#150 CEO Box, Aaron Levie w/ Mamoon Hamid: Open For Business
Grit7 Aug 2023

#150 CEO Box, Aaron Levie w/ Mamoon Hamid: Open For Business

Guest: Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins

When he was a newly minted venture capitalist at USVP, Mamoon Hamid got a tip that he should meet a young entrepreneur named Aaron Levie, and fought for the right to invest in his cloud storage startup, Box. For years after that initial investment, the two men say, Box’s fate was precarious: “We could have died any day,” Mamoon says, and Aaron recalled several times he had to be talked “down from a ledge.” Today, they tell us how Box established itself as “open for business” — a concept Mamoon hounded Aaron with in the early years — and grew into success.

In this episode, Aaron, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss Box socks, authenticity at work, Josh Stein, living in the office, over-diligence, Google Platypus, the 2008 crash, nostalgia, everything is personal, the ten-person test, burnout, Dan Levin, ChatGPT, Parker Conrad, and Silicon Valley as “technology town.”

In this episode, we cover:

  • “Make mom proud, unless she’s evil” (01:59)
  • How Mamoon and Aaron met (04:38)
  • Mamoon’s first investment in Box (11:15)
  • Pausing the term sheet (16:08)
  • “We could have died any day” (19:01)
  • What is company-building? (23:23)
  • Open For Business (25:27)
  • Getting to cash flow positive (27:52)
  • Slow growth with no burn vs. fast growth, high burn (31:15)
  • Tough feedback (34:31)
  • Overcoming challenges around the Box IPO (36:31)
  • Growing as CEO (38:35)
  • The Apple Vision Pro and AI (44:15)
  • Investing in cutting-edge companies (49:15)
  • Using AI to re-juice growth (51:48)
  • How Aaron educates himself (54:22)
  • Business as a sport (57:14)
  • Who Box is hiring and what “grit” means to Aaron (01:00:44)

Links:

Episoder(281)

#136 COO Modern Treasury, Rachel Pike: Golden Ticket

#136 COO Modern Treasury, Rachel Pike: Golden Ticket

Guest: Rachel Pike, COO at Modern TreasuryPayment operations startup Modern Treasury is not afraid to do things in “our own weird way,” says COO Rachel Pike. Its values statement is a 150 word essay, ...

1 Mai 20231h 4min

#135 CMO & CSO GitLab, Ashley Kramer: The Three Ps

#135 CMO & CSO GitLab, Ashley Kramer: The Three Ps

Guest: Ashley Kramer, CMO & CSO of GitLabOne day, when Ashley Kramer was an SVP at Alteryx, one of her direct reports hit her with a dose of reality: “She said, ‘I think you are trying to put me on a ...

24 Apr 20231h 11min

#134 Chief Bizdev Officer at Uber, Jen Vescio: Buy, Build, or Partner

#134 Chief Bizdev Officer at Uber, Jen Vescio: Buy, Build, or Partner

Guest: Jen Vescio, Chief Business Development Officer at Uber and founder of Awestruck VenturesIf you were to look at Jen Vescio’s calendar, it might look like a pack of Skittles: Every single one of ...

17 Apr 20231h 20min

#133 CEO Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh Arora: Create Certainty

#133 CEO Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh Arora: Create Certainty

Guest: Nikesh Arora, CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto NetworksNikesh Arora has been in the C-Suite for more than two decades, including a 10-year stint as Google’s chief business officer and — most recen...

10 Apr 20231h 17min

#132 Former 49ers Quarterback Alex Smith and Former Warriors Guard Shaun Livingston: Hard Steps

#132 Former 49ers Quarterback Alex Smith and Former Warriors Guard Shaun Livingston: Hard Steps

Guests: Alex Smith and Shaun Livingston, former players for the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors“I just thought, the best of my life is behind me.” That’s what former NFL quarterback Alex...

3 Apr 202355min

#131 Golden State Warriors Forward Andre Iguodala: The Sixth Man

#131 Golden State Warriors Forward Andre Iguodala: The Sixth Man

Guest: Andre Iguodala, forward for the Golden State WarriorsThe average professional basketball career lasts around four years. By the first time Andre Iguodala came to play for the Golden State Warri...

27 Mar 202349min

#130 Former Vice President Al Gore: Relentless

#130 Former Vice President Al Gore: Relentless

Guest: Al Gore, Former Vice President and chairman of The Climate Reality ProjectAl Gore has been talking about all kinds of renewable energy for decades. The former U.S. Vice President, Nobel Peace P...

20 Mar 20231h 1min

#129 CRO Zapier, Giancarlo “GC” Lionetti: Recheck, Rebalance

#129 CRO Zapier, Giancarlo “GC” Lionetti: Recheck, Rebalance

Guest: Giancarlo “GC” Lionetti, CRO of Zapier“I live in a constant state of paranoia,” says Zapier CRO Giancarlo “GC” Lionetti, “which I guess is healthy and unhealthy.” A lifelong hard worker who sho...

13 Mar 20231h 11min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
e24-podden
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
pengesnakk
finansredaksjonen
utbytte
pengepodden-2
rss-sunn-okonomi
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
lederpodden
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
liberal-halvtime
rss-markedspuls-2
lederskap-nhhs-podkast-om-ledelse
arcticpodden