The Founder's Playbook

Dr. Pantas Sutardja is founder, president and CEO of Latticework.

A legend in the storage industry, Dr. Sutardja has over 25 years of experience in the storage and semiconductor industry. He began his career at IBM Almaden Research Center where he developed the company’s first CMOS read channel chip. Dr. Sutardja and his brother would eventually team up to create Marvell Technology Group Limited in 1995, turning a startup into a publicly traded global leader in storage with several billion storage chips sold to date.

Now, Dr. Sutardja has turned his storage sights to the hybrid cloud with Latticework leading the development of hybrid cloud-edge solutions to meet consumer demand for more storage and bandwidth related to skyrocketing data and video usage. The company’s first product, Amber, is the first personal storage device that provides consumers with security and privacy not available in public offerings.

In his personal life, Dr. Sutardja is a noted philanthropist, establishing the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at UC Berkeley, and, with his wife, creating a private foundation with an initial focus on education and medical fields.

Dr. Sutardja holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from University of California, Berkeley.

On This Episode:

• Learn how to turn your hobby into a career.
• Pantas trajects the abnormal trajectory of his career from childhood onward.
• Discover the power of a challenge.
• Chris and Pantas define what it means to work hard.

Key Takeaways

1. Having a cushion when you start your first business is incredibly valuable.
2. When someone says, “you can’t do it” let that be a challenge.
3. Your team must have authentic confidence in themselves.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Management has to lead by example.”
• “Your culture is a summation of your behaviors.”

Tracy leads the people experience programs at Zenefits including employee engagement, compensation, benefits, learning and development, employee relations, talent acquisition, and employment branding. Prior to Zenefits, she held HR leadership roles at Genesys, MobiTV, Inc., and Organic Inc. Passionate about the impact of inclusive business cultures, she taught at San Francisco State University for over 10 years, where she demystified human resources management for newcomers to the field. Tracy holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Sonoma State University. Holding a bachelor’s degree in English from Sonoma State University, Tracy was also a member of the faculty at San Francisco State University where she demystified human resources management for newcomers to the field for over 10 years.

On This Episode:

• Learn how HR has changed due to the pandemic
• Discover the best ways to keep communication open when working remotely.
• Tracy explains what companies should look for in leaders.

Key Takeaways

1. Work is no longer about where you go, it’s what you do and who with.
2. How you incentivize people is important, be mindful of how you reward your team.
3. Hire people who have a predisposition to your values.

Tweetable:

• “Your either a builder, an optimizer, or a maintainer.”
• “Don’t just hire for the job, hire for the team.”

Blair Shane is currently Partner & CMO at Sequoia Capital where she leads a team focused on helping founders build legendary companies. Her experience makes her well suited to helping a partnership and portfolio made up of diverse, intelligent and driven individuals drive results. Prior to Sequoia, Blair was CMO & Associate Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she revitalized its marketing function. She joined Stanford from the California Academy of Sciences where, as CMO, she re-opened the museum in 2008 and launched new programs such as NightLife and variable pricing to rejuvenate attendance. Before that, Blair spent seven years at Charles Schwab where she was VP of marketing planning and integration. In whatever job she is in, Blair is passionate about creating new possibilities and getting what may be perceived as impossible done.

On This Episode:

• Learn the qualities that you should adopt to be successful.
• Discover how to take your product to market and ensure it's well-received.
• Chris and Blair define the difference between brand marketing and performance marketing.
• Blair describes her own evolution.

About Scot Chisholm:

Scot is the CEO & Co-Founder of Classy, a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising software for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate global social impact. Since 2011, thousands of nonprofits have collectively raised nearly two billion dollars on the Classy platform, tackling social and environmental issues of every kind. 

Scot co-founded Classy when one of the largest cancer organizations in the country refused to accept the money he raised during a fundraising pub crawl held to honor his mom, a two-time breast cancer survivor. Scot was inspired to start Classy to make it easier for anyone to support a cause that’s meaningful to them, while at the same time making it easier for organizations to make lasting connections with the next generation of supporters. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy has over 200 employees and has raised $40 million to-date in growth capital from prominent technology investors, including Mithril Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Hinge Capital and Bullpen Capital. Classy is well known for its company culture and social enterprise business model that includes the Classy Awards, now the largest social impact award show in the country, its early support of the Pledge 1% movement, and its employee giving program called #ClassyGives. Most recently, Classy was recognized as a Glassdoor Best Place to Work, San Diego Union-Tribune Top Workplace and Entrepreneur Best Company Cultures.

Scot’s recent recognitions include Glassdoor as a “Top CEO in the United States”, San Diego Business Journal as one of the “40 Next Top Business Leaders Under 40” and the “500 Most Influential Business Leaders in San Diego”, and Businessweek as one of the “Top 5 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs.” Scot currently serves on the Leadership Council for the California Nature Conservancy, on the Board of Directors at Street Soccer USA and ASC San Diego and on the Advisory Board at Team Rubicon, having previously served a four-year term on the founding Board of Directors. Scot is also an active investor, investing out of a fund called Tall Timbers that includes public and private investments with a focus on SaaS and socially responsible businesses.

Scot is a frequent speaker on social entrepreneurship, trends in giving, and the journey of scaling a startup-for-good. Past speaking appearances include Amazon’s Imagine A Better World Conference; TEDx; Dreamforce; SaaStr; Collision; SOCAP; AFP; Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC); and Inbound.

Prior to Classy, Scot worked at Booz Allen Hamilton and helped create and lead their Lean Six Sigma practice on the west coast. Scot received a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

On This Episode:

• Learn how Classy went from a passion project to full-fledged business.
• Hear how to create and market your product offering.
• Discover the way to create a culture that scales.
• Find out what early-stage entrepreneurs MUST get right from the beginning.

About David Fano:

I am a serial entrepreneur and senior leader known for building high growth teams. Most recently I served as Chief Growth Officer of WeWork, where I was responsible for driving their rapid expansion and as a result increasing revenue 100% year-over-year for 4 consecutive years to a $4 billion annual run rate. Trained as an architect, my interests and expertise lie in connecting technology and data to help people work. Working cross functionally , I enable new insights into the knowledge management of technology, and develop approaches that leverage data to deliver value and drive business performance. I received his Master of Architecture with honors from Columbia University and was an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's GSAPP from 2006 - 2012. I have led seminars and workshops focusing on the impact of technology on design processes at conferences such as Autodesk University, RTC North America and AIA's Technology in Architectural Practice. 

On This Episode:

• David shares his background in architecture and why he got disenchanted with the industry.
• Learn how David quickly scaled to $4 BILLION.
• Find out the keys to building a high performing team.

Key Takeaways:

1. Make sure you don’t expand to quickly into other products. Focus on your blue ocean.
2. When it comes to leading a team, you must have a combination of autonomy and structure.
3. Just because something worked a certain way today doesn’t mean it will work the same way tomorrow.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Every level is a new devil.”
• “Systematically build empathy.”
• “You don’t have an awesome career by yourself.”
• “The answer doesn’t have to be ‘start a company.’”

In the past two decades, Nowell Outlaw's achievements include five career exits, four acquisitions, and an IPO; the acquisition, transformation, and resuscitation of two businesses; building two other profitable companies and helping to scale a startup’s revenues from $0 to $30MM in less than 36 months. And most recently, the turn-around and acquisition of a $50MM Series C VC funded AI company.

On This Episode:

• Learn how Nowell assesses opportunities to partner with companies.
• Hear the pros and cons of venture capital.
• Get key principles regarding leadership.

Key Takeaways:

1. Your pitch has to be value.
2. Venture Capital is an accelerant to large growth.
3. Your attention to your customer is paramount.

Nowell Outlaw:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nowelloutlaw/

Chris Yeh is the co-author, along with Reid Hoffman, of Blitzscaling, the book that explains how to build world-changing companies like Amazon, Alibaba, and Airbnb in record time.

A writer, investor, and entrepreneur, Chris has had a ringside seat in the world of startups and scaleups since 1995. His books help founders, venture capitalists, corporate leaders, policymakers, and everyday people better understand how the internet has changed the way we work together to build amazing organizations.

Hundreds of companies, from garage-dwelling startups to Fortune 50 titans have tapped his knowledge and insights to accelerate and transform their businesses.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “During tough times, because there is less competition there’s more room for people who are really serious about starting companies to build their business before the competition comes in.”

• “The whole point of business Is to make money.”

• “The most powerful force in the universe must be the Google Calendar.”

Chris Yeh's Top Plays:

1. Increase the value of your company through the “network effect."

2. Your organization should feel like an alliance as opposed to a family.

3. Calendar out your personal work tasks.

4. Achieve a critical level of scale.

5. Build a team of specialists.

Chris Yeh:

• ChrisYeh.com
• The Chris Yeh Podcast
• twitter.com/chrisyeh

Jeff Diana is an Investor & former Executive at several legendary tech companies. He is also an advisor for companies like Calendly & Twine Labs.

Jeff is the former Chief People Officer at Atlassian, a now $42 Billion dollar company with the highest revenue/valuation multiple of any company in history traded in the stock exchange. 

He was responsible for the recruitment, growth and development of Atlassian's most important asset – its people – across its global presence, as well as for the growth and protection of Atlassian's unique corporate culture.

Prior to joining Atlassian in 2012, Jeff was CPO at SuccessFactors (an SAP company), where he built a new HR function from the ground up, played an integral role in designing the company's roadmap, and hosted speaking engagements with customers worldwide. Previously, Jeff was Chief HR Officer at Safeco, where he helped drive a re-invention and growth strategy and handled key negotiations on the people aspects of a merger with Liberty Mutual. Jeff has also held HR leadership roles at Microsoft, General Electric and Bell South. Jeff holds a master's degree in sociology from the University of South Carolina-Columbia, and a master's degree in HR management from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He's also on the advisory board for Smart Recruiters.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "No founder is an expert in everything." – Jeff Diana
• "Put your freaking investors to work." – Jeff Diana
• "Think business first and then figure out how to translate that into the function you’re working, that will always differentiate you." – Jeff Diana

Jeff Diana's Top Plays:

1. Have a clearly defined mission.
2. What you do and how you do it matter equally.
3. Understand your zone of genius.
4. Narrow down your concept until you can’t narrow it any further.
5. Find your friction points with team members and investors early on.

    

Laying the groundwork for why I created the show, and exactly what you can expect from myself and our guests.