Q&A with CEO of Chipmaker Nvidia

April 8, 2016

Jen-Hsun Huang is the CEO of Nvidia, the chip manufacturing giant that grew to fame designing graphical processing units (GPUs) for video games. Today, those same chips are being applied to a new wave of artificial-intelligence projects.

The Man Selling Shovels in the Machine-Learning Gold Rush

Nvidia’s CEO says his hardware will revolutionize robotics and that his chips can learn from Google’s AlphaGo. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of the chipmaker Nvidia, is either very prescient or very lucky. His company was built around graphics processing units (GPUs) for video games.

How to Cut Costs Strategically

April 1, 2016

In this video, Harvard Business Review sits down with Cesari Mainardi, former CEO of Booz & Co. (now PwC) to discuss how executive leaders can cut costs strategically.

How to Cut Costs–Strategically

Cesare Mainardi, managing director of Booz & Company, details how executives should cut costs–but often dont.

The Upside to the SaaS Downturn

March 25, 2016

Ajay Agarwal is a Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures. He leads the firm’s Bay Area office, focusing on early-stage application software and SaaS investments.

In this podcast, Agarwal discusses why the SaaS market is changing, and how companies can take advantage of underlying opportunities.

[Podcast] Ajay Agarwal on the Upside to the SaaS Downturn

There’s been a lot of panicked discussion lately in SaaS. The Venture Capital market has adjusted downward, and SaaS businesses everywhere are feeling the effects. But Ajay Agarwal says there’s no need to panic. He is the Managing Director for Bain Capital Ventures in the Bay Area, focusing on early-stage application software and SaaS investing.

Product Management Tips for Hardware Startups

March 17, 2016

Executive QA Product Management Tips For software companies, product iteration is a game of speed: ship products quickly and iterate based on customer feedback.

For hardware companies, the game can be more complex. Even marginal improvements to hardware might implicate a company’s cost structure, supply chain, and more.

We spoke with Mac Dougherty, CEO of Cognitive Electronics, to find out how his company thinks about product management. Cognitive Electronics is a big data hardware startup headquartered in Boston, MA.

500 Startups: Growth Case Study

March 11, 2016

Aircall is a 500 Startups portfolio company. They offer next-gen phone support solutions that integrate with Salesforce, Slack, Zendesk, and many other services.

In this case study, Aircall’s founder and CEO Olivier Pailhes talks about the company’s growth process, the One Metric That Matters, and the tactic that helped Aircall get 800 clients, including the likes of Uber.

Growth Case Study: Aircall on One Metric That Matters & Selling to Uber

Aircall is a 500 portfolio company that addresses this one single truth about growing a business and getting repeat customers: Phone calls still matter. The company offers next-gen phone support solutions that integrate your stuff with Slack, a Chrome app, Zendesk, and a bunch of other services, and they recently raised $2.75 million upon graduating from the 500 Accelerator’s .

Meet the Co-Founders of Futuristic Design Firm: Perception

March 2, 2016

Acquisitions: Lessons from All Sides

February 23, 2016

Jeff Seibert is the Senior Director of Product at Twitter. He joined the company in 2013 through the acquisition of his startup, Crashlytics.

In this video, Seibert reflects on the acquisition process from both sides of the table. The talk includes Twitter’s approach to acquiring companies and specific advice for entrepreneurs contemplating a sale.

Jeff Seibert: Acquisitions: Lessons from All Sides [Entire Talk]

Jeff Seibert, senior director of product at Twitter, describes what went well and what didn’t during the acquisition of his earlier startups by big-name technology companies, stressing the importance of culture fit, maintaining your team’s trust throughout, and continued investment in growth after being acquired.

Raising a Seed Round: The Perfect Investor Deck

February 16, 2016

What goes into a typical seed round deck? Alex Iskold, Managing Director of Techstars, shares three different outlines to help you get started.

The Perfect Investor Deck for Raising a Seed Round – Techstars

There are several ways to build an investor deck to get seed funding, but there is no perfect way, of course. The common thing between all successful decks is that they are short and clear. Be sure to read 9 seed funding gotchas and 8 things you need to know a about raising venture capital …

Bonobos CEO: E-Commerce is a Bear

February 8, 2016

In two decades of e-commerce in the United States, only two standalone e-commerce companies have achieved meaningful enterprise value: Amazon and eBay. One went public in 1997, the other in 1998.

In this video, Andy Dunn, co-founder and CEO of Bonobos, Inc., discusses the challenges of building a profitable, lasting e-commerce company. He believes it is difficult to create a sustainable advantage selling third-party brands, but there are still opportunities for new firms to compete.

E-Commerce is a Bear

Andy Dunn, founder and CEO of Bonobos Inc., presents on the challenges of building a profitable, lasting e-commerce company. In two decades of e-commerce in the US, we have produced only two standalone e-commerce companies of meaningful enterprise value: Amazon and eBay. One went public in 1997, the other in 1998.

How Google Thinks About Hiring

February 1, 2016

Laszlo Bock is SVP of People Operations at Google. In this video, he shares advice on how to interview, hire, and retain top talent.

Key Insights:

Google interviews and hires by committee. The committee’s sole job is to maintain quality, and decision-making authority is never delegated to an individual hiring manager.
Google believes in a wide distribution of compensation. According to Bock, most pay systems are based on misguided notions of fairness (i.e. it is unfair to pay an employee too much or too little relative to other employees). At Google, pay curves are exponential.

How Google Thinks About Hiring, Management and Culture

In this video from KPCB’s recent CEO Workshop, KPCB General Partner Beth Seidenberg chats with Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google and author of “Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead.”