Grit

Flexport was a breakout success—reimagining global trade with tech at its core. But when the freight market cooled and efficiency overtook service, things started to unravel. Founder Ryan Petersen st…

Guest: Pedro Franceschi

Pedro Franceschi is the co-founder and CEO of Brex, a fintech company reshaping how businesses manage their finances.

Originally from Brazil, Pedro went from teenage hacker to l…

Before Zscaler was a $32B cloud security giant, it was just 10 engineers—half in Bangalore, half in a borrowed U.S. office.

As founder and CEO of Zscaler, Jay Chaudhry bet $50M of his own money on one…

Guest: Zac Bookman, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenGov

Thirteen years after co-founding the government transparency startup OpenGov, Zac Bookman is still finding ways to surprise people. In 2024, Cox Enter…

Guest: Ben Chestnut, Former CEO and Co-Founder of Mailchimp

If you find yourself selling your startup, then Mailchimp co-founder Ben Chestnut has some important advice for you: Get a dog. 

When Intuit …

Guest: Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic

“Passion and drive trumps knowledge and experience,” says Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl. Long before he was running Boom — which earlier this y…

Guest: George Kurian, CEO of NetApp

For almost 10 years, George Kurian has been CEO of the data infrastructure firm NetApp, overseeing its pivot to cloud services. After he  took the job — a surprise …

Guests: Winston Weinberg, CEO & co-founder of Harvey; and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins

“If you think about pretty much any job out there in the world, we will have some sort of [AI] copilo…

Guest: Miki Kuusi, head of international at Doordash + CEO & co-founder of Wolt + co-founder of Slush tech conference

Before Miki Kuusi launched the Finnish delivery startup Wolt, which DoorDash acqui…

Guest: Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard; and Bing Gordon, Advisor at Kleiner Perkins

In 2020, when President Trump signed the executive order that would ban TikTok in the U.S., Bobby Ko…

Guest: Nick Kokonas, co-founder of the Alinea Group and former CEO of Tock

As of October 1, 2024, Nick Kokonas is no longer an owner of the Alinea restaurant group, which he co-founded and ran for alm…

Guest: Rick Smith, CEO & Founder of Axon (formerly TASER)

Being a founder-CEO is a “unique superpower,” says Axon’s Rick Smith: People like him get a longer leash from the board to try things that out…

Guest: Emilie Choi, president & COO of Coinbase

After the collapse of FTX in 2022, “the whole industry was tarnished,” recalls Coinbase COO Emilie Choi. “Politicians came out criticizing crypto, sayin…

Guest: Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice

As the CEO of a growing company, Lattice’s Sarah Franklin has learned that one of her most important contributions is taking a leap of faith. “You have to have th…

Guest: David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO & co-owner of 37signals and creator of Ruby on Rails 

37signals CTO David Heinemeier Hansson has organized his life around his passions: Writing, racing sports car…

On this special episode of Grit, we look back at some of the coolest stories and best advice our guests have shared in 2024.

Chapters:

• (00:49) - David Risher on his Amazon easter egg & moving on
• (07:…

Guest: Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants

In 1992, Larry Baer was part of the ownership group that bought the San Francisco Giants and successfully prevented the team from being moved to Tamp…

Guest: Tony Vinciquerra, outgoing CEO of Sony Pictures

Tony Vinciquerra never planned to get into the entertainment business, let alone to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. After se…

Guest: Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer and chairman of Re:Build Manufacturing

Jeff Wilke worked more than 20 years at Amazon, overseeing the million-person team that speedily gets …

Guest: Dan Streetman, CEO of Tanium

A graduate of West Point who served in Iraq combat operations, Tanium CEO Dan Streetman can’t help but compare his business career to his military experience. Under…