What does it take to scale one of the world’s largest professional services firms — and still lead with heart?

In this episode, we sit down with Jill Smart, former CHRO and one of the original leaders who helped transform Arthur Andersen into Accenture, now a 700,000+ employee global powerhouse.

We dive into:

✨ Growing up blue-collar — and building a work ethic that never left

🚀 The early days of Accenture and taking the company public

📉 Mistakes, sweaty-hand moments, and the leadership lessons that came from them

👥 Why “treat others how they want to be treated” is the key to managing people

🌍 Going global: offshoring, outsourcing, and building culture across borders

❤️ How she built a team that produced over 40 CHROs at major companies

This is a masterclass in building organizations and taking care of the people inside them.

👇 Watch the full episode and hit subscribe for more interviews with the builders behind the world’s most iconic companies.

#Accenture #HRLeadership #Startups #EarlyEmployees #WomenInBusiness #TheEarlyPodcast #EarlyPod

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🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW:

The Early Podcast is where host Max Crowley, Uber’s #25 employee, sits down with the earliest builders behind today’s most iconic companies. No fluff, just the raw stories of what it’s like in the trenches when your startup could still fail tomorrow.

✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week

✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone interested!

✅ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts

⸻

Let’s go. 💥

🎧 Listen to the full episode:

🔹 Spotify: https://earlypod.com/spotify

🔹 Apple Podcasts: https://earlypod.com/apple

🚀 New episodes drop every Tuesday. Let’s build this together.

👉 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment — I want to hear from you!!

📩 Thoughts or guest ideas? Email me: max@earlypod.com

📱 Follow for daily updates:

• 🐦 X (Twitter): https://earlypod.com/x

• ✨ TikTok: https://www.earlypod/tt

• 📸 Instagram: https://www.earlypod/ig

• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.earlypod/li

• 📩 Newsletter: https://earlypod.com/subscribe

What do you do after building one of the most iconic companies of our generation?

If you’re Ryan McKillen, one of Uber's EARLY employees, you buy the U.S. SailGP Team and dive headfirst into the high-tech, high-stakes world of professional sailboat racing.

In this episode of The Early Podcast, we go behind the scenes of US SailGP — the Formula 1 of the ocean — with Ryan and team driver Taylor Canfield.

We cover:

🚀 Why SailGP is F1 on water

🌎 How Ryan helped build a global race team

📊 30,000 data points per second per boat

🧠 Tactical mastery, physical endurance & wild stories from the water

💥 And yes — race day is still less intense than Travis Kalanick

Ryan and Taylor take us from rookie sailing lessons to racing at 60+ mph, with helicopters, AR graphics, and Olympic-level strategy — all while building a business around it.

Subscribe for more stories from the earliest builders behind iconic startups.

#startups #sailing #SailGP #Uber #sportsbusiness #earlyemployees #F1

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00:00 From Uber to SailGP – Ryan’s Journey

01:12 Redefining Success After a Unicorn

02:31 First Sailing Lesson → Near Disaster

04:55 Obsession Turns Into Team Ownership

05:35 What Is SailGP? F1 on Water Explained

07:05 60 MPH Boats, Foils, and Flight

09:21 30,000 Data Points Per Second

11:14 Filming Races with Helicopters & AR

13:20 Turning the Team into a Real Business

14:11 Race Day vs. Travis Kalanick

15:40 Taylor Canfield’s Origin Story

18:45 World Championships & the America’s Cup Dream

22:00 Driving an F50 for the First Time

24:42 Race Day: Prep, Strategy & Execution

27:05 How the Races Actually Work

29:37 Wind, Intuition, and Real-Time Decisions

31:01 Safety Protocols & Crazy Stories

34:27 F1 Meets Ocean: Why This Sport Wins

36:00 Athleticism + Trigonometry at 60mph

⸻

🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW:

The Early Podcast is where host Max Crowley, Uber’s #25 employee, sits down with the earliest builders behind today’s most iconic companies. No fluff, just the raw stories of what it’s like in the trenches when your startup could still fail tomorrow.

✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week

✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone interested!

✅ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts

⸻

Let’s go. 💥

🎧 Listen to the full episode:

🔹 Spotify: https://earlypod.com/spotify

🔹 Apple Podcasts: https://earlypod.com/apple

🚀 New episodes drop every Tuesday. Let’s build this together.

👉 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment — I want to hear from you!!

📩 Thoughts or guest ideas? Email me: max@earlypod.com

📱 Follow for daily updates:

• 🐦 X (Twitter): https://earlypod.com/x

• ✨ TikTok: https://www.earlypod/tt

• 📸 Instagram: https://www.earlypod/ig

• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.earlypod/li

• 📩 Newsletter: https://earlypod.com/subscribe

In this episode of The Early Podcast, I sit down with legendary early-stage investor Shervin Pishevar — the man who bet on Uber in October 2011, when it had only 30 people, and helped launch it around the world.

From escaping Iran as a child to watching his Father struggle while driving cabs in DC — and then backing Travis Kalanick, Elon Musk, and more — Shervin shares how he developed what he calls his “Founder Radar”: a gut instinct for spotting generational talent before the spreadsheets, pitch decks, or models exist.

More to come with Shervin in the coming months. This is a PART 1!

We get into:

• 🚕 The full-circle story of his dad driving a cab and Shervin investing in Uber

• 🧭 How he learned to “detect the signal” and back founders at the idea stage

• ✈️ The story behind chasing Travis to Dublin to close the Uber deal

• 🌍 Building Uber’s global city launch playbook & regulatory war chest

•⚡ How he got Elon Musk and Travis in a Tesla at SXSW — and why it mattered

•🎓 Paying it forward: From founding companies to investing in the next generation

👉 Listen, subscribe, and share with anyone who loves raw stories from the people who really built iconic companies.

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⏱️ Chapters

0:00 Intro — Founder Radar

2:10 Escaping Iran & the Cab Story

10:00 Starting WebOS, First Wins

18:00 Early-Stage VC vs Spreadsheet VC

28:00 Meeting Travis Kalanick

36:00 The Dublin Term Sheet

46:00 Tesla, Elon & Travis SXSW

56:00 Lessons in Gut Instinct Investing

⸻

🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW:

The Early Podcast is where host Max Crowley, Uber’s #25 employee, sits down with the earliest builders behind today’s most iconic companies. No fluff, just the raw stories of what it’s like in the trenches when your startup could still fail tomorrow.

✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week

✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone interested!

✅ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts

⸻

Let’s go. 💥

🎧 Listen to the full episode:

🔹 Spotify: https://earlypod.com/spotify

🔹 Apple Podcasts: https://earlypod.com/apple

🚀 New episodes drop every Tuesday. Let’s build this together.

👉 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment — I want to hear from you!!

📩 Thoughts or guest ideas? Email me: max@earlypod.com

📱 Follow for daily updates:

• 🐦 X (Twitter): https://earlypod.com/x

• ✨ TikTok: https://www.earlypod/tt

• 📸 Instagram: https://www.earlypod/ig

• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.earlypod/li

• 📩 Newsletter: https://earlypod.com/subscribe