#125 CRO Starburst, Javier Molina: Reading Cues

Guest: Javier Molina, CRO of Starburst

Starburst CRO Javier Molina’s peers, former colleagues, and even his wife often tell him the same thing: He’s difficult to read. That doesn’t mean he’s not listening, though. In fact, he’s focusing on many different things such as speech patterns, the words being used, and the priority of those words while simultaneously keeping a pulse on social cues as well. This uncontrolled habit he describes as both a superpower and his achilles heel. “It allows me to interview really well and assess talent,” says Javier, who describes himself as a social introvert. “It allows me to read situations … understand room dynamics… It helps me understand my customers [but] I think a lot of people like extroverts because of how they’re so expressive and flashy ... and that’s not me.”

In this episode, Javier and Joubin discuss Austin culture, making eye contact, social introverts, living in the future, self-awareness, betting on yourself, workhorse culture, reverse job interviews, short-term wins, in-car WiFi, great partners, and world-class interviewing.

In this episode, we cover:

• San Francisco vs. Austin and the flood of techies moving to Texas (01:08)
• The “movie that you can’t turn off” and assessing people quickly (05:49)
• Patience, focus, and being present (14:10)
• “What is a common misconception of you?” (19:53)
• Self-awareness as a proxy for potential, and feeling different from the crowd (25:04)
• Buying houses, and betting on yourself (32:00)
• Being hired as an executive, and the culture of teams at bootstrapped companies (39:00)
• What Starburst does and turning the tables on CEO Justin Borgman (45:44)
• Being intentional, celebrating wins, and “enjoying the climb” (50:31)
• Getting away from work, and the strength of entrepreneurs’ relationships (57:22)
• The little things in interviews, and why “a problem well stated is half solved” (01:02:50)
• How to screen for grit (01:07:41)

Links:

• Connect with Javier
  • 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