The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

How do you become the best of the best—the top performer in your field? Dr. Julie Gurner, an acclaimed executive coach and once likened to Billions’ Wendy Rhoades by The Wall Street Journal, shares her insights on what it takes to excel at the highest level. In this episode, Dr. Gurner joins hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge to explore the mindsets, strategies, and leadership styles that empower people to perform at their peak.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 Meet Dr. Julie Gurner and her unique approach to executive performance

05:47 The fine line between "good crazy" and "bad crazy" in high achievers

08:44 Rule-bending: When it drives success and when it derails progress

15:16 How confidence and aggression play into leadership styles

18:56 Evolving roles: Adapting leadership from a startup’s early days to maturity

24:18 The power of vulnerability: Why CEOs should own their weaknesses to build balanced teams

27:43 Helping others lean into their unique strengths for maximum impact

33:17 Identifying "great" talent vs. "good" talent: What sets true excellence apart

40:23 The importance of positive self-talk and why leaders should never downplay themselves

47:01 Reframing failure: How top performers see setbacks as learning, not defining moments

Whether you're a startup founder, entrepreneur, or aspiring leader, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to help you break through personal and professional barriers. Dr. Gurner’s guidance is invaluable for anyone striving to reach the top in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment.

Follow Dr. Gurner Here:

X: https://x.com/drgurner

Newsletter: drgurner.substack.com

Web: drgurner.com

"Joining a company as early as possible, right after achieving product-market fit, offers the greatest career advantage." – Jack Altman

Jack Altman epitomizes the true "Investor-Operator." As the co-founder and former CEO of the multi-billion-dollar startup Lattice, and now a full-time investor with his $150 million venture fund, Alt Capital, Jack has successfully navigated both sides of the entrepreneurial journey. It’s clear he excels in every aspect, and we were thrilled to have him on the show.

In this episode, we delve into Jack’s career trajectory, from his early days in tech to how he gained the insight to launch Lattice. Jack shares the invaluable lessons he’s learned from building and scaling Lattice to a Series F company, and how those experiences have shaped his approach to investing.

Here’s a breakdown of what we covered:

1:20 – How Jack got into tech and landed at a fast-growing startup

5:30 – Joining an early-stage company vs. starting your own: which provides better learning?

11:30 – The launch of Lattice and pivoting to achieve product-market fit (PMF)

14:14 – How to recognize when you’ve found PMF

19:20 – Best practices for scaling companies: “If your product won’t be used 10 years from now, you’ll never build a lasting, valuable SaaS business.”

21:15 – Jack’s early fundraising mistakes and what he’d do differently

24:30 – The top three traits every founder needs

30:15 – Transitioning to investing: "My hobby is other startups"

39:20 – How being a founder prepares you to be an investor

42:40 – How to become a Level 6 investor (Link to Tweet)

46:20 – Why point solutions won’t cut it—compound startups will generate the biggest returns

51:45 – Investing in AI and the rise of ‘killer apps’

58:54 – Investment strategies: should you aim to create returns by incubating or seed funding?

1:04:00 – Recap with Tyler & Sterling

For more on Alt Capital, visit altcap.com.

Check out Jack’s hierarchy of investors on X (formerly Twitter).

Discover more insights from Investor-Operators on the IO Podcast:

YouTube: @IO-Podcast

X: @IO__podcast

TikTok: @io_podcast

In this episode, Tyler Hogge & Sterling Snow sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has been at the forefront of investments in companies like Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Robinhood and Instacart. Prior to a16z, David was at General Atlantic, where he invested in iconic brands like Airbnb, Opendoor, Slack, Crowdstrike, and Uber. David shares his unique insights into growth investing and his predictions for the future.

Chapters:

01:15 David's Path to Venture

05:30 What Makes Andreessen Horowitz Different

10:30 What He Looks For When Making Growth Investments

21:15 Focus On Inputs Not Outputs

29:30 How They Source Investments

35:10 "On TAM, Ignore the Research Reports". Here's What To Look For Instead

44:30 What It Takes To Go Public: The Three Things A Company Needs

48:56 Where AI Is Going And How He's Investing

1:01:23 Episode Takeaways

Connect With David & a16z

https://x.com/DavidGeorge83

https://a16z.com/growth/

Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experience platform.

Sterling shares how Redo's founder Taylor Brown approached him to take on the job and how together they're building a company everyone in Utah can root for.

Chapters:

01:03 Why The Investor Operator Podcast Was Started

03:45 How Sterling Started Talking With The Founding Team At Redo

05:12 Why Redo May Be The Next Divvy

09:41 What Is Redo & How It's Going

16:30 Why You Should Join Redo

23:30 Join An Excellent Startup For Faster Career Growth

How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ.

Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify.

Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger.

Chapters:

01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada

06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses

07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech

11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People

13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM"

21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies

31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify

37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again

43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant

50:00 - Wrap Up questions

57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap

_________________________

Connect With Kaz

https://x.com/canadakaz

[email protected]

Connect With Tyler & Sterling

https://x.com/thogge

https://x.com/sterlingmsnow

Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly)

https://x.com/IO__podcast

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609

https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So in 2016, Blake set out to find a solution and realized there was none. Blake spent the next several years building what would become one of the fastest-growing startups in history—a platform combining expense management software and a corporate card to help businesses of all sizes manage their finances.

Blake, along with Tyler and Sterling—Divvy’s SVP and CRO—break down why this startup was such a remarkable success: a world-class team, a world-class product and a performance culture that pushed Divvy and it’s people to the top.  

Chapters: 

01:38 - How Blake Knew Divvy Would Be A Big Idea

07:17 - The Insight: No Real-Time Financial Information For Businesses

09:20 - The Idea: Blake Lands A 7-Figure Deal With Only A Deck

14:15 - Sell, Design, Build: How Divvy Built First Then Sold To Solve GTM

24:30 - Hire Like-Minded People Instead of People Who’ve Done It (Culture vs Acumen)

37:00 - ’Nobody’s Coming, It’s Up To Us’. How To Do More With Less

42:27 - Founder Advice: Have A Short Memory 

43:45 - Founder Advice: Build A Performance Culture 

49:52 - Work-Life Balance Myth: Big Sacrifices Are Required for Asymmetric Upside

59:00 - Investor Advice: Founders Want Investors Who Will Be Loyal To Them

1:04:45 - Tyler and Sterling’s Recap

_________________________

Connect With Blake

https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-murray-79655665

https://x.com/blakemur

Connect With Tyler & Sterling

https://x.com/thogge

https://x.com/sterlingmsnow

Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly) 

https://x.com/IO__podcast

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609

https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau.

How has he done it? Scott shares his investment philosophy influenced by other greats like Dick Kramlich and John Doerr: understand an individual's life story, decision-making process, and future goals as key in making successful investment choices.

Chapters:

00:02:17 What Are The Characteristics Of Unicorn Founders?

00:10:16 "I Look For Passion-Driven Missionaries"

00:16:05 Building Tableau's Success: Lessons in Slow, Purposeful Growth

00:27:13 Make Your Investors Your Partners. Navigating Board Relationships

00:40:55 The Era of Decreasing LP Commitments

00:52:39 Tyler and Sterlings Recap

Connect with Scott and NEA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottdsandell

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU3mQDqk3QyB4WeDQwZ1YQ

Connect with IO Pod

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/

This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners

https://pelionvp.com/

There may be no better pair of fintech investors than Better Tomorrow Ventures Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot. After successful exits in the industry -- Jake as the co-founder of NerdWallet, one of the OG consumer fintech companies, and Sheel with FeeFighter and Innovative Auctions, Jake and Sheel saw a gap in the market and started a fund to help fintech companies at the earliest stages. And they've already had some big wins, counting Ramp and Unit as Portcos.

Jake and Sheel joined us on the pod to tell us how they built their previous companies and talked to the future of fintech and the the trends they're seeing across the industry. We cover the pandemic-induced surge in fintech interest and how their big bet is on embeddable fintech, where financial services are seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms.

Chapters:

00:00:35 Tyler & Sterling's Intro

00:07:05 Starting NerdWallet during the 2008 Financial Crisis

00:12:34 How Jake Gamed Google SEO To Grow NerdWallet

00:19:08 How Better Tomorrow Ventures Started

00:24:17 Early Support from Andreessen Horowitz for Fund

00:30:08 Fintech Investment Opportunities During The Pandemic

00:37:38 Embedded Fintech Is The Future

00:45:52 The Durbin Amendment & Changing Bank Profit Pools

00:55:47 Jake And Sheel's Nominees for Best Operators & Investors

Connect with Jake And Sheel

Twitter (Sheel): https://twitter.com/pitdesi

Twitter (Jake): https://twitter.com/iamjakestream

Website: https://www.btv.vc/

Learn More About The Mint

https://www.themint.vc/

Connect with IO Pod

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/

This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners

https://pelionvp.com/

#StartupLife #StartupMentality

Immad Akhund had the idea for Mercury years before they started. In fact, he'd launched 3 other startups and been through YCombinator twice before even starting initial validation on what would become the beloved neobank of startups everywhere. And opinions were mixed. Immad himself recognized the need for a simpler and more efficient banking service while while operating Heyzap his previous company. But when he shared the concept with other startups, not everyone grasped its potential.

Today, Mercury dominates in the neobank industry. Immad walks hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow through the early days of Mercury, shares advice on how to operate and his strategies on investing.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:56 Immad's Entrepreneurial Journey - Previous Companies & Learnings

00:08:27 What Does Mercury Do?

00:11:24 How He Launched Mercury

00:14:35 The Neo Bank Industry and Launch Timing

00:21:50 The SVB Fallout & How That Led To Big Growth For Mercury

00:32:50 Operating Advice: The Six-Year Vesting Plan

00:43:35 Immad's Hot Takes & Predictions: AI Is a Hype Cycle

00:57:17 Rapid Fire & Wrap-up

Things to Check Out:

Immad's Memo - How to Not Be A Bottleneck as a CEO

Immad's Podcast - Curiosity Podcast

Immad's Advice on Operating - @immad on X

___________________

This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion

Connect on X

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Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Alex Rampell may be the most true version of an investor-operator. Alex's first entrepreneurial endeavor started as a child when he built and sold shareware out of his parent's house. Eventually he added more businesses to his portfolio before launching the payment platform TrialPay after college and eventually Affirm. Today, Alex invests in some of the largest companies at Andreessen Horowitz and he shares with Tyler and Sterling what he looks for in entrepreneurs and shares tactical advice from his days building.

Chapters:

(00:03:00) How Alex Started His First Company in Middle School

(00:14:46) Investing in People: The Key to Startup Success

(00:18:33) Building Relationships for Business Success

(00:21:23) The Advantage of Naivete in Entrepreneurship

(00:26:41) Interconnected Attributes for Building a Successful Business

(00:28:44) Building a Strong Entrepreneurial Framework

(00:36:04) Mitigating Risk of Overdependence on Initial Customers

(00:42:20) The Battle for Market Dominance

(00:46:05) The Crucial Role of Distribution for Startups

(00:57:17) The Challenge of Convincing Buyers

(01:00:38) Leveraging fear to drive successful acquisitions