No Reset Button: Reinventing Amplitude in a Post-AI World (Spenser Skates)

Grit

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

57:50

Alex (@alex_kamenca) and Carley (@carleymitus) are both members of our Action Academy Community that purchased TWO small businesses last thursday! Want To Quit Your Job In The Next 6-18 Months Through Buying Commercial Real Estate & Small Businesses? 👔🏝️ Schedule A Free 15 Minute Coaching Call With Our Team Here To Get "Unstuck" Want to know which investment strategy is best for you? Take our Free Asset-Selection Quiz Check Out Our Bestselling Book : From Passive To Passionate : How To Quit Your Job - Grow Your Wealth - And Turn Your Passions Into Profits Want A Free $100k+ Side Hustle Guide ? Follow Me As I Travel & Build: IG @brianluebben ActionAcademy.com…

10 days ago 1:17:16

MP3•Episode home

In this episode, CEO Spenser Skates shares how he’s rethinking AI within the constraints of a 13-year-old codebase, why analytics remains Amplitude’s competitive edge—and why taking the company public early was a risk worth taking.

Chapters:
00:00 Trailer
00:43 Introduction
01:26 AI is still very early
05:48 The urgency of building from the ground up
08:49 Bringing in new blood
11:23 Higher valuations and going public
15:00 Who’s leading who
18:39 Markets being open and closed
21:14 Being the incumbent in AI
24:40 Slow innovation
31:43 The ultimate founder
37:06 Things willing to relinquish
44:04 Being the person I want to be
46:41 Between family and work
50:08 Becoming the person you hate
55:16 Chief general, chief justice, chief priest
1:02:56 Tired founders
1:04:32 Missing out
1:14:51 Who Amplitude is hiring
1:15:41 What Spenser means to Spenser
1:16:54 Outro

Mentioned in this episode: OpenAI ChatGPT, Command AI, Oracle Corporation, Anthropic Claude, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Rippling, Stripe, Meta Platforms, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Figma, Canva, Peter Thiel, Anne Lee Skates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michael Jordan

Links:

Connect with Spenser

Connect with Joubin

241 episodes

No Reset Button: Reinventing Amplitude in a Post-AI World (Spenser Skates)

Grit

63 subscribers

published 10 days ago

MP3•Episode home

Links:

Connect with Spenser

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

241 episodes

All episodes

1
From White House to Wall Street: David Rubenstein 1:11:10

3 days ago1:11:10

1:11:10

David Rubenstein helped pioneer modern private equity—building The Carlyle Group into a $400B global investment firm from a modest D.C. office and a relentless fundraising streak. But beyond PE, his legacy spans presidential libraries, historic American artifacts, and a lifelong obsession with civic contribution. In this episode, David shares how he raised billions without a background in finance, why owning a baseball team was more than just a trophy purchase—and what building true generational success really means beyond wealth alone. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:53 Introduction 01:40 Family, wealth, class 14:40 Happiness disparity and longevity 19:25 I need more to give away more 25:04 The relentless fundraiser 33:53 Kids and travel 36:06 No track record, the great white buffalo 38:59 Business and politics 43:53 Fired from Washington 45:52 Fundraising, presidents, podcast guests 48:04 Private equity and sports 53:44 Expenses — no charges 55:49 Waking up with energy 57:26 Preserving copies 1:02:05 Organizational architecture 1:03:41 Bury me in my plane 1:08:11 Not a big luxury spender 1:10:32 What “grit” means to David 1:10:50 Outro Mentioned in this episode: Andrew Rubenstein, Stanford University, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Procter & Gamble Company, Forbes 400, Duke University, University of Chicago, Harvard Corporation, Johns Hopkins University, California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Arianna Huffington, Xi Jinping, Hank Greenberg, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Baltimore Orioles, Fred Trammell Crow, Harlan Crow, National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Arctos Partners LP, Anthropic, Magna Carta Libertatum, Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, US Constitution, National Archives, Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, Mark Cuban, Paul McCartney Connect with David: X: @DM_Rubenstein Connect with Joubin: X: @Joubinmir LinkedIn: Joubin Mirzadegan Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com kleinerperkins.com…

1
No Reset Button: Reinventing Amplitude in a Post-AI World (Spenser Skates) 1:17:16

10 days ago1:17:16

1:17:16

Amplitude helped define the modern analytics stack, powering digital products with deep behavioral insights. But in a world shifting toward agentic interfaces and vertically integrated AI, even a category leader has to evolve. In this episode, CEO Spenser Skates shares how he’s rethinking AI within the constraints of a 13-year-old codebase, why analytics remains Amplitude’s competitive edge—and why taking the company public early was a risk worth taking. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:43 Introduction 01:26 AI is still very early 05:48 The urgency of building from the ground up 08:49 Bringing in new blood 11:23 Higher valuations and going public 15:00 Who’s leading who 18:39 Markets being open and closed 21:14 Being the incumbent in AI 24:40 Slow innovation 31:43 The ultimate founder 37:06 Things willing to relinquish 44:04 Being the person I want to be 46:41 Between family and work 50:08 Becoming the person you hate 55:16 Chief general, chief justice, chief priest 1:02:56 Tired founders 1:04:32 Missing out 1:14:51 Who Amplitude is hiring 1:15:41 What Spenser means to Spenser 1:16:54 Outro Mentioned in this episode: OpenAI ChatGPT, Command AI, Oracle Corporation, Anthropic Claude, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Rippling, Stripe, Meta Platforms, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Figma, Canva, Peter Thiel, Anne Lee Skates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michael Jordan Links: Connect with Spenser X LinkedIn Connect with Joubin X LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins…

1
Flexport’s Third Act: Winning in a Broken Global Trade System 1:43:28

17 days ago1:43:28

1:43:28

Flexport was a breakout success—reimagining global trade with tech at its core. But when the freight market cooled and efficiency overtook service, things started to unravel. Founder Ryan Petersen stepped aside, handing the CEO role to former Amazon exec Dave Clark. Months later, he was back at the helm. In this episode, Ryan explains what went wrong, how he’s rebuilding Flexport—cutting $300M in costs, restoring customer focus—and why promoting from within beats chasing outside stars. He also weighs in on Trump’s proposed tariffs and what they could mean for the future of global trade. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:31 Introduction 02:07 Meeting smart people, seeing the world 03:40 Eroded margins 09:52 Charismatic and overconfident 15:32 Not an overnight decision 20:08 The founder has returned 23:10 Redoing the hiring 26:38 No substitute for passion 31:00 Working for and with my brother 37:28 Working with forwarders 42:14 Being a founder can be lonely 47:49 Life’s work 54:06 The right person for the job 1:00:55 19 countries 1:04:57 Blowing people up 1:07:24 Work and being a good dad 1:08:34 Not doing it for money and loving money 1:17:52 Import and export tariffs 1:22:57 De minimis 1:25:54 Panama and the Suez Canal 1:36:50 Going public 1:42:24 Who Flexport is Hiring 1:42:42 What "grit" means to Ryan 1:43:06 Outro Mentioned in this episode: Founders Fund, Amazon, Toyota Motor Corporation, Slack, Brex, Pedro Franceschi, Henrique Dubugras, United States Customs and Border Protection, ImportGenius, Michael Kanko, Y Combinator, Paul Graham, Intel Corporation, Shopify, Geely Holding (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd.), The Volvo Group, Intuit TurboTax, David Petersen, BuildZoom, TechCrunch, Google, Figma, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Jimmy Carter, Panama Canal Authority, United States Navy, Coinbase, Uber, Airbnb Links: Connect with Ryan X LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins…

1
Brex 3.0: Inside the Radical Turnaround with Pedro Franceschi 1:35:00

24 days ago1:35:00

1:35:00

Guest : Pedro Franceschi Pedro Franceschi is the co-founder and CEO of Brex, a fintech company reshaping how businesses manage their finances. Originally from Brazil, Pedro went from teenage hacker to leading one of the most well-known names in modern financial technology—building a platform trusted by startups and enterprises alike. In this episode, Pedro shares what it took to launch “Brex 3.0,” why he moved to a single-CEO model, and how tough structural changes set the stage for leaner, faster growth. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:46 Introduction 01:45 Startup roller coaster 05:21 Founders know how to have fun 07:12 Belief barrier evolution 12:00 Early state of life in Brazil 13:23 Controlling variables 15:32 Screen time 19:23 Making small decisions 23:27 Learning raises the bar 26:15 People manager 38:49 Getting underwater 42:05 Growth accelerated 47:51 Vision from the top down 52:13 Leadership organization 54:01 AI software engineering physics 54:43 People complain about change 59:42 Believers and non-believers 1:04:09 Equity and bonus controversy 1:08:40 Big swings and going public 1:14:15 Control in unpredictability 1:18:04 Living in a pixel 1:19:52 Meditate, sleep, diet, exercise 1:24:36 Mental health and stress 1:33:12 Who Brex is hiring 1:33:49 What "grit" means to Pedro 1:34:39 Outro Mentioned in this episode: Silicon Valley, Facebook, Meta Platforms, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Mastercard, Rio de Janeiro, iPhone, Bill Gates, Tim Urban, Jony Ive, Apple Inc., LinkedIn, Salesforce, Brian Chesky, Airbnb, Anthropic Claude, Cursor, Codeium Windsurf, Cognition Labs Devin, Vercel, Retool AI, Amplitude, Spenser Skates, Elon Musk, Tesla, Inc. Links: Connect with Pedro: X LinkedIn Connect with Joubin: X LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com This episode was produced by Kleiner Perkins and edited by IQvideo. The trailer and distribution for this episode were handled by Atomik Growth. Learn more about Kleiner Perkins…

1
From India to Silicon Valley: The Jay Chaudhry & Zscaler Story 56:44

4 weeks ago56:44

56:44

1
The Unlikely Path to Building a Billion-Dollar Gov Tech Company | Zac Bookman 1:16:13

5 weeks ago1:16:13

1:16:13

Guest : Zac Bookman, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenGov Thirteen years after co-founding the government transparency startup OpenGov, Zac Bookman is still finding ways to surprise people. In 2024, Cox Enterprises bought the company for $1.8 billion — but as far as Zac is concerned, “we’re just getting started.” “ I left the vast majority of my net worth in the company,” he says. “So I'm a believer. I'm all in.” The mission of powering “more effective and accountable government” has been stable since OpenGov’s earliest days, and that mission has informed everything from hiring to M&A to the decision to sell. “These people buy and don't sell,” Zac said of Cox. “They're all in on the mission. And they're all in on taking care of employees. So I see a triple win: A win for employees, win for the investors, win for the customers, maybe a quadruple win for me and the management.” Chapters: (01:46) - OpenGov’s mission (04:34) - Shrinking the product-market fit (07:34) - Super misson driven (08:59) - Why OpenGov almost shut down (13:08) - Zac’s early career (16:16) - Picking (and losing) a CTO (22:50) - Growing upside-down (25:29) - The SPAC backstabber (31:26) - Why Zac didn’t get fired (33:24) - Selling in 2024 (37:04) - Growth by acquisition (42:31) - John Chambers and PMF (49:32) - Zac’s cross-country bike ride (56:25) - Expectations vs. reality (58:57) - The coup attempt (01:01:59) - Tiring work (01:05:47) - Going to the White House (01:09:40) - DOGE & disrespect (01:12:54) - “We’re just getting started” (01:14:18) - Who OpenGov is hiring (and where) (01:15:13) - What “grit” means to Zac Mentioned in this episode: Joe Lonsdale, Cox Enterprises, OpenAI, the Department of Government Efficiency, Workday, H.R. McMaster, Stanford University, Formation 8, 8VC, the National Academy of Sciences, the Stanford Review, Kamala Harris, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase, Earn, Ben Horowitz, Facebook, Steve Laughlin, Cisco, Laurene Powell Jobs, Glynn Capital, Acme, Allen & Company, Harry You, Joe Tucci, EMC, Bill Green, Accenture, Tyler Technologies, HP, Josh Kushner, GTY Technology Holdings, John Keker, Palantir, CKAN, Oracle, Kevin McCarthy, The American Technology Council Summit, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Pat Gelsinger, Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Elon Musk, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. Links: Connect with Zac LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
Bootstrapped to $12B: Mailchimp’s Ben Chestnut on Life After the Exit 1:11:11

6 weeks ago1:11:11

1:11:11

Guest : Ben Chestnut, Former CEO and Co-Founder of Mailchimp If you find yourself selling your startup, then Mailchimp co-founder Ben Chestnut has some important advice for you: Get a dog. When Intuit bought Mailchimp in 2021 for $12 billion, the company asked Ben if he wanted to stay on as CEO, but he chose to “walk off into the sunset” and let the new owners take over. After that, he estimates it took 6 to 12 months before he stopped checking his email, social media, and calendar with the same level of stress a CEO might have. Adopting a dog, he discovered, forces you to “get OK with the voices in your head." “After the acquisition, that's all I do, I walk the dog,” Ben says. “And the dog was good therapy ... No judgments from a dog.” Mentioned in this episode: Intuit, Wolt, DoorDash, LinkedIn, Dan Kurzius, Salesforce, ExactTarget, Pardot, Constant Contact, Rackspace, Free by Chris Anderson , Wired Magazine, Charles Hudson, the Freemium Summit, Drew Houston, Dropbox, Evernote, Phil Libin, TechCrunch, Brian Kane, Catalyst Partners, Georgia Pacific, Scott Cook, Bing Gordon, Vinay Hiremath, Loom, Joe Thomas, Caltrain, Flickr, Saturday Night Live , Droga5, Cannes Film Festival, Strava, Twitter, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Glean, Rubrik, Amazon AWS, and Mechnical Turk. Links: Connect with Ben LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins…

1
Meet the Man Who’s Making Supersonic Flight Possible Again | Blake Scholl 1:28:45

7 weeks ago1:28:45

1:28:45

Guest : Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic “Passion and drive trumps knowledge and experience,” says Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl. Long before he was running Boom — which earlier this year successfully tested the world’s first privately-developed supersonic jet — he was enabling “the world’s most obnoxious spam cannon” at Groupon, or designing a barcode-scanning game for retail shoppers. But eventually, Blake found the courage to be more audacious and do something closer to his lifelong love of aviation. He began educating himself about things he had never thought to learn, and tapping his LinkedIn network to get intros to the smartest people in the industry. “If you imagine yourself on like the day of IPO, 99 percent of what you needed to know to get to that day, you didn't know on day one,” he says. “So, why not take 99 percent to 99.5 percent, and work on the thing you really want to exist, even if you don't know anything about it yet?” Chapters: (01:07) - Blake on Boom’s beginnings (01:52) - Breaking the sound barrier (05:23) - Concorde’s legacy (09:36) - Navigating regulations (12:08) - Boomless supersonic flight (16:48) - The test flight (20:11) - Day-of nervousness (24:26) - Carrying passengers (26:55) - Cost & wi-fi (30:19) - “No middle seats” (32:35) - Hard tech (36:48) - What if Apple made a plane? (39:08) - Blake’s career journey (43:29) - The risk of failure (49:12) - Finding the courage (52:49) - Balancing life with Boom (56:42) - Learning how to build a jet (01:00:20) - The power of LinkedIn (01:02:38) - Y Combinator Demo Day (01:08:24) - Richard Branson (01:11:38) - Dividing yourself (01:14:19) - Being a focused dad (01:20:05) - Exuberance vs. fear (01:24:15) - Hiring slowly (01:27:17) - What “grit” means to Blake Mentioned in this episode: Chuck Yeager, ChatGPT, the Apollo program, Elon Musk, SpaceX and Falcon 1, Boom Overture, Starlink, Boeing, Airbus, iPhone, Jony Ive, Uber, Airbnb, Anduril, United Airlines, American Airlines, Eclipse Aviation, Tesla, Scott Kirby, Mike Leskinen, Inktomi, Yahoo!, Amazon, Pelago, Google Ads, Kima Labs, Barcode Hero, Groupon, iPad, Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs, Khan Academy, Sam Altman, Loopt, Virgin Atlantic, Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, Ashlee Vance, Bloomberg, Hacker News, Jared Friedman, Sen. Mark Kelly, SV Angel, Ron Conway, Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Holden, and How It’s Made . Links: Connect with Blake Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#232 CEO NetApp, George Kurian: New Chapters 58:18

8 weeks ago58:18

58:18

Guest : George Kurian, CEO of NetApp For almost 10 years, George Kurian has been CEO of the data infrastructure firm NetApp, overseeing its pivot to cloud services. After he took the job — a surprise promotion dropped on him just days before it was announced — he had to learn on the job how the job could be. “ There are a lot more stakeholders that a CEO has to deal with than a chief product officer,” George says, referring to his previous role. “There's also a lot more external commitment ... It was a really all-consuming effort to get the company turned around.” He said the CEO job can be “fairly lonely” because you may want to be peers or friends with your team and your board — but in fact, they are sometimes your subordinates and your superiors, respectively. “ We wouldn't be here without others having contributed significantly on the journey,” George says. “[But] there are times when you have to step back and say, ‘I see a pattern that my team is not seeing,’ or ‘Do I think that we can do a better job than we are doing?’” Chapters: (01:10) - Commuting to Sunnyvale (04:49) - Growing up in India (08:04) - Protect the child (09:33) - Raising kids in Silicon Valley (12:44) - Money motivation (15:04) - NetApp’s renaissance (21:39) - Writing new chapters (23:15) - Culture shifts (26:38) - Coming to NetApp (29:41) - Surprise! You’re the CEO (32:41) - Making sacrifices (35:04) - Work vs. family tension (37:18) - Doubt & lonely decisions (42:38) - The data wave (45:27) - Enterprise AI (51:36) - Starting your own company (53:33) - Navigating difficulty (56:28) - Who NetApp is hiring (57:11) - What “grit” means to George Mentioned in this episode: EMC, OpenAI, DeepSeek, CalTrain, the San Francisco 49ers, Princeton University, Subway, Vons, Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud, Stanford University, Brian Cox, Oliver Jay, the Quakers, Jay Chaudhry, zScaler, Manmohan Singh, Oracle, IBM, Sun, Amazon, Microsoft, Glean, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, McKinsey, Akamai, Cisco, Gwen McDonald, and the San Francisco Friends School. Links: Connect with George LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#231 CEO & Co-Founder Harvey, Winston Weinberg w/ Ilya Fushman: Worthy Sacrifices 1:05:44

9 weeks ago1:05:44

1:05:44

Guests : Winston Weinberg, CEO & co-founder of Harvey; and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins “If you think about pretty much any job out there in the world, we will have some sort of [AI] copilot,” says Kleiner Perkins partner Ilya Fushman. “The question is, who are the right folks to build it, and what’s their vision?” For Harvey CEO & co-founder Winston Weinberg, the vision is clear: Silicon Valley cannot and should not try to disrupt the legal profession by automating the job of lawyers. Instead, he says, they need to have “respect for the industry” before designing AI solutions that speed up specific tasks. “These industries are incredibly complex,” Winston says. “Legal is one of the oldest professions known to man. There are firms that are over a hundred years old. There are firms that are hundreds of years old, and having a brand that says, ‘We are partnering with the industry to transform it’ versus ‘We are just going to steamroll the industry’ is really important for us.” Chapters: (01:16) - The zeitgeist switch (02:58) - What is Harvey? (06:10) - Chief Law Officers (07:58) - Agentic workflows (09:43) - Ilya’s investment thesis (12:48) - Collaborating with AI (16:05) - Task automation (20:52) - Why is it called Harvey? (23:14) - Respecting the legal industry (26:43) - Winston’s past jobs (28:47) - First steps (32:13) - Scaling the company (35:02) - Scaling yourself (37:19) - Who works for Harvey (40:50) - Making mistakes (43:15) - Making sacrifices (45:51) - Growing too fast (50:50) - Setting priorities (54:54) - Harvey’s competitors (57:38) - Internal virality (01:00:46) - Testing Harvey’s limits (01:03:29) - Who Harvey is hiring (01:04:01) - What “grit” means to Winston Mentioned in this episode: ChatGPT, the Fortune 500, Microsoft Copilot, Gabe Pereyra, Activision, Excel, Counsel AI Corporation, Suits , Harvard University, Netflix, Dell, O'Melveny & Myers, Hueston Hennigan, Meta, Reddit, Jason Kwon, Anthropic, Marissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt, Google, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Glean. Links: Connect with Winston Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Ilya Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#230 Co-founder & CEO, Wolt & Head of DoorDash International, Miki Kuusi: The Next Mountain 1:21:51

10 weeks ago1:21:51

1:21:51

Guest : Miki Kuusi, head of international at Doordash + CEO & co-founder of Wolt + co-founder of Slush tech conference Before Miki Kuusi launched the Finnish delivery startup Wolt, which DoorDash acquired in 2022, he wasn’t just another startup entrepreneur. From 2011 to 2015, Miki was the CEO of the hugely influential European tech conference Slush, which brings thousands of founders and VCs to Helsinki every winter. “You could argue that Slush was my university for things leading up to Wolt, and what I do today,” Miki says. “That's where I learned most of the core lessons that I put into action.” One thing he remembers thinking in those early days: Everything was going to be redefined by the internet. “I just wanted to get a shot at building one of these services of the next hundred years,” he says. “And that was the driving motivator for me. If the driving motivator had been money, I don't think we would be here today.” Chapters: (01:14) - Act 3 (03:36) - Unlocking local commerce (06:13) - Selling Wolt (09:27) - The competition (14:20) - DoorDash’s and Wolt’s origins (17:50) - “Maybe we’re the idiots in the room” (22:44) - Difficult years (25:13) - Startups in Europe vs. U.S. (28:56) - Learning from DoorDash (31:51) - Market correction (35:24) - Delivery around the world (39:17) - “ Glorified recruiting companies” (42:31) - Convincing restaurants (44:11) - Slush (48:21) - The next mountain (54:13) - Ambition and concentration (59:58) - Family and distractions (01:04:34) - Email overload (01:07:07) - Time as currency (01:09:25) - Priorities and onboarding (01:15:49) - The power of culture (01:19:32) - Who Wolt and DoorDash are hiring (01:20:39) - What “grit” means to Miki Mentioned in this episode: Tony Xu, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Postmates, Delivery Hero, GrubHub, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, Kees Koolen and Booking.com, 83North, Supercell, DashPass, Wolt+, Microsoft Excel, Amazon, Parker Conrad and Rippling, Andreeseen Horowitz, Fortnite, WhatsApp, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Slack. Links: Connect with Miki LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#229 Former CEO Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick w/ Bing Gordon: Change the Game 1:51:32

11 weeks ago1:51:32

1:51:32

Guest : Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard; and Bing Gordon, Advisor at Kleiner Perkins In 2020, when President Trump signed the executive order that would ban TikTok in the U.S., Bobby Kotick called his old friend Steven Mnuchin. The former Secretary of the Treasury told him that, if TikTok’s U.S. operations were to be sold to an American company, Microsoft would be the only bidder. A couple calls later, he reached ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming, who said he’d rather sell to Bobby than Microsoft. Concerned about his ability to get the deal done solo, Bobby called Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and offered to make a joint bid. Nadella declined, but added, “ if the deal doesn't get done, we should sit down and talk about us buying Activision.” TikTok currently remains Chinese-owned, but three years later, Microsoft paid $75 billion for Activision Blizzard. Chapters: (01:16) - Forming Activision Blizzard (04:19) - Good acquisitions (09:21) - Electronic Arts and “Schedule C” (15:08) - Nintendo and Mediagenic (21:19) - Steve Wynn (29:24) - Wynn cashes out (35:14) - Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (40:38) - Blizzard’s many sales (44:44) - World of Warcraft and Call of Duty (47:59) - Jurassic Park (50:40) - Chris Metzen (55:06) - David Geffen (58:11) - New competitors (01:02:25) - The harassment lawsuits (01:06:53) - Trying to buy TikTok (01:08:51) - Hardware design (01:12:52) - Polymarket, Donald Trump, and TikTok (01:15:19) - The Call of Duty Endowment (01:18:31) - Brian Stann and Hire Heroes USA (01:21:49) - Steve Jobs and Pixar (01:29:41) - The first Macintosh (01:31:29) - The Wii demo (01:33:42) - Nintendo 64, PlayStation and VR (01:37:35) - The hardest year (01:40:17) - Working with Brian Kelly (01:41:26) - Satya Nadella and Microsoft (01:44:39) - Xbox Game Pass (01:49:35) - What “grit” means to Bobby Mentioned in this episode: Vivendi, Bruce Hack and Arnaud de Puyfontaine, EA, Call of Duty, Bizarre Creations, Atari, Apple II, Commodore 64, Jean-Louis Gassée, Apple Lisa, Howard Lincoln, Philips, Magnavox Odyssey, Sutter Hill Ventures, Infocom and Zork, Toys-R-Us, Howard Hughes, E. Parry Thomas, Sun Valley, Thom Weisel, William Morris Endeavor, Guitar Hero, Davidson & Associates, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, World of Warcraft, Medal of Honor, Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, Chris Roberts, Overwatch, Tencent, Time Warner, Jeff Bewkes, Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In , Lina Khan, Samsung, Elon Musk, James L. Jones, UFC, E. Floyd Kvamme, Toy Story 2, Procter & Gamble, Ron Doornik, John Lasseter, Xerox PARC, Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, Goldeneye 007, James Bond, Barbara Broccoli, Oculus, Apple Vision Pro, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Sam Altman, Mustafa Suleyman, Spotify, Candy Crush Saga, Disney, Phil Spencer, Clarence Avant and Motown Records. Links: Connect with Bobby Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Bing Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#228 Co-Founder Alinea & Tock: Selling Experience 1:20:07

12 weeks ago1:20:07

1:20:07

Guest : Nick Kokonas, co-founder of the Alinea Group and former CEO of Tock As of October 1, 2024, Nick Kokonas is no longer an owner of the Alinea restaurant group, which he co-founded and ran for almost 20 years. When he bought a vineyard in Napa Valley prior to the exit, one of his sons remarked, “He's given up. Time to go out to pasture.” Nick admits that the work ahead of him is “not the same” as the high-pressure world of a Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago. But he’s started working with the magician Nate Staniforth on a new restaurant concept that will present diners with illusions and surprises over the course of a two-hour experience. “If you want to feel wonder and feel childlike again, go see a magician,” Nick says. “[But] there’s so much bad cultural baggage ... what we wanted to do was create an experience that is not really about magic.” Chapters: (02:29) - Celebrity restauranteurs (07:14) - The next act (12:30) - Buying the vineyard (15:37) - Fear is motivating (17:59) - Opening night (22:03) - Tongue cancer (27:56) - “OK, let’s fix this” (31:10) - Selling experience (38:32) - The table plate (42:40) - Feeling full (44:14) - Next Restaurant and Tock (49:33) - Being still (51:19) - Nate Staniforth’s lottery illusion (56:57) - The magic restaurant (01:02:29) - Being misunderstood (01:07:44) - Working via email (01:11:43) - “Enemies” (01:18:23) - Who Nick is hiring and what “grit” means to him Mentioned in this episode: Mike Gamson, Shaquille O’Neal, Jeff Kaplan, Steve Bernacki, Robin Anil, Grant Achatz, OpenTable, American Express, The Big Lebowski , The New York Times, eGullet, Gourmet Magazine, Roger Ebert, Eddie van Halen, Goodfellas , The Devil Wears Prada , Batman , the Chicago Bears, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Bavette’s and Brendan Sodikoff, Pablo Picasso, Chef’s Table , Google, Brian Fitzpatrick, Finding Real Magic , David Blaine, Mark Cuban, Mark Caro, Chicago Magazine, John Mariani, Cat Cora, Homaro Cantu, Dave Portnoy, Pete Wells, and Eric Asimov. Links: Connect with Nick Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#227: CEO & Founder Axon, Rick Smith: Push Risk 1:15:41

13 weeks ago1:15:41

1:15:41

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 Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm…

1
#226 President & COO Coinbase, Emilie Choi: Through the Storm 1:00:11

14 weeks ago1:00:11