Grit explores what it takes to create, build, and scale world-class organizations. It features weekly episodes highlighting the leaders who are pushing their companies to make a difference. This series is hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, go to market operating partner at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm investing in history-making founders.
Guest: Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy
When Josh Silverman joined the board of Etsy, he had one condition: “Don’t ask me to the be the CEO.” And technically, they didn’t ask. One day, he got a phone call …
Guests: Varun Mohan, CEO & Co-Founder of Codeium; and Leigh Marie Braswell, partner at Kleiner Perkins
“A lot of people are really bad at knowing what good is,” says Codeium CEO Varun Mohan. Specifica…
Guest: Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy
AI is poised to change nearly every business, but few are changing as quickly as education. And Sal Khan, who has spend more than a decade manually creating mo…
Guest: Matt MacInnis, COO of Rippling
One of the most important things a non-founder can do, says Rippling COO Matt MacInnis, is to learn how to operate in the context of the company they’re joining. …
Guest: Jason Kilar, former CEO & co-founder of Hulu and former CEO of WarnerMedia
When Jason Kilar was a child, he was obsessed with Walt Disney — not just as a filmmaker or the creator of Disneyland,…
Guests: Joe Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Loom; and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins
Loom CEO Joe Thomas had a lot of things to think about before he sold his company to Atlassian for $975 mil…
Guest: Rony Abovitz, founder & CEO of SynthBee
SynthBee CEO Rony Abovitz grew up “really believing” in Star Wars and the idea that there could be benevolent, artificially intelligent beings like R2-D2…
Guest: Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna
Living and working in Stockholm, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski thinks a lot about how he’s perceived in Silicon Valley: “I feel like h…
Guest: Kyle Hanslovan, CEO & co-founder of Huntress; and Ev Randle, partner at Kleiner Perkins
Talk is cheap, says Huntress CEO Kyle Hanslovan: “I learned real early on that integrity is like one of t…
Guest: Mark Fields, former president & CEO of Ford Motor Company and chairperson at Planview
In 2005, Mark Fields was asked to run the Americas for the Ford Motor Company, a role he would serve in for…
Guest: Jack Conte, CEO & co-founder of Patreon
For many YouTube video creators, getting millions of views on your videos may seem like the goal. But when Jack Conte and his wife Nataly Dawn became You…
Guest: Mark Pincus, founder & chairman of Zynga, and managing member & co-founder of Reinvent Capital
Before Zynga and Facebook made social gaming mainstream, the video game industry was “extreme on t…
Guest: RJ Scaringe, CEO and Founder of Rivian
“I’m very comfortable with things not being in their end state,” says Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe. The company’s challenging mission — to help make…
Guest: Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake
“People underestimate what it is to go through a complete reset,” says Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy. And he knows it: After an incredible 15-year run at G…
Guest: James Freeman, Founder and Former CEO of Blue Bottle Coffee
In the six or so years since he sold his last shares of Blue Bottle Coffee to Nestlé, James Freeman has had a lot of time to ruminate…
Guest: John Hanke, CEO of Niantic
When Pokémon Go launched, Niantic CEO John Hanke was enjoying a tranquil walk through a bamboo forest near Kyoto with his son. When he got back, it was all hands on d…
Guest: Mark McLaughlin, chairman of the board at Qualcomm
When he was 24, Mark McLaughlin thought his career was over. Since childhood, he had dreamed of attending West Point and joining the Army, bu…
Guest: David Risher, CEO of Lyft
David Risher can measure his career in phone calls, from the one that introduced him to Jeff Bezos in 1995, to the call from the Lyft board in 2023, asking him to vie …
Guests: Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO and co-founder of Together AI; and Bucky Moore, partner at Kleiner Perkins
No one knows for sure whether the future of AI will be driven more by research labs and AI-nat…
Guest: Andrew Bialecki, CEO of Klaviyo
Whenever the marketing platform Klaviyo is hiring, says CEO Andrew Bialecki, “we sort of don't care so much what skills you have.” Instead, the company looks for…