59 min

#183 CEO and Co-Founder Harness, Jyoti Bansal: Three-Layered Cake Grit

    • Careers

Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness
Cisco 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

Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness
Cisco 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

59 min