Guest: Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor

Sarah Friar has worked with some of the top leaders in Silicon Valley, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Block CEO Jack Dorsey, and most recently Nextdoor founder Nirav Tolia, who just replaced her as CEO in May. And one of the things that sets top performers apart from the rest, she argues, is their compassion and their responsiveness. When her former EA’s husband was diagnosed with cancer, Sarah texted Benioff — who she had just left behind to work at Square — for help. Within seconds, she recalls, he arranged an appointment at UCSF. “That is an amazing moment of compassion,” she says, “where he did not need to take that time.”

In this episode, Sarah and Joubin discuss public markets vs. VC, George Floyd, working with the board, singular focus, Goldman Sachs, being in “flow,” the freedom of not getting the thing you want, Walmart, Steph Curry, Graham Smith, Charlie Rose and Donald Trump, ugly babies, Elon Musk, Ladies Who Lunch, CNBC, commuting from home, white noise, “frequent Friars,” @TechEmails on Twitter, and the “zone of gratefulness.”

Chapters:

• (02:04) - Why Sarah left Nextdoor
• (08:18) - The stock market and success
• (10:21) - Going through hell
• (14:48) - Life is not an A/B test
• (16:09) - Multiple tours of duty
• (19:21) - Ikigai
• (22:02) - Perfectionism and drive
• (25:54) - Sarah’s next operating role
• (28:35) - Big transitions
• (30:35) - Personal burn rate
• (35:34) - “Are people gonna take my call?”
• (38:40) - Leaving Salesforce for Square
• (41:27) - Loyalty
• (45:33) - Leaving the right way
• (47:44) - Square and Swiss cheese companies
• (50:03) - Growth companies
• (52:38) - Apolitical workplaces
• (53:42) - Leaving Square
• (55:38) - Loneliness
• (57:18) - Daily routines
• (01:05:03) - Working on weekends
• (01:08:30) - Hyper-responsiveness
• (01:11:47) - Resumé virtues and eulogy virtues
• (01:15:33) - What “grit” means to Sarah

Links:

• Connect with Sarah
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Stanislav Vishnevskiy, CTO and co-founder of Discord

For many years, the conventional wisdom was the gaming was not social because it was something you usually did at home. “But people who play games are often the most social,” says Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy. “They’re spending 10, 20 hours with other people online, hanging out.” As a teenager, Stanislav logged more than 1,000 days playing his favorite video game and socializing with friends around the world, but with 200 million monthly active users, the social platform is appealing to a lot more than hardcore gamers. “People online who need to get together and collaborate ... [want] tp have control and create a place,” he says. “That’s not just a gaming need, right? That’s pretty much any community.”

In this episode, Stanislav and Joubin discuss “Discord moments,” hanging out online, IRC and AIM, Fates Forever, good and bad stress, leadership coaches, Claire Hughes Johnson, socializing online, heart surgery, Slack, Jason Citron, in-browser voice chat, Reddit, authentic CX, hiring slowly, Mitch Lasky, “playing moneyball,” React, content moderation, deprecation plans, and collaborative projects.

Chapters:

• (02:09) - Discord’s scale and importance
• (07:35) - What is Discord?
• (09:43) - Hammer and Chisel
• (13:18) - How Stanislav’s role has changed
• (15:17) - Imposter syndrome
• (17:47) - Doing stuff for the first time
• (21:22) - Final Fantasy XI and Stanislav’s parents
• (25:12) - YOLO
• (27:02) - Games as social networks
• (30:49) - The evolution of Discord
• (35:58) - Inherent virality
• (39:04) - Building the company
• (41:39) - The COVID effect
• (43:08) - Hiring for slope
• (46:43) - Pivoting back to gaming
• (51:27) - The Discord Store and Nitro
• (54:30) - Emotional stakes
• (56:09) - Midjourney and AI art
• (59:58) - Virtual worlds
• (01:01:30) - Who Discord is hiring and what “grit” means to Stanislav

Links:

• Connect with Stanislav
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Guest: Eoghan McCabe, CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder of Intercom

“We are not ready for the degree to which our world is going to change,” says Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe, “in insane and incredible ways.” When he co-founded the company in 2011, the Irish-born entrepreneur was making it easier for companies to offer human customer service to their customers. But Eoghan believes “every single type of knowledge work” will soon be done by AI, and Intercom is well on its way to that destination: 45 percent of all tickets are being answered by bots now, and he expects that number to climb to 70 percent by 2026. “The agents no longer have to do the repetitive, painful, boring work,” Eoghan says. “They can focus on the more human, creative, interesting work that requires their empathy and creativity.”

In this episode, Eoghan and Joubin discuss fitting in, Archana Agrawal, authentic comms, taking risks, returning to the company you founded, politics at work, celebrating innovation, therapy for founders, and Ram Dass.

Chapters:

• (01:04) - Insecurity and success
• (06:16) - What Intercom does
• (08:20) - Reinvention and “big company values”
• (15:50) - Becoming an AI company
• (16:53) - 2011 vs. 2024 in San Francisco
• (21:03) - AI for customer service — and more
• (25:07) - “The shitty gift that being attacked brings”
• (30:25) - Expectations vs. reality, part one
• (33:16) - What success means now
• (36:08) - Running away
• (39:56) - Coming back
• (41:58) - Being busy is BS
• (44:10) - Expectations vs. reality, part two
• (45:44) - Self-mastery
• (50:38) - Sanding off the rough edges
• (55:08) - Who Intercom is hiring and what “grit” means to Eoghan

Links:

• Connect with Eoghan
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm