Skip to Content
Topic: New markets

A crucible moment

Instacart’s Apoorva Mehta

Five years of growth in five weeks. That’s how Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 accelerated Instacart’s business. A year later, the company faces another “crucible moment,” says Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta – to amplify the appeal of tech-enabled shopping, even as in-store buying revives.

Learn More

A pandemic is not a business model

Blue Apron’s Linda Findley Kozlowski

As the pandemic set in, cooking at home got a renewed boost, and meal kit outfits saw a rise in demand. But a year in, the trend toward at-home dining faces a new inflection point. Linda Findley Kozlowski, CEO of meal-kit pioneer Blue Apron, is on the frontlines of understanding which pandemic-fueled behaviors will persist.

Learn More

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.

Learn More
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.

Learn More
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. 

Learn More
Podcast: Episode 37: Must Listen

Take bigger risks

MetricStream & Nordstrom’s Shellye Archambeau

If you try to avoid risk, you actually risk total failure. Or worse: mediocrity. Take it from Shellye Archambeau. She led the most stunning Silicon Valley turnaround you’ve never heard of. She took the role of CEO for a failing tech company, months from bankruptcy. Through a series of calculated risks, she led it through a complex merger, a head-spinning pivot, and grew it into MetricStream, which now boasts 1200 employees and a valuation in the hundreds of millions. How? Clear goals and big risks — the same principles that have defined her career. With a cameo appearance by champion poker player Liv Boeree.

Learn More
Podcast: Episode 31: Must Listen

The millennial episode

Brit + Co.’s Brit Morin

You can marshal the power of millennials to grow your company, but you have to redefine your concept of loyalty. To keep millennials as users (and employees), you’ll need to keep evolving — and help them evolve. No one understands this better than Brit + Co founder Brit Morin. As a maker and media creator, Brit is constantly co-evolving with her (mostly millennial) audience—and team. It’s a secret to scale with the generation adapted to a world of constant change.

Learn More
Podcast: Episode 27: Must Listen

How to build trust fast

Spotify’s Daniel Ek

Normally, trust = consistency + time. But when you’re scaling fast, you must find shortcuts with your partners and your users. When Daniel Ek founded Spotify, he did what few disruptors had ever done before: He worked WITH the industry he was trying to reinvent. How did Ek build a relationship with a music industry wary of piracy? He found shortcuts to trust. And not just with the music industry, but users too.

Learn More
Podcast: Episode 15: Must Listen

Learn to unlearn (Part 2)

IAC’s Barry Diller

To move from one success to another — learn to un-learn. Take everything that helped you win the first time, then discard it and learn a new way. That’s how Barry Diller, titan of “old” media (ABC, Paramount, Fox), mastered the new dot-com world. His company IAC owns everything from Expedia to Vimeo to Match.com.

Learn More
Podcast: Episode 9: Must Listen

What’s the next Silicon Valley?

Endeavor’s Linda Rottenberg

What’s Silicon Valley’s secret? Can any other region nurture such a thriving startup scene? Linda Rottenberg, CEO of Endeavor, makes the case that a startup culture can be nurtured almost anywhere, so long as you have the raw ingredients — a few initial entrepreneurs with access to capital and a willingness to pay it forward. She shares the fledgling startup scenes that could ultimately give the Bay Area a run for its money.

Learn More