Artwork

Content provided by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.
Player FM - Podcast App
Go offline with the Player FM app!

#227: CEO & Founder Axon, Rick Smith: Push Risk

1:15:41
 
Share
 

Manage episode 463360800 series 2662695
Content provided by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

Guest: Rick Smith, CEO & Founder of Axon (formerly TASER)

Being a founder-CEO is a “unique superpower,” says Axon’s Rick Smith: People like him get a longer leash from the board to try things that outside CEOs might not.

“My job is to push risk into the organization,” Rick says. “If there's a project with a 50 percent chance of success, a 50 percent chance of failure, but it's going to pay 100 to 1, any finance person will tell you, you should take that bet all day long.”

One of those bets was the transition from running a weapons company called TASER into a broader public safety firm called Axon, which makes cloud-supported body cameras fro police, tactical drones, AI records management software and more. “If we never have a product failure, then we're not taking risks anymore and we're going to end up getting disrupted,” Rick says.

Chapters:

  • (01:09) - Tasers vs. guns
  • (03:35) - Axon’s growth
  • (07:09) - Biggest surprises
  • (09:33) - How TASER got started
  • (13:11) - Reinventing the taser
  • (17:24) - A humiliating launch
  • (23:33) - Rick’s family
  • (26:14) - The Auto Taser failure
  • (30:21) - The darkest days
  • (34:26) - Hans Marrero
  • (37:25) - Family and burnout
  • (42:49) - Rick’s family
  • (45:49) - Pivoting the business
  • (51:37) - Axon body cameras
  • (53:46) - Axon’s current products
  • (58:08) - Re-educating the cops
  • (01:02:09) - Pushing risk
  • (01:05:44) - Competing with the gun
  • (01:10:16) - Exponential stock plans
  • (01:14:17) - Who Axon is hiring
  • (01:14:46) - What “grit” means to Rick

Mentioned in this episode: UnitedHealthcare and Brian Thompson, Harvard University, human-machine interfaces, Star Wars, Timecop, Star Trek, Jack Cover, Project Apollo, Ed Owen; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Tom Smith, Rodney King, the Sharper Image, Steve Filmer, Phil Smith, Silicon Valley Bank, Emil Michael, Bob Kagle, Benchmark, Norwest Ventures, Molly Wuthrich, Josh Isner, The Terminator, Ferrari, Richard Branson, Burning Man, Steve Jobs, Brenda Smith, Hadi Partovi, Amazon AWS, Microsoft, DraftOne, Ambience Health, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Brown, Computer Aided Dispatch, Elon Musk and SpaceX, and Luke Larson.

Links:

Connect with Rick

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

  continue reading

241 episodes

Artwork

#227: CEO & Founder Axon, Rick Smith: Push Risk

Grit

63 subscribers

published

iconShare
 
Manage episode 463360800 series 2662695
Content provided by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Kleiner Perkins and Joubin Mirzadegan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

Guest: Rick Smith, CEO & Founder of Axon (formerly TASER)

Being a founder-CEO is a “unique superpower,” says Axon’s Rick Smith: People like him get a longer leash from the board to try things that outside CEOs might not.

“My job is to push risk into the organization,” Rick says. “If there's a project with a 50 percent chance of success, a 50 percent chance of failure, but it's going to pay 100 to 1, any finance person will tell you, you should take that bet all day long.”

One of those bets was the transition from running a weapons company called TASER into a broader public safety firm called Axon, which makes cloud-supported body cameras fro police, tactical drones, AI records management software and more. “If we never have a product failure, then we're not taking risks anymore and we're going to end up getting disrupted,” Rick says.

Chapters:

  • (01:09) - Tasers vs. guns
  • (03:35) - Axon’s growth
  • (07:09) - Biggest surprises
  • (09:33) - How TASER got started
  • (13:11) - Reinventing the taser
  • (17:24) - A humiliating launch
  • (23:33) - Rick’s family
  • (26:14) - The Auto Taser failure
  • (30:21) - The darkest days
  • (34:26) - Hans Marrero
  • (37:25) - Family and burnout
  • (42:49) - Rick’s family
  • (45:49) - Pivoting the business
  • (51:37) - Axon body cameras
  • (53:46) - Axon’s current products
  • (58:08) - Re-educating the cops
  • (01:02:09) - Pushing risk
  • (01:05:44) - Competing with the gun
  • (01:10:16) - Exponential stock plans
  • (01:14:17) - Who Axon is hiring
  • (01:14:46) - What “grit” means to Rick

Mentioned in this episode: UnitedHealthcare and Brian Thompson, Harvard University, human-machine interfaces, Star Wars, Timecop, Star Trek, Jack Cover, Project Apollo, Ed Owen; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Tom Smith, Rodney King, the Sharper Image, Steve Filmer, Phil Smith, Silicon Valley Bank, Emil Michael, Bob Kagle, Benchmark, Norwest Ventures, Molly Wuthrich, Josh Isner, The Terminator, Ferrari, Richard Branson, Burning Man, Steve Jobs, Brenda Smith, Hadi Partovi, Amazon AWS, Microsoft, DraftOne, Ambience Health, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Brown, Computer Aided Dispatch, Elon Musk and SpaceX, and Luke Larson.

Links:

Connect with Rick

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

  continue reading

241 episodes

All episodes

×
 
Loading …

Welcome to Player FM!

Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.

 

Quick Reference Guide

Listen to this show while you explore
Play