Grit

Archana Agrawal started her job as CMO of Airtable on March 18, 2020 — the same week that the US began to “shelter in place” as cases of the novel coronavirus rapidly rose. With kids who would be staying home from school and Airtable’s San Francisco office closed, everything was changing at once, so she switched into what she calls “problem-solving mode.” And, crucially, she discovered how to use family time to de-stress.

In this episode, Archana and Joubin discuss how she made her way from Africa to Asia to America; operating without a full night’s sleep; why her former coworkers made a game of trying to stump her; the secret power under the hood of Airtable; starting her current job right as “shelter in place” kicked in; whether she would stay at Airtable if the founder was no longer CEO; and how she views her responsibility on the boards of MongoDB and Zendesk.

In this episode, we cover:

• Staying in place & doubling down vs. moving on to bigger things (03:03)
• Moving from Liberia to India to escape civil war (07:13)
• Archana’s unusual grad school roommate: Her father (11:33)
• The value of breadth over depth, and following your passions (17:35)
• Cold-emailing her way into a job at Atlassian and the ridiculous job title Archana almost received (21:38)
• Understanding a team’s strengths and weaknesses — and her own (27:05)
• Her lowest point at Atlassian, the sale of HipChat and exit from the messaging business (34:33)
• Why it matters that Airtable looks like a spreadsheet, but is powered by a relational database (37:52)
• Going into “problem-solving mode,” and the most important outlet for escaping from stress (42:42)
• Working for founder-led companies (49:53)
• Being heard as a quiet person on advisory boards full of louder people (55:27)

Links:

• Connect with Archana
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [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

As the CMO for Square, Lauren Weinberg spends a lot of her time talking to new and inexperienced small business owners — and she knows that each of them has wisdom that the others could benefit from. So, Lauren and her former colleague Jackie Reses wrote a book pooling all that wisdom into one place, Self-Made Boss: Advice, Hacks, and Lessons From Small Business Owners

In this episode, Lauren and Joubin discuss why Lauren never leaves home without sneakers post-9/11; how she maintains discipline in her schedule, and how her priorities have changed over the years; how Lauren overcame three back-to-back challenges in her personal life; why she took a job at Square — after initially turning them down; and the importance of competition for any business.

In this episode, we cover:

• Weekend date nights and the best restaurants in New York City (10:04)
• How Lauren creates her own time and recharges (15:15)
• Moving to California to work at Yahoo, and finding a new community (19:32)
• “The worst year of my life” and going into “survival mode” (22:52)
• The difference between Square and its newly re-christened parent company, Block (30:22)
• Why our culture is galvanized by small business stories (36:05)
• What inspired Lauren and Jackie to write “Self-Made Boss,” and the surprising parts of publishing a book (39:52)
• Why Lauren includes sad or funny personal stories in every marketing email (42:26)
• Square’s secret superpower in the company’s early days (49:27)
• The planning “manifesto” Lauren sent to Square’s executive team shortly after joining (53:31)
• How Square “earns the right” to show up for social causes (56:50)

Links:

• Connect with Lauren
  • 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

Handshake CEO and co-founder Garrett Lord was amazed when he first learned that Silicon Valley firms like Google recruited on college campuses ... just not his, Michigan Technical University. But after excelling in the competitive Palantir internship program, he started asking himself, “How come they can’t reach us?” That question led him to found the job placement platform Handshake, which has raised $434 million in funding and is used by 100 percent of the Fortune 500.

In this episode, Garrett and Joubin discuss growing up in an “achievement-focused household”; how Garrett went from struggling to be noticed by Palantir’s recruiters to Handshake CEO; how his $1 billion-plus-valued company started with a broken-down Jeep; working without a safety net; why Garrett has changed his mind about hustle culture; “fortune favors the bold” and “no shave til you raise”; the relief of raising VC funding; how money condenses or extends time; and transitioning from scrappy to scaled CEO.

In this episode, we cover:

• The impostor syndrome — and crucial epiphany — that Garrett had while interning at Palantir (05:46)
• Starting the IT Oxygen club, and Trojan Horsing other college recruiters in Michigan (11:34)
• Does having a chip on your shoulder make you more powerful? (17:08)
• Living in the car, sleeping in McDonald’s parking lots, and showering at university pools (22:25)
• Hard work and the importance of luck to Handshake’s success (27:08)
• The difficult VC fundraising process, and finding a crucial ally: Former assistant dean of the Stanford GSB Andy Chan (30:55)
• Handshake’s first office: A Palo Alto mansion owned by one of LinkedIn’s co-founders (37:55)
• Growing fast and hiring a COO, Jonathan Stull (41:45)
• Is Handshake the next LinkedIn? “Why not LinkedIn plus Indeed?” (47:16)

Links:

• Connect with Garrett
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [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

ThoughtSpot CMO Scott Holden spent eight years at Salesforce, putting in the time every year behind the scenes at Dreamforce watching the company reach 20,000 employees. And he probably could have thrown his hat into the ring to be CMO there — but he didn’t want that. Instead, he says, “I had the hunger to go back and build something” with a strong mission and vision, so he left for a much, much smaller company: The business intelligence company ThoughtSpot, where he has worked since 2015. 

In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss the rise of “vulnerability is strength”; the dangers of living someone else’s truth and not listening to your instincts; the pressure of being at the top of a mountain; why he decided to move from Salesforce to ThoughtSpot; why enterprise marketing is about more than the story; and why competing companies haven’t been able to poach him away.

In this episode, we cover:

• Scott’s lifelong reputation of being graceful under pressure (04:45)
• Opportunity cost and trusting your gut (10:29)
• Which is harder to excel at: Downhill skiing or golf? (15:25)
• The “forcing function” of the Dreamforce deadline and Marc Benioff’s relentless ambition (22:41)
• Moving from a 20,000 person company to a 40-person one (28:44)
• Why Scott did not get the CMO title at ThoughtSpot right away, and the $0 quarter (35:10)
• Leading through a pandemic while also restructuring the company (40:36)
• Superheroes, proving your worth, and amazing women (48:00)

Links:

• Connect with Scott
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [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

Every year, ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck writes a memo to his executive team, which is made to look like a letter to the board of directors. Even though he founded DiscoverOrg — the company that bought and became ZoomInfo in 2019 — Henry pretends in the memo to be a new CEO who has just been hired to clean up the old guy’s mess. The reason, he explains, is simple: It gets everyone focused on the problems that have to be fixed.

In this episode, Henry and Joubin discuss the difference between wearing a hoodie and a suit; the nuances of Henry’s background that aren’t obvious from LinkedIn; how he has encouraged his employees and shown them (and their families) his appreciation; The CEO’s biggest fear: “Is this it?”; injecting tension in an organization; the gap between monetary and professional validation; ZoomInfo’s COVID IPO; and why the work of a founder-CEO is not supposed to be fun.

In this episode, we cover:

• Being emotionally vulnerable as a leader, and the limits of Henry’s openness (02:46)
• What his single immigrant mother taught him about hard work (08:54)
• The competitor to which Henry tried to sell DiscoverOrg — before beating and buying them instead (16:10)
• The relief of taking ZoomInfo public after years of making promises to employees (19:42)
• Getting passed over by venture capitalists, and why Henry sold half of the business to a private equity firm (27:40)
• Learning how to work with a board of directors, and Henry’s overwhelming desire to not lose (32:11)
• The “existential threat” to the business that gave Henry a panic attack (41:27)
• Going public during the darkest days of COVID (48:34)
• Why Henry writes a memo to his executive team every year, pretending to be a new CEO (55:29)
• Being happy, present, and maintaining discipline between work and personal life (58:31)

Links:

• Connect with Henry
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [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

Jaimie Buss, CRO of the e-learning platform Articulate, had an epiphany several years ago. While trying to simultaneously give her toddler a bath and catch up on work emails, some water splashed on her computer. After initially snapping at her son, she realized the importance of being “unapologetically present” with not only her family at home but her colleagues at work. Since this experience, she has drawn clear boundaries between the two.

In this episode, Jaimie and Joubin talk about the leadership lesson she learned from her father; her discipline in all things, including Peloton workouts; her secret weapons of hard work and preparation; what Jaimie learned from some short stints at startups after already having career success; what she learned from three years in venture capital, and everything that changed in her time away; what it means to be “unapologetically present,” at home and at work; and Jaimie’s return to startups, first at Zendesk and now at Articulate.

In this episode, we cover:

• The difference between a poorly-run coffee shop an a well-run one (03:35)
• Why you should acknowledge your team’s day-to-day accomplishments (07:26)
• Focusing on single tasks and how Jaimie manages her routine (09:52)
• The downshift from rapid growth at VMWare to rocky stints at Coverity and Meraki (20:43)
• Why she put her operating career on pause to go work for Andreessen Horowitz (28:10)
• There’s no easy, just “different kinds of hard” (38:10)
• Why Jaimie went back to startups with Zendesk, where she stayed for more than five years (44:00)
• Why she joined Articulate, making incremental improvements rather than extreme changes (51:04)
• The most important questions Jaimie and Articulate’s execs asked each other in the interview process (57:30)

Links:

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

George Felix, now the CMO of Tinder, was marketing Old Spice body wash at a time when the brand was circling the drain. His team at Procter & Gamble almost let their big break slip away when initially passing on the “Hello ladies” campaign - an ad that would later go viral on Facebook and YouTube. George recalls how the agency pitching the idea stood their ground and pressed on with conviction, an experience that taught him a lot about trusting your gut and standing up for what you believe in.

In this episode, George and Joubin talk about his close relationship with his father, who passed away in 2006; the unusual way he, as an intern at Procter & Gamble, started a lifelong friendship with his then-boss Kevin Hochman; behind-the-scenes stories making ads for Old Spice and KFC; and the unusual truth about Tinder’s brand that attracted George to the company last year.

In this episode, we cover:

• George’s education-focused Indian-American parents, and how they wound up in Toledo, Ohio (05:52)
• If they could talk one more time, what would he ask his late father? (12:17)
• What startups can learn about brand-building from older firms like Procter & Gamble (16:28)
• How not having a real desk at P&G helped George network with his colleagues (20:30)
• Executing the Old Spice “smell like a man” campaign — and the award-winning TV ad that completely revitalized the brand (25:10)
• The crippling fear of ambiguity, and the importance of being “a little uncomfortable” (33:35)
• Reviving KFC’s brand with another viral ad, starring Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders (37:58)
• Why George went to Tinder, and the potential he saw to reshape its brand (44:02)
• Spontaneity in dating, and overcoming the stigma against meeting people online (47:29)
• The “Tinder Swindler” and why Tinder isn’t just one thing (52:55)

Links:

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

Global Sales VP at Hopin Javier Ortega Estrada’s father is a counter-terrorism official in the Spanish army — teaching him at a young age that having a bigger purpose can drive you to do great things. And over the course of his entrepreneurial career, Javi has found his own special purposes, helping companies like Dropbox and, now, the buzzy experience platform Hopin grow at a blistering pace and deliver value to their customers.

In this episode, Javi and Joubin talk about uprooting his life (after his first startup failed) to work for Dropbox in Ireland; his seven-year stint there, which started with a Facebook ad and ended with a four-hour stakeout in a client’s office; why he decided it was time to move on to a smaller company with a lot left to prove; how he strikes a balance between his natural optimism and the need to grow Hopin as a business; and why the number one priority for him in any business is smart hiring.

In this episode, we cover:

• Spanish surnames and Javi’s passion for cooking paella (03:55)
• What it means to be an “optimist by nature” and rebounding from failure (08:19)
• Why Javi prefers to work with companies that haven’t “figured it out yet” (11:40)
• The huge deal he closed for Dropbox right after Christmas, by going on a surprise stakeout (19:25)
• Working for a bigger purpose, and the challenges of working at Dropbox (22:54)
• How Javi knew it was time to move on (27:08)
• Working at “Hopin speed” and finding balance when everything feels urgent (34:03)
• Self-reflection and what it feels like to be in a skyrocketing startup (42:25)
• The importance of focusing on talent during a time of hyper-growth (45:30)

Links:

• Connect with Javi
  • 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 Confluent’s President of Field Ops Erica Schultz was 23, she was working at Oracle and cold-emailed the manager of the Argentina office, asking to work for him. This experience would open the door to opportunities in Buenos Aires and Miami, a time in Erica’s life she does not take for granted. As a leader today, she hopes to pass on this sentiment, constantly looking for individuals worth taking a chance on: “As I look around my organization, I think, OK, who’s the undiscovered not-yet-fully-realized talent that we should think about for this role?”

In this episode, Erica and Joubin talk about why Buenos Aires, Argentina is the best city in the world; the lessons she learned from her father and what changed for her after he died of a rare form of cancer at age 54; her stints at Oracle, LivePerson, and New Relic; the importance of earning responsibility as you advance in your career; staying both humble and paranoid; and the importance of what Confluent is doing in the ever-changing digital infrastructure business.

In this episode, we cover:

• The incredible influence of Erica’s namesake, her father, who passed away as her career was taking off (09:28)
• “The impact we leave is the impact we have on people” (15:21)
• How Erica became the captain of the Dartmouth rowing team after being cut from the swim team (18:03)
• Developing leaders from within a high-growth organization, and earning responsibility (31:36)
• Why Erica left a CRO role at LivePerson to work for the CRO of New Relic (37:03)
• Why she had her team at New Relic read “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, and loves the story of runner Roger Bannister (41:34)
• Being humbled by a changing competitive landscape, and the transformation of the digital infrastructure world (44:17)
• Real-time data and why both businesses and consumers increasingly need companies like Confluent (49:19)
• What Erica thought when she first met Confluent’s founder CEO Jay Kreps (56:03)
• How to transition from operator to executive to board member (59:14)

Links:

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

Ryan Azus, CRO of Zoom, has been selling all his life, from baseball cards as a kid to ads in the school newspaper to — crucially — books every summer in college. Every year, he and and thousands of other young people would be dispersed around the country to sell books door-to-door as part of an entrepreneurial program called Southwestern Advantage. That experience taught him valuable lessons about his own strengths and weaknesses as a salesperson, the diversity of people’s needs, and the joys of hard-earned time off.

In this episode, Ryan and Joubin talk about the silver lining of growing up with divorced parents; what Ryan learned from his epic first job as a book salesman; how he talked his way into a job at WebEx after being screened by HR; the big thing a lot of people on the outside get wrong about working at a successful fast-growing company; joining Zoom in August 2019, right before COVID changed everything; what it feels like when your job is to keep the world connected; and why success is not created in a “sunny meadow.”

In this episode, we cover:

• The biggest difference between Ryan’s childhood and that of his own kids (04:18)
• Why selling books every summer in college was a lucrative, life-changing adventure (10:45)
• Where his competitiveness comes from, and being a “student of business” (22:01)
• The early days of teleconferencing at WebEx, and how Ryan started working there (27:17)
• Building RingCentral from zero to a billion-dollar run rate, and being a “headquarters person” (33:54)
• “Falling forward” and the myth of instant success in business (39:00)
• Zoom fatigue and virtual backgrounds (44:37)
• Keeping up with the explosive growth in demand for Zoom, and the intense pressure of the job (48:23)
• The most important traits Ryan looks for when hiring (55:05)
• Zoom’s stock price and the “belief barrier” (01:00:05)

Links:

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