Ep 23 – Michael Gruen, Co-Founder & CSO, DominateX

06/20/23 • 28 min

Learn more about Jeffrey Pfeffer and where you can buy or listen to his books:
JeffreyPfeffer.com

EPISODE 23 – Michael Gruen, Co-Founder & CSO, DominateX

SHOW NOTES:

Meet the amazing and insightful Michael Gruen, a prodigy and social influencer who has started companies by breaking the rules, not getting in his own way, and only following what he knows to be true. His questioning of the status quo and not taking anything for granted are just two of the traits this free thinker employs to create a compelling level of success for himself and those he advises.

In this episode, discover:

Michael’s career trajectory and his influence on the internet
Why he doesn’t believe anything as it is stated to him
How the link between power and money works
Reasons to not fear polarizing responses
The value in making yourself a scarce asset
What patience, persistence, and providing value create
The flywheel effect
His secret to getting into exclusive rooms
The differences between egotists and narcissists in relation to business
The surprising statement he told Donald Trump in the Oval Office
Advice on how to become powerful
What he sees as a harmful problem in society
The uniquely powerful style of his emails
The number of winners in a good negotiation
The principles of generosity, gratitude, loyalty, and appreciation
His philosophy on removing judgments and receiving feedback
Why knowing your flaws and having no ego are superpowers

GUEST BIO:

Michael Gruen is a dynamic and accomplished Gen Z entrepreneur, investor, and media personality who has significantly impacted various industries in his young career. His drive, creativity, and innovative vision have made him a rising star in entrepreneurship and investment.

Gruen's journey began at a young age. He enrolled in college at 14 and quickly developed a passion for finance and entrepreneurship. He co-founded Frax, the world's first fractional stablecoin and crypto native consumer price index. The Frax Protocol introduced the concept of a cryptocurrency partially backed by collateral. It stabilized algorithmically to create highly scalable, decentralized money in place of fixed-supply digital assets like BTC. As a co-founder, Gruen played a pivotal role in the development and growth of Frax, which quickly became one of the most popular stablecoins in the world with a peak market cap of $2.9B. He was responsible for developing Frax's vision and strategy and overseeing the company's day-to-day operations.

In addition to his work with Frax, Gruen has a proven track record of success in various industries, including finance, sports management, and entertainment media production. He co-founded and served on the board of directors for several successful companies, including Sway House, TalentX Entertainment, TalentX Gaming, Ani Energy, CrossCheck Studios, and Animal Capital, a venture capital fund. His work with these companies has helped him develop a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and business.

Gruen has also been recognized for his contributions to the entertainment industry. He was the first to secure an overall deal at a major studio for an influencer, Josh Richards, at CrossCheck Studios. He procured a comprehensive agreement for Nickelodeon star Jace Norman at ViacomCBS, working directly with Brian Robbins, now CEO of Paramount. In addition, he has played an integral role in transforming Creator Edge Media into a premier talent management agency for top influencers, helping them build long-term partnerships with some of the world's biggest brands.

Leading publications, including Forbes, Business Insider, and Variety, have recognized Gruen's impressive achievements. He was named a member of Forbes' 30 Under 30 class of 2022 and has been featured as one of the top 29 up-and-comers changing the world of venture capital, one of the 24 power players transforming the music industry through TikTok, and one of the 19 talent representatives helping creators turn social-media fame into diversified businesses by Business Insider.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Gruen is committed to positively impacting the world. He has given some of his company's profits to charity. He has also given a lot of his time and money to help with education and to help young people.

With his entrepreneurial spirit, innovative vision, and commitment to creating a better world, Michael Gruen is a trailblazer and thought leader in entrepreneurship and investment.

Produced by The MunnAvenuePress.com

Learn more about Jeffrey Pfeffer and where you can buy or listen to his books:
JeffreyPfeffer.com

EPISODE 23 – Michael Gruen, Co-Founder & CSO, DominateX

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, discover:

Michael’s career trajectory and his influence on the internet
Why he doesn’t believe anything as it is stated to him
How the link between power and money works
Reasons to not fear polarizing responses
The value in making yourself a scarce asset
What patience, persistence, and providing value create
The flywheel effect
His secret to getting into exclusive rooms
The differences between egotists and narcissists in relation to business
The surprising statement he told Donald Trump in the Oval Office
Advice on how to become powerful
What he sees as a harmful problem in society
The uniquely powerful style of his emails
The number of winners in a good negotiation
The principles of generosity, gratitude, loyalty, and appreciation
His philosophy on removing judgments and receiving feedback
Why knowing your flaws and having no ego are superpowers

GUEST BIO:

With his entrepreneurial spirit, innovative vision, and commitment to creating a better world, Michael Gruen is a trailblazer and thought leader in entrepreneurship and investment.

Produced by The MunnAvenuePress.com

Previous Episode

Ep 22 – Dafina Toncheva, General Partner, USVP

Learn more about Jeffrey Pfeffer and where you can buy or listen to his books:
JeffreyPfeffer.com

Ep 22 – Dafina Toncheva, General Partner, USVP

SHOW NOTES:

Dafina Toncheva, General Partner at USVP, discusses how she’s strategically used the Rules of Power concepts to manage her career. From a small town in Bulgaria to now being a major figure in Silicon Valley, she has succeeded in an industry that has not traditionally welcomed women. Join us and learn how the principles of power apply to women and men, and how to use those principles of power to navigate an extraordinarily successful career for yourself.

You'll learn from Dafina:

Where she’s from, how she got to the U.S., and her career trajectory
What political forces led her to desire to look for opportunities abroad
How she ultimately ended up at Harvard and the only way she knew to get there
Her path between college and her current career
The lens she used to decide to join USVP in 2012
The use of power in her career to make the most impact
The importance of aligning your success goals with the company’s goals
How she navigated in a less-than-welcoming business environment
How she has stood up for herself and put the Rules of Power into action
The importance of developing constructive professional relationships with board members
A surprising take on what is as important as the investments that are made
How managing the narrative of the firm is incredibly important

GUEST BIO:

Dafina Toncheva ([email protected]), a general partner at USVP, invests in emerging technologies in the enterprise space with focus on Enterprise SaaS applications and security. She has led investments in and joined the boards of Luma Health, Arkose Labs, Raken, Percepto, Carrot Fertility, Nfinite, Sepio Systems, Trust Lab and Surgical Safety Technologies. Dafina served on the board of Prevoty, a leader in application security, who was acquired by Imperva where USVP was the lead investor and largest shareholder.

Prior to joining USVP, Dafina was a principal investor with Tugboat Ventures. Before that, she spent two years at Venrock helping to expand the firm’s investments in SaaS, virtualization, security, infrastructure and enterprise applications. Dafina led the first institutional investment round in Cloudflare (NYSE: NET). Her other investments included Aria Systems, Kenna Security (acquired by Cisco) and Matrixx Software. Before becoming an investor, Dafina held positions in development and product management at Microsoft focusing on authentication systems, digital signatures and business workflow. She has co-authored several key patents.

Dafina holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS in Computer Science, magna cum laude, with special focus on cryptography, efficient algorithms and database systems from Harvard University.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dafinat/

Produced by The MunnAvenuePress.com

Next Episode

Ep 24 – Tosin Joel, Founder, GTBOOL

Learn more about Jeffrey Pfeffer and where you can buy or listen to his books:
JeffreyPfeffer.com

EPISODE 24 – Tosin Joel, Founder, GTBOOL

SHOW NOTES:

Meet Tosin Joel, a leader of businesses, organizations and cross-functional leadership teams who, using the 7 Rules of Power, creates centers of change for herself and others around her. A Nigerian-born woman who was the first in her city to attend university, Joel has learned how to leverage her differences and become successful in the oil industry and beyond.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

How her growing, education, and first jobs impacted her career at Eni
How she applies the 7 Rules of Power to overcome challenges
Why knowing she wants to be a center of change shapes her decisions
How she went from being an outlier to having a seat at the table
Ways to differentiate a career to set a precedent
Ways of managing pressure
The value in leveraging human capitol
Turning obstacles into opportunities
The birth of her nonprofit company GTBOOL (and what it stands for)
Her passion for creating awareness and connecting people
The power of networking and keys to her success
Mission, purpose, and legacy goals
Where her self-confidence, boldness, and willingness to ask come from
Her goals around creating opportunities for others
Balancing her professional and personal lives
Practical relationship advice

GUEST BIO:

Tosin Joel partners with executive teams, and boards to transform organizations and drive step changes in performance. As a Senior Program Manager at Amazon, she reinvents operational efficiency to maximize value capture, and leads business process optimization for competitive advantages. She was Project Head and Geodata Country representative for the Italian multinational giant Eni. She helped the energy operator to maximize the production efficiency of their assets to boost value and reduce costs. With both consulting and operating experience, she is able to help executives see the potential in their operations. Step by step, she led companies through transformational initiatives that result in a stronger operational and financial profile. Tosin worked with major oil-and-gas independents in Europe, Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Joel is the founder of GTBOOL (www.gtbool.com), a networking organization centered on personal growth and sponsorship of high talent professionals in big corporates and mentorship of startups.

She has been named amongst 100 most Influential People of African Descent and has served on the board as country director. Tosin is an alum of MIT Sloan and Stanford LEAD, where she built unique networks to create global impact projects.

She facilitated Silicon Valley design thinking club entrepreneurs.

Post Stanford LEAD, She has climbed several corporate ladders, established a unique brand, and receives numerous invites to speak during international conferences. She has also won many awards, including MIT Sloan Alum Volunteer Award, Best International Humanitarians, International contribution award for Women in tech, Humanity 100, Intellectual contribution awards for leadership and contributions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tosinjoel

Produced by The MunnAvenuePress.com