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.’”

Sergey Sundukovskiy, Ph.D. has over 20 years of experience serving in capacities of Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Product Officer. Sergey specializes in implementation of subscription based high volume SaaS platforms, with strong emphasis on early stage product development and market deployment. Specific areas of expertise include A/B Testing, Big Data, Video Management, eCommerce, RTB platforms and Cloud Computing. Sergey often mentors first-time founders and advises early stage Startups with emphasis on Product Development, Product Market Testing, Public Relations, Product Marketing, Team Building, Customer Success and Organizational Management

On This Episode:

• Sergey shares the steps to building a successful company.
• Find out how to determine your audience.
• Get a play-by-play for taking a product from idea to market.

Key Takeaways:

1. Select an idea that is adjacent possible.
2. Build a product that is both sustainable and economically feasible.
3. Think of debt as fuel.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Ideas are not products and products are not companies.”
• “It’s never too early to start building culture.”

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/

Rahul is the founder and CEO of Superhuman, the fastest email experience in the world. Superhuman users get through their inbox twice as fast as before — and many see Inbox Zero for the first time in years! In 2019, Superhuman raised $33M in a Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, Rahul founded Rapportive, the first Gmail plugin to scale to millions of users, which was acquired by LinkedIn.

On This Episode:

• Learn how Rahul entered the productivity space.

• Hear Rahul's process for hiring team members.

• Discover the biggest challenge Rahul and his team faced when scaling.

Key Takeaways:

• Have a cohesive leadership team.
• Hire leaders who know how to operate at a larger scale.
• Set your values up front.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “The customer should build your product for you." – Chris Vasquez

Rahul Vohra

• superhuman.com

Jeetu Patel is Chief Product Officer at Box. He leads the company's product strategy, driving Box’s long-term roadmap and vision for cloud content management in the enterprise. Previously, as Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Platform at Box, Jeetu led the creation of the Box Platform business unit, overseeing product strategy, marketing, and developer relations. He grew the team from a nascent product to a revenue-generating business line and key element on Box’s overall suite of offerings. He also led corporate development & M&A strategy as well as Box for Industries.

Before joining Box, Jeetu was General Manager and Chief Executive of EMC’s Syncplicity business unit which he grew from $0 to $100M in 2.5 years. Prior to EMC, Jeetu was president of Doculabs, a research and advisory firm co-owned by Forrester Research focused on collaboration and content management across a range of industries, including financial services, insurance, energy, manufacturing, and life sciences.

 Jeetu holds a B.S. in Information Decision Sciences from the University of Illinois Chicago.

On This Episode:

• Jeetu discusses how COVID-19 has impacted their day to day operations.
• Learn how Jeetu keeps his team motivated even when he can’t be with them in person.
• Hear how injustice has inspired Jeetu’s team.
• Discover the key to hiring a good team.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “There's no two right answers in most issues.”

  “Extremely smart people do insanely logical things for exactly right reasons that kill businesses all the time.”

Jeetu's Top Plays:

1. You have to articulate purpose to bring people together.
2. Disruption only comes when you are successful.
3. Build something a few people love as opposed to something that everybody likes.

Jeetu Patel:

• twitter.com/Jpatel41

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeetupatel/

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.