
Execs
Execs is a show for founders, operators & pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks and tactics that leading technology companies today have used to scale.
Our guests are experienced, non-founding tech executives in key roles at top companies with firsthand experience solving hard and rare problems for a fast-growing business.
On Execs, they share their hard-won ‘earned secrets’ to pass on their knowledge and help leaders at high-growth companies scale faster.
Execs is hosted by Erik Torenberg and produced by On Deck - where top talent goes to start companies, find their next roles, or invest in their careers
Latest episodes

Mar 1, 2022 • 43min
Michal Cieplinski (CBO Pipe, ex General Counsel at Fundbox)
Michal Cieplinski is the Chief Business Officer at Pipe. He has also spent time as General Counsel and CCO at Fundbox as well as a Senior VP at the Lending Club, among other roles.He describes himself as a lawyer who has never really been a lawyer - meaning that “no” is a rare answer for him to give his fast-moving colleagues.In this episode, we discussed the important role that a CBO plays at a high growth tech company. Michal shares tips on building legal teams, hiring speed for the rest of the org , and why you should hire for a plan, not a problem.For anyone thinking deeply about their team’s legal function, this should be a great one.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @m_cieplinskiProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeck

Feb 22, 2022 • 51min
Olivia Chen (ex Head of Supply, Product at Faire)
Olivia Chen was most recently Head of Product for Faire. She joined Faire as their first ops/business hire. By the time she left four years later, Faire had grown to over 750 employees and Olivia was managing a cross-functional team of more than 60 people. In this episode, we discussed how to build successful referral programs, how to grow a product team, how to navigate hyper-growth as an early-stage employee, and much more. Andrew Yu, On Deck’s Director of our Product Management Fellowship, joined me in this episode as a guest co-host. We hope you enjoy. --- Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: Olivia ChenGuest co-host: @andrewcyuProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeck

Feb 15, 2022 • 55min
Sarah Smith (Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, ex VP at Quora, ex Director at Facebook)
Sarah Smith is currently a partner at Bain Capital Ventures after an early career of building elite HR teams for huge tech players, including Facebook and Quora, where she helped scale Quora from 40 to 160 people in 3 years. In this episode, we discussed hiring that first crucial people person, how to train first time management, how to nail goal setting, and how to improve vesting schedules. ---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @sasmith4Produced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeck

Feb 8, 2022 • 42min
Anne Dwane (Co-founder Village Global, ex CBO at Chegg)
Anne Dwane is currently co-founder & Partner of Village Global - an early stage venture fund. Previously Anne started Military.com, Zinch, and was chief business officer at Chegg which she took public.In this episode, we discussed how to do annual planning, how to do comp models, the role of a CBO is an allocative role, and much more. ---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @adwaneProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeck

Feb 1, 2022 • 53min
Ben Braverman (Chief Customer/Revenue Officer at Flexport)
Today’s guest is Ben Braverman. Ben is currently Chief Customer Officer at Flexport after 6 years of being their Chief Revenue Officer during Flexport’s hypergrowth period. In this episode, we discussed how to build a good sales machine from the ground up. Ben also shares his thoughts on all things revenue - from marketing to BD to forming early SDR teams.On Deck and Flexport are co-building the future of logistics - learn more about our joint accelerator at beondeck.com/x/flexport.Adam Gelman, On Deck’s SVP of Revenue, joined Erik in this episode as a guest co-host. We hope you enjoy.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @bravebenGuest co-host: @Adam_GelmanProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeck

Jan 25, 2022 • 49min
Anand Chandrasekaran (EVP Five9, ex Director at Facebook, ex Chief Product Officer at Snapdeal)
Anand Chandrasekaran is a full-time angel & advisor with extensive executive experience at some of the biggest names in tech. Prior to being EVP to Five9, Anand worked at Facebook, Yahoo, and started several of his own companies.He was most recently EVP at Five9 after three years as director of Facebook’s Messenger platform and five years at Yahoo. He has extensive founding, advisory and C-Suite experience with both American and Indian companies.In this episode, Anand shares incredible frameworks for product leadership. You can read his thoughts in more detail @ anandc on Twitter.Rishi Tripathy, group product lead at On Deck, joined Erik in this episode as a guest co-host. We hope you enjoy.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @anandcGuest co-host: @rishi_tripathy_Produced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeckExplore links from the episode:Anand's appearance on OperatorsAnand's On Deck case study

Jan 25, 2022 • 52min
Gina Gotthilf (ex VP of Marketing/Growth at Duolingo)
Gina Gotthilf spent five years at Duolingo and helped the company grow from 3 million to 300 million users. She is the kind of VP of Marketing that isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.Gina is an AB testing vet, and shared her best frameworks and lessons for how to AB test well. She also shares her PR & Influencer Strategy tips, as well as her thoughts on how to hire your first marketing person.She is now cofounder of Latitud, which supports early-stage entrepreneurs in Latin America solving some of the biggest problems in emerging markets across the globe.Her passion for her job and life are evident throughout this episode. We hope you enjoy.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @ginagProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeckExplore links from the episode:Gina's Ted TalkThe Tenets of A/B Testing from Duolingo's Master Growth HackerGina's interview on How Things Grow

Jan 25, 2022 • 1h 23min
Jared Fliesler (ex VP at Square, ex COO at Scribd)
Our first guest on Execs is Jared Fliesler. Most recently, Jared was COO at Scribd. Prior to Scribd, Jared was a VP at Square, and director at Google, and a GM at Slide, where he worked closely with Keith Rabios and Max LevchinIn this episode, we discuss symmetry in execs’ ability to hire and fire, how to build world-class onboarding experiences, what it means to be vulnerable as an exec, and much more.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. To engage further:Check out the On Deck job boardShare your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergProduced by: @jacksonstegerBrought to you by: @beondeckExplore links from the episode:Maker Stories with JaredAll Things Scaling, Managing, and HiringThree Ways to Ease Your Interview Jitters

Jan 20, 2022 • 1min
Trailer: Execs by On Deck
You’re listening to the trailer for Execs - a new podcast hosted by Erik Torenberg and produced by On Deck.
Scaling a tech company is hard. Founders know how to build products and get customers, but they often don’t know how to build & scale an org. Founders have to hire people to do things they’ve never done before... people like the ones on our show.
Our guests are experienced, non-founding executives in key roles at top tech companies.
Starting January 25th, these execs will join Erik to share their earned secrets, detailing firsthand knowledge they’ve gained solving rare and hard problems. These lessons haven’t yet been synthesized and shared publicly yet because our guests are too busy running their companies to share it. We’ve found elite leaders for every exec role, from the VP of people at Lever to a Chief Revenue Officer at Flexport to Head of International for Clubhouse.
We’ll release our first three episodes on January 25th and then episodes every Tuesday after that. We hope that the frameworks, playbooks and tactics you learn from our show help your companies thrive.
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