After a long career as a VP at Microsoft in the 80s and 90s, Laura Jennings had a big vision for eCommerce. After founding Knack, her masterplan didn't play out exactly as designed. She was working out of a basement, shipping boxes, and learning how to sell merchandise with little experience. Her principles remained, but she updated her strategy after watching and listening. She created a culture that responds to mistakes by asking "what are we going to do about it?" instead of "who is at fault?...
Nov 11, 2021•37 min
No technical co-founder, no domain expertise, and entering a market that nobody believed would buy tech. Julian didn't look so hot to VCs. Everyone said to pivot. Fast forward to 2021 and Logixboard was growing 30% M/M, raised a $13M series A led by RedPoint, and Julian's vision for freight forwarding software is coming true. Julian's story isn't a blind confidence in the face of doubt. It's about how to listen selectively and build conviction based on market understanding.
Oct 28, 2021•37 min
Being a founder wasn't in Jessica's plan. After 15 years of climbing the ladder and checking off her goals, she was looking for a new definition of success. Instead of writing a new life plan, she starting opening to possibilities and "winging it" at times. She dug into her own problems and frustrations when getting child care for her young kids. Many iterations later she founded LegUp (legup.care) to fix the childcare enrollment process for providers and families.
Oct 14, 2021•35 min
Gordon co-founded Outreach in 2013. Now a multi-billion, 1000+ employee company, he's reached rare air. But he's starting again with Spot.xyz... all the way back to the ground flood. That means writing code, recruiting, and establishing a culture from the ground-up. Why would he do it again? Hear his founder lessons on this episode of The Built in Seattle Podcast.
Sep 30, 2021•35 min
Laura Clise didn't intent to be an entrepreneur. She spent most of her career running corporate social responsibility programs at bigger companies as a self-described "intrapeneur." But she saw the need for Intentionalist after developing a strong point of view about the power of consumer spending choices. While Laura's mission is about social change, she specifically decided to take a business-driven approach to the problem. She's now growing her marketplace that helps consumers spend with inte...
Sep 16, 2021•47 min
Katie was SVP at Zillow where she had an 11-year career building their data-driven PR and brand strategy. Now she's Founding Partner at KMG (kingstonmarketing.group). Her story goes from small town Illinois to journalism and ends up landing her in Seattle's tech scene in Zillow's early day. She goes behind the scenes on principles for great PR, the "patience game," lessons from scaling Zillow's brand, and how to demystify marketing and PR in startups.
Jun 10, 2021•41 min
After starting his career at Microsoft, Dave was the first marketer at Bizible. As the company grew, Dave scaled to VP and then took on marketing leadership roles at Marketo and Adobe via acquisitions. He's now founder and CEO at Inflection - a new stealth marketing tech startup. Dave operates with a small-town Ohio style and says he cares more about the process than the destination. He talked about managing energy, growing from contributor to manager to executive, and learning through customer ...
May 27, 2021•34 min
Routable's growth and $30M Series B are impressive headlines. But their customer discovery process really stood out. Omri interviewed over 300 customers before writing a single line of code. After learning from past pivots and mistakes, he was relentless in the process. That work give him conviction to move fast. Just 4 years later, Routable has raised $46M, accelerated growth, and earned the love of customers like Ticketmaster, Re-Max, and Snackpass. Omri went behind the scenes on his story and...
May 13, 2021•35 min
Highspot has reached a $2.3B valuation, 500+ employees, and $397M raised just 9 years since founding. What's made that possible? Robert Wahbe (Co-Founder & CEO) is a strategic thinker who has found many non-obvious strategies and frameworks to scale his business. He went behind the scenes on his story and shared the principles and lessons driving Highspot's growth.
Apr 29, 2021•46 min
OwnTrail is a platform that advances women by helping members share their *real* paths through career and life. With seed funding and an all-star team, OwnTrail is growing fast. CEO and co-founder, Rebekah Bastian, is a role model for staying open to possibility. She didn't have a masterplan and it wasn't a straight line. She joined Zillow as employee 20. Fifteen years at Zillow took her from Product Manager to VP of Product, and then VP of Community and Culture. Then author. And now founder. Sh...
Apr 15, 2021•39 min
Joe.Coffee went from 15%/month growth to 3x in a month when the pandemic hit. They have raised $3.5M to help local coffee shops run digital ordering. But it was a long and winding road just to get started. Nick Martin (Co-Founder & CEO) shares his story of overcoming anxiety, finding conviction, and connecting with the work.
Apr 01, 2021•34 min
Stackline grew to 10s of millions in ARR with $0 funding. After getting profitable with over 2,000 customers, they raised $50M from Goldman Sachs to go bigger. Michael Lagoni (CEO and Co-Founder) goes behind the scenes on profitable growth, living on the frontlines, promoting from within, and thinking in bets.
Mar 25, 2021•38 min
Flying Fish Partners is a venture firm focused on AI, machine learning, and robotics. Heather Reman is an operator turned investor who co-founded Flying Fish. Her mantra is about community. And she applies this across domains - from startup investing to non-profits, education, politics, and leadership. She goes behind the scenes on the psychology of investing, the power of community, and her lessons on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Mar 11, 2021•38 min
We all know Starbucks today. But it was just a startup when Howard Behar joined in 1989. As the President of North America, he grew from 28 regional stores to over 15K stores around the world. Even at scale, he was often seen in the stores talking with baristas and customers. He'd wipe the counters. He'd pick up trash. This was key to his servant leadership. He goes behind the scenes on 21 years of building Starbucks and 50 years of studying and practicing servant leadership.
Feb 25, 2021•45 min
Detlef Schrempf is an NBA Legend, community leader, and Director of Business Development at Coldstream. He played 16 years and over 1,000 games in the NBA. He was 3x All-star, 2x Olympian, and a key player on the dominant SuperSonics teams in the 1990s. He went behind the scenes on his basketball career, the challenges he faced transitioning to business, giving back, and the common sense principles that guide his life.
Feb 11, 2021•41 min
RealSelf is a growing team of 170 people that's raised $42M. James Coyle went from Amazon to startup executive and now CEO at RealSelf. He's made unconventional career choices that got him leadership roles all over the world, access to great mentors, and accelerated his learning. James goes behind the scenes on his leadership lessons and the frameworks that he uses to navigate life and business.
Feb 04, 2021•42 min
TUNE grew to $80M ARR and 350 people over the last 7 years, resulting in two acquisitions. They raised $36M from top VCs, but it wasn't the typical VC-backed startup. Peter Hamilton started as a marketer when he responded to a Craigslist post and later became CEO. He shares how TUNE built two distinct product lines, found profitable growth, innovated on brand and customer service, the parallels between oprah singing and company building, and how TUNE's acquisitions unfolded.
Jan 21, 2021•46 min
Syndio just raised a $17M series B to help companies fix gender and racial pay equity problems. It's a big, complex, and new category. They already have 100+ customers like Nordstrom, Salesforce, and Adobe. Maria was previously co-founder at Smartsheet and a tech veteran. She is all about focus and precision. And she explains how parenting 6 kids, working with veterans, startup marketing, and big companies have all helped her find focus in her mission at Syndio.
Jan 13, 2021•44 min
Happy Holidays! I will be back with more interviews of Seattle's top entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders in 2021. This episode is a cross-post of a conversation I had with Kyle Lacy on The Revenue Diaries podcast. We talked about my ice cream obsession, raising kids in the pandemic, managing stress, building habits, risk taking, and my obsession with tidiness.
Dec 24, 2020•20 min
Salesforce paid $15.7B to buy Tableau. Elissa was Tableau's long-time CMO from startup to IPO and over $1B in revenue. Now she's helping other high-growth companies as an advisor and board director. She goes behind the scenes on her journey, high-growth marketing, and the principles that she's seen work from 11 years at Tableau to multiple startup boardrooms.
Dec 17, 2020•40 min
In just over 5 years, Convoy has reached a $2.75B valuation, 1,000+ employees, and $665M raised to change the big and very complex trucking industry. What's made that possible? Grant Goodale (Co-Founder & CTO) went behind the scenes on his story and shared the principles and lessons driving Convoy's growth.
Dec 10, 2020•42 min
Happy Thanksgiving week. 🦃🙏Thank you to everyone who has supported this project! I tried something different on this episode. I didn’t have a guest. I looked back at 30 interviews and shared my take on the biggest themes. This was a solo episode, but I brought in soundbites from several interviews to cover three big themes: 1. How humility looks in practice; 2. Balancing analysis with intuition; 3. Playing the long-game.
Nov 25, 2020•19 min
Estately grew to profitability with just over $1m raised and got acquired by Realogy. Galen Ward, CEO & co-founder, said he had no business starting the business. But he and his team made it work. He goes behind the scenes on Estately's journey, getting acquired, and his lessons from the process.
Nov 19, 2020•39 min
Kristen is a 2x founder, startup executive, and board member. She co-founded Onvia in 1997 which went on to IPO. Recently co-founded at Koru which sold in 2018. Now an SVP at Guild Education. But through 25 years of building start-ups she was "operating from a place of fear."
Nov 12, 2020•33 min
Investors laughed at the original idea for Crowd Cow. But consumers wanted to buy right away. Now they've raised $25M, grow to 90 employees, and went from selling crowd-funded cows to a complete marketplace. Joe Heitzeberg, co-founder & CEO, goes behind the scenes on his lessons validating and scaling Crowd Cow.
Oct 29, 2020•42 min
Oxygen was in trouble in 2008. Juliana Stancamiano believed it could be turned around. A decade later Juliana has written a book, she's president of the Sales Enablement Society, and her business is serving clients like Microsoft, F5, Red Bull, Starbucks, and more. She goes behind the scenes on her lessons from the turnaround.
Oct 22, 2020•39 min
Kelly Wright grew sales from $0 to $850M over 12 years as EVP at Tableau. Now she's a Board Director at Fastly, Lucid, Amperity, and more. She goes behind the scenes on her leadership lessons and what really matters in company building.
Oct 15, 2020•46 min
Kirby Winfield is a 3x founder with 3x exits who turned VC. But his journey was not all unicorns and rainbows even after his repeated success. He goes behind the scenes on his path to finding love in the game, what he looks for in startups, and his unique approach to investing in founders at Ascend.vc.
Oct 08, 2020•40 min
20 years as a VC at Madrona. Headline IPOs like Accolade, Smartsheet, Apptio, Isilon. Invested in cloud before it was cool. 3x Midas list. 3x CB's top 100 VC list. Matt goes behind the scenes on his lessons (from the highs and lows), Madrona's philosophy, and how the best leaders work.
Sep 24, 2020•46 min
Esper 2x'd revenue during the pandemic, grew from 38 to 60 employees this year, and raised a $7.6M Series A. Yadhu Gopalan, CEO & co-founder, goes behind the scenes on Esper's pandemic shift, following his passion, and the builder's mindset.
Sep 17, 2020•44 min
