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Topic: Customers

“We have an all-out cyber war right now”

Rubrik’s Bipul Sinha

“We have to assume that cyberattacks will happen,” says Bipul Sinha, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Rubrik. State-sponsored actors and cybercriminals are both heightened threats now, and cybersecurity tactics must learn to counter them. Bipul shares what we can do to protect ourselves — starting with basic cyber hygiene.

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Scaling when you’re already at scale

Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon

As the global chip shortage unfolded in 2021, Qualcomm’s engineers quickly redesigned their products – an effort that tapped into “every possible capacity we could find,” says CEO Cristiano Amon. Their story is a great lesson in how an established company can and must move with the speed of a startup.

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Tapping a new generation of consumers

Drone Racing League’s Rachel Jacobson

The Drone Racing League has built a fanbase previously untapped by pro sports. President Rachel Jacobson, formerly an NBA executive, calls their fans “techsetters” – young, enthusiastic, techy fans who are “invested in what the future looks like.” It’s a demographic that loves the league’s positioning that intersects sports, entertainment, and technology. As Rachel says, companies that aren’t planning for future demographics of consumers will “age out really quickly.”

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Re-founding Instacart

Instacart’s Fidji Simo

In the summer of 2021, Fidji Simo became CEO of Instacart, replacing founder Apoorva Mehta. Stepping into the role, Fidji is emphasizing an evolved company mission, diversifying the company’s leadership and focusing on the technology that helps retailers best serve their customers.

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Podcast: Episode 80: Must Listen

What investors really look for

Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban

No one knows the fundraising game like Mark Cuban, serial entrepreneur, investor, and star of Shark Tank. For founders, identifying the right source of capital, under the right terms, can provide a thermal updraft. But as Cuban explains, there are always strings attached when you bring on a financial partner — and those strings can pull you crashing down if you don’t understand them properly. Cuban shares what investors look for in a founder, and what entrepreneurs should be looking for in return.

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A prescription for healthy growth

FIGs’ Heather Hasson

How does a startup geared to healthcare workers give back during Covid? FIGS, which makes premium scrubs for medical professionals, offered free PPE, isolation gowns and more. Co-founder and co-CEO Heather Hasson shares how these moves helped drive brand allegiance among a workforce that, until Covid hit, was often overlooked.

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Podcast: Episode 71: Must Listen

How to find hidden value others miss

The Black List’s Franklin Leonard

Forget looking for a needle in a haystack – instead, build a new type of metal detector, to find undervalued assets that others don’t see. That’s exactly what Franklin Leonard did when he started The Black List, an annual survey of screenplays everyone loved (but no one was making). Devise ways to find things no one else has found – or didn’t think to look for – and it could be the difference that drives you to scale. Cameo: Software engineer Tatiana Mac.

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Podcast: Episode 69: Must Listen

The empathy flywheel

Nextdoor’s Sarah Friar

A social network that limits your network? Yes. Meet Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social network that’s all about who you really are and where you really live. Although it goes against everything that we’ve come to expect from social networks, Nextdoor’s secret to scale lies in real personal connections based on empathy and kindness. And this is what Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar knows: No, these connections don’t scale as fast – but they tend to be stronger. And they can be the flywheel that drives you to scale. 

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Podcast: Episode 67: Must Listen

How to find – and keep – true north

YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki

When you scale at warp speed, it’s easy to lose your bearings. You have to establish your company’s true north, or the dizzying pace of growth will push you off course. No one knows this better than Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. Under her leadership, YouTube has grown to be the world’s largest video platform. And in her previous role at Google, she was a chief architect of its advertising and analytics model. In both roles, she achieved massive scale – and grappled with massive challenges. Susan shares the guiding principles that help them stay the course — as well as stories from Google’s early years that you’ll hear first here. Cameo appearances: Dr. Becky Smethurst (astrophysicist, Oxford), Shishir Mehrotra (Coda, Google, YouTube).

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