ek convinced Alex to work for him (25:38)
• Why Alex has tried to set “impossible goals” since his first day at Spotify (28:40)
• Why the freemium business model works (34:21)
• Spotify’s hardest and biggest market: The USA (38:39)
• Pivoting to a mobile-first strategy and the pricing trick that turned conversion numbers around (42:59)
• The invention of Discover Weekly, and Spotify’s deep bench of other features (51:21)
• How Spotify got interested in podcasts, and the decision to put them in the same app with music (57:50)
• The odd but crucial lesson Alex learned early in his career: Stay near the laughter (01:06:46)
• Being ubiquitous on many platforms, and the art of pitching big & partnering smart (01:09:05)
• The end of free growth on the internet, and the power of Spotify Wrapped (01:15:07)

Links:

• Connect with Alex
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Thrive CEO Arianna Huffington is best known for the pioneering online publication she founded, the Huffington Post, which she left in 2016. The experience of running the site awakened her to the most important problem she would tackle in her career: The intersecting crises of stress, burnout, poor sleep, and lack of focus, which Thrive teaches businesses how to manage.

In this episode, Arianna and Joubin discuss how she went from a poor family in Greece to president of the elite Cambridge Union debate society; what she learned from both her parents, and the big lessons she has tried to impart to her own daughters; the hardships she faced professionally and personally before starting the Huffington Post; how she fell in love with online media, and how running the Huffington Post awakened her to the burnout epidemic; how Thrive is changing the conversation around stress; and the need for resilience-plus and the “obnoxious roommate in your head.”

In this episode, we cover:

• Being present in every interaction is “one of the greatest gifts we can give each other” (02:23) 
• Arianna’s parents, and abundance as a function of your attitude to life (08:08)
• How she became the first foreign-born president of the Cambridge Union, which led to her first book (18:00)
• An “incredible gift”: Discovering at a young age that money and fame aren’t always fulfilling (25:12)
• Running in the California recall election against Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a digital media epiphany (31:10)
• Burning out en route to Huffington Post’s $300 million acquisition by AOL (36:53)
• Why Arianna launched a second startup in her 60s, and the mainstreaming of stress relief (41:35)
• The meaning of her 2022 word of the year, “resilience-plus” (48:22)
• How she has constantly re-invented herself, and metabolizing new experiences (55:04)

Links:

• Connect with Arianna
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email Thrive’s head of recruiting, Keith Pescosolido: [email protected]
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm