Grit Podcast

The hardest part of transformation is knowing what to let go of. Dan O’Connell, now leading Front as CEO and formerly on the board at Dialpad, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to explore the delicate balance between legacy and innovation as he leads a decade old company through the AI revolution. He also reflects on why courage and control can coexist in leadership, and what it means to “make decisions that give you energy.” Guest: Dan O’Connell, CEO of Front

Before AI became a buzzword, a few true believers were already building. Since early 2022, Mati Staniszewski and his team at ElevenLabs have been among them, working to create voices that “actually represent emotions.” He shares with Joubin Mirzadegan how voice AI is transforming diverse fields, from delivering personalized healthcare for different age groups to amplifying creativity in filmmaking.

What’s product-market fit like when you give people the power to do what they never thought was possible? On this rerun of Grit from April 2024, Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, shares how his platform gave billions a new way to create video without cameras, and explores a future where video and audio replace text as the primary way to share knowledge and content. Guests: Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia and Josh Coyne, Partner at Kleiner Perkins

Make your product irresistible, and everything else will follow. That’s the philosophy of Grant Lee, co-founder and CEO of Gamma, an AI design platform with an 'anti-PowerPoint approach', used by over 50M people. This week on Grit, he also shares why enduring businesses aren’t one person shows, and how their deliberate hiring process shapes and strengthens company culture.

Chris Degnan and Denise Persson share insights from their book 'Make It Snow' about scaling Snowflake's global business through aligned sales and marketing teams. They discuss building Snowflake's go-to-market engine, fostering a customer-first culture, and managing teams through hypergrowth to serve over 12,000 customers.

What does it take to reinvent entire industries, over and over again? This week on Grit, Sebastian Thrun, the “godfather” of self-driving cars and massive open online courses, reflects on a career pushing the boundaries of technology across mobility, education, and AI. With Joubin Mirzadegan, he shares why he believes autonomous driving could become the biggest lifesaving technology in history, and how a wake-up call led him to found Udacity to truly democratize higher education. Guest: Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Stealth Startup, founder of Google X and Udacity

What kind of founder builds a billion-dollar company around something anyone can use for free? Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to reflect on two decades of building the platform that now powers over 43% of all websites through cycles of doubt, decline, and reinvention. He also shares how Automattic aligns employees with its mission to democratize publishing and commerce through paid sabbaticals and remote work. Guest: Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and founder and CEO of Automattic

The apps and websites we use every day depend on systems most of us never see. Jay Kreps joins Joubin Mirzadegan to share how Confluent became the 'central nervous system' for companies like Expedia and eBay, letting them respond to business operations instantly. They also break down why the myth of AI-driven efficiency falls short, and why building truly transformative companies takes far longer than most people expect. Guest: Jay Kreps, Co-Founder & CEO of Confluent