When Alex Norstrom started working at Spotify in 2011, CEO Daniel Ek told him there were three goals: Growth, growth, and growth. But Alex — now the Chief Freemium Business Officer — argued that his team would be better motivated by an “impossible goal,” something like reaching 100 million users. To which Daniel replied: “Let’s do it. Your goal is to get us to 100 million users. Please begin.” In this episode, Alex and Joubin convene at Spotify’s brand-new Stockholm studio to discuss his first j...
May 30, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 88
Thrive CEO Arianna Huffington is best known for the pioneering online publication she founded, the Huffington Post, which she left in 2016. The experience of running the site awakened her to the most important problem she would tackle in her career: The intersecting crises of stress, burnout, poor sleep, and lack of focus, which Thrive teaches businesses how to manage. In this episode, Arianna and Joubin discuss how she went from a poor family in Greece to president of the elite Cambridge Union ...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 87
Archana Agrawal started her job as CMO of Airtable on March 18, 2020 — the same week that the US began to “shelter in place” as cases of the novel coronavirus rapidly rose. With kids who would be staying home from school and Airtable’s San Francisco office closed, everything was changing at once, so she switched into what she calls “problem-solving mode.” And, crucially, she discovered how to use family time to de-stress. In this episode, Archana and Joubin discuss how she made her way from Afri...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 86
As the CMO for Square, Lauren Weinberg spends a lot of her time talking to new and inexperienced small business owners — and she knows that each of them has wisdom that the others could benefit from. So, Lauren and her former colleague Jackie Reses wrote a book pooling all that wisdom into one place, Self-Made Boss: Advice, Hacks, and Lessons From Small Business Owners In this episode, Lauren and Joubin discuss why Lauren never leaves home without sneakers post-9/11; how she maintains discipline...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 85
Handshake CEO and co-founder Garrett Lord was amazed when he first learned that Silicon Valley firms like Google recruited on college campuses ... just not his, Michigan Technical University. But after excelling in the competitive Palantir internship program, he started asking himself, “How come they can’t reach us?” That question led him to found the job placement platform Handshake, which has raised $434 million in funding and is used by 100 percent of the Fortune 500. In this episode, Garrett...
May 02, 2022•53 min•Ep. 84
ThoughtSpot CMO Scott Holden spent eight years at Salesforce, putting in the time every year behind the scenes at Dreamforce watching the company reach 20,000 employees. And he probably could have thrown his hat into the ring to be CMO there — but he didn’t want that. Instead, he says, “I had the hunger to go back and build something” with a strong mission and vision, so he left for a much, much smaller company: The business intelligence company ThoughtSpot, where he has worked since 2015. In th...
Apr 25, 2022•57 min•Ep. 83
Every year, ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck writes a memo to his executive team, which is made to look like a letter to the board of directors. Even though he founded DiscoverOrg — the company that bought and became ZoomInfo in 2019 — Henry pretends in the memo to be a new CEO who has just been hired to clean up the old guy’s mess. The reason, he explains, is simple: It gets everyone focused on the problems that have to be fixed. In this episode, Henry and Joubin discuss the difference between wearing...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 82
Jaimie Buss, CRO of the e-learning platform Articulate, had an epiphany several years ago. While trying to simultaneously give her toddler a bath and catch up on work emails, some water splashed on her computer. After initially snapping at her son, she realized the importance of being “unapologetically present” with not only her family at home but her colleagues at work. Since this experience, she has drawn clear boundaries between the two. In this episode, Jaimie and Joubin talk about the leade...
Apr 11, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 81
George Felix, now the CMO of Tinder, was marketing Old Spice body wash at a time when the brand was circling the drain. His team at Procter & Gamble almost let their big break slip away when initially passing on the “Hello ladies” campaign - an ad that would later go viral on Facebook and YouTube. George recalls how the agency pitching the idea stood their ground and pressed on with conviction, an experience that taught him a lot about trusting your gut and standing up for what you believe i...
Apr 04, 2022•59 min•Ep. 80
Global Sales VP at Hopin Javier Ortega Estrada’s father is a counter-terrorism official in the Spanish army — teaching him at a young age that having a bigger purpose can drive you to do great things. And over the course of his entrepreneurial career, Javi has found his own special purposes, helping companies like Dropbox and, now, the buzzy experience platform Hopin grow at a blistering pace and deliver value to their customers. In this episode, Javi and Joubin talk about uprooting his life (af...
Mar 28, 2022•54 min•Ep. 79
When Confluent’s President of Field Ops Erica Schultz was 23, she was working at Oracle and cold-emailed the manager of the Argentina office, asking to work for him. This experience would open the door to opportunities in Buenos Aires and Miami, a time in Erica’s life she does not take for granted. As a leader today, she hopes to pass on this sentiment, constantly looking for individuals worth taking a chance on: “As I look around my organization, I think, OK, who’s the undiscovered not-yet-full...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 78
Ryan Azus, CRO of Zoom, has been selling all his life, from baseball cards as a kid to ads in the school newspaper to — crucially — books every summer in college. Every year, he and and thousands of other young people would be dispersed around the country to sell books door-to-door as part of an entrepreneurial program called Southwestern Advantage. That experience taught him valuable lessons about his own strengths and weaknesses as a salesperson, the diversity of people’s needs, and the joys o...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 77
Instabase’s Ozge Ozcan believes that many women have been fed a false story about motherhood: That it can be seen as a “decelerator” to one’s career. Instead, she’s found that raising two daughters has made her more competent in the chaotic, fast-paced world of early-stage startups. Through this experience, she’s had to learn how to be an “amazing leader” at home and in the office. In this episode, Ozge and Joubin talk about her experience as an immigrant to the US from Turkey; the surprises she...
Mar 07, 2022•55 min•Ep. 76
Sarah Patterson, CMO of Samsara , doesn’t believe in keeping your armor up around your coworkers: “You’ve got something else on your mind, it’s going to come through,” she says. While working at Salesforce, she worked with a career coach and discovered that opening up about her personal and professional struggles brought her team closer. And that has also held true in her current role at Samsara, a fast-growing fleet management company that went public in December. In this episode, Sarah and Jou...
Feb 28, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 75
Kate Ahlering might be the perfect guest for this podcast. She eventually worked her way up to Chief Sales Officer of Glassdoor, but when she joined in 2013, she helped define the company’s leadership framework as GRIT: Growth, Results, Integrity, and Team. Glassdoor has continued using those values since her departure in 2020, and now as the CRO of Calendly, she is applying a similar framework to another fast-growing enterprise. In this episode, Kate and Joubin discuss her first leadership expe...
Feb 21, 2022•54 min•Ep. 74
When Rippling CEO Parker Conrad was raising a massive $250 million round last year, he didn’t start by presenting his deck to venture capitalists in person. Instead, he sent a 39-minute demo of his product, recorded on the video app Loom. And, Loom’s CEO Joe Thomas says, “That was the most pleasant surprise.” In this episode, Joe and Joubin discuss how Loom “stands on the shoulders of giants” like Google, Instagram, and Snap; Joe’s preparations to become a father for the first time; Loom’s overn...
Feb 14, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 73
When Andy Kofoid was growing up in the working-class town of Joliet, Illinois, he dreamed of getting to college and — like a lot of his relatives — worked in construction. Today, Andy is laying digital foundations at Databricks, a data analytics and AI company that works with enterprise brands including Adobe, NBCUniversal, and Starbucks. Previously the COO of ExactTarget, which Salesforce acquired for $2.6 billion in 2013, Andy thought his career might end there. “I wasn’t looking” for another ...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 72
Doug Merritt joins this episode on the tail end of his impressive run as Splunk’s CEO. With decades of leadership in what can be described as an “exploratory career,” Doug breaks down his professional roadmap and provides insight on how he was able to transform companies and the cultures that hold them together. In this episode, Doug shares his perspective on the new wave of innovation as a seasoned executive and how he stays relevant in a “world of teenagers.” He talks about his 8-year evolutio...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 71
Stord, a Kleiner portfolio company, and its co-founder/CEO, Sean Henry, are defying a multitude of limits. While Sean is ranked as the youngest unicorn founder, he refuses to let his age define him. Demonstrating an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age, he’s always angling for the advantage. Sean has undoubtedly found a crucial advantage with Stord, as it continues to rise as a leading cloud supply chain platform and pioneer in the industry. In this episode, Sean discusses his Stord jour...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 70
Tom Mendoza, former President at NetApp, knows that there is a way to do business while bringing out the good in it. Tom has embedded this throughout his career and continues to make it a philosophical and practical focus. While Tom’s incredible journey may speak for itself, we take a deeper look at his core leadership values, how it has inspired his generosity and resilience, and the impact it continues to have on others. In this episode, Tom discusses his humble beginnings in Long Island durin...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 69
Jim Steele, President of Global Strategic Customers at Salesforce, is the man, the myth, and the legend who helped increase Salesforce’s revenue from $22 million to over $5 billion. Working since he was 10 years old to support his family, Jim’s drive and ambition are still just as strong today as he views new challenges and opportunities with a “beginner’s mindset.” As Jim puts it, his 43-year career in sales is a series of stories–in this episode, he reflects on poignant moments that helped sha...
Jan 10, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 68
B2B marketing powerhouse, Sara Varni joins this episode on her final day at Twilio to discuss her journey and what lies ahead as she steps into her new role as Chief Marketing Officer at Attentive. Sara demonstrates a stellar track record of marketing know-how and creativity and has a refreshing take on the ever-changing marketing landscape. In this episode, Sara shares insight on what it means to speak to your audience and uses an example from her Twitter to show how products can market themsel...
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 67
Many people run from uncomfortable situations. Heidi Andersen, CRO at Nextdoor, isn’t like most, as she embraces new challenges and makes mental toughness a centrality to her approach. From the very beginning of her story, Heidi has been rooted in hard work and the personal gratification of earning her success. Known as a corporate athlete, Heidi stands out from the pack and proudly holds the torch for women in tech. In this episode, Heidi shares her perspective on leaving Denmark to join Google...
Dec 27, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 66
Sometimes social media works and sometimes it doesn’t. For Matt Epstein, Chief Marketing Officer at Rippling, it is a little bit of both. In 2011, Matt went viral after uploading a Youtube video detailing why Google should hire him. It was also accompanied by a propeller plane with his URL attached, flying over the Google campus. Apparently, Google was not impressed, however, this bold decision ultimately worked in his favor. The video attracted many companies, which eventually led to the beginn...
Dec 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 65
There is a litany of analogies for marketing. An art, a technique, a skill. Yet few strive to combine a multitude of approaches. For Meagen Eisenberg, Chief Marketing Officer at TripActions, she synthesizes a combination of art, science, and the essential ingredient–joy–to form a unique marketing strategy. Meagen is a no BS go-getter who demonstrates an encompassing approach to how she conducts business. She hones in on her own efficiency and ability to think quickly and adapt, and expresses how...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 64
For some, expanding their horizons is something that they, as individuals, strive to do. Fortunately, Philip Lacor, CRO at Unqork, takes those expansions to another level. Philip thrives as a cross-functional leader and leaves his own stamp by creating challenging and diverse environments for a wide variety of people. From his philosophy on building global teams, to how he rears his own children, diversity is the center of how Philip builds his approaches. Join the conversation as Philip takes u...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 63
Language is without doubt the single most valuable tool we use, and in its use, it ironically builds barriers. Fortunately in recent years with the rise of companies like Duolingo, those barriers are becoming more opaque. In this episode, Bob Meese, Chief Business Officer at Duolingo, joins the show to discuss all the innovative ways that Duolingo is making language learning a more feasible aspect of our lives. Bob started at Google with a solid 8-year stretch that served as a proving ground for...
Nov 29, 2021•56 min•Ep. 62
To make the leap from HR to sales may seem like a significant obstacle to surmount. For Jennifer Brannigan, CRO at Pendo, it was an easy choice to make. Her decision to pursue her own interests and passion over a high salary set her on a path toward where she is today. And for her, the journey still continues. As she puts it, her professional roadmap is much like a jungle gym, as it is varied and intriguing. In this episode, Jennifer shares why she transitioned to sales in the midst of an accele...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 61
Integrity and humility barely begin to describe Brian McCarthy, CRO at Rubrik. Brian’s story is one of hard-won progress that is bound to inspire anyone who listens. Coming from a blue-collar household, Brian has always viewed work as a gift and now takes advantage of what it has afforded him and turns it back to building strong communities. Brian’s humble beginnings set the stage for his inspiring life story. What his family did not have in money, they made up for in an abundance of love. For t...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 60
"Crypto" is a term that has recently re-shaped the way the world thinks about money. For Emilie Choi, President and COO at Coinbase, it has been at the forefront of her work and mind for quite some time. Emilie is a true workplace warrior and that is reflected in her leadership at Coinbase as she has cultivated an ethos that endears her entire organization and those she works alongside. In this episode, Emilie doesn’t pull the punches as she divulges her own strengths and weaknesses and how she ...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 59
