#147 Ex-Waze CEO & Founder of Post News, Noam Bardin: Hockey Sticks and Plateaus

One of the “aha” moments that could sway a dubious Waze user, recalls former CEO Noam Bardin, was navigating around “all those idiots sitting in traffic... and you’re like, ‘I’m a genius.’” Now, at the social news app Post, Noam says the “aha” is avoiding partisan gridlock and paywalls. Social incumbents boost engagement by making users angry, while Post just wants you to read. “If we can remove friction and give you the right articles at the right time, so you feel smarter when you walk away,” he says, “that’s the aha moment.”

In this episode, Noam and Joubin discuss stories vs. execution, ROFRs, culture clash, timing an acquisition, corporate tags, fear of going bigger, joining big companies, mobile app retention, big tech monopolies, competing against Foursquare, and not optimizing for “culture warriors.”

In this episode, we cover:

Putting your opinions out there (01:15)
Waze almost sold to Facebook (06:10)
Getting in the room with Google (13:04)
How the first Google deal fell apart (15:10)
Back to Facebook — briefly (17:15)
The news begins to leak, and Google returns (20:26)
Grinding for five years at a startup (23:57)
“Hockey sticks” are never smooth (28:32)
The personal impact of volatility (31:37)
“Everything is a mess in startups” (34:38)
The worst day of Noam’s life (38:22)
How Waze started, and how Noam joined (42:22)
The failure of Intercast Networks (45:07)
Brave faces and “corp-speak” (48:33)
Integrating into Google’s culture (53:13)
No constraints and too much money (01:01:08)
Defining metrics that matter (01:04:11)
Maps and social (01:06:46)
Silicon Valley’s worst invention: “Pivoting” (01:09:56)
The social news problem Post solves (01:14:51)
Misinformation and authoritarianism (01:18:42)
Post’s microtransactions (01:21:08)
Being misunderstood and the “aha” moment (01:23:58)
Who Post is hiring and what “grit” means to Noam (01:27:09)

Links:

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