If you want to capitalize on an opportunity that you think could change the world, you need to drive full speed toward it. Back in 1994, when Ajaz Ahmed dropped out of college to start one of the first digital ad agencies, AKQA, he knew he was at the cusp of the next revolution in tech. And if he wanted to be part of it, he’d have to move fast. Ahmed shares stories about how a band of 21-year-old dropouts built the agency from ground up, winning over early clients by building prototypes ahead of...
Jul 19, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast What’s the difference between an activist brand and an active brand? Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness says that acting on your values defines a business — from climate change to Roe v. Wade. To unleash the next wave of growth for plant-based meat purveyor Impossible, McGuiness is rethinking how the whole category presents itself, taking aim at what he calls “safe and lame” approaches, partnering with the likes of Billie Eilish, and targeting the $1.4 trillion global meat industry. Read a tr...
Jul 14, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every company has its own internal factions: engineers vs. designers, East Coast vs. West, IT vs. everybody. The trick is turning factionalism into healthy competition that propels you toward your shared mission. At Motorola, Cisco, and now her start-up Fable, Padma Warrior has tapped into the power of internal divisions. It's not about separating people into warring camps; it's about building bridges from our differences, rather than divisions. Read a transcript of this episode: https://m...
Jul 12, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Volunteering and service are muscles that can close America’s divides and push social change. Speaking live at the 2022 Social Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C., AmeriCorps’ new CEO, Michael Smith, shares a vision for healing sociopolitical divides through partnerships and on-the-ground experiences. When it comes to tackling natural and social crises, he’s prioritizing impact over volume. Read a transcript of this episode: www.mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale ...
Jul 07, 2022•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The true seed of scale is customer love, which you can’t buy, hack, or game. Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator, scaled countless start-ups by focusing on this one idea: Finding 100 users who love you is better than 1 million who kinda like you. As CEO of OpenAI, Sam leads the creation of genuinely useful AI products. He shares timeless insights in his interview from 2018 on how to build on the love of passionate customers to create world-shifting tools. Read a transcript of this episo...
Jul 05, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast When a tech nonprofit competes against a $2 billion incumbent dominating the market, its odds are slim. But Zo Orchingwa took that bet, founding Ameelio, believing that access to communication and education for the incarcerated is needed for their future success. Ameelio is on a quest to partner with every prison district in the country until one day, it scales enough to be redundant. Read a transcript of this episode: www.mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Sc...
Jun 30, 2022•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The first stage of building up a business is to break things down. Michael Dell started a computer company in his dorm room by cracking open some early IBM PCs and figuring out what he could do better, faster, and cheaper. Then he did the same thing to the entire model of computer sales. Learn from Dell how to revolutionize an industry — using deconstruction to gain insight your competitors lack, and then building something bigger and better. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mast...
Jun 28, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast While gasoline prices soar, solar company Sunrun is poised to usher in a customer-led revolution of distributed energy technologies. Sunrun’s CEO Mary Powell combats a “no and slow” culture to transform more homes into virtual energy plants by preaching optimism and scorning bureaucracy. She’s moving with urgency to create a cleaner and more cost-effective future as fast as possible. Read a transcript of this episode: www.mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newslett...
Jun 25, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Delivering human dignity to your customers is more than just good practice. It can be a powerful engine of scale. This insight has inspired Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins her whole career, as a labor leader, a music manager, and now as a fin-tech entrepreneur with Promise. Her secret? Take a contrarian lens to existing systems. Find a space where human dignity is lacking, create a product that gives your customers flexibility, options, access they didn’t have before — and unlock new value. Watch the...
Jun 21, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast For Reid Hoffman, the way to live a meaningful and productive life is to focus on one key area: friendships. Speaking at Vanderbilt University’s 2022 commencement, he shares four lessons on why friendships are crucial for helping us achieve our potential and enact meaningful change. Read a transcript of this episode: www.mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an...
Jun 18, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most future of work conversations revolve around the “where,” but Upwork CEO Hayden Brown says it’s more important to focus on the “who.” 10% of the workforce at Upwork, the global tech platform for millions of freelance workers, was directly impacted by the Ukrainian war. Hayden’s people-focused approach to the difficult decision of how to manage remote employees in Russia is the same mindset she applies to meet the needs of all workers, from people feeling conflict to working mothers. Learn mo...
Jun 16, 2022•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast How can a small business survive a David vs. Goliath competition? If two sets of stakeholders have opposing needs, how can a startup pivot to keep them both happy? Reid Hoffman and Bob Safian answer these questions and more from small business owners in the Masters of Scale community. Plus: another round of Pivot Point! Learn more about becoming a Masters of Scale Member: www.mastersofscale.com/members Read a transcript of Strategy Session 12 at: https://mastersofscale.com/strategy-session...
Jun 14, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Entrepreneurship is an essential tool for building a more equitable society — which is why Kathryn Finney is laser-focused on encouraging people who don’t fit the mold of the stereotypical founder to jump in. Her new book, “Build the Damn Thing,” taps into wisdom from her years at the venture studio Genius Guild and beyond. She brings a message to founders: The universe is conspiring for your greatness. Read a transcript of this interview at: mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Maste...
Jun 09, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast In just 6 years, Facebook grew to 2 billion users and 14,000 employees. How? Well, first, they hired COO Sheryl Sandberg. And she knew that to lead a fast-changing organization, you have to be as skilled at breaking plans as you are at making them. Great scale leaders know how to pivot, because every day there are new competitors, new threats, new opportunities. Sandberg shares the practical, tactical on-the-ground leadership lessons she learned while scaling at Google and Meta. Read a transcrip...
Jun 07, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Corporations can be a force for good – and they can also be very successful," says Ken Chenault, chair of investment firm General Catalyst and former longtime CEO of American Express. During the past year, Ken has been an outspoken advocate for business leaders to actively engage in societal matters. After George Floyd’s death, he and Merck CEO Ken Frazier launched OneTen, a coalition to create 1 million jobs for Black Americans that now includes major brands from IBM to Nike to Walmart. Chenau...
Jun 02, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A diverse network of collaborators is key when making scale leaps. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has cultivated a wide network of scientists, business leaders, and government officials across his career. When COVID-19 struck, Bancel called upon this nexus of experts to aid the warp-speed development of the mRNA-based vaccine in the race to save millions of lives. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://m...
May 31, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s easy to have a grand idea; putting that plan into action is not. Victoria Yampolsky conceived of a global concert in support of Ukraine. Without any experience in entertainment or international aid, she shares how she didn’t accept “no” for an answer in her quest to book big-name guests like Pink Floyd and negotiate a streaming deal — to pursue a fundraising goal of $10 million. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly news...
May 26, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you're launching a moonshot, success depends on how you manage the trajectory of risk. When Stéphane Bancel became Moderna's first CEO, the biotech start-up was chasing a way-out idea many experts thought was impossible. Stéphane built a culture of calculated risk-taking to create a platform for extraordinary leaps — one that enabled life-saving mRNA vaccines when Covid-19 struck. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly news...
May 24, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the workplace in historic flux, consulting firm PwC is committing a whopping $2.4 billion to create an employee engagement platform offering a radically new level of choice. PwC’s U.S. chair, Tim Ryan, shares why the bold initiative is necessary in the face of the Great Resignation. It's just one of several evolving crises, Ryan says, that has made leading a business more complex and demanding than ever. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Ma...
May 19, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Massive change isn’t something you can brute-force — you need to ignite buy-in, again and again, up and down your organization. Because even if your changes will make things more fun, more interesting, and more profitable, you’re going to face defiance and inertia until you clue everyone in. That’s what Bill Ford learned while working to remake Ford Motor Company as an environmental powerhouse — against surprising internal and even national-level resistance. Read a transcript of this episo...
May 17, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Has Gopuff cracked the code of instant delivery — a field where even Amazon has struggled? Co-founder Yakir Gola talks about the challenge of owning the customer journey from app to warehouse to doorstep, and the reasons why being outside Silicon Valley is giving Gopuff a big advantage as it expands across the United States and around the world. Yakir talks with host Bob Safian about why moving fast is only one piece of the growth puzzle. Read a transcript of this episode: https://masterso...
May 12, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast We often hear the story about the great leader who joins a legacy company and guides it through massive transformation. But massive transformation can also start from the inside. Bill Ford, the executive chair of the Ford Motor Company, founded by his great-grandfather, is proof that great change can come from within. He has led not just one but multiple refreshes of Ford’s mission, culture, and, especially, their approach to sustainability. In Part One of a two-part series, you’ll hear about Bi...
May 10, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Charity Dean was one of the first public health officials to set the alarm on COVID. When she searched for a tool to forecast future bio threats, she realized that it didn’t exist yet. So she co-founded the Public Health Company, where she uses lessons from her government experiences, but without the same rules or limits. She speaks with Bob Safian about why all companies must be public health companies. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters...
May 05, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast In honor of our five year anniversary of Masters of Scale, we're revisiting our first episode ever, featuring Airbnb's Brian Chesky. If you want your company to truly scale, you first have to do things that don't scale. Handcraft the core experience. Get your hands dirty. Serve your customers one-by-one. And don't stop until you know exactly what they want. That's what Brian Chesky did. As CEO of Airbnb, Brian’s early work was more akin to a traveling salesman. He takes us back to his lean years...
May 03, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gayle Smith is the CEO of the ONE Campaign, the advocacy group founded by U2’s Bono — and last year, she was tapped by the U.S. State Department to coordinate America’s COVID response and vaccine distribution globally. Her experience both inside and outside government gives her a distinctive outlook on how business can and should help on humanitarian issues, from Ukraine dislocation to climate change. She also shares lessons about effective advocacy: tactics pioneered by ONE that can be useful t...
Apr 30, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amid pandemic disruption, Chief turned a small, NYC-based club for women executives into a national phenomenon with more than 12,000 members. Co-founder and CEO Carolyn Childers joins Rapid Response to share how she and co-founder Lindsay Kaplan managed the unlikely transformation, which recently yielded a $100 million Series B funding round. She reveals how the company leveraged existing tech and their own innovations to build connections, identifying not just a gap in the marketplace but a nee...
Apr 21, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast To succeed in the modern business environment, you need to strut your stuff: to cultivate a personal brand that supports career growth. No one represents this better than Tyra Banks. As a model, a producer, and an entrepreneur, Tyra has forged a personal brand that has enabled her to make multiple pivots, building fame, wealth, and meaningful impact on the issues that matter most to her. Startups can come and go, and so can employers. In our very uncertain landscape, the thing that remains const...
Apr 19, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Meet Alyona Mysko, the CEO of a B2B startup in Ukraine called Fuelfinance , as she walks us through the lessons she’s learned while leading her company in a war. Her experience — which sometimes requires her and her team to work from bomb shelters during the day — offers lessons for every leader about communication, collaboration, and creativity in crisis. All of Ukraine is running like a start-up now, she says: Each citizen takes the initiative to pick up what needs to be done. Alyona talks abo...
Apr 14, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Learn the 5 mindsets that will reshape the way you hire, train, and retain — to build the team of superheroes that will power your business to scale. Hear real-world advice and great stories from Reid, Bob, and legendary leaders like PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, GoFundMe’s Tim Cadogan, Burberry and Apple’s Angela Ahrendts, and Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter:...
Apr 12, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Don't let the roadblocks get in the way when there are people who need you desperately.” Eric Friedrichsen, the CEO of Emburse, a B2B software provider, has navigated around risks and financial costs to meet the needs of tech contractors based in Ukraine. Part of that response includes the company’s offer to relocate people and families to Spain, where Emburse’s European headquarters is located. The company’s executives are also personally funding housing costs for colleagues taking refuge in P...
Apr 07, 2022•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
