Dave Powers serves as President and CEO of Deckers Brands, a global footwear and apparel company where he focuses on the company’s five high-performing brands: UGG®, Teva®, Sanuk®, HOKA One One® and Koolaburra®. Prior to Deckers, he held executive leadership roles at Converse and Timberland, where he led worldwide retail merchandising, marketing, visual and store design as well as the creation of a sustainable line of footwear and apparel.
1. The Unlikely CEO of a Global Footwear Company:
2. From $1.1M Acquisition to $1.4BN Revenues: The Hoka Story:
3. From $14.7BN Acquisition to Oprah's Favourite: The UGG Journey:
4. From Abercrombie to LVMH: An Analysis of the Industry:
Gustav Söderström is the Co-President, CPO & CTO at Spotify. Gustav has been instrumental in taking Spotify from a 30-person operation in Sweden when he joined to being the global leader of the space.
Scott Belsky is Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott oversees all of product and engineering for Creative Cloud, as well as design for Adobe.
Tomer Cohen is the Chief Product Officer @ Linkedin where he is responsible for setting and executing the global product strategy at LinkedIn.
1. Why AI Is Now the Product that UI Serves:
2. What Matters More Models or Data:
3. The Workforce Needs to Change with AI:
4. Incumbents vs Startups: Who Wins:
Peter Lacaillade is a Managing Director @ SCS Financial Services where he leads its private investment program where he oversees the firm’s activities in private equity, opportunistic credit and private real assets. Peter has been an early backer of Thrive, Founders Fund, a16z, Greenoaks and 20VC. Before SCS, Peter was an Associate at HarbourVest Partners in its Secondary Group where he analyzed venture capital, growth equity and buyout investments.
1. Becoming One of the Great LPs in Venture:
2. How to Pick the Best Venture Managers:
3. Building a Portfolio That Can 5x:
4. A Breakdown of the LP Landscape:
Davis Smith is the Founder and Chairman of Cotopaxi, an outdoor brand with a humanitarian mission. The company has assisted over 4 million people living in poverty. The company has been profitable for the last 4 years and is expected to do $160M in revenue in 2023, up from $55M just two years before. In April 2023, Davis resigned after 10 years as CEO to lead a mission for his church in Brazil for three years. Davis is an EY Entrepreneur of the Year and was recognized as Utah’s Businessperson of the Year in 2022. He is an adventurer who has floated the Amazon on a self-made raft, kayaked from Cuba to Florida, and explored North Korea.
1. From Selling $6M Worth of Pool Tables to the Amazon of Brazil to Founding Cotopaxi:
2. The Billion Dollar Company, Rejected by 100 Investors:
3. Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenue:
4. Life, Parenting, Marriage:
Steve Goldberg is the Chief Revenue Officer at Salesloft, the sales engagement platform that was acquired by Vista in 2022 for $2.3BN. Prior to Salesloft, Steve was Group Vice President of Enterprise at Yext and before that was a Senior VP @ InsideSales.com.
1. Becoming a Sales Leader:
2. How to Close Prospects Faster Than Ever:
3. How To Do The Best Deal Reviews:
4. How to Ensure Renewals in a World When They are Not Guaranteed:
Sam Corcos is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Levels, the company helping you see how food affects your health with data from biosensors like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). To date, Sam has raised over $89M for Levels from the likes of a16z (Jeff Jordan sits on his board), Founder Collective, Breyer Capital and Shrug Capital to name a few. Prior to Levels, Sam founded two prior companies, CarDash; a Y Combinator company that makes automotive repair and maintenance convenient. Before Cardash, Sam founded, Sightline Maps, an intuitive platform for 3D printing and visualizing topographical maps, marketed primarily towards the U.S. military.
1. The Founding Moment:
2. How to Fundraise Like a Pro:
3. How to Extract the Most Value from Your Investors:
4. How to Find Your Partner and Master Parenting:
Sanjit Biswas is the Founder and CEO @ Samsara, allowing businesses that depend on physical operations to harness Internet of Things (IoT) data. Over the last 8 years, Sanjit has scaled Samsara to $1BN in ARR and a public company with tens of thousands of customers. Before Samsara, Sanjit was the CEO and co-founder of Meraki, one of the most successful networking companies of the past decade. Sanjit grew Meraki from his Ph.D. research into a complete enterprise networking portfolio. Meraki's sales doubled every year from inception and in 2012, Cisco acquired Meraki for $1.2 billion. Huge thanks to Doug Leone for some fantastic question suggestions pre this episode.
1. From Founding to $1BN in ARR in 8 Years:
2. The Man Who Found Product Market Fit Time and Time Again:
3. Mastering a Multi-Product Company:
4. The Art of Great CEOship:
Geoff Charles is the VP of Product at Ramp, leading the product management, operations, and support teams. Prior to Ramp, Geoff helped spin off Mission Lane and scale credit products to millions of consumers. He started his career advising Fortune 100 financial services companies.
1. How to Become a Product Leader:
2. When and Who to Hire for the First Product Team:
3. How to Increase Velocity Using Sprints:
4. Going Multi-Product, Will Incumbents Kill You and Product Re-Usability:
Tooey Courtemanche, Jr. is the Founder, CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Procore. He founded Procore in 2002 with a mission to connect everyone in construction on a global platform. After 13 years of business, the company had just $9.6M in revenue, 8 years after that they have over $890M in revenue. Under his leadership, Procore has grown to become a leading global provider of construction management software, connecting over 2 million users across 150+ countries. Today Procore trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PCOR. Huge thanks to Brian @ Bessemer and Will @ Iconiq for some amazing question suggestions today.
1. The Founding of a $8.5BN Company:
2. The 13-Year Journey to $9.6M in Revenue:
3. The Art of Great CEOship:
4. Parenting, Money and Marriage:
Dominik Richter is the Founder & CEO @ HelloFresh, one of the largest direct-to-consumer businesses of the last decade and the #1 recipe box delivery service. Fun fact, two of the three biggest cooking facilities in North America are HelloFresh facilities with the third being Disney World Orlando. Dominik has made over 40 angel investments in the EU and the US.
1. The Founding of One of the Largest D2C Companies:
2. To Raise or Not to Raise:
3. The IPO: When, How and Why:
4. The Rise and Fall of D2C: