Founder Real Talk

In this episode, Mikkel talks about how three guys from Copenhagen found themselves in Silicon Valley before people invested in foreign companies, and how they were able to turn that around by creating a new category in the SaaS space and take Zendesk public.Mikkel Svane is the CEO, chairman and founder of Zendesk, a global company that builds software for the best customer experiences. He has driven the vision, culture, and growth of the company for the last 10 years. Under his leadership, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and currently helps more than 125,000 organizations around the world better help, engage with and understand their customers. Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, he is a published author of the book Startupland, a father of three, and a lover of handcrafted cocktails.

In this episode, Stewart tells Slack’s origin story and the hard decisions it took to get there, elaborating on when to follow your dreams and when to "stop banging your head into the ground until you bleed out."Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder and CEO of Slack. Over the last 20 years, Stewart has built a distinguished career as a designer, entrepreneur, and technologist. He co-founded Flickr in 2003, and was its CEO through its acquisition by Yahoo!. Among many other honors, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, one of BusinessWeek's Top 50 Leaders, featured on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List, and was recognized as the 2015 Technology Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal.

In this episode, Laura talks about her experience being a young CEO from a different country, how she built Shippo's culture from the top-down, and how her executive coach made her more like Steve Jobs. Laura Behrens Wu is the founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo simplifies shipping for eCommerce companies by offering discounted shipping rates and a streamlined solution across all different shipping providers. It’s Amazon-level shipping for all e-commerce stores. Laura, featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017, runs a 65 person team based in San Francisco.

In this episode, Russ tells the stories of life as a serial entrepreneur, including knowing when to pivot…or not, how to build delightful company culture, and how to be unapologetic about work-life balance. Russ Fradin is the founder and CEO Dynamic Signal, the leading employee communications & engagement platform worldwide. Russ is a digital media industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience in the online marketing world. He co-founded and was CEO of Adify, which was acquired by Cox in 2008, and he also co-founded SocialShield. Russ was also SVP of Business Development at Wine.com, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at comScore, and was among the first employees at Flycast, which was acquired by CMGi in 2000. He is an active angel investor in the digital world and currently sits on a number of boards.

In this episode, Nate chats about how to get out of the “trough of sorrows” through finding product-market fit, growing a global marketplace, and thinking outside (or inside) the box on building a business.Nathan (Nate) Blecharczyk is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Airbnb. Nate also serves as Chairman of Airbnb China. Nate plays a leading role in driving key strategic initiatives across Airbnb’s global business. Previously he oversaw the creation of Airbnb’s engineering, data science, and performance marketing teams. Nate became an entrepreneur in his youth, running a business while he was in high school that sold to clients in more than 20 countries. He earned a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University and held several engineering positions before co-founding Airbnb. As a guest, Nate has stayed in hundreds of homes using Airbnb and he is also a host in San Francisco, where he lives with his family.

In this episode, Sarah chats about how to not ruin someone's day, or livelihood, the importance of staying ahead, and how leadership inspires change across an organization.Sarah Friar is CFO and Operations Lead at Square. Sarah joined Square in July 2012 from salesforce.com, where she served as SVP of Finance & Strategy. Prior to salesforce.com, she worked at Goldman Sachs for over 10 years, with experience in corporate finance, M&A, and equity research, and ultimately as lead software analyst and Business Unit Leader for Goldman Sachs' Technology Research Group. She previously worked for McKinsey in both London and South Africa. She holds a Masters of Engineering degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Stanford University. In addition to New Relic, Sarah sits on the Boards of ModelN, Walmart, and Spark, a nonprofit focused on changing the lives of at-risk middle schoolers through mentorship.