How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ.

Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify.

Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger.

Chapters:

01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada

06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses

07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech

11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People

13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM"

21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies

31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify

37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again

43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant

50:00 - Wrap Up questions

57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap

_________________________

Connect With Kaz

https://x.com/canadakaz

Kaz@shopify.com

Connect With Tyler & Sterling

https://x.com/thogge

https://x.com/sterlingmsnow

Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly)

https://x.com/IO__podcast

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609

https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So in 2016, Blake set out to find a solution and realized there was none. Blake spent the next several years building what would become one of the fastest-growing startups in history—a platform combining expense management software and a corporate card to help businesses of all sizes manage their finances.

Blake, along with Tyler and Sterling—Divvy’s SVP and CRO—break down why this startup was such a remarkable success: a world-class team, a world-class product and a performance culture that pushed Divvy and it’s people to the top.

Chapters:

01:38 - How Blake Knew Divvy Would Be A Big Idea

07:17 - The Insight: No Real-Time Financial Information For Businesses

09:20 - The Idea: Blake Lands A 7-Figure Deal With Only A Deck

14:15 - Sell, Design, Build: How Divvy Built First Then Sold To Solve GTM

24:30 - Hire Like-Minded People Instead of People Who’ve Done It (Culture vs Acumen)

37:00 - ’Nobody’s Coming, It’s Up To Us’. How To Do More With Less

42:27 - Founder Advice: Have A Short Memory

43:45 - Founder Advice: Build A Performance Culture

49:52 - Work-Life Balance Myth: Big Sacrifices Are Required for Asymmetric Upside

59:00 - Investor Advice: Founders Want Investors Who Will Be Loyal To Them

1:04:45 - Tyler and Sterling’s Recap

_________________________

Connect With Blake

https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-murray-79655665

https://x.com/blakemur

Connect With Tyler & Sterling

https://x.com/thogge

https://x.com/sterlingmsnow

Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly)

https://x.com/IO__podcast

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609

https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau.

How has he done it? Scott shares his investment philosophy influenced by other greats like Dick Kramlich and John Doerr: understand an individual's life story, decision-making process, and future goals as key in making successful investment choices.

Chapters:

00:02:17 What Are The Characteristics Of Unicorn Founders?

00:10:16 "I Look For Passion-Driven Missionaries"

00:16:05 Building Tableau's Success: Lessons in Slow, Purposeful Growth

00:27:13 Make Your Investors Your Partners. Navigating Board Relationships

00:40:55 The Era of Decreasing LP Commitments

00:52:39 Tyler and Sterlings Recap

Connect with Scott and NEA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottdsandell

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU3mQDqk3QyB4WeDQwZ1YQ

Connect with IO Pod

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ

Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/

This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners

https://pelionvp.com/