The NFX Podcast

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Wilke discusses the drivers behind Amazon's success, focusing on mechanisms, single-page culture, and single-threaded invention. They also touch on leadership principles, writing culture, and the importance of operational excellence for long-term success.

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. Amazon's approach to building sustainable long-term value should be a lesson to all companies - not just Internet companies. When Jeff Bezos took Amazon public 24 years ago, he sent this letter to all Shareholders and is still considered a playbook for building a great company - read by NFX. "1997 was indeed an incredible year. We at Amazon.com are grateful to our customers for their business and trust, to each other for our hard work, and to our shareholders for their support and encouragement."

null This is The Founders’ List – audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. "For a startup, understanding VCs’ mindsets is often as important as understanding the mindsets of your customers. With no capital most Founders will not win, so you’d better learn the language." VCs speak a different language, one that Founders must learn to be able to raise capital. Understand the psychological drivers and use them to evaluate your counterpart’s state of mind. And repeat the core narratives: we are low risk; we will be huge; others are interested and moving forward. Read the original NFX Essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/how-vcs-think-investing-decisions/

In this episode, James Currier and Chris Anderson delve into the complexities of regulating social media, discussing the role of likes, extreme content, and the potential impact of nationalization on large companies like Facebook. They also explore the challenges faced by rapidly growing firms like Robinhood and address root algorithmic causes in tech companies. The usual Silicon Valley response to regulation is to offer self-regulation instead — but only tech companies have the skills and speed to fix what they broke, unable to manage the influence over the public sphere they attained almost by accident. Unless the few who know how to actually build these tech networks speak out, it won’t just be technology that suffers - it will be the entire world. Having built, funded, and analyzed “unicorn” social networks for 25 years and former Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson and NFX Partner James Currier formulate a solution that resurrects a concept from the golden age of newspapers - the ombudsman. The ombudsman is another important node in the network that has proven itself in the past and is still missing. Listen as Chris and James outline together why these network problems require network solutions, here on the NFX Podcast. (0:00) Introduction and the problem with regulating social media (7:41) The complexities of digital media interfaces and establishing a threshold for content (13:05) The role of likes and extreme content in social media platforms and potential regulation (18:27) The Chinese government's control over online content and American exceptionalism (25:00) Discussion on nationalization of large companies and the potential impact on Facebook (31:21) The argument against corporate social responsibility and examples of corporations focusing on it (35:09) The possibility of breaking up Facebook and its potential consequences (39:25) The regulatory challenges faced by rapidly growing companies like Robinhood and the transition from tearing down to building up in the tech industry (43:45) Addressing root algorithmic causes in tech companies and the potential for an ombudsman committee (46:56) Wrap-up and outro

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. This is Valve’s new employee handbook, delivered to every new person working at the iconic gaming company. It is an abbreviated encapsulation of Valve's guiding principles. As Valve continues to grow, they hope that these principles will serve each new person joining the ranks as an employee. Read the full handbook here - https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/valve/Valve\_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf

This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. The old saying "one bad apple spoils the bunch" holds especially true for company culture. Keeping around any employee who is a bad culture fit can destroy your team's working environment. Below are some of the typical types of people who can hurt your culture: 1. The Jerk 2. The Whiner 3. Credit Taker 4. Charming Do Nothing 5. Loyalty Monger With culture fit, you should never compromise. This bar should be the highest for the most visible and most productive of your team. Read the essay here - http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/01/5-people-who-destroy-your-culture.html

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. Pulled from a Quora post in 2015, Greg Brockman (former CTO at Stripe, now co-founder + CTO at Open AI) answers the question, "What is the engineering interview process like at Stripe?" Greg goes into detail around the frameworks and thinking behind the Stripe technical interviewing process and why they use this formula to build a world-class team at Stripe. Read the Quora post here - https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-engineering-interview-process-like-at-Stripe

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. "On Monday, October 21, 2013, I sent this letter to our entire team at Airbnb. I have decided to publish this in the event it is helpful to entrepreneurs building their cultures." In this famous memo from the early days of Aribnb, CEO Brian Chesky stresses the importance of having a succinct company outlook on culture. "Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. People can be independent and autonomous." Read the full letter here - https://medium.com/@bchesky/dont-fuck-up-the-culture-597cde9ee9d4

In this episode, Kristen O'Brien and Iman Abuzeid explore diversity in the tech industry, discussing its benefits such as profitability, decision-making, and innovation. They delve into building diverse teams, funding for women and people of color, and the approaches notable investors take towards diverse investing. They also discuss implementing a data-driven approach to diversity, concluding with thoughts on diversity in tech and venture capital. This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. The data is clear – diverse teams win. Companies with more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenues due to innovation, and 9% higher EBIT margins. Iman Abuzeid MD (CEO & Cofounder of Incredible Health) has gone through the full diligence process of the best of the best Series A funds in Silicon Valley and shares her findings in this essay. "We are coming to terms with what we have or have not done right in tech in relation to diversity. Data is one way Silicon Valley has won this far, and it’s the way we can keep winning. The data is clear – diverse teams win." Read the essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/frameworks-using-diversity-to-win/ (0:00) Introduction by Kristen O'Brien (0:17) Diversity in Tech Industry with Iman Abuzeid (2:02) Benefits of Diversity: Profitability, Decision-making and Innovation (6:14) Diversity as a Competitive Advantage and Increasing Customer Expectations (9:52) Framework for Building a Diverse Team (14:07) Funding for Women and People of Color in Tech (16:08) Insights on Approaches of Notable Investors to Diverse Investing (25:05) Implementing a Data-driven Approach to Diversity (27:31) Closing Thoughts on Diversity in Tech and Venture Capital (27:53) Outro by Kristen O'Brien

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. Amazon has and operates by its own set of leadership principles--a set of principles referred to during company decision-making, problem-solving, simple brainstorming, and even hiring. Here are the 14 leadership principles Amazon workers refer to on a daily basis: - Customer Obsession- Ownership- Invent and Simplify- Are Right, A Lot- Learn and Be Curious- Hire and Develop the Best- Insist on the Highest Standards- Think Big- Bias for Action- Frugality- Earn Trust- Dive Deep- Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit- Deliver Results Read them here - https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles