#139 CEO Coach, Matt Mochary: Coaching Greatness

Matt Mochary was only 31 when he sold the company he co-founded, Totality, to Verizon, “and I made enough money that that was it,” he recalls. “I didn’t have to make more money anymore.” Instead, he decided to pursue projects that in one way or another would help other people, including a documentary about the slums of Rio de Janeiro and a program to train ex-convicts in the skills of legitimate work. Today, he coaches tech and finance leaders such as Brian Armstrong (CEO Coinbase), Bastian Lehmann (CEO Postmates), Sam Altman (CEO OpenAI), and Steve Huffman (CEO Reddit). All the money earned from that work, he says, bypasses his bank account and is funding the development of software that will teach tech workers the “Mochary Method.”

In this episode, Matt and Joubin discuss information asymmetry, GPT-4, focusing on fun, coaching software, saving people, the slums of Rio and the South Bronx, surfing vs. friends, the merits of crappy solutions, why companies fail, shadowing the CEO, feedback and resentment, pissing people off, the danger of “excellence,” and energy audits.

In this episode, we cover:

Putting in effort, finding value (01:11)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (05:43)
Immediate responsiveness (09:48)
“Mount Rushmore” referrals (11:54)
When Matt’s coaching was free (15:08)
His Hungarian grandfather and World War II (19:56)
The hero complex (25:12)
Stepping away from the game (31:30)
Billionaires and inner peace (38:45)
The phases of company-building (40:54)
The problems Matt helps leaders solve (47:48)
“It’s fun to be a founder!” (54:35)
Craving feedback (56:48)
The zones of excellence and genius (01:02:19)
“Today, what went right?” (01:09:12)
Growing too early (01:12:32)
Who Matt is hiring and what “grit” means to him (01:15:00)

Links:

Connect with Matt
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm