Every year in the U.S., individuals, foundations, and corporations donate around $47 billion a year to non-profit organizations that focus on child welfare, food security, homelessness, and other areas that fall under the domain of “human services.” In comparison, federal, state, and local government spend around $411 billion a year providing similar safety-net services. In his recent book The Givers:…
Nearly every successful technology company has a strong culture—a true articulation of how employees work together. It’s almost impossible to succeed without one. But that doesn’t mean that they have a good culture. Just ask Reed Hastings. Before he led Netflix to global dominance, he co-founded a software company that grew from garage to IPO, but ultimately…
I don’t often write immediate reactions to recent news. However, after reading an article published by The Information regarding sexual harassment allegations against venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital, I feel that the subject is so important that I must write immediately. In the article, journalist Reed Albergotti compiles first-hand accounts from six women, including three…
Soon, self-driving cars will turn Highway 101 into an office park, and we’ll all keep working right through rush hour. But where is the technology that will liberate us from a productivity killer that’s nearly as lethal as the morning commute? At thousands of conferences every year, millions of panel sessions consume billions of man-hours…
As technology entrepreneur and former State Department senior advisor Alec Ross suggests in his New York Times best-seller, The Industries of the Future, prosperity goes to societies “that don’t just double down on the past but that can adapt and direct their citizens toward industries that are growing.” As an entrepreneur and investor, I’ve always focused on the future,…
Even with access to capital, resources, and talent, it’s incredibly hard to scale a technology startup. Just imagine trying to scale up a non-profit organization without the advantages of the for-profit world. Like the famous comparison of Ginger Rogers to her dance partner Fred Astaire, non-profit entrepreneurs have to do everything that their for-profit siblings do, but…
Many companies loudly proclaim their desire to innovate, but how many know what it actually takes? The most innovative companies don’t tell their employees how to innovate. They suppress traditional management and instead manage the chaos, trusting it will lead to creative breakthroughs. This approach is epitomized by former Google CEO and Alphabet Chair Eric…
It isn’t easy leading an organization that’s doubling or tripling in size every year. To lead a blitzscaling organization, you need to be as skilled at breaking plans as you are at making them. And few people do this as well as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who has been instrumental in building two of the…
We live in an era of massive public marches and standing-room-only town hall meetings. People today expect opportunities to actively engage with the legislators who govern them and the companies they do business with. Change.org, the global hub for collective action, is a crucial democratizing force in this era of growing civic participation. It helps…
When it comes to launching your product, imperfect is perfect. Sometimes, the most important question you can ask isn’t, “Is this good enough?” Rather, you can emulate Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ask, “Is this going to destroy the company? If not, then let them test it!” That’s just one of the many counter-intuitive, genius-level…
The best business ideas often appear laughable at first glance. Google, Facebook, Airbnb—they all sounded crazy, before they blitzscaled into spectacular successes! In the latest episode of the Masters of Scale podcast, “The Beauty of a Bad Idea,” we explore why getting laughed out of the room by potential investors might actually be a good sign for your…
Tim O’Reilly wrote a great response to the most recent episode of Masters of Scale, “The Money Episode”. Tim’s LinkedIn Influencer post, “Some Businesses Bleed Black”, adds nuance and complexity to the philosophy that startups should raise more money than they think they need. As Tim points out, there is definitely a continuum between the all-out…
Entrepreneurs should always raise more money than they need, so they can plan for the unforeseeable. That includes anything from a stock market crash or outlandish expenses to an opportunity you couldn’t predict in a market that didn’t exist when you started out. This week’s episode of Masters of Scale — the new audio series I host…
Lessons from the “Masters of Scale” Podcast The first episode of the “Masters of Scale” podcast — “Hand Crafted” featuring Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky — launches today, and the remaining episodes will be released weekly. I’m proud of this podcast; I think you’ll find that it doesn’t sound like any business podcast you’ve…
In Silicon Valley, the biggest financial rewards go to innovative, often contrarian ideas that scale globally. So entrepreneurs don’t just look for opportunities to create something radically new. They also look for opportunities that can impact hundreds of millions of people. This mindset has brought us Google, Amazon, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, smartphones, and countless other…