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Topic: Co-founding

Transforming an idea into a movement overnight

Black Women for Black Lives’ Tokunbo Koiki

Watching the news out of Ukraine, Tokunbo Koiki saw reports of Black students struggling to flee the country. Tokunbo, an entrepreneur and social worker, linked up with two strangers, Patricia Daley and Korrine Sky, to build an aid organization for Black refugees — in a single weekend. Black Women for Black Lives helped some 1,200 Black students with direct assistance, a perfect illustration of how entrepreneurial thinking can mobilize action faster than you think it can.

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Podcast: Episode 102: Must Listen

Don’t predict the future. Create it.

Net-a-Porter & Imaginary Ventures’ Natalie Massenet

Throughout her career, Natalie Massenet has proved her ability to spot – and act on – a trend. Natalie and Reid share tactics about how to deliver the future to consumers, manage pushback, and navigate uncharted territory.

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Podcast: Episode 90: Must Listen

The beauty of emphasizing the obvious

Birchbox’s Katia Beauchamp

Unconventional ideas can fuel scale dreams — but they also attract naysayers. When Katia Beauchamp, co-founder and CEO of Birchbox, introduced her idea of subscription beauty boxes, she knew this novel business model went against beauty-industry norms — and was hard for some tech-focused investors to connect with. To woo investors, suppliers and customers, Katia learned to describe her industry-flipping idea in conventional terms, connecting on common ground.

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How Warby Parker is making decisions in uncertainty

Warby Parker’s Neil Blumenthal

At Warby Parker, planning for the future has meant leaning into the present — from physical changes in their factory and stores that ensure social distancing to optimizing online vision tests. In May 2020, co-founder Neil Blumenthal shares their process for decision-making.

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Podcast: Episode 52: Must Listen

The biggest success story you haven’t heard (Part 2)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Bill Gates

In part two of this special two-part episode with Bill Gates, we’re talking about the biggest success story ever told on the podcast – and not just for Bill Gates, but for humanity. And it was achieved not through Microsoft, but through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill & Melinda Gates have built the foundation into one of the world’s single largest private philanthropies and they’ve done it by taking lessons learned at Microsoft – on how to massively capitalize on inflection points – and applied them to the nonprofit world. Here’s how. 

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Podcast: Episode 42: Must Listen

Small changes with big impact

Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd knows: The smallest feature can make or break your product. The challenge is recognizing the impact of that feature – and making sure it’s actually positive. This is what Wolfe Herd tapped into when she founded a dating app that required a whole new way of communication. She has become a master of understanding what her users want, and then making the small changes to Bumble that help them achieve their goals. While small changes typically lead to incremental improvements, every so often the impact is exponential. With cameo appearances by Steve Spohn (AbleGamer), and Marissa Mayer (Google, Yahoo).

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Podcast: Episode 1: Must Listen

Do things that don’t scale

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky

If you want your company to truly scale, you first have to do things that don’t scale. Handcraft the core experience. Serve your customers one by one, until you know exactly what they want. That’s what Brian Chesky did in the early days as co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. He shares their route to crafting what he calls an “11-star experience.”

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