#228 Co-Founder Alinea & Tock: Selling Experience

Guest: John Hanke, CEO of NianticWhen Pokémon Go launched, Niantic CEO John Hanke was enjoying a tranquil walk through a bamboo forest near Kyoto with his son. When he got back, it was all hands on deck: Building on a platform Niantic had developed for its previous game, Ingress, Pokémon Go was a runaway success story, earning $100 million dollars in revenue in its first week, and $1 billion in its first seven months. “I had a huge amount of anxiety that this is just too good to be true,” John recalls. “When are the wheels going to come off? What’s going to go wrong?”In this episode, John and Joubin discuss San Francisco’s history, Noam Bardin, Google Street View, David Lawee, AR glasses, Field Trip and Ingress, Tsunekazu Ishihara, gaming outside, Gilman Louie, Frank Slootman, mellowing out, Thomas Kurian, Jay Chaudhry, commute burnout, daily yoga, Xerox PARC, Mark Zuckerberg, Apple Vision Pro, the history of gaming, and talking to computers.Chapters:(02:17) - Waze and Google Maps (05:39) - John’s childhood heroes (07:38) - Pokémon Go’s first week (10:13) - Maps as a platform (13:56) - Spinning Niantic off of Google (17:36) - Hyperscaling (19:05) - Finding Niantic’s mission (22:45) - Startups and families (24:15) - Adrenaline and gas (30:17) - Drive without desperation (34:42) - Negotiating with the Pokémon Company (38:25) - Zero to a million (41:28) - Relief and responsibility (43:44) - Sustaining engagement (47:18) - Enjoying the ride more (50:57) - Rules for balance (55:42) - Augmented reality and wearables (01:01:38) - Social games (01:04:14) - LLMs and the voice UI (01:06:52) - Who Niantic is hiring Links:Connect with JohnTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

12 Aug 20241h 9min

Guest: Mark McLaughlin, chairman of the board at Qualcomm When he was 24, Mark McLaughlin thought his career was over. Since childhood, he had dreamed of attending West Point and joining the Army, but a helicopter crash left him unable to serve, with a medical discharge. However, the crash also let him stay closer to his then-girlfriend Karen. They married and raised three children, and Mark found success in his new career, serving as CEO of Palo Alto Networks and now chairman of the board at Qualcomm. “In hindsight,” he says, “I would tell you the worst thing that ever happened in my life was the best thing that ever happened in my life.”In this episode, Mark and Joubin discuss semi-retirement, Palo Alto Networks, identity crises, West Point, homeschooling, self-awareness, working on the plane, Walter Reed Hospital, Nikesh Arora, Cristiano Amon, non-founder CEOs, Paul Jacobs, Verisign, reference interviews, rising to the occasion, and fortitude.Chapters:(00:57) - Mark’s reputation and family (09:40) - “What am I doing?” (14:58) - Deciding to step away (16:55) - Overcoming work addiction (22:15) - Mandatory sacrifice (24:25) - Carl Eschenbach (27:12) - The people who matter (32:11) - Energy vs. adrenaline (37:31) - The helicopter crash (44:02) - Leaving Palo Alto Networks (50:05) - Bungled CEO transitions (54:24) - “Detox” time off (57:32) - Waiting for the right pitch (01:04:48) - The at-home interview (01:08:59) - Work in perspective (01:12:10) - What “grit” means to Mark Links:Connect with MarkLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

5 Aug 20241h 13min

Guest: David Risher, CEO of LyftDavid Risher can measure his career in phone calls, from the one that introduced him to Jeff Bezos in 1995, to the call from the Lyft board in 2023, asking him to vie for the CEO job. But initially, he believed his life’s legacy might be the nonprofit Worldreader, which has brought books to more than 22 million readers around the globe; he had to convince himself that turning Lyft around during one of its most difficult eras was also a call worth answering.In this episode, David and Joubin discuss reliable exercise, pickleball, Sean Aggarwal, John Zimmer and Logan Green, return to office, Women+ Connect, reference checks, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Adam Bosworth, interracial marriages, children of divorce, powdered wigs, Barnes & Noble, the University of Washington, Barcelona, the Galapagos Islands, Amazon’s Kindle, Steve Kessel, expat talent, Bucky Moore, rideshare insurance, robo-taxis, Elon Musk, and data science.Chapters:(00:45) - Biking to work — and across the US (03:44) - Lyft Bikes (07:35) - How David became CEO (12:18) - 14 months later... (15:28) - Customer obsession (17:40) - Jeff Bezos (21:00) - Leaving Microsoft (24:28) - Drive + empathy (27:39) - David’s parents (30:38) - Being straightforward (36:20) - Loving the Work (38:42) - Amazon’s early days (40:49) - Bezos’ farewell easter egg (43:44) - “What else is out there?” (48:36) - Ariel Cohen (49:56) - Living overseas (53:06) - Starting Worldreader (58:15) - The lifelong journey (01:00:40) - Growing profitably (01:04:09) - Waymo and driverless cars (01:10:45) - Physical businesses at scale (01:14:03) - Who Lyft is hiring (01:15:19) - What “grit” means to David Links:Connect with DavidTwitterLinkedInThe Amazon easter eggConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

29 Juli 20241h 16min

Guests: Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO and co-founder of Together AI; and Bucky Moore, partner at Kleiner PerkinsNo one knows for sure whether the future of AI will be driven more by research labs and AI-native companies, or by enterprises applying the technology to their own data sets. But one thing is for sure, says Together AI CEO and co-founder Vipul Ved Prakash: It’s going to be a lot bigger. “If you look at the next 10 years or the next 20 years, we are doing maybe 0.1 percent of [the] AI that we’ll be doing 10 years from now.” In this episode, Vipul, Bucky, and Joubin discuss startup table stakes, Tri Dao, tentpole features, open-source AI, non-financial investors, Meta Llama, deep learning researchers, WeWork, “Attention is All You Need,” create vs. capture, Databricks, Docker, scaling laws, Ilya Sutskever, IRC, and Jordan Ritter and Napster.Chapters:(00:53) - Executive hiring (04:40) - How Vipul and Bucky met (06:54) - Six years at Apple (08:19) - Together and the AI landscape (12:47) - Apple’s deal with OpenAI (14:27) - Open vs. closed AI (17:32) - Nvidia GPUs and capital expenditures (22:48) - Fame and reputation (24:17) - Planning for an uncertain future (27:00) - Stress and attention (30:18) - AI research (34:58) - Challenges for AI businesses (39:02) - Frequent disagreements (43:05) - Vipul’s first startups, Cloudmark and Topsy (47:55) - Taking time off (50:09) - The crypto-AI connection (53:20) - Who Together AI is hiring (54:37) - What “grit” means to Vipul Links:Connect with VipulTwitterLinkedInConnect with BuckyTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

22 Juli 202455min

Guest: Andrew Bialecki, CEO of KlaviyoWhenever the marketing platform Klaviyo is hiring, says CEO Andrew Bialecki, “we sort of don't care so much what skills you have.” Instead, the company looks for “high slope” individuals who are curious and able to continually learn new things. “A big turnoff for me is [when] somebody says, ‘Oh, well, I was never good at that when I was growing up,’” Andrew explains. “You know, ‘I'm not a good writer’ or ‘I'm not good with numbers.’ And it's like, well, OK, but anybody can learn anything.”In this episode, Andrew and Joubin discuss WeCrashed, Paul Graham, vertical integration, automating sales, Ed Hallen, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, child prodigies, interview questions, public speaking and decompression, taking ownership, hiring engineers, burnout, and productivity habits.Chapters:(00:51) - Klaviyo's office (02:36) - Attention to detail (06:32) - Big decisions (12:23) - What Klaviyo does (14:50) - Its 2023 IPO (20:35) - The founding story (25:06) - Nature or nurture? (28:47) - Science and hockey (31:02) - Hiring for slope (33:57) - Extroversion (37:00) - Culture as product (39:53) - Owning your success (46:24) - “The algorithms of humanity” (50:55) - Why Andrew runs (52:35) - Sports psychology for startups (55:34) - Richard Feynman (58:27) - Who Klaviyo is hiring (59:20) - What “grit” means to Andrew Links:Connect with AndrewTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

15 Juli 20241h

Guest: Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of WayfairWayfair CEO Niraj Shah caught the entrepreneurship bug in his mid-20s, when he and his longtime co-founder Steve Conine sold their first company just a few years out of college. They left the acquirer and independently realized “we absolutely wanted to start something else,” Niraj recalls. “Once you’ve done that, if you enjoy that, it’s very hard to pursue something more traditional.” But the “if you enjoy that” bit really matters: Whenever he’s counseling younger people, Niraj tells them to pursue something they’re genuinely excited about. Otherwise, “it’s going to be very hard for you to do your best work.”In this episode, Niraj and Joubin discuss shopping malls, employee discounts, working in Boston, family time, Jay Chaudhry, Cornell University, pursuing what you enjoy, fostering trust, family vacations, over-hiring corporate staff, taking market share, the power of ecommerce, ownership mentality, setting priorities, and rapid hiring.Chapters:(00:51) - Wayfair’s first retail stores (05:35) - Buying from other stores (08:59) - Immigrant entrepreneurship and Niraj’s dad (12:57) - Building the flywheel (15:32) - Structuring your calendar (17:59) - Success and attention (21:47) - Niraj’s first business (25:54) - His co-founder, Steve Conine (29:58) - Wayfair’s operations and the COVID surge (33:52) - The home goods market (37:50) - Optimizing SKUs (41:21) - Specializing, focusing, and problem-solving (44:42) - Sustainable work ethic (48:05) - AI and personalization (52:42) - Who Wayfair is hiring (53:56) - What “grit” means to Niraj Links:Connect with NirajLinkedInWatch the Cornell talkConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

8 Juli 202454min

Guest: Jay Chaudhry, CEO, chairman, and founder of ZscalerMuch of the media coverage of Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry is quick to identify him as the wealthiest Indian-American person, with a net worth of $10.8 billion. But to hear Jay himself tell it, that number has never been very important to him: “My family had no money,” he says of his childhood in India. “I had no attachment for money. There was no feeling of ‘I must buy this, buy this.’ ... And it hasn’t changed a bit.” Perhaps surprisingly, he says not caring about money is one of the big reasons for his financial success: With no attachment to money, “I could take risks.”In this episode, Jay and Joubin discuss startup “gambling,” Jay’s wife Jyoti, scarcity and risk, wasting time, “bonding walks,” family vacations, self-confidence and self-criticism, gardening, seven-minute aerobics, Marc Andreessen and Netscape, and IBM.Chapters:(01:54) - Selling SecureIT to Verisign (06:49) - Jay’s humble beginnings (09:12) - The worst way to describe him (11:42) - Working harder than ever (14:15) - Authenticity and selflessness (16:36) - Family time (18:53) - Happy childhood (21:33) - Setting an example (24:48) - Customer meetings (27:30) - Conviction and execution (31:07) - Do your best (33:16) - Turning off your brain (38:23) - Getting experience (40:17) - Who Zscaler is hiring (41:12) - What “grit” means to Jay Links:Connect with JayLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

1 Juli 202443min

Guest: Bill Magnuson, CEO and co-founder of BrazeThe deployment of smartphones around the world was more impactful than any other technology to date, says Braze CEO Bill Magnuson — and that has big implications for emerging fields like generative AI. “If we get to the point where they [LLMs] really can be useful, human-like companions ... they will be usable by everyone that has smartphone technology.” In other words, the question is not business opportunity or scale: It’s capability.In this episode, Bill and Joubin discuss earnings days, Aaron Levie, MIT, customer churn, shower thoughts, technical co-founders, lacking context, AGI, “hands on keyboard,” the T-Mobile G1, app marketing, the 2008 financial crisis, Bob Iger, World War II, Peter Reinhardt, Watershed, and international offices.Chapters:(00:51) - Morning people (05:09) - What Braze does (06:59) - From CTO to CEO (08:17) - Waking up and commuting (10:49) - Leading vs. engineering (12:35) - Cognizant of believability (19:52) - LLMs and the human brain (25:46) - The AI ceiling (28:43) - The historic deployment of smartphones (37:58) - The benefits of youth (40:18) - Taking the leap (43:35) - Read more sci-fi (46:38) - Survivor bias (48:55) - Big risks at scale (52:30) - Who Braze is hiring around the world (55:32) - What “grit” means to Bill Links:Connect with BillTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

24 Juni 202457min