Masters of Scale

Will the U.S. run out of food? Can the world's food supply chains survive coronavirus? Sara Menker, founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence, which parses 650 trillion agricultural data points daily, shares eye-opening insights based on real-time facts. Learn about the hidden forces that impact what we see on shelves -- and why we might be worrying about the wrong things. Interviewed by editor Bob...

Hospitals are facing overwhelming challenges they weren’t equipped for – and in many cases, they’re now innovating their way toward solutions. Today we're talking with Dr. David Skorton, CEO of the AAMC, the Association of American Medical Colleges. David isn’t a founder or an entrepreneur but he has a bird’s eye view of what health institutions are grappling with, how they need to rethink the way...

What do you do when you can’t serve customers in cafes and carry on business as usual? You try unusual things, says Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary. Forced to close cafes and restructure teams, Panera is leveraging its advantages (like a robust e-commerce system) to launch a slew of initiatives, from Panera Grocery to contactless delivery to Together Without Hunger, providing 500,000 meals to food bank...

Everyone's looking for a box of crisis tricks. But the hard truth is that it simply doesn’t exist, says retired General Stanley McChrystal. Instead of looking for a new style, McChrystal says, lead with the same things that motivate people on a normal basis: Be honest about the path ahead, communicate clearly and build your team up. With calm reassurance, he encourages founders to keep their eyes...

Pet adoptions have soared during the coronavirus lockdown, as people seek companionship and solace. For Chewy, the pet-supply company, that’s driving unprecedented demand. Ultra-rapid growth has its own set of challenges that CEO Sumit Singh is responding to by: hiring (at 13,000 employees, with plans to add another 6,000 to 10,000 by end of year); setting up a COVID task team that meets daily; in...

A neighborhood is more than just the people who share a common address, says Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar. It’s every space that makes up your daily life. So Nextdoor is jumping in, rolling out new features like Help Maps and Groups so residents can connect and coordinate. Sarah says these products, some new, some in development pre-Covid, all help fulfill Nextdoor’s mission and help neighbors act as...

In the US, local governments are leading the response to COVID-19 – making decisions and gathering data at a speed and scale never before seen. And many of them are asking Jen Pahlka for help. The founder and past chair of Code for America, she co-founded U.S. Digital Response, a nonpartisan group that matches experts with local governments to work on tech, comms and operations. She shares what sh...

Many of us will be working remotely for a long time to come. So: How do you turn March's temporary scramble into a long-term benefit? Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares runs a fully distributed company at his unicorn bitcoin startup, Xapo. For Wences, remote work is an intentional choice, one that celebrates the creativity and freedom of being released from geographical boundaries – and turns remote w...

Every day in a pandemic is different, and that’s true for people and for corporations. CEO Brian Cornell has promised Target will keep its doors open. To do that, Target is becoming "a good student," says Brian, listening to experts, collaborating with CEOs, staying flexible, and meeting daily to make decisions on an ever changing list of priorities, the first of which is to keep both the team and...

TaskRabbit remains open for business, says CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot. As the magnitude and severity of the pandemic became clear – and as workers across the U.S. were furloughed and services cut – TaskRabbit leaned into the work they do: providing services to those who need them and empowering Taskers with new opportunities for income, including virtual tasks, and Tasks for Good, which connects vuln...

Everything starts with transportation, says John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft. And even though ride sharing is sharply down, transportation remains key – for essential workers and for our supply chain. So Lyft is flexing some new muscles, says John. They recently launched a delivery service so they can help get supplies where they need to go – and put drivers on the road. They’ve also...

How do you survive a crisis? You create your own trajectory, says Ellen Kullman. And she knows: In her former role, she became CEO of the chemical engineering giant DuPont in 2008, just ahead of the financial crisis. During those years of straight free fall, Ellen learned how to lead through what seemed like completely devastating circumstances and developed four crisis principles, forged through...

As the pandemic hit, Airbnb was preparing for an IPO. Within a matter of days, everything changed dramatically, as travel worldwide screamed to a halt. “I felt like I was captain of a ship and a torpedo hit the side,” says CEO Brian Chesky. Airbnb responded quickly, announcing that they'd override host rules and allow for guest cancellations. They went on to establish a relief fund for hosts, lobb...

People are altruistic – even more so in times of uncertainty. This is what Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose, has learned through 20 years of leading his nonprofit through the terrorist attacks of 9/11, multiple recessions, and now a pandemic. Through it all, he’s learned how to listen what to donors – and grantees – really want, and how to pivot to address changing needs. In the last...

What are your options for emergency funding in the US? Can you use the U.S. CARES Act to get financial assistance? Should you consider crowdfunding? We talk to Karen Cahn, CEO of IFundWomen, about what you need to know. Who qualifies for the forgivable and traditional loans within this $2.2 trillion stimulus package? Do you have to apply today? How much money could you get? And is a loan a good id...

"Anxiety," "grief," "mom”: These are the words surfacing at this extreme moment in time. That data comes from Crisis Text Line, whose online counselors are using both empathy and aggregated data to help people through this pandemic. Founder and former CEO Nancy Lublin makes the case for not losing sight of data — especially at extreme moments like this. Crisis Text Line provides free, confidential...

Hourly workers are the 'hero class,' says VC Tony Tjan. And the pandemic is wreaking havoc on their financial stability. At Boston’s Cue Ball Group, Tony’s portfolio includes companies that employ hundreds of nail care workers, cooks and servers, and he's asking: How can we protect hourly workers and help them prepare for an uncertain future? And how can we plan for the long term, when the daily k...

Can you blitzscale when the world grinds to a halt? How do you do right by your team AND your investors? What will the entrepreneurial world look like on the other side of this? In this special episode, our host Reid Hoffman, sits on the other side of the mic, contextualizing the crisis and offering a hopeful viewpoint. Interviewed by editor Bob Safian. Read a transcript of this episode:&nbsp...

Last week, Danny Meyer laid off 2,000 people – that's 80 percent of staff at Union Square Hospitality Group, representing 20+ restaurants across the country. It was a heartbreaking decision made with full understanding of the impacts, short and long-term – or as much as can possibly be known in this volatile time. In this special episode, Danny returns to the show to share why and how he acted so...

The first in a series of special episodes with tools you need RIGHT NOW | Suddenly, many of us are remote workers. As companies radically reimagine their day-to-day in response to the pandemic, we all need to know what Matt Mullenweg has learned: How to thrive as a successful remote team. As founder of Automattic (creators of WordPress etc.), Matt runs a 1,000-person team that’s almost entirely re...

What if your idea is so radical that people have trouble grasping what it is — or even believing it won't harm them? Every founder believes their product is revolutionary – and the more revolutionary their product, the more reassuring they’ll need to be to get consumers on board. No one knows this better than Wences Casares, the trailblazing entrepreneur credited with bringing crypto to Silicon Va...

Growth vs. innovation, scale vs. stability, founders vs, CEOs? Entrepreneurs want to know! In this month's Strategy Session, high-performing scale-ups from around the world ask Reid their most urgent strategic questions. This episode features Endeavor's "Outliers" – the fastest-growing, highest-performing entrepreneurs from this global incubator. They want to know: What do they do next?  Co-h...

The secret to massive scale? Be a platform. Build a virtuous cycle where everyone wins, and you’ll emerge the biggest winner of all. This is what Tobi Lütke did when he built Shopify – and then opened it up to the world. Cameo appearances by: Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt (Google), Julia Hartz (Eventbrite), and Gustav Söderström (Spotify). Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofs...

Classic episode: You need a strong culture to build a company that will scale beyond the early days of start up. And strong company cultures only emerge when every employee feels they own the culture from day one. Here's how Reed Hastings did it – and made Netflix culture (and its “culture deck”) famous in the process. Cameo appearances: Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn), Aneel Bhusri (Workday), Margare...

When do you see the forest? And when do you see the trees? Building a company to scale requires a delicate balance of macro and micro focus – and the skill to know where to focus when. Josh Silverman has built that skill in leadership roles at Evite, eBay, Skype, and now Etsy. What he’s learned: Success isn’t just about zooming in on the details or taking the long view – but about knowing when to...