Entrepreneurship and Loneliness
Finding connection when you feel alone
Airbnb Reflections
Nasdaq: ABNB
UK appoints entrepreneur Joe White as first Tech Envoy to the United States
Earlier this year, I was pleased to learn that the UK Government was planning to appoint a Tech Envoy to the U.S. – a dedicated point person who would live in the Bay Area and function as a conduit between our tech industry and the UK. Later, when I learned that Joe White would take on this newly created…
Choosing Bad Competition
Find Valuable Opportunity by Changing the Game
How Business Leaders Can Contribute to Civic Engagement This Election
Since states around the country began offering early voting in mid-September, inspiring images of citizens lining up to exercise their franchise have become commonplace. In some cities, they’re showing up well before dawn to claim their place in line. In others, they endure rainstorms or turn the wait in line into an outdoor dance party. The electorate’s enthusiasm extends to mail-in…
Attention Lawyers: Help Rule of Law Win at the Polls This Year
As we head into the home stretch of the most consequential election of our lifetimes, it has never been more critical to ensure that every American voter has the ability to exercise this most fundamental democratic right of voting, and that we maintain our commitment to free and fair elections in which every vote is counted.…
Eric Lander’s great new podcast Brave New Planet
Utopia or dystopia? Between the promises of powerful new technologies like AI and the challenges of major problems like climate change, disinformation at scale, and wealth concentration, how we get to the future we want is a question I spend a lot of time thinking about these days. It’s also the subject of Eric Lander’s…
ABZ Planning
Adaptation During the Age of the Inconceivable
Reinventing the SPAC
One of the hottest topics in the technology and finance world right now is an old idea that has suddenly found new life, the special purpose acquisition company or “SPAC.” SPACs, which are sometimes referred to as blank check companies, are entities that go public and raise money from investors so that the IPO proceeds…
The Startup Pivot
How Decisive Reinvention Built Iconic Companies
Building Ecosystems of Adaptability
Network Building, Market Re-Evaluation and Strategy Refinement During Covid
Mike Bloomberg on Trump’s Job Performance
So often people talk about the Democratic Party as the party of pluralist, pie-in-the-sky idealism and the Republican Party as the party of practical, results-driven business. At last night’s Democratic National Convention, though, one of the world’s most successful, results-driven business leaders, Michael Bloomberg, made some key points. Bloomberg, of course, is not just a great…
The Power of Ritual with YouTube and Coda’s Shishir Mehrotra
The word ritual probably doesn’t conjure images of board meetings or product reviews. But effective business leaders create rituals for their organizations that can focus, clarify, and inspire. In the latest Masters of Scale episode, I discuss the power of ritual with Shishir Mehrotra, who tapped the power of rituals to grow YouTube, and now runs Coda.io,…
Myths About Failure
Why Understanding Failure Can Lead to Success
Talking Politics
When, How and Why CEOs Should Speak Out