Grit

In this recap episode, we highlight the best moments from our 2025 interviews and reflect on the ideas that defined the year.

Featuring:

David Rubenstein (co-founder of Carlyle)
Yamini Rangan (CEO of HubSpot)
Ben Chestnut (co-founder of Mailchimp)
Winston Weinberg (co-founder and CEO of Harvey)
Garrett Lord (co-founder of Handshake)
Aidan Gomez (co-founder and CEO of Cohere)
Michelle Zatlyn (co-founder of Cloudflare)
Evan Spiegel (co-founder and CEO of Snap)

Connect with Joubin
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​Learn more about Kleiner Perkins: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/

What happens when AI becomes your most influential referrer?

As consumers turn to ChatGPT for answers, James Cadwallader and his team at Profound help brands like Eight Sleep and MongoDB gain visibility and leverage inside AI models.

On this episode of Grit, he explains why brand narrative has shifted away from content, and why Profound is scaling globally ahead of traditional SaaS timelines.

Guest: James Cadwallader, co-founder and CEO of Profound and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins

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​Learn more about Kleiner Perkins: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/

Turning down a $3B offer from Facebook is a bold move for any young CEO.

Evan Spiegel shares how Snap’s early dream was to stay independent and give its community an authentic voice, a bet that proved right.

He also explains why they are now doubling down on AR glasses and why the anxiety around AI deserves far more attention from tech leaders.

Guest: Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. and Bing Gordon, Advisor at Kleiner Perkins

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Email: [email protected]

​Learn more about Kleiner Perkins:https://www.kleinerperkins.com/ 

What does it take to go from advising founders to becoming one?

On this week’s special Reverse Grit episode, we flip the script and put our Grit podcast host Joubin Mirzadegan in the guest seat.

Joubin recently founded Roadrunner, where he is now co-founder & CEO. Roadrunner is building an AI‑native CPQ to modernize the quote‑to‑cash stack, drawing on years of conversations he’s had with enterprise revenue leaders.

Stepping into the host role, Mamoon Hamid joins Joubin to talk about his transition from sales leader to founder, how Roadrunner came together, and why it became our first incubation since Glean.

Roadrunner is hiring! Check them out: https://www.roadrunner.ai/

Guest: Joubin Mirzadegan, Partner, Kleiner Perkins

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Fifteen years in, it can still feel like “we’re just getting started.”

Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder of Cloudflare, returns to Grit with Joubin Mirzadegan to share how Cloudflare secures the internet for millions, with a vision built to last generations.

She also shares why staying close to reality and to customers becomes harder as success compounds, and how Cloudflare is helping content creators regain control in an AI driven internet.

Guest: Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder and President of Cloudflare

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Screens have pulled families apart.

Brynn Putnam set out to bring them back together with Board, the world’s ‘first face-to-face game console.’

On Grit, she tells Joubin Mirzadegan how every venture she’s built, including Mirror, started as a personal need, and how her true edge is the ability to strip an idea down to what actually matters.

Guest: Brynn Putnam, founder and CEO of Board

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How do companies like Salesforce and Dell scale intelligence across every cloud?

Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, explains how they’re building AI that works across all enterprise systems and deploys anywhere, giving companies true flexibility and security.

He joins Joubin Mirzadegan for a wide-ranging conversation on why synthetic data went from dismissed to indispensable, and how the race among AI labs is really unfolding.

Guest: Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere

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The hardest company to build is the one you start after you’ve already succeeded.

After scaling Yext into a platform powering millions of businesses, Howard Lerman chose to start over with Roam, the “Office of the Future,” where humans and AI work side by side from anywhere.

On Grit, he joins Joubin Mirzadegan to talk about the solitude of leadership and what happens when you stop building for Wall Street.

Guest: Howard Lerman, co-founder and former CEO of Yext, and founder and CEO of Roam

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The hardest part of transformation is knowing what to let go of.

Dan O’Connell, now leading Front as CEO and formerly on the board at Dialpad, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to explore the delicate balance between legacy and innovation as he leads a decade old company through the AI revolution.

He also reflects on why courage and control can coexist in leadership, and what it means to “make decisions that give you energy.”

Guest: Dan O’Connell, CEO of Front

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Before AI became a buzzword, a few true believers were already building.

Since early 2022, Mati Staniszewski and his team at ElevenLabs have been among them, working to create voices that “actually represent emotions.”

He shares with Joubin Mirzadegan how voice AI is transforming diverse fields, from delivering personalized healthcare for different age groups to amplifying creativity in filmmaking.

Guest: Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs

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