Greymatter

In 2014, Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman co-authored The Alliance with Chris Yeh and Ben Casnocha. The book argued that in the modern economy, the key to a stronger, healthier, longer-lasting employee relationship was to be honest about the temporary nature of nearly every job. Much like negotiators of a treaty of alliance, employees can work with their managers and employers to steer their...

Health tech startup Cleo CEO SJ Sacchetti sat down with Greymatter to discuss how the company is quickly iterating products and services to meet the needs of working parents in the time of Covid-19 and beyond. SJ also shared her experience as a working parent and new CEO, and how adapting to a crisis has helped focus the Cleo team. The episode is part of a series of conversations with Greylock-bac...

This episode of Greymatter is part of a series of conversations between Blitzscaling co-authors Reid Hoffman (who is also a general partner at Greylock) and Chris Yeh. While the disruption and turbulence associated with the Covid-19 pandemic is broadly negative and unpredictable, it does open up new opportunities. Even during a pandemic, there will still be blitzscaling opportunities. They’ll just...

This episode, which features Grand Rounds CEO and co-founder Owen Tripp, is one in a series of Greymatter podcasts with health tech startup executives. While the coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant downturn in business for many companies, health tech startup Grand Rounds has had the opposite experience, and has risen to meet demand with new technology and resources including an online sy...

In May 2020, Jeff Weiner stepped down as CEO of LinkedIn after 11 amazing years. In this episode of Greymatter, Greylock partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman shares his favorite memories and most valuable lessons learned from working with Jeff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Greymatter features a portion of a virtual town hall held in May with Greylock general partner and LinkedIn co-Founder Reid Hoffman, moderated by general partner David Thacker. Portfolio company founders joined the session to hear Reid’s assessment of the current economic, political and public health landscape. He answered questions about how entrepreneurs, investors and new gradua...

How do you scale a consumer brand company to profitability without losing the human touch? Moreover, since marketplace platforms like Shopify have made it relatively simple to launch an ecommerce business, how do you stand out among the noise and reach customers in the first place? And how do you measure how well those methods are working? This episode of Greymatter is one in a series of growth di...

This episode of Greymatter is the third in a series of growth discussions featuring Greylock investor Mike Duboe. Lenny Rachitsky, former growth lead at Airbnb, and Dan Hockenmaier, founder of Basis One and former director of growth marketing at Thumbtack, join Mike to share lessons learned when growing marketplaces from startup to scaleup. They discuss how to design a growth org, processes and fr...

Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman, and Wences Casares, Greylock portfolio company CEO and founder of Xapo, are back for their second conversation. This time to discuss how blitzscaling works when you’re not in Silicon Valley or China. In this episode of Greymatter, Wences and Reid talk about some of the learnings and tools he’s found that help him make remote work at Xapo more effective (Xapo has 275...

Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman, and Wences Casares, Greylock portfolio company CEO and founder of Xapo, discuss what diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems like Argentina can teach Silicon Valley. This episode of Greymatter digs into how assumptions about the world that hold true in America don’t in most other places around the globe. It also explores how being outside of Silicon Valley helped Wences r...

This episode in the Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, discusses the role of the founder in a blitzscaling startup. Reid shares practical advice for choosing your co-founders and key characteristics of successful founders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greylock Investor Mike Duboe, Right Side Up CEO Tyler Elliston, and KeepTruckin VP of Data Science Kim Larsen discuss frameworks and tactics for successful growth marketing. This episode of Greymatter is the second in a series of growth discussions featuring Greylock investor Mike Duboe. In this discussion, Right Side Up CEO Tyler Elliston and KeepTrucking VP of Data Science Kim Larsen chat with M...

This episode in the Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, provides an overview of some of the main people issues you might encounter when blitzscaling. Indeed, while many of the articles in the popular press that mention blitzscaling focus on the financial capital involved, in most cases, the greatest constraint on blitzscaling is your ability to find, develop, a...

Greylock Investor Mike Duboe, Reforge CEO Brian Balfour, and Mulesoft SVP of Product Shaun Clowes on developing a healthy and successful growth strategy. Growth is fundamental to a company's survival. To compete in today's crowded business environment, it is vital for founders to implement powerful strategies that drive healthy and sustainable growth. Successful growth strategies start with a meth...

This episode in the Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, digs deep into the question of globalization. When should an entrepreneur start to think about globalization? When is globalization a good idea, and when is it a bad idea? And when should a company first hire a head of international? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode in the Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, takes you deep inside the mind of Reid Hoffman. You’ll learn his frameworks for making key decisions, and hear about how he developed and applied them at PayPal and LinkedIn. The key decisions entrepreneurs face belong to four layers: Capital, Talent, Market, and Product. Learn more about your ad choices....

This episode in the Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, focuses on the major threats that blitzscalers need to watch out for as they scale. Like a whack-a-mole game, new threats are constantly popping up to keep entrepreneurs busy! Fortunately, this episode offers practical tips on how to identify the true threats and address them before they derail your compan...

Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki and Greylock partner David Sze on the power of imagination. The gaming industry has undergone a transformation driven by technological advancements including mobile and cloud, and new gaming tools and platforms. Historically, consoles and PCs dominated the gaming market, but the rise of mobile and online games and live streaming services have ushered in a new...

This episode in our Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, focuses on the topic of competitive strategy. In an ideal world, you won't have any competition. But the world is far from ideal. How should a blitzscaling company think about and respond to the competition? You'll hear about how Reid, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk used speed to lead PayPal to victory in a co...

Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and Josh McFarland on the basic principles for successful blitzscaling. Blitzscaling is a set of practices for igniting rapid growth to accelerate to the stage in a startup’s life cycle where the most value is created. Bitzscaling prioritizes speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty, and it allows a company to go from “startup” to “scaleup” at a furious pace t...

Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh on defining and developing a competitive strategy.   Blitzscaling is how startups become enduring, category-defining businesses at lightning-fast speed. This strategy utilizes a set of techniques to grow, raise financing, and quickly scale to a dominant position in a global market. Greylock partner Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chr...

Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman and OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman on the transformative potential of AGI. The AI revolution has only just begun. Over the next several decades, numerous industries will continue to see significant transformations as a result of advanced AI research and applications. As AI technology ramps up, so does the potential for artificial general intelligence, AGI, which...

From the 2019 Startup Grind Conference, Greylock's Reid Hoffman and OpenAI Co-Founder and CTO Greg Brockman on the prospects of building beneficial AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). AI systems have achieved impressive capabilities that may one day reach human levels of intelligence. Autonomous systems with this intelligence and capability are referred to as artificial general intelligence (AG...

From the 2019 SFELC Summit, Greylock's Sarah Guo and Reid Hoffman on blitzscaling massively valuable companies.   Getting to scale is a competitive and enduring advantage. Blitzscaling is how companies achieve this massive scale at incredible speed. This strategy utilizes a set of techniques to grow a customer base and revenue, raise financing, and quickly scale to a dominant global position in a...

From the 2019 SFELC Summit, Google's Advisor of Leadership Fred Kofman on the biggest drivers of motivation. Today's leaders need to motivate their employees for the long-term. Material incentives like salary and benefits are nice, but the real driver for employees is the desire to work in an organization that has a greater purpose and mission. In this episode of Greymatter, Google's Fred Kofman s...