Greymatter

Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman and Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman discuss the strategy behind the company's data-driven, online marketplace where people can rent or buy clothing. Rent the Runway launched in 2009 with the mission to democratize fashion. Over the years, the company has evolved significantly, keeping up with the many major shifts to the retail and e-commerce...

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott joins Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman for a discussion about the impact of AI on cognitive (or knowledge) work. Scott, whose company developed the programming assistant tool GitHub Copilot, advises people building machine learning systems (or entire companies) around AI to maintain a clear sense of responsibility and awareness of the potential negative impacts. In a...

Autonomous driving is among the most exciting applications for artificial intelligence. It is also among the most challenging to actually pull off: from the capital-intensive combination of hardware and software to the complex coordination between multiple stakeholders to ensure safety. What will it take to get it deployed on a large scale? Aurora CEO Chris Urmson and Nuro CEO Jiajun Zhu join Grey...

Shopify president Harley Finkelstein sat down with Greylock general partner Mike Duboe to discuss the company's evolution along with the overall ecommerce landscape; offer advice to entrepreneurs navigating the current market conditions; and lay out his vision for the future. Shopify launched a time when there were few options for entrepreneurs to set up their online stores, sell and market produc...

The more human-like artificial intelligence becomes, the more we understand about how our brains actually work. Through that discovery process, researchers are identifying ways to design artificial intelligence in ways that factor in the safety and morality of their potential impact. Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman interviews Dr. Fei-Fei Li, the co-director of Stanford's Institute for Human-...

Greylock general partner Saam Motamedi interviews David Luan, who is the co-founder of ML research and product lab Adept, and Percy Liang, who is the associate professor of computer science and statistics at Stanford. In this conversation, they discuss the major developments in working with large scale language models. This interview took place during Greylock’s Intelligent Future event, a day-lon...

Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman interviews OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The AI research and deployment company's primary mission is to develop and promote AI technology that benefits humanity. Founded in 2015, the company has most recently been noted for its generative transformer model GPT - 3, which uses deep learning to produce human-like text, and its image-creation platform DALL-E. This inter...

Greylock general partners Reid Hoffman and Saam Motamedi discuss the current state of artificial intelligence, including the most recent technological advancements; top areas for investment; and the ethical considerations needed to ensure tools are developed safely. This discussion is the kickoff for Greylock's Intelligent Future series featuring conversations with experts, visionaries, and early-...

From developing a repeatable, strategic process and continuously working to identify ways to improve it, founders can take a number of steps to build a culture of recruiting. Sometimes, that means hiring a dedicated talent-sourcing and recruiting team. Greylock talent partner Glen Evans and technical talent recruiter Dwane Hamilton discuss strategies for working with recruiters, including when to...

The “talent investor" Entrepreneur First was created with a mission to connect founders no matter where they are in the world, and recruits and backs them at the very earliest stages. By focusing on connecting individuals rather than defined teams, they've gained a unique perspective into what makes good ideas, and how the right co-founder dynamics can bring it into reality. Now, they've gathered...

A re-broadcast of our episode featuring Greylock investor Seth Rosenberg's interview with the co-founders of Espresso Systems, which provides configurable privacy and scalability tools for Web3. The company is operating at a critical time for privacy within Web3. Recently, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, a mixer platform that enables cryptocurrency transactions. The regulatory...

Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman interviews Nike CEO John Donahoe as part of Greylock's Iconversations speaker series. In the interview, Donahoe discusses the iconic sports retailer's digital transformation in recent years; the lessons learned as a four-time CEO; and his “head coach” mentality to leadership. You can read a transcript of this interview here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/the...

Known as the "AWS of Web3", Alchemy's platform powers most of the top web3 applications around the world. The idea came to founders Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau following their own frustration when building a crypto analytics tool. Seeing that developers around the world needed a toolkit to enable the next wave of innovation, they set out to build Alchemy. Launched in 2020, the company's platform...

Greylock investor Maya Frai outlines her perspective on design-centered products, which she believes is the now overarching driver of innovation in several industries including commerce, social, saas, web3, and more. Based on her experience on product teams at Google, Facebook, and Rent the Runway, Maya believes technology that puts people at the center are often the most successful. You can read...

A re-broadcast of our episode focused on one of the most critical (yet often under-analyzed) aspects of entrepreneurship: decision-making. As Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman and his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh discuss, there are actually many things entrepreneurs can do to improve their decision-making skills. The central skill is learning how to be quick and decisive, and to adjust you...

Solv CEO and co-founder Heather Fernandez talks with Greylock marketing partner Elisa Schreiber about a unique fundraising strategy Solv undertook to add more women investors to the company's cap table. In late 2021, Solv was wrapping up its Series C round when Fernandez was encouraged by longtime investor and friend Kara Norton (Upfront Ventures) to launch a special purpose vehicle (SPV) aimed so...

A re-broadcast of our episode featuring Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky. Chesky joined Greylock partner Reid Hoffman on Greylock's Iconversations speaker series to talk about how he guided Airbnb from an 80% loss within the first two months of the pandemic to a record-breaking IPO by the end of 2020; why Silicon Valley needs to redefine how it measures growth; how Chesky’s design background...

A re-broadcast of our episode with Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman and his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh discussing when, how, and why CEOs should speak publicly about political or social topics. Once considered strictly off limits to business leaders, speaking out about politics and social issues has become much more common. In fact, it’s now often expected for a CEO to make a statement...

Audio version of essay written by Greylock general partner Asheem Chandna for Forbes: "Where Does AI Go Next?" Chandna and several AI experts weigh in on the potential value and risks as the technology expands. Essay read by Greylock head of editorial Heather Mack. You can read the essay on Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/asheemchandna/2022/05/31/where-does-ai-go-next/ You can also read...

Greylock general partner Mike Duboe speaks with Zhuoxun Yin (Zedd) and Jack Lu, two of the co-founders of NFT marketplace Magic Eden. The company, which just raised its Series B round, provides a platform for people to discover, collect, and trade NFTs on the Solana ecosystem. You can read a transcript of this episode here: https://greylock.com/portfolio-news/magic-eden/ Learn more about your ad c...

Greylock general partner Jerry Chen speaks with HashiCorp CEO David McJannet about the proliferation of cloud services that requires a multi-cloud approach. Founded in 2012, HashiCorp is an provider of products that are foundational to mission-critical cloud applications and infrastructure. As such, the company has become an essential partner to numerous organizations ranging from startups to the...

Convoy CEO and co-founder Dan Lewis discusses the current shipping landscape and how his company is upgrading the long-antiquated trucking industry. Convoy, which has developed a platform that puts drivers, shipping companies, and freight brokers on the grid has allowed all parties to operate more efficiently, resulting in saved costs and time as well as reducing pollution. Founded in 2015, Convoy...

Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman and his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh discuss the current crisis and its impact on startups. Entrepreneurship assumes an innate degree of optimism and perseverance. But even the most determined founders can feel subdued when faced with yet another crisis. That’s why adaptability is a startup’s strongest asset. As recent global events push us into a new era...

In his commencement speech to Vanderbilt University's graduating class of 2022, Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman discusses the impact and importance of friendship. "Not the Hallmark kind – not all sunshine and roses and bunny rabbits," says Hoffman. "I mean real, substantial friendship – that’s sometimes really hard – and that shapes and changes our lives." In this speech, Hoffman shares some...

Audio version of the latest essay by Greylock investors' Jerry Chen and Jason Risch. As part of our ongoing Castles in the Cloud project, we’ve compiled and analyzed VC funding data into cloud-focused startups in 2021 and Q1 2022. We are mapping the activity in the venture capital-funded startup ecosystem with that of the Big 3 Cloud providers: AWS, Azure, and GCP. You can read the essay here: htt...