In this episode, we sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has been at the forefront of investments in companies like Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Robinhood and Instacart. With a wealth of experience from his time at…
Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experience platform. Sterling shares how Redo's founder Taylor Brown approached him to take on the job and how together they're building a company everyone in…
Shopify COO joined us on the Investor/Operator Podcast and blew our minds when he said that people are STILL underestimating the TAM of online retail and the size of the internet. His opinion - It's still growing and is no where near it's peak. VCs were hesitant to invest initially…
Want your employees spending more time coding, designing and talking to users? Kill unnecessary meetings. Shopify did that exact thing last year in a bid to refocus the org. And it worked. Shopify COO Kaz Najatian joined us on episode 12 of the pod to explain how too many meetings…
When Shopify Interviews Product Managers they ask them questions like: 'How would you improve this water bottle?' If a PM were to immediately dive into an answer, they would be wrong. The best PM's consider the users behind the water bottle. Are we making it better for the end user?…
In January of last year Shopify did away with meetings and deleted 32,000 hours of them from their employee's calendars. Radical - yes, but COO and Product Leader Kaz Nejatian stands by the decision. He argues the best way to communicate is through writing, not talking. And as more meetings…
Want to accelerate your career as a man? Get married. It's as simple as that. Kaz Najatian the COO of Shopify makes the case there are no better paths to long-term success and happiness than marriage. More PM and life advice on the latest episode: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KcjDJT4Ak1c&t=93s
What makes a good Product Manager? We asked Shopify's COO Kaz Nejatian. His philosophy - it's something you either have or you don't. Because it's a set of feelings not a skillset. He can't 'take an average person and teach them to be a good PM'. Some of his best…
How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ. Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping…
We've seen this over and over again at high growth startups and can't recommend enough: When your company has a true performance culture it acts as a forcing function. You'll attract high performers, the type of people who thrive in a results based environment, who want to work hard, who…
A sure way to progress faster in your career -- Leave a wake of success and proof behind that is so obvious, 10 out of 10 people can look at your work and say yeah, they deserve the promotion. Whatever level you're at, whatever company you're at, the principle is…
Every single problem has a solution. There's always a path forward. You may have to take on some pain in order to progress. You may have to take two steps back to take one forward. But every single problem has a solution. Unicorn Founder Blake Murray told us on the…
Nothing is as bad as you think and nothing is as good as you think. Wise advice from unicorn founder Blake Murray - have a short memory, keep on moving and don't get caught up in the highs and lows. Hear more founder advice on the latest episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttUEucpXg4&t=340s
What should your hiring strategy be for your startup? Unicorn Founder Blake Murray at Divvy chose people who would effectively 'be him' at every level of the business. Not only did this pushed the culture deeper it replicated his efforts across the org. Hear more on how he built a…
Blake Murray couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So he built a solution and sold it for $2.5 Billion. How did he do it? By going against common advice. Blake spent 2 years building his product, Divvy, before ever selling a customer even though everyone…
When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So in 2016, Blake set out to find a solution and realized there was none. So Blake spent the next several…
What are you setting out to do? Not every company should be venture backed. Some even do better when they're forced to bootstrap. The question then becomes, "What are you setting out to do?" When you find an opportunity so large and disruptive, you need to move fast. Scott Sandell…
Slow growth in the beginning can set you up for massive gains in the future. It took Tableau YEARS to get to 10m in revenue. But afterwards became a rocket ship and the fastest growing software to their IPO. Why? Legendary Investor Scott Sandell at NEA says he sees a…
Investors want to be your partner, not another boss. Scott Sandell at NEA says that should mean: - you're with them trying to solve problems - you support them so they can be the founder you took a bet on Things become imbalanced when their is a lack of trust…
Use this in your next interview: There's only one question legendary investor Scott Sandell at NEA asks founders when he's making an investment decision: How did you get to this room, right now, today? In other words, what's been your journey and what are your dreams. If their level of…
When you're a pioneer there is no map. Legenedary investor and NEA executive Scott Sandell (Salesforce, Robinhood, Tableau and 13 other Unicorn Companies) says the best person to lead a company is the founder IF they have these two things: 1. They can take it the whole way and 2.…
Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau.…
The founders that do whatever it takes to get their first customers, those are the ones you need to back. Sheel Mohnot at Better Tomorrow Ventures even (temporarily) picked up smoking so he could get in front of a customer. Here's the story Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puOkL6r8utc&t=1430s
A big die off is coming for fintech startups based solely off card payments. Why? Interchange is a wedge, not a foundation. @pitdesi at @btv_vc breaks down why fintech business models built solely on ever-shrinking fee pools are at risk. Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puOkL6r8utc&t=2684s RT for Interchange learning https://x.com/matttbrown/status/1617601371796307968