From Scaling Cisco to Seeding AI: John T. Chambers on Speed, Strategy, and Reinvention

John Chambers led Cisco through the rise of the internet—transforming it into the world’s most valuable company at its peak.

On this week’s Grit, the former Cisco CEO unpacks how he scaled the business from $70M to $50B+, pioneered M&A as a growth strategy with 180 acquisitions, and built what many called the best sales force in tech.

Now leading his own venture firm, Chambers shares how he’s backing the next generation of AI-native startups.

Guest: John T. Chambers, Former Cisco Executive Chairman & CEO, JC2 Ventures Founder & CEO

Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

00:45 Introduction

01:45 Track record, relationships, trust

13:21 Acquisitions every year

17:32 Product-focused

24:40 Family, dyslexia, and without shame

30:46 Wang Laboratories

35:59 Ready being CEO

40:17 Reinventing your business

50:08 Numbers don’t lie

54:09 Sales calls and making mistakes

56:20 Adapting leadership style

1:06:32 Best leadership year ever

1:13:35 A busy, exhausting schedule

1:22:07 Candid with me

1:25:21 What “grit” means to John

1:26:43 Outro

Mentioned in this episode: John Doerr, OpenAI, Wang Laboratories, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, FMC Corporation, DuPont de Nemours, Inc., John Mortgage, Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital, Alcatel Mobile, Lucent Technologies, Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., Rick Justice, Pankage Patel, Larry Carter, CNBC, Jim Cramer, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike, Randy Pond, Rebecca Jacoby, Mel Selcher

Links:

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• Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com

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