#218 CEO Etsy, Josh Silverman: Second Acts

Grit

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7M ago 1:09:52

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Guest: Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy

When Josh Silverman joined the board of Etsy, he had one condition: “Don’t ask me to the be the CEO.” And technically, they didn’t ask. One day, he got a phone call informing him the board had elected him as the new CEO, just days before an earnings miss. He knew the odds were against him — layoffs would be necessary, and “I was going to have to be the villain” — but decided to say yes out of a sense of duty to Etsy’s users and workers. “If I can be helpful, I have a responsibility to do it,” Josh says.

Chapters:

(00:55) - Energy management
(02:42) - Meetings
(09:56) - Etsy’s strategy
(13:36) - Learning to delegate
(17:10) - Setting an example
(24:17) - Evite’s rise and fall
(27:46) - Self vs. company
(30:22) - Legacy
(34:21) - Control and agency
(37:44) - Joining Etsy’s board
(40:40) - Becoming CEO
(46:16) - Culture shock
(48:09) - “We need you, trust us”
(51:25) - eBay and Skype
(57:15) - Pushed out
(01:00:40) - Accountability and family
(01:03:53) - Time horizons
(01:05:55) - Gen AI-supported art
(01:08:29) - Who Etsy is hiring and what “grit” means to Josh

Mentioned in this episode: Ken Chenault and American Express, Nick Daniel, Rachana Kumar, Ticketmaster and IAC, Etsy Studios, Silverlake, Shopping.com, Google, Microsoft, and Austin City Limits.

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This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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