Steve Bartel and Nick Bushak, co-founders of recruiting platform startup Gem, join Greylock Head of Content & Editorial Heather Mack to discuss how they are solving a crucial pain point in the modern hiring ecosystem: providing a tool to proactively search for and manage relationships with passive talent. Gem, which was launched in 2017, now works with more than 800 customers across multiple industries. The company just raised $100 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $1.2 billion...
Oct 05, 2021•33 min
Greylock executive talent partner Holly Rose Faith provides her playbook for recruiting and hiring high-level talent. Faith, who has helped land executive hires for startups such as Roblox, Nextdoor, and Databricks, says it all comes down to having a solid system in place for each step of the process. This episode is part of Greylock's Brain Trust podcast series, which provides candid lessons and business advice from the most savvy experts in their spheres of specialization. You can read the tra...
Sep 28, 2021•37 min
Greylock has raised $500 million dollars dedicated to seed investing. This is the industry’s largest pool of venture capital dedicated to backing founders at day one. Greylock Head of Editorial Heather Mack reads the audio version of our post announcing the new capital. You can read the post here: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 21, 2021•6 min
A re-broadcast of our episode featuring fintech startup Wisetack. The company, which was incubated at Greylock and launched in 2019, recently raised a $45 million Series B round. Wisetack provides financing platform for in-person services like home or auto repair businesses, enabling them to offer customers the option to buy now and pay later. Greylock general partner and Wisetack board member Josh McFarland spoke with Wisetack co-founders Bobby Tzekin and Liz O'Donnell in February, when the com...
Sep 14, 2021•43 min
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams joins Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman for a discussion on the ways science fiction and real-world technology take inspiration from one another; how to recognize a good idea when you see one; and the gravity of being behind any innovation that affects society on a large scale. This interview was part of Greylock's Iconversations virtual speaker series. You can read the essay and transcript of this episode here. https://greylock.com/greymatter/future-follows-fiction/ Le...
Sep 07, 2021•49 min
Audio version of the essay by Greylock investors Corinne Riley and Jerry Chen entitled "Funding the Cloud Challengers." This essay, which is part of Greylock's Castles in the Cloud series, analyzes the top venture capital cloud investing trends since 2019. You can read the essay at https://greylock.com/greymatter/funding-the-cloud-challengers/, and find the entire project at greylock.com/castles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 31, 2021•17 min
Audio version of Greylock general partner Jerry Chen's essay "How to Break Up Big Cloud's Dominance," read by Greylock Head of Editorial Heather Mack. This essay, which outlines strategies startups can take to compete with the Big 3 cloud providers, is part of our Castles in the Cloud project. You can read the essay at https://greylock.com/greymatter/how-to-break-up-big-clouds-dominance/, and find the entire project at greylock.com/castles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...
Aug 31, 2021•14 min
The audio version of Greylock general partner Jerry Chen's essay introducing Castles in the Cloud, which is Greylock’s interactive project to map multiple data points of the cloud computing ecosystem — and plots new opportunities for success. Greylock marketing partner Elisa Schreiber reads the essay. You can read the essay at https://greylock.com/greymatter/castles-in-the-cloud/, and find the entire project at greylock.com/castles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 31, 2021•7 min
A re-broadcast of our episode featuring Ariel Investments president and co-CEO Mellody Hobson, who spoke with Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman as part of Greylock's Inconversations speaker series. Hobson is also the chair of the board of Starbucks Corporation as well as a director at JP Morgan Chase, and is an avid philanthropist and educator. Hobson, who is the only Black woman to chair a Fortune 500 company, is an ardent proponent of financial literacy and an outspoken champion for inclus...
Aug 24, 2021•55 min
Very few startups set out to compete with the biggest leaders in their industry - let alone those who are among the biggest companies in the world. But that doesn't mean it's not possible. In 2020, Greylock investor Sridhar Ramaswamy (who joined the firm following 15 years at Google) launched Neeva, a new kind of search company. The differentiator? Neeva is an ad-free, subscription-based search engine that doesn't track users across the internet. Ramaswamy, his fellow Greylock investor Reid Hoff...
Aug 17, 2021•39 min
PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada and Greylock general partner Sarah Guo discuss the importance of empathetic leadership, the value of automation in service of people, the effectiveness of trust and transparency as a means of corporate communication — and shares advice on how to build good relationships with your current and former employees, your executive peers, and your board of directors. This discussion was part of Greylock's Iconversations series. You can read a transcript of this podcast here...
Aug 10, 2021•57 min
Greylock investor Christine Kim shares the top five lessons she learned scaling product while working at Uber. Prior to joining Greylock in 2020, Christine spent five years at the ride-hailing business. where she led the product team that launched and scaled Uber Eats. The app started as a small pilot project that quickly caught on, and Uber Eats now generates $50 billion in revenue annually. Read the essay based on this podcast at https://greylock.com/greymatter/strategy-at-scale/ Learn more ab...
Aug 03, 2021•31 min
Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman and his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh pick up their conversation from last week on how philosophical study can have a great impact on an entrepreneur's career. This week, they focus on how a philosophy degree compares to a much more conventional business background: the MBA."There are two things that need to be explained away in order for me to invest in your startup," says Hoffman, who holds an advanced degree in philosophy. "An MBA or a background in ma...
Jul 27, 2021•31 min
Greylock general partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman talks with his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh about how a fundamental understanding of philosophy can be a powerful tool for entrepreneurship. Hoffman, who holds a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford University, outlines how studying philosophy helps people develop new frameworks for grappling with truth, humanity and decision-making, and how it has helped him succeed in his career as an entrepreneur and investor. This episode...
Jul 20, 2021•33 min
If AI is to serve the collective needs of humanity, how should machine intelligence be built and designed so that it can understand human language, feelings, intentions and behaviors, and interact with nuance and in multiple dimensions? Stanford University computer science professor Dr. Fei-Fei Li and Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman discuss the ethical considerations researchers, technologists and policymakers should make when developing and deploying AI. This episode was recorded as part ...
Jul 13, 2021•50 min
A rebroadcast of our episode featuring Coda CEO and co-founder Shishir Mehrotra. The company, which saw a surge in usage during the Covid-19 pandemic and the widespread shift to remote work, recently closed $100 million Series D round. In this episode, which was recorded last year as part of Greylock general partner Sarah Guo's Work From Anywhere podcast series, Shishir talks about the way collaboration and productivity tools have created a lasting impact on the workplace, and what the office (v...
Jul 08, 2021•46 min
From dealing with the notorious cold start problem of insufficient data to train models, to identifying the right business model for the product and the crucial need for early partnerships, applied ML companies grapple with an additional set of challenges from the beginning. Cresta CTO and co-founder Tim Shi and Abnormal Security Head of Machine Learning Jeshua Bratman join Greylock partner Saam Motamedi to discuss strategies for building applied ML companies. You can read a transcript from the ...
Jun 29, 2021•36 min
The second part of our two-part conversation on working with the media. Forbes senior editor Alex Konrad joins Greylock marketing partner Elisa Schreiber and Greylock director of communications Kaitlin Durkosh to discuss how startup founders should think about building relationships with journalists; how journalists see their role amid the always evolving media landscape; and what impact founders should expect from sharing their story across different forms of media. You can read a transcript of...
Jun 22, 2021•27 min
Forbes senior editor Alex Konrad has been covering venture capital and startups for nearly a decade. While many founders have learned how to work well with media, the learning curve is steep, and Konrad sees persistent miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misinformation between the two. Compounding the issue, today’s startup founders have to navigate the increasingly blurred lines of journalism, marketing, social media, and company-directed content, and then try to figure out where their stor...
Jun 15, 2021•37 min
While many CEOs choose to stay out of the public eye during times of crisis, Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky has always opted for the opposite. It was no different during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel came to a standstill and the company was forced to restructure. Chesky remained open, candid and transparent throughout the experience, and the company was able to navigate the crisis in stride. Chesky joined Greylock partner Reid Hoffman on Greylock's Iconversations speaker series to t...
Jun 08, 2021•50 min
Greylock partner Saam Motamedi is joined by engineering team leaders to discuss the wide-reaching topic of company culture. Wade Chambers, CTO and SVP of Engineering at Grand Rounds Health; Kevin Wang, VP of engineering at Abnormal Security; and Wei Gan, the co-founder and CTO of Ribbon Home, talk about the various ways they define and apply culture; how they differentiate between company-level and team-level cultural norms; and more. You can read the transcript from this interview here: https:/...
Jun 01, 2021•53 min
Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom has been researching remote work and management for decades. The Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the workplace provided a rare opportunity for a world-wide case study. Bloom joined Greylock general partner Sarah Guo on Greymatter’s Work From Anywhere podcast series to talk about the evolving workplace, what the data shows on both employee and management wellbeing, the allure of the hybrid-work model, and more. You can read a transcript o...
May 25, 2021•40 min
When people ask Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman how he learned strategy, his answer is not that he studied in business school and earned an MBA, or that he read (and re-read) Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. His answer is this: “I played a lot of games.” The best games, Hoffman says, not only require skill and tactics, but they also incorporate uncertainty and randomness, which teaches you to be strategic in ways that match the way the world works. In conversation with Blitzscaling co-author Chris...
May 18, 2021•52 min
To keep growth and user engagement up, most social platform avoid any features that could cause friction to the user. But Nextdoor is willing to take some risks. The company, which has taken on a greater role during the pandemic, has deployed tools that CEO Sarah Friar admits may impact growth, but are ultimately, "the right thing to do in order to build communities." These tools include the Kindness Reminder, which prompts users to stop and reconsider potentially offensive posts, as well as a m...
May 11, 2021•59 min
To understand how some of the strongest brands are thriving with the omnichannel approach, Greylock general partner Mike Duboe hosted a wide-ranging discussion on Greymatter on what it takes to build the next generation of commerce companies with Color Capital co-founders Jaime Schmidt and Chris Cantino. The husband-wife team partner with companies creating the future of CPG, marketplaces, ecommerce, and media, and both bring a wealth of experience to the table. Schmidt is the founder of persona...
May 04, 2021•39 min
The shift to ecommerce has been a natural progression for companies that sell everyday, approachable items like clothing and beauty products. But brands that sell pricey, technical and often highly variable products like skis, golf clubs and camping gear have historically struggled to make the online transition, as consumers tend to prefer in-person consultation at physical stores. Enter Curated. The company has developed a three-sided marketplace to replicate the valuable in-store experiences p...
Apr 27, 2021•29 min
When finance teams have a greater influence on everyday operations, companies can more nimbly respond to economic events – both good and bad. That's why TraceHQ developed a platform that functions as a service desk for finance; providing visibility for teams to immediately see how their financial decisions impact their budget. It then gives finance the committed forecast – a real-time financial plan. TraceHQ CEO and co-founder Mike Gonzalez sat down with Greylock general partner and TraceHQ boar...
Apr 20, 2021•33 min
Cresta CEO Zayd Enam and Greylock general partner Saam Motamedi discuss how AI can help – not replace – humans at work. Seeing the limitations of AI that simply automated the routine aspects of work performed by many, Cresta developed a platform that effectively scales the skills of the top few employees, whose job functions require heavier cognitive lifting and expertise. Cresta, which has initially focused on sales and customer service, now works with businesses such as Dropbox, Intuit and Por...
Apr 13, 2021•41 min
Ariel Investments President and co-CEO Mellody Hobson, who was recently named the chair of the board of Starbucks Corporation, joins Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman. Hobson, who is the first black woman to chair a Fortune 500 board, shares highlights from her career as an investor, board member, financial educator and philanthropist, and discusses the fundamental changes necessary to diversify corporate America. This discussion was recorded during Greylock’s virtual speaker series Iconvers...
Apr 06, 2021•55 min
Greylock specialist Lee Haney talks with Peter High, president of Metis Strategy and author of the new book "Getting to Nimble: How to Transform Your Company into a Digital Leader." While no business is completely future-proof, companies that incorporate nimbleness into their people, practices and digital strategies are able to quickly pivot away from problems – and towards opportunities. Peter and Lee discuss tactics for nimbleness and share stories of companies that embody the concept. Learn m...
Mar 30, 2021•53 min
