Brex 3.0: Inside the Radical Turnaround with Pedro Franceschi

Guests: Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia; and Josh Coyne, partner at Kleiner PerkinsWhen Victor Riparbelli wants to learn something, he’ll start with a YouTube video or a podcast: “I maybe buy the book on Amazon as like the fifth step,” the Synthesia CEO says. His company is trying to change the text-first (or text-only) way information is conveyed at work, making AI avatar-narrated videos to replace documents like customer profiles and HR manuals. Victor says that as the technology improves over many years, it could replace text entirely. “I think for most people, if they had a choice, they would probably prefer to watch video and listen to audio.”In this episode, Victor, Josh, and Joubin discuss Seedcamp, Annie Case, Rubik’s Cubes, AI video dubbing, Instagram filters, emotive avatars, Ilya Fushman, Atlassian, Grammarly, the Gutenberg Parenthesis, European startups, email responsiveness, acqui-hires, and being “lonely at the top.”Chapters:(01:33) - Loose screws (02:45) - How Victor and Josh met (04:35) - AI hype cycles (06:57) - What Synthesia does (08:22) - Copycats and competition (14:34) - Winner take all (16:38) - Synthesia’s origin story (21:36) - Category creation (23:41) - The next era of AI video (28:51) - The uncanny valley (30:07) - Watching videos at work (33:17) - Scaling video and audio content (37:45) - Emailing with Mark Cuban (45:15) - Battle scars (48:47) - Customer obsession (50:54) - Pressure to succeed (54:41) - Deep passion (57:16) - Who Synthesia is hiring Links:Connect with VictorTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoshTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

29 Huhti 202459min

Guest: Kat Cole, COO of Athletic GreensYou can’t make smart decisions if you don’t know the truth — the “true truth,” as Athletic Greens COO Kat Cole puts it. “As you get bigger and you have success, innovator’s dilemma, you end up talking to yourself instead of really being rooted in what’s going on.” That’s why she has embraced the anxiety of the unknown, channeling what she doesn’t know about the market into productive questions for her team and her customers. Anxiety can be harmful, she concedes, but “there’s a healthy version of believing you never really know what’s going on, and you never really know the true truth, because things change so quickly.”In this episode, Kat and Joubin discuss Huberman Lab, ultra-endurance athletes, Chris Ashenden, founder-owned businesses, “fancy jobs,” international trips, unplanned succession, private equity, the Atkins diet, inheriting a bad situation, omni-channel marketing, working with franchisees, fully remote companies, “if not for...,” and why Athletic Greens has only one SKU.Chapters:(01:04) - Podcast superfans (06:54) - AG1 and Kat’s professional journey (11:14) - Her “Jerry Springer childhood” (14:31) - Learning, moving, thriving (16:18) - The Hooters business school (24:05) - Leaving Hooters and joining Rourke Capital (28:46) - Cinnabon’s dark years (35:55) - The three questions (41:11) - MiniBons (45:37) - Anxiety and uncertainty (48:40) - The wad of paper story (50:26) - Favorite interview questions (54:49) - The temptation to do more Links:Connect with KatTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

22 Huhti 20241h

Guest: Anne Raimondi, COO and Head of Business at AsanaAsana COO Anne Raimondi feels pressure to perform in her job “every day, all the time.” But that pressure doesn’t come from her fellow executives; she imposes it on herself, trying to think carefully about how much each of her decisions will impact her team. “I have a lot of privilege and choice,” Anne says, “of how I spend my time, the resources available to me, and am I doing enough? ... Am I doing the most with the opportunities I have, and making as positive an impact as I can?”In this episode, Anne and Joubin discuss returning to the office, Scott McNealy, the dotcom bust, Myers-Briggs, Star Trek: The Next Generation, empowering leaders, Blue Nile, Robert, Chatwani, tech leaders with children, Bain Capital, time management, being “in the moment,” Dave Goldberg, Dustin Moskovitz, staying curious, and being prescriptive.Chapters:(01:05) - Hybrid remote policies (05:34) - Employees’ emotional journey (09:39) - Thoughtful answers and betazoids (13:17) - Anne’s immigrant parents (14:50) - Regrettable feedback (17:46) - Leaders who cast a shadow (19:36) - Company-hopping (24:14) - Startups and stability (28:42) - Pressure to perform (31:08) - Insecurity and parenthood (37:12) - Allocating your time (39:43) - Co-founding One Jackson (45:36) - Amanda Kleha (47:01) - Great founders (52:18) - “It is not glamorous” (54:03) - From board to operating at Asana (57:10) - Feedback for founders (01:00:25) - Recurring meetings (01:03:07) - Who Asana is hiring Links:Connect with AnneLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

15 Huhti 20241h 6min

Guest: Sanjay Beri, CEO and Founder of Netskope“You can be waiting your whole life to do something, and then your life’s over,” says Sanjay Beri. After nine years at Juniper Networks, he left his comfortable job, moved his family to a house with a pricier mortgage, and launched the cloud security firm Netskope. His entrepreneurial story would make anyone stressed, he acknowledges, but “at some level, you have to be wired to enjoy it… that's why I tell everybody who joins, ‘It's not for the faint of heart.’”In this episode, Sanjay and Joubin discuss Reddit, banker friends, professional legacies, the wrong way to raise capital, authenticity, Ponzi schemes, “fool’s gold,” high-risk hiring, hitting pause, your “other family,” and changing roles.Chapters:(00:54) - 2024 IPOs (05:43) - Long on cybersecurity (07:59) - Netskope’s mission (10:22) - Sanjay’s first company, Ingrian (12:07) - The writing on the wall (15:02) - Mamoon Hamid (20:21) - Stress and perspective (24:53) - Sanjay’s mother (28:41) - The trenches vs. the clouds (30:53) - Guts, Resolve, Integrity, Tenacity (32:10) - Hiring for grit (38:06) - The lowest point (41:18) - “Always on” (43:49) - The hot desk office (46:13) - Scaling people (49:30) - Politics and integrity (53:03) - Who Netskope is hiring Links:Connect with SanjayLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

8 Huhti 202454min

Guest: Scott McNealy, former CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems & co-founder of CurrikiScott McNealy never wanted to be CEO of Sun, and in his 22-year tenure before selling to Oracle, he knows there were times he failed to execute, or to rein in the once-iconic Silicon Valley firm’s worst impulses. But like his pro golfer son, Maverick, Scott doesn’t like to look back: “Golfers will always look back and blame the wind, a divot that wasn't repaired, a bad rake job, a mower cut that wasn't done properly, a gust of wind,” he explains. “If you blame yourself for all of the mistakes you make. You will hate yourself ... I look forward.”In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss Scott Cook, Maverick McNealy, why big companies are riskier than startups, Al Gore, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Kodak, Dick Kleinhans, Harvard University, “bozo invasions,” Myers-Briggs, making an example, Motorola car phones, the Moscone Center, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA’s valuation, farewell letters, “you have no privacy,” open-source education, and toothpaste.com.In this episode, we cover:(01:00) - John Doerr (02:47) - Fathers, sons, and sports (07:29) - Living in the piñata (10:48) - Why Scott left Sun (13:49) - The heyday of Sun Microsystems (18:24) - Vinod Khosla and founding Sun (21:24) - How Scott became CEO (27:21) - Profitable in three months (30:02) - Inferiority complex (32:20) - Executive exits and fun at work (35:49) - Managers and recognition (38:18) - “HR hero” Crawford Beveridge (40:35) - How Carol Bartz became VP of marketing (43:07) - Sharing in success (45:25) - Scott’s love life & meeting Susan (50:54) - The dotcom boom and crash (53:45) - Unicorn CEOs and IBM’s offer (55:49) - Competitors and hindsight (58:20) - “The planet system” (01:00:13) - Too many employees (01:04:06) - Larry Ellison and selling to Oracle (01:07:01) - Blaming yourself and looking forward (01:10:11) - Curriki (01:12:12) - The AI boom (01:14:42) - “Grit” and insecurity Links:Connect with ScottTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

1 Huhti 20241h 18min

Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of HarnessCisco bought Jyoti Bansal’s first company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, making him a very wealthy man. But after two African safaris, a week of Michelin-starred meals in Tokyo, and more adventures all around the world, he realized that spending his money didn’t truly make him happy. After some soul-searching, he realized what he really enjoyed: “I liked to build companies. That is my craft ... If someone enjoys playing gold for six hours, I would enjoy working on a startup for six hours.”In this episode, Jyoti and Joubin discuss the evolution of Grit, Carlos Delatorre, Tom Mendoza, Glean, growing up in India, traveling the world, three-star restaurants, soul-searching, automating gruntwork, paying for nice hotels, red-eye flights, product-market fit, Jeff Bezos, the “three-layered cake,” Frank Slootman, raising the bar for distribution, technical debt, structural efficiency, and taking pride in your work. In this episode, we cover:(00:59) - Top-tier CROs (04:18) - The video game levels of startups (07:24) - Selling AppDynamics to Cisco (09:16) - Keeping up with high-growth companies (12:10) - The chip on Jyoti’s shoulder (16:15) - How he thinks about money (18:02) - Do what you enjoy every day (22:32) - “What would make me happy?” (24:56) - Starting BIG Labs and Harness (29:16) - Adjusting to a new reality (34:13) - Work-life balance (36:30) - What gets easier — and harder — over time (41:44) - Product vs. distribution (46:46) - Paying it forward (48:29) - The next level (50:24) - The four lists (53:45) - Assigning clear responsibilities (56:06) - Jyoti’s favorite interview question (57:41) - Who Harness is hiring Links:Connect with JyotiLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

25 Maalis 202459min

Guest: Clint Sharp, CEO and co-founder of CriblNew employees are joining the remote data platform Cribl every week, and as the staff grows, CEO Clint Sharp has noticed a problem: He can’t file a bug report without a lot of caveats. When there were a handful of users, no one would bat an eye at the CEO posting a bug on Slack, but now he has had to learn how to phrase things because people assume he’s “irate and we should change everything we’re doing,” Clint says. “I’ll post something and there’s a flurry of DMs that are happening in the background, like ‘Oh my God.’” Unless the tone of his bug report is clear, workers with more experience at Cribl then have to reassure the newbies: “Calm down. When he does this, he’s not upset. He’s one of the power users of the product.” In this episode, Clint and Joubin discuss being on the road, niche audiences, top-of-funnel problems, “come to Jesus” meetings, moving the goalposts, building for building’s sake, “down and to the right,” mediating re-orgs, flat organizations, filing bugs as the CEO, setting the example, Henry Schuck, Baldur’s Gate III, legal narratives, Hacker News, Cisco, Doug Merritt, Gary Steele, Rippling, and dead trends.In this episode, we cover:(01:08) - Running a remote company (02:57) - Cribl’s management meetings (05:56) - Looking back and recognition (08:08) - Growing quickly and what Cribl does (11:21) - Traction (14:53) - Solving a new problem (17:56) - Friends and family funding (21:45) - Why not shut it all down? (24:36) - Healthy arrogance and control (31:02) - Serial entrepreneurs and founder-CEOs (33:38) - What Clint loves about the job (35:31) - The hardest parts (38:41) - Core values (41:43) - Favorite interview questions (44:26) - Drawing boundaries (47:18) - Vacation and work-life balance (52:53) - Splunk’s lawsuit against Clint (56:26) - “Their brand is synonymous with expensive” (58:41) - Who owns the data? (01:01:59) - Building platforms (01:07:35) - “I’m so sick of AI” (01:11:25) - Who Cribl is hiring Links:Connect with ClintTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

18 Maalis 20241h 12min

Guest: Glen Tullman, CEO of TranscarentBefore he was CEO of Transcarent, Glen Tullman presided over the biggest digital health merger of all time: His previous company Livongo was acquired in 2020 by Teledoc for $18.5 billion. Over his decades of experience in health tech, he has developed saying: Hire low, fire high. When one of his friends was offered a job and said he wanted to consider another offer, Glen withdrew Transcarent’s offer because he didn’t want to be the highest bidder — in other words, hire low. But whenever he has to let someone go, he sees it as his responsibility to “help them go off and do something else that’s great, and be successful.” Firing and replacing executives, he said, is “just part of growing ... it doesn’t have to be ugly.”In this episode, Glen and Joubin discuss conservative values, John Doerr, Teledoc, failures of leadership, Steve Case, Bill Gates, changing expectations, Travis Kalanick, incentive bonuses, Bucknell University, massive layoffs, criticizing in public, anonymous charity, cycling events, Michael Jordan, Bill McDermott, Barack Obama, private jets, and hiring without titles.In this episode, we cover:(01:11) - How Glen splits his time (03:55) - Looking back and leaving Livongo (09:03) - Would he do it again differently? (13:42) - Energy at work (18:00) - Failure and starting over (21:16) - What Transcarent does (25:29) - Taking on the system and stress (30:33) - Turning Allscripts around (33:48) - “We educated you to make a difference” (38:06) - The birth of electronic prescriptions (42:52) - Hire low, fire high (47:47) - Radical honesty (53:04) - Charitable efforts (57:55) - Glen’s competitive childhood (01:00:55) - His family and priorities (01:08:24) - Would Glen go into politics? (01:12:32) - “I hate to sleep” (01:15:06) - Peloton meetings (01:17:32) - Trading money for time (01:24:11) - Sharing credit (01:25:54) - Who Transcarent is hiring (01:28:05) - What “grit” means to Glen Links:Connect with GlenLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

11 Maalis 20241h 30min