Grit

Language is without doubt the single most valuable tool we use, and in its use, it ironically builds barriers. Fortunately in recent years with the rise of companies like Duolingo, those barriers are becoming more opaque. In this episode, Bob Meese, Chief Business Officer at Duolingo, joins the show to discuss all the innovative ways that Duolingo is making language learning a more feasible aspect of our lives.

Bob started at Google with a solid 8-year stretch that served as a proving ground for his own professional philosophy. An integral component of that philosophy is to be employee-centric in his vision and execution. In his move to Duolingo, Bob carried that thinking forward. Firmly established at Duolingo, Bob shares with us the impact that the company has on their customers, and even with his own family— namely in making language learning just plain fun. Bob also explores the importance of language, and how Duolingo is striking a firm balance between creating revenue and profit while providing such an altruistic product.

In this episode, we cover:

• A quick look at Bob’s time at Google - and how his philosophy on professional inertia played into his decision to move on to Duolingo. (02:47)
• Why Bob encourages his star employees to shine, even if it results in their decision to seek opportunities beyond their role and the company. (07:28)
• A risk worth taking: The journey that led Bob and his family back to Pittsburgh to begin his career at Duolingo. (10:57)
• An overview of Duolingo including current stats, its evolution, and what is on the horizon. (16:20)
• A discussion about the monetization of Duolingo, what the company looked like when Bob joined as CRO, and how Duolingo established its identity. (22:51)
• Bob reflects on his experience with changing company culture - and shares why he would do it all over again as he looks back on his years at Duolingo. (35:14)
• Duolingo’s revenue growth, the timing of the IPO, and why operating as a private company still works after recently going public. (41:05)
• Joubin and Bob discuss the impact of language and how it is a core part of human identity - and why Duolingo strives to make learning languages more accessible. (47:28)

Links:

• Connect with Bob
  • Twitter
  • Duolingo
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected]
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

Guests: Varun Mohan, CEO & Co-Founder of Codeium; and Leigh Marie Braswell, partner at Kleiner Perkins

“A lot of people are really bad at knowing what good is,” says Codeium CEO Varun Mohan. Specifically, he’s thinking of startups that hire based on a “logo” — a well-known company on the résumé — rather than exceptional talent. Codeium is based in Mountain View, CA, and Varun believes that it’s incumbent on any new startup to hire in the San Francisco Bay Area, because of how exceptional talent is concentrated there.

“When you hire someone that’s 10x better,” he says, “you can’t replace them with 10 1x people. Because the the 10x person is going to be thinking of ideas that none of these 1x people are ever going to think of.”

Chapters:

• (01:05) - Ludicrous growth
• (03:54) - Seizing opportunity
• (07:29) - Product-market fit
• (13:05) - Scale AI & MIT
• (17:42) - Coding efficiency
• (22:58) - Larger companies
• (25:20) - Varun and Leigh Marie’s working relationship
• (29:51) - Pivoting to Codeium
• (34:00) - Giving away the product
• (37:01) - The code-gen landscape
• (42:20) - Annual reinvention
• (45:00) - Picking a problem
• (47:07) - Bipul Sinha’s help
• (50:43) - Ambition
• (53:13) - Building in Silicon Valley
• (55:11) - Spotting talent
• (59:11) - Who Codeium is hiring
• (59:43) - What “grit” means to Varun

Mentioned in this episode: Graham Moreno, Wiz, ChatGPT, Google, Nuro, Goldman Sachs, Waymo, the DARPA Challenge, Alex Wang, Douglas Chen, Safeway, Equinox, Carlos Delatorre and MongoDB, The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft, Exafunction, Mamoon Hamid, Figma, JPMorgan Chase, Starlink, SpaceX, Rubrik, Michael Dell, Stripe, and John Doerr.

Links:

Connect with Varun

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with Leigh Marie

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with Joubin

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Email: [email protected]

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

To say that Brian Frank, Chief Operating Officer of Cameo, comes from a non-traditional background into the career field of sales might be an understatement. Brain’s career began in law and he spent nearly a full career there before transitioning to sales in 2008, where he has been exceedingly active.

Brian’s multifaceted background has given him a wide range of skillsets and a deep wisdom that has become invaluable to the organizations where Brian has worked. His focus on constantly learning through experience, as well as an emphasis on transparency has led him to the hard won successes that allow him to gain these perspectives.

In this episode, Brain and Joubin talk about Brian’s shift from law, his tenure at LinkedIn, and how experiential learning led to the inspiring story behind Brian’s decision to take up the guitar. Brian also goes into the details on Cameo and their meteoric rise, his influence there, and more.

In this episode, we cover:

• Brian talks about his shift from law, to finance, and finally to sales. (1:09)
• Brian’s colorful employment history (which began at age 13) prior to graduating from UC San Diego. (6:41)
• How Brian approaches outbound opportunities - and how a quick LinkedIn message led to a business partnership. (10:37)
• What Brian’s LinkedIn colleagues have to say about him - and his inspiring anecdote about how he met his guitar instructor, Marty Schwartz. (13:34)
• The story behind Brian’s ban from LinkedIn - and why his experiential learning style works for him. (17:15)
• All things sales ops: From defining the role to hiring and developing talent. (21:53)
• ‘What do you value most?’: Joubin and Brian rank and discuss career, money, company and manager. (32:17)
• The lowest points of Brian’s LinkedIn ride - and what led him to be more transparent and open with his team. (36:37)
• What is Cameo? Breaking down Cameo and its fascinating growth. (45:34)
• How Brian assessed Cameo to determine if he was a fit - and his mindset when joining the company. (51:06)
• Why most businesses are demand constrained - and more on Cameo’s B2B expansion. (54:16)

Links:

• Connect with Brian
  • LinkedIn
  • Cameo
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected]
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

There is a litany of analogies for marketing. An art, a technique, a skill. Yet few strive to combine a multitude of approaches. For Meagen Eisenberg, Chief Marketing Officer at TripActions, she synthesizes a combination of art, science, and the essential ingredient–joy–to form a unique marketing strategy. 

Meagen is a no BS go-getter who demonstrates an encompassing approach to how she conducts business. She hones in on her own efficiency and ability to think quickly and adapt, and expresses how cultivating that skill has made her a fast decision-maker. To reinforce that speed is a desire to always learn, which is the underlying motivation for her own professional progress. Meagen offers her perspectives on organizational structure, the highly valuable takeaways from mistakes and failures, and how her work at TripActions has adapted, through her own love and joy of the flux of marketing, to the changes of COVID-19. Meagen’s straightforward approach carries a lot of weight and is a force we all can consider. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• Why TripActions’ CRO, Carlos Delatorre, calls Meagen a superhuman - and why she believes in treating her sales team as a customer. (03:56)
• ‘The key for executives is to keep learning’: Meagen discusses her favorite mediums for learning, her love of books, and the various ways she stays on the pulse. (11:58)
• A discussion about preparing for and executing board meetings - and a look at PG Tuesday. (19:31)
• Meagen’s perspective on company alignment from the top down and how it sets the stage for success. (25:44)
• The silver lining in failure and Meagen’s attitude towards not giving up - and what it means to “live in awkward.” (34:55)
• The art and science of marketing - and the impact of COVID-19 on TripActions and how that differed from its competitors. (44:46)
• Meagen reflects on the worst day in her career during the pandemic. (55:14)
• A walkthrough of Meagen’s hiring process during her first six weeks at TripActions, her take on hiring people who solve problems, and why she loves marketing. (01:01:52)

Links:

• Connect with Meagen
  • LinkedIn
  • TripActions
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

Links Referenced:

• Dan Druker
• Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
• MOVE: The 4-question Go-to-Market Framework
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
• The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
• Andre Agassi: Open: An Autobiography
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future