B2BaCEO (with Ashu Garg)

Mark Leslie is the founder & CEO of Veritas Technology, a company he grew from an idea to a Fortune 100 powerhouse worth over $1B in revenue. My interview with Mark was so full of wisdom that we decided there was enough material for at least two episodes. In this first episode, I get into the weeds with Mark on topics ranging from how to manage your board, to pricing and sales, to annual planning. It’s a can’t-miss for all CEOs or CEO-hopefuls!

For the first episode of the new year and new decade, a startup-founder-turned-CEO coach offers some guidance on being your best CEO self.

This one is for you really, really early-stage founders. Fifth-grader Adi Garg interviews his dad about startups and venture capital and chocolate.

Ion Stoica, a two-time founder/CEO and Berkeley computer science professor, discusses building impactful companies like ConViva and Databricks, navigating boards and VCs as a CEO, scaling challenges, making real-world impact in entrepreneurship and academia, and the doubts faced when transitioning from academia to a startup.

Sudheesh Nair and Ajeet Singh discuss the tricky process of handing off the CEO baton. They also go deep on how to build a world-class sales organization.

Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, puts people and relationships at the forefront of her business strategy. In this episode of the podcast, she tells me what she’s learned as a two-time CEO and how important it is to create a good company culture with diverse talent.___ Jennifer Tejada joins PagerDutyhttps://www.pagerduty.com/newsroom/pagerduty-appoints-saas-industry-veteran-jennifer-tejada-as-ceo/PagerDuty’s IPOhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/04/11/pagerdutys-ipo-values-it-at-18-billion--heres-why-it-had-doubters-early-on/#492fc12632b3Jennifer rings the NYSE opening bellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtRKFLOHXuUInclusivity as good business strategyhttps://www.inc.com/ryan-jenkins/here-are-benefits-of-inclusion-how-to-create-an-inclusive-culture.htmlhttps://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity

Kevin Johnson led two companies in very different stages of growth. Here’s how he did it and what he looks for in new hires.___Ratuken buys Ebateshttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-ebates-m-a-rakuten/rakuten-says-to-buy-u-s-rebate-site-operator-ebates-for-1-billion-idUSKBN0H40JM20140909Kevin Johnson becomes CEO of Udemyhttps://about.udemy.com/press-releases/udemy-board-appoints-kevin-h-johnson-as-new-ceo/Managing through influencehttps://www.theladders.com/career-advice/how-to-lead-with-influence-instead-of-authority

Two-time founder Mohit Aron tells me how blueprints and checklists can guide your startup in its earliest stages.___Mohit goes into more detail about his entry point frameworkhttps://rajeshsetty.com/2017/06/29/mohit-aron-evaluating-ideas/Cohesity is on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 listhttps://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/14/cohesity-2019-disruptor-50.htmlMore about Geoffrey Moore, creator of the “technology adoption life cycle”:http://www.geoffreyamoore.com/

Burton Goldfield tells me his CEO strategy: know the results you want and build your company towards achieving them.___TriNet goes publichttps://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/27/san-leandro-trinet-ipo-gives-east-bay-a-new-1-billion-company/

Aaron tells me how to scale your company while maintaining its culture and the benefits of going public.___More about Andy Grove’s 10X theoryhttps://thekeypoint.org/2018/03/19/only-the-paranoid-survive/Aaron talks more about maintaining company culture while scalinghttps://firstround.com/review/Aaron-Levie-on-How-to-Scale-10x-as-a-CEO-Built-a-Billion-Dollar-Business/A Box employee makes his mom proudhttps://blog.box.com/make-moms-proudBox finally goes publichttps://money.cnn.com/2015/01/23/investing/box-ipo-tech-stocks/index.html