Des Traynor is the co-founder of Intercom. In this episode we get deep into the weeds of startup land. We discuss product market fit, advice to entrepreneurs, hiring, firing, productivity, and a lot more. Des is one of the best growth and product founders in the game, and drops gems in this episode. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @destraynor Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Emmet Shear is the CEO and Co-Founder of Twitch.tv and a partner at YCombinator. We talk about the story of Twitch.tv -- and how it evolved from Justin.TV -- how he became a YC Partner, and then we have a broader talk about capitalism, social inequality, and how technology can reduce it. Edited by @AlexKontis Lavish Praise to @eshear Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Alysia Harris is a world renowned spoken word poet. This episode we talk about the the craft of poetry -- how Alysia writes poems, how she advises others who want to write poems -- We talk about the economics of poetry -- how Alysia merges art & business and the tensions therein -- we talk about the artist’s role in society, and then, for good measure, we sprinkle some talk about religion, metaphysics, diversity and much more. Edited by @Alexkontis Lavish Praise to @poppyinthewheat, @libashton Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Cal Newport is a computer scientist, professor, and author of five books. In this episode we explore his book "Get So Good They Can’t Ignore You" which talks about the importance of mastery, and the follies of blind pursuing your passion. We also talk about his new book. Deep Work, which comes out today, January 5th. His book explores the concept of deliberate practice and shares strategies for how to construct an environment where one can perform deliberate practice consistently. Edited by @AlexKontis Praise to Calnewport.com/blog Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg Check out Deep Work below. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692

Jeff Atwood is a prominent entrepreneur and developer, having founded Stack Exchange and, more recently, Discourse. In this episode we get deep into the weeds on community building - Jeff's one of the best in the game. Edited by @Alexkontis Lavish Praise to @codinghorror Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Kanyi Maqbuela is a partner at Collaborative Fund. In this episode, we discuss Kanyi’s personal story going from Stanford drop out to VC, how he’s navigated failures, built mentor relationships, and we also go broad: We talk about tech and the intersection of education, academia, non-profit, government, culture, philosophy, and much more. Edited by @Alexkontis Praise to @Km Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Arielle Zuckerberg is a former Product Manager at Humin and Wildfire, and a new partner at Kleiner Perkins. We talk about the transition from product manager to angel investor to working at Kleiner, how her life has changed due to her last name (Zuckerberg), her senior thesis on the morality of artificial intelligence, and much more

Chris Sacca is one of the most successful angel investors of all time. He's invested in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and Kickstarter, among many others. Before that he led special projects at Google and worked as a lawyer at Fenwick. He shares what it was like working with Larry & Sergey at Google, working with Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey as one of the first investors in twitter, becoming a guest shark on Shark Tank, interviewing Edward Snowden, and asking President Obama the tough questions while working with him in his two campaigns. edited by Alex Kontis praise to @sacca criticism to @eriktorenberg

Ryan Leslie is one of the most interesting rappers and artists in the music industry. He graduated from Harvard at age 20, has grammy nominated songs, including one with Kanye West, and recently created the Super Phone, which is backed by Ben Horowitz, Betaworks and others. We talk about Ryan's story coming up in the rap game and the tech game, the future of the music industry, how he thinks about building his audience, and much more. Edited by Alex Kontis Praise to @ryanleslie Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Tracy Chou has been a super early employee at Pinterest and Quora and has become one of the most respected voices in the diversity in tech conversation, both in terms of gender and in terms of race, We talk about 1) her experiences being both a women in tech and asian in tech, 2) what’s it meant for Tracy to become a public figure, 3) how she evaluates who she spends her time with and why, 4) having a social impact beyond tech and more. Edited by @Alexkontis Praise to @triketora Criticism to @eriktorenberg