Grit Joubin Mirzadegan

Guest: Taylor Francis, co-founder of Watershed
One day when he was 13, Taylor Francis walked out of the movie theater, and he was pissed off. He had just seen Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and internalized a “generational call to arms, that my parents had screwed our generation” by causing the climate crisis, he says. 14 years later, he was working at Stripe and felt another call to arms: The 2020s would be a crucial decade for slashing carbon emissions and combating global warming. So, he and his co-founders Avi Itskovich and Christian Anderson all left Stripe to start Watershed, which helps companies measure and reduce their emissions.
In this episode, Taylor and Joubin discuss Patrick Collison, Dan Miller-Smith, hiring challenges, Jonathan Neman, “golden age syndrome,” John Doerr and Mike Moritz, the Climate Reality Project, steady partnerships, DRI cultures, shared context, social distancing, information sprawl, and the founders’ “woe is me” narrative.
Chapters:

(01:02) - Magnetic missions

(06:40) - How enterprise sustainability works

(08:40) - Watershed’s first client, Sweetgreen

(11:04) - Reflecting on the early days

(16:36) - Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth

(18:53) - Mobilizing teenagers

(22:16) - The origins of Watershed

(27:04) - Leaving Stripe and raising money

(31:41) - Interchangeable co-founders

(33:33) - The ground truth

(35:52) - The Dunbar Number

(38:49) - Watershed’s operating principles

(42:23) - Intensity, priorities, and sacrifice

(48:04) - Moving faster

(50:53) - Sustainability is a part of business

(52:48) - The topology of emissions

(58:35) - Who Watershed is hiring

Links:
Connect with TaylorTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guests: Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia; and Josh Coyne, partner at Kleiner Perkins
When Victor Riparbelli wants to learn something, he’ll start with a YouTube video or a podcast: “I maybe buy the book on Amazon as like the fifth step,” the Synthesia CEO says. His company is trying to change the text-first (or text-only) way information is conveyed at work, making AI avatar-narrated videos to replace documents like customer profiles and HR manuals. Victor says that as the technology improves over many years, it could replace text entirely. “I think for most people, if they had a choice, they would probably prefer to watch video and listen to audio.”
In this episode, Victor, Josh, and Joubin discuss Seedcamp, Annie Case, Rubik’s Cubes, AI video dubbing, Instagram filters, emotive avatars, Ilya Fushman, Atlassian, Grammarly, the Gutenberg Parenthesis, European startups, email responsiveness, acqui-hires, and being “lonely at the top.”
Chapters:
(01:33) - Loose screws

(02:45) - How Victor and Josh met

(04:35) - AI hype cycles

(06:57) - What Synthesia does

(08:22) - Copycats and competition

(14:34) - Winner take all

(16:38) - Synthesia’s origin story

(21:36) - Category creation

(23:41) - The next era of AI video

(28:51) - The uncanny valley

(30:07) - Watching videos at work

(33:17) - Scaling video and audio content

(37:45) - Emailing with Mark Cuban

(45:15) - Battle scars

(48:47) - Customer obsession

(50:54) - Pressure to succeed

(54:41) - Deep passion

(57:16) - Who Synthesia is hiring
Links:
Connect with VictorTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoshTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Kat Cole, COO of Athletic Greens
You can’t make smart decisions if you don’t know the truth — the “true truth,” as Athletic Greens COO Kat Cole puts it. “As you get bigger and you have success, innovator’s dilemma, you end up talking to yourself instead of really being rooted in what’s going on.” That’s why she has embraced the anxiety of the unknown, channeling what she doesn’t know about the market into productive questions for her team and her customers. Anxiety can be harmful, she concedes, but “there’s a healthy version of believing you never really know what’s going on, and you never really know the true truth, because things change so quickly.”
In this episode, Kat and Joubin discuss Huberman Lab, ultra-endurance athletes, Chris Ashenden, founder-owned businesses, “fancy jobs,” international trips, unplanned succession, private equity, the Atkins diet, inheriting a bad situation, omni-channel marketing, working with franchisees, fully remote companies, “if not for...,” and why Athletic Greens has only one SKU.
Chapters:
(01:04) - Podcast superfans

(06:54) - AG1 and Kat’s professional journey

(11:14) - Her “Jerry Springer childhood”

(14:31) - Learning, moving, thriving

(16:18) - The Hooters business school

(24:05) - Leaving Hooters and joining Rourke Capital

(28:46) - Cinnabon’s dark years

(35:55) - The three questions

(41:11) - MiniBons

(45:37) - Anxiety and uncertainty

(48:40) - The wad of paper story

(50:26) - Favorite interview questions

(54:49) - The temptation to do more
Links:Connect with KatTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Anne Raimondi, COO and Head of Business at Asana
Asana COO Anne Raimondi feels pressure to perform in her job “every day, all the time.” But that pressure doesn’t come from her fellow executives; she imposes it on herself, trying to think carefully about how much each of her decisions will impact her team. “I have a lot of privilege and choice,” Anne says, “of how I spend my time, the resources available to me, and am I doing enough? ... Am I doing the most with the opportunities I have, and making as positive an impact as I can?”
In this episode, Anne and Joubin discuss returning to the office, Scott McNealy, the dotcom bust, Myers-Briggs, Star Trek: The Next Generation, empowering leaders, Blue Nile, Robert, Chatwani, tech leaders with children, Bain Capital, time management, being “in the moment,” Dave Goldberg, Dustin Moskovitz, staying curious, and being prescriptive.
Chapters:

(01:05) - Hybrid remote policies

(05:34) - Employees’ emotional journey

(09:39) - Thoughtful answers and betazoids

(13:17) - Anne’s immigrant parents

(14:50) - Regrettable feedback

(17:46) - Leaders who cast a shadow

(19:36) - Company-hopping

(24:14) - Startups and stability

(28:42) - Pressure to perform

(31:08) - Insecurity and parenthood

(37:12) - Allocating your time

(39:43) - Co-founding One Jackson

(45:36) - Amanda Kleha

(47:01) - Great founders

(52:18) - “It is not glamorous”

(54:03) - From board to operating at Asana

(57:10) - Feedback for founders

(01:00:25) - Recurring meetings

(01:03:07) - Who Asana is hiring

Links:
Connect with AnneLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Sanjay Beri, CEO and Founder of Netskope
“You can be waiting your whole life to do something, and then your life’s over,” says Sanjay Beri. After nine years at Juniper Networks, he left his comfortable job, moved his family to a house with a pricier mortgage, and launched the cloud security firm Netskope. His entrepreneurial story would make anyone stressed, he acknowledges, but “at some level, you have to be wired to enjoy it… that's why I tell everybody who joins, ‘It's not for the faint of heart.’”
In this episode, Sanjay and Joubin discuss Reddit, banker friends, professional legacies, the wrong way to raise capital, authenticity, Ponzi schemes, “fool’s gold,” high-risk hiring, hitting pause, your “other family,” and changing roles.
Chapters:
(00:54) - 2024 IPOs

(05:43) - Long on cybersecurity

(07:59) - Netskope’s mission

(10:22) - Sanjay’s first company, Ingrian

(12:07) - The writing on the wall

(15:02) - Mamoon Hamid

(20:21) - Stress and perspective

(24:53) - Sanjay’s mother

(28:41) - The trenches vs. the clouds

(30:53) - Guts, Resolve, Integrity, Tenacity

(32:10) - Hiring for grit

(38:06) - The lowest point

(41:18) - “Always on”

(43:49) - The hot desk office

(46:13) - Scaling people

(49:30) - Politics and integrity

(53:03) - Who Netskope is hiring
Links:Connect with SanjayLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Scott McNealy, former CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems & co-founder of Curriki
Scott McNealy never wanted to be CEO of Sun, and in his 22-year tenure before selling to Oracle, he knows there were times he failed to execute, or to rein in the once-iconic Silicon Valley firm’s worst impulses. But like his pro golfer son, Maverick, Scott doesn’t like to look back: “Golfers will always look back and blame the wind, a divot that wasn't repaired, a bad rake job, a mower cut that wasn't done properly, a gust of wind,” he explains. “If you blame yourself for all of the mistakes you make. You will hate yourself ... I look forward.”
In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss Scott Cook, Maverick McNealy, why big companies are riskier than startups, Al Gore, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Kodak, Dick Kleinhans, Harvard University, “bozo invasions,” Myers-Briggs, making an example, Motorola car phones, the Moscone Center, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA’s valuation, farewell letters, “you have no privacy,” open-source education, and toothpaste.com.
In this episode, we cover:

(01:00) - John Doerr

(02:47) - Fathers, sons, and sports

(07:29) - Living in the piñata

(10:48) - Why Scott left Sun

(13:49) - The heyday of Sun Microsystems

(18:24) - Vinod Khosla and founding Sun

(21:24) - How Scott became CEO

(27:21) - Profitable in three months

(30:02) - Inferiority complex

(32:20) - Executive exits and fun at work

(35:49) - Managers and recognition

(38:18) - “HR hero” Crawford Beveridge

(40:35) - How Carol Bartz became VP of marketing

(43:07) - Sharing in success

(45:25) - Scott’s love life & meeting Susan

(50:54) - The dotcom boom and crash

(53:45) - Unicorn CEOs and IBM’s offer

(55:49) - Competitors and hindsight

(58:20) - “The planet system”

(01:00:13) - Too many employees

(01:04:06) - Larry Ellison and selling to Oracle

(01:07:01) - Blaming yourself and looking forward

(01:10:11) - Curriki

(01:12:12) - The AI boom

(01:14:42) - “Grit” and insecurity

Links:
Connect with ScottTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm