Gokul Rajaram has worked as a leader at some of the most iconic companies in the world: Google, Facebook, Square, Pinterest, Coinbase and Doordash. In conversation with Caesar, Gokul dives into the motivations behind his journey from being one of the foremost ad experts in the world to being a leading tech investor and advisor.
Gokul promotes the superpower of learning how to be helpful. After sitting on more than a dozen executive boards over his career, Gokul advises listeners not to be motivated by status, but instead to focus on lending your expertise to growing businesses.
Instead of focusing on profits and promotions, he explains how over the years he has made the mission of the company – including serving consumers or small businesses – his North Star. In the abstract space of fintech, he stresses the importance of feeling excited about the product you are building for customers. He also underscores the need to work with high-caliber professionals who challenge you, because when you’re the dumbest person in the room, that’s when you learn.
In his professional leaps and bounds, Gokul has focused on regret minimization. Rather than staying in his lane as the product director of ads at Facebook, he sought out new and unique leadership roles in product development. He invites listeners before a career jump to consider the worst case scenario, and no matter the outcome, whether you will develop new skills and grow your network.
When it comes to investing, Gokul argues money making should not be front of mind. Instead, as an angel investor, he embraces the opportunity to support growing businesses and to learn. Investing is a way to stay relevant and engage in developing technologies more tangibly.
Gokul provides a motivating story of putting purpose over profits, and shares how he’s helping give back to the community now that his mindset is paying dividends.
Arta Spotlight: Live Long & Prosper