Masters of Scale

Whatever you are when you're small gets amplified when you grow. So if you're starting any kind of online community (social media, ecommerce, crowdfunding), be careful what you cultivate. Caterina Fake has founded or invested in companies with interesting and influential communities — Flickr, Etsy, Kickstarter, Stack Overflow, even Blue Bottle Coffee. Her wise words for every founder: You have a responsibility to shape the community from day one -- because the tone you set is the tone you’re going to keep, even as you go viral.Hear Caterina's own brilliant podcast, Should This Exist? https://shouldthisexist.com/Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/caterina-fake-build-a-more-human-internet/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To move from one success to another, you have to learn to unlearn. Take everything that helped you win the first time, then discard it and learn a new way. That's how Barry Diller, a titan of "old media" (at ABC, Paramount and Fox), mastered the new dot-com world — with everything from Expedia to Match.com. This is Part 2 of our epic interview with Barry Diller, and it features cameos from Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi and serial entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan.Listen to Part 1 of this interview: "Infinite Learner": https://mastersofscale.com/barry-diller-infinite-learner/Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tinder. Top Gun. Roots. The Simpsons. What do they have in common? Media icon Barry Diller. Barry is what we call an "infinite learner." He’s only interested in things he's never done before. And if they’ve never been done by anyone? Better yet. He succeeds by embracing that he is, in fact, a master of nothing. Entrepreneurs, take note: You just might be an infinite learner yourself, and Barry shares a lesson or two you can use. This is Part 1 of our epic interview with Barry Diller, and it features cameos from Drew Houston (Dropbox) and Alexa Christon (GE).Listen to Part 2 of this interview, "Learn to unlearn": https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/barry-diller-infinite-learner/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In your company’s darkest moment, remember: You CAN pivot from failure to success. But only if you slash and burn everything that isn’t working. Slack’s co-founder and CEO, Stewart Butterfield, has twice navigated this kind of Big Pivot. He launched two different game companies, which both (surprise!) turned into game-changing communications platforms: Flickr and Slack. Hear the thinking behind making a hard left turn —and bringing your team along with you.Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/stewart-butterfield-the-big-pivot/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Business plan not entirely clear? Not sure how you’ll make enough money or find your users? That's OK. Really. The most scalable ideas often come at you sideways. You'll find yourself crabwalking from a small market to a bigger one to one of unimaginable scale. We talk to the master of the entrepreneurial crabwalk, Diane Greene, who brought us into the age of cloud computing. As the founding CEO of VMWare and now the head of Google’s cloud division, she shares how she scampered sideways into a market of boundless potential.Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/diane-greene-look-sideways/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you want to grow your business, your goal isn’t to beat the competition — it’s to escape the competition altogether. No one knows this better than PayPal founder Peter Thiel. His theory? “Competition is for losers.” Thiel is a former colleague, frequent co-investor and longtime intellectual sparring partner with host Reid Hoffman. Their combined thinking on the competitive landscape is unmissable.Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/peter-thiel-escape-the-competition/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Masters of Scale team brings you a special blend of leadership tips from Season One guests — including clips we haven’t aired yet. In this bonus episode, we’ll share our favorite insights from Y Combinator’s Sam Altman, Zynga’s Mark Pincus and more.Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the early days of your startup, it feels like everything's on fire all the time. Real talk: if you try to put out every fire, every day, you’ll only burn yourself out. The best entrepreneurs know how to let some fires burn. Selina Tobaccowala, veteran leader of Evite, SurveyMonkey and the fitness startup Gixo, shares her insights on how to choose which problems not to solve, and how to conserve your energy for the biggest blazes.Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.comSubscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Linda Rottenberg, CEO of Endeavor, discusses the potential for global startup ecosystems to rival Silicon Valley. She emphasizes the key ingredients for success: entrepreneurs with access to capital and a culture of mentorship. From Buenos Aires to Boston, she shares stories of thriving startup scenes and the importance of cultivating collaborative ecosystems for entrepreneurial success.

Guest host Tim Ferriss shares advice you’ll want to etch into stone: the Ten Commandments of Startup Success. We teamed up with Tim’s own podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, to bring you this special remix of actionable lessons from Masters of Scale Season One, including previously unaired insights from Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Endeavor’s Linda Rottenberg. Tim is the author of The 4-Hour Work Week and Tools of Titans, and a veteran TED speaker. He’s masterful at extracting tips, tricks and lifehacks for busy entrepreneurs.Listen to The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/podcastRead a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.comSubscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.