Tobi Lütke is the CEO and Co-Founder of Shopify, the powerhouse company allowing anyone to start and grow their e-commerce business. Over an incredible 18 years, Tobi has scaled Shopify to 10% of total US e-commerce, millions of merchants in over 170 countries, and a market cap today of over $60BN. Huge thanks to Harley Finkelstein for making this happen.
1. From a Small German Town to One of the World's Most Powerful CEOs:
2. You Can Learn More from World of Warcraft Than You Can Companies:
3. The Best Companies Operate with Many Constraints:
4. Inside the Mind of Tobi Lütke: Decision-Making & Prioritisation:
Jackie Reses is the Chair and CEO of Lead Bank, a community bank in Kansas City. Previously, she was the Executive Chairman of Square Financial Services and Capital Lead and Head of the People Team at Block Inc (Square). Prior, she had leadership positions at Yahoo! and was a Partner at Apax Partners Worldwide. Jackie also spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions and the principal investment area. Jackie is on the board of directors of Endeavor, Affirm and Nubank. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group. She has been named one of Forbes' “Self Made Women”, Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” and American Banker “Most Powerful Woman in Finance”.
1. From Humble Beginnings to "Most Powerful Woman in Finance":
2. Building the Best Teams: Lessons from Square and Yahoo
3. The Best Deal-Maker in the Business: Secret to Negotiating:
4. The Next Wave of Fintech:
Jag Duggal is the CPO @ Nubank where he is responsible for product strategy and roadmap reporting to CEO David Velez. Jag leads over 200 professionals across different functions within his role. Before Nubank, he was the Director of Product Management at Facebook, leading monetization of video and third party content. Before Facebook, Jag spent close to 7 years at Quantcast as a Senior VP of Product Management & Strategy. Finally, pre-Facebook, Jag was at Google for 5 years as a Group Product Manager and Head of Strategy (Display).
1. From Cushy Valley Job to CPO @ Brazilian Startup:
2. Product: The Playbook, Art vs Science:
3. Building the Bench: Hiring the Best Team:
4. Go Time: Build, Manage and Execute:
Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he has managed the company’s business in more than 70 countries around the world since 2017. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world’s largest online travel companies. Dara was promoted to Expedia CEO after serving as the Chief Financial Officer of IAC Travel. Before joining IAC, Dara served as Vice President of Allen & Company and spent a number of years as an analyst. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Expedia and Catalyst.org and was previously on the board of the New York Times Company.
1. From the Iranian Revolution to One of the Most Powerful CEOs:
2. Dara Khosrowshahi: The Foundations of Great Leadership:
3. Investments and Acquisitions: The Scorecard:
4. The Future: Food Delivery, Parenting, Marriage:
Mike Maples is one of the OGs of seed investing. As the Co-Founder of Floodgate, he has backed the likes of Twitch, Okta, Lyft, Twitter and more. Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade and was also named a “Rising Star” by FORTUNE and profiled by Harvard Business School for his lifetime contributions to entrepreneurship.
1.) Lesson from SVB #1: The Importance of Scenario Planning:
2.) Lesson from SVB #2: The Importance of Financial Agility:
3.) Lesson from SVB #3: How to Master Crisis Communications:
4.) Lessons from SVB: The Wider World:
Frank Fillman is CRO/Country Leader Australia for Salesforce where he is responsible for responsible for the overall strategy, execution, success, and growth of the $1B+ Australian market across all industries. Prior to Salesforce, Frank was SVP/GM @ Tableau where he was responsible for the strategy, execution, and growth of Tableau's Top Accounts. Over the last 10 years at Salesforce, Frank's accomplishments include $500M+ new revenue closed in 5 years and $1B+ revenue managed. As a result, Frank has been awarded #1 Sales VP of the Year, North America, 3 times! Huge thanks to Zhenya Loginov @ Miro for the intro to Frank today.
1.) From Selling Kitchen Utensils to Leading $1BN Revenue Line for Salesforce:
2.) Build and Execute the Sales Playbook:
3.) Enterprise Deal Dynamics 101:
4.) Building the Bench:
5.) Setting Quota and Deal Reviews:
Frank's Most Recent Book: The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Bill is also a member of the board of Universal Music Group N.V. He serves as a member of the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School. Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC.
1.) From HBS to Starting Your First Fund:
2.) Bill Ackman: A Winner's Mindset: How To Deal with the Highs and Lows:
3.) Bill Ackman: SVB + Bank Runs and The Future of our Financial System:
4.) Bill Ackman: The World Around Us & Potential Politician
Ophelia Brown is the Founder of Blossom Capital, one of Europe's newest but leading early-stage venture firms. Ophelia and the Blossom team have invested in stand-outs including Checkout, Duffel, Tines, and Moonpay. Prior to Blossom, Ophelia was a GP at LocalGlobe and a Principal at Index Ventures where her investments included Robinhood and Typeform.
1.) From Restaurant-Owning DJ to Leading European VC:
2.) Venture Capital: The Market:
3.) Ophelia Brown: The Investor and Fund Manager:
4.) Europe: Is Now Really The Right Time?
Adam Grenier is an OG of the growth world. His first role in growth, was none other than Uber where he was Head of Growth Marketing and Innovation building the global marketing growth infrastructure and team from the ground up. He then enjoyed successful spells at Lambda School and Masterclass as VP Growth and VP of Marketing, respectively. If that was not enough, Adam is also a prolific angel having made investments in Superhuman, Table22, and FitXR to name a few.
1.) Entry into the World of Growth with Uber:
2.) Growth: What it is? Why You Do Not Need a Team for it?
3.) Hiring Growth Mindsets: How to Ask the Right Question:
4.) Uber: Scaling a Monster and Spending $1BN on Ads:
Jackie Reses is the CEO of Lead Bank and previous Exec Chair of Square Financial Services and Head of Lending and Banking. One of only people to have started a bank as a de no; Only tech company to get approved for a de novo. Chair Economic Advisory Council of SF Federal Reserve.
Kris Dickson is the CFO of Lead Bank and previously the CAO / CFO of post-BK Lehman Brothers parent co-estate for 10 years. Lehman Holdco estate has liquidated and distributed $129 billion to unsecured creditors through the end of 2022.
What Happened?
What Now?
Amjad Masad is the Founder and CEO @ Replit, whose mission is to bring the next billion software creators online. With Replit, Amjad has raised over $100M from the likes of Peter Thiel, a16z, Coatue and Addition, to name a few. Before founding Replit, Amjad was a tech lead on the JavaScript infrastructure team at Facebook. Before Facebook, Amjad was #1 employee at Codecademy.
1.) From Troublemaker Child in Iran to Silicon Valley Founder:
2.) The Future: A New World with AI at the Centre:
3.) The Future of Society, Employment and Wages:
4.) Building the Replit Army:
Glen Coates is the VP of Product @ Shopify, leading the development of Shopify’s core commerce platform. He also oversees the core developer platform and Shopify’s partner ecosystem, which includes over 10,000 publicly available apps in the Shopify App Store. Originally a CompSci grad, Glen moved from Sydney to San Diego in 2008 to run US distribution and e-commerce for an Australian eco-products company. In 2010, he attended Columbia Business School for one whole day before quitting to start Handshake, a SaaS B2B e-commerce platform. Glen joined Shopify in May 2019 when the company acquired Handshake. Glen has been in the Vice President role since October 2020.
1. From Game Developer in Sydney to Running E-Commerce Warehouse in NYC:
2. The Art of Product and Product Management:
3. The Art of Product Marketing:
4. Shopify and The Future of Shopify:
Alex Schultz is the Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Analytics for Meta (formerly Facebook), leading Marketing, Analytics, and Internationalization. Previously, Mark Zuckerberg stood up and said, "Facebook would not be a BN user company without Alex". At Meta, Alex has pioneered the integration of product and direct response marketing at Meta and helped launch many of the company’s most impactful products and initiatives. Alex is gay and is the executive sponsor of Facebook’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group.
1. From Paper Planes to CMO of Facebook:
2. The Secret to Scaling to 1 Billion Users:
3. Crucible Moments in Facebook History:
Facebook Messenger Split:
Rebrand to Meta:
Reels vs TikTok vs SNAP:
4. Alex Schultz: The Person and Leader:
Hunter Somerville is a Partner @ Stepstone, one of the largest secondary buyers, fund investors and players in our ecosystem with over $600BN in capital responsibility and over $100BN AUM. Additionally, Hunter serves on the LP Advisory Boards for Felix Capital, Foundry Group, Imaginary Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Boldstart Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, and more. Prior to StepStone, Hunter was a general partner with Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that merged with StepStone in 2021. Before that, he worked as an associate for Camden Private Capital.
1. Three Types of Secondaries:
2. LPs Today and Moving Forward Investing in Funds:
3. Liquidity: When Does the Cash Hit:
4. AMA with One of the Largest Secondary Buyers:
Jamie Siminoff is the Founder and Chief Inventor @ Ring, with Ring Jamie, created the world’s first Wi-Fi video doorbell while working in his garage in 2011. Since Ring’s launch in 2013, Ring has helped make thousands of neighborhoods safer all around the world. As part of the journey, Jamie raised over $385M from the likes of True Ventures, Felicis, First Round, CRV, Upfront and more. In 2018, Amazon acquired Ring for a reported $1BN. Prior to Ring, Jamie founded several successful ventures including PhoneTag, the world’s first voicemail-to-text company, and Unsubscribe.com, a service that helped email users clean commercial email from their inboxes. He successfully sold both companies in 2009 and 2011 respectively.
1.) From Creating the First Wi-Fi Doorbell to $BN Acquisition:
2.) Crucible Moments: From Lawsuits and Near-Death to $22M in Sales in a Day:
3.) Jamie Siminoff: The Leader:
4.) Selling for $1BN to Amazon:
David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, one of the leading seed-stage investment firms of the last decade having invested in over 500 seed-stage startups, including Plaid, Ro, Ramp, PillPack, Amplitude, Flatiron Health, Stripe, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Flexport, Classpass, Vine, GroupMe, Airtable and more. David is also the Chairman of GoodDog, a marketplace to find pets online.
1.) From Techstars To Founding BoxGroup:
2.) The Debate: The Math Does Not Work: Portfolio Construction:
3.) Advice to Founders Raising Rounds:
4.) David Tisch: AMA:
Joey Levin is the CEO of IAC where he has overseen the constant evolution of the company, including the initial IPO and subsequent spin-off of Match Group, the spin-off of Vimeo, and the acquisitions of Angie’s List and Care.com. If that was not enough, in October 2022, Joey was also appointed as CEO of Angi Inc. In addition to this, Joey also serves on the boards of IAC, Turo, and MGM Resorts International.
1.) The Makings of a Great Leader:
2) Value Investing is BS & The Markets Today:
3.) Simplification is the Secret to Margin & Messaging 101:
4.) Parenting, Money and Marriage:
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are the co-founders of Instagram. Since its release in 2010, Instagram has become of the most significant products in modern society shaping the way millions of people engage with the world around them. In January this year, Kevin and Mike announced their return to the founding arena with the launch of Artifact, a personalized news feed driven by artificial intelligence.
1.) The Perfect Partnership:
2.) Why Social Networks are Broken & The Next Frontier:
3.) Welcome Artifact: The Comeback:
4.) Family, Money, San Francisco:
5.) Hiring, Investing, Managing:
Zach Lawryk is Head of Solutions Consulting @ Rippling, what is solutions consulting? They are the product expert in the solution that ties a business value to help support the sales rep in the execution of their quota. And there is no one better than Zach, prior to leading the solutions consulting team at Rippling, Zach was VP of Solutions Consulting at Slack where he scaled the SE team from 10 to 200. Before Slack, Zach was Head of Solutions Engineering @ Optimizely and before that was Director of Sales Engineering at Box.
1. ) WTF is Solutions Engineering:
2.) When and Who: Building the Foundations:
3.) Making the First Hire: The Process:
4.) Integrating into the Team: Making it Work:
Aloe Blacc is a GRAMMY nominee and the voice behind such hits as Wake Me Up, The Man, SOS, I Need A Dollar, and many more. Aloe has toured the world, won countless awards but his latest album, All Love Everything, is the singer-songwriter’s first collection of material written as a father. “Becoming a father made me want to share those experiences in music,” he says, admitting it’s a challenge to translate such a powerful thing into lyrics and melody. If that was not enough, Aloe is also an entrepreneur with the founding of his new company, something we discuss in the show today.
1.) Entry into Music and Running From Fame:
2.) The Art of Storytelling:
3.) The Songwriting Process 101:
4.) Marriage, Fatherhood, and Global Stardom:
Mike Duboe is a Partner @ Greylock where he sits on the board of Builder, Inventa, Novi, Pepper, Postscript. Prior to entering the world of venture, Mike was the first in-house growth hire at Stitch Fix, where he built and led the Growth organization helping take the company through to their IPO. Before Stitchfix, Mike was the first growth hire at Tilt, where he built and oversaw multiple teams, including analytics, marketing, community, and growth product. He also served on YC’s growth advisory council and was a growth lecturer at Reforge.
1.) Entry into the World of Growth:
2.) When and Who To Hire:
3.) The Hiring Process: How to Detect and Win the Best:
4.) Mastering Paid Marketing: Lessons from Stitchfix:
Tom Loverro is a Partner @ IVP where he has led or was actively involved in investments in Amplitude, Coinbase, Hashicorp and Datadog to name a few. As a result of his investing success, Tom was named to Forbes Midas List in 2021. Prior to joining IVP, Tom was a Principal at RRE Ventures.
1.) The Entry into Venture:
2.) The Calm Before the Storm:
3.) When The Storm Hits:
4.) The Rounds That Happen When The Storm Hits:
The Survival Guide for the Storm:
1.) Raise Now:
2.) Cut, Cut and Cut Some More:
3.) Focus on Survival Not Valuation:
4.) Bring on Operators with Experience:
5.) Unit Economics over Growth:
6.) Play Your Cards Right and Then Go on Offense:
7.) Be Decisive, Half Measures Rarely Succeed:
Steve Pagliuca is a Senior Advisor at Bain Capital, the firm he joined in 1982 and as a Managing Director of Bain Capital, he has helped build the firm into one of the world’s leading investment companies with over $160 billion in assets under management. Steve is also a Managing Partner and Co-Owner of the World Championship Boston Celtics Basketball franchise. Steve is also co-owner and co-chairman of the Serie A professional football club, Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio. If that was not enough, Steve currently, serves on the Board of Directors of Burger King, Gartner Group, HCA, Warner Chilcott, and FCI. Huge thanks to Moshe @ Shrug Capital for making the intro.
1.) From Duffel Bags at Duke to Buying Sports Teams:
2.) Buying Sports Teams: Not So Different to Companies:
3.) The Future of Sports Ownership:
4.) Steve Pagliuca: The Person and Capital Allocator:
Ariel Cohen is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Navan (formerly TripActions), the #1 travel management super-app used by over 8,000 companies. Ariel has raised over $2BN for Navan from some of the best including a16z, Zeev Ventures, Lightspeed, Greenoaks, and Elad Gil. Prior to TripActions, Ariel co-founded streamOnce, a business multimedia integration platform that was successfully acquired by Jive Software, where Ariel had previously served in a senior position following his time at Hewlett-Packard.
1.) Why Education is Outdated and Wisdom to People Entering the Working World:
2.) Why SAP and Salesforce Will Die:
3.) Growing a Business 3x and Raising at a $9.2BN Valuation in COVID:
4.) Margins Matter: Gaining Leverage Through Additional Margin:
Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions. Orlando has overseen over 420 software acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing more than $235 billion in transaction value. Forbes named him "Wall Street’s best dealmaker" in 2019, and he was dubbed "Private equity’s king of SaaS" by the Financial Times in 2021.
1.) From Puerto Rico Roots to Wall Street's Best Dealmaker:
2.) The Secret to Success in Value Investing:
3.) WTF is Happening In Markets Today:
4.) Orlando Bravo: The Leader, Father and Husband:
Orlando's Fave Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment