The World's First Interactive Podcast. Hear from the world’s greatest thinkers - then continue the conversation with their Digital Mind on Delphi.

She wrote her book before she was 'ready'. Julie Zhuo, former VP of Design at Facebook and now co-founder of Sundial, almost waited until retirement to write The Making of a Manager, until a publisher reacted to something she'd written for new managers first. She realized the wait would've cost her the thing she actually had to offer: still being close enough to remember the imposter syndrome, the hard feedback, the first time you have to let someone go.
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Doordash started as a class project. A Palo Alto macaroon shop owner told Stanley Tang she was turning away delivery orders. No drivers. He was there for a class project. That conversation became DoorDash. #doordash #stanford #founders #stories
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Qualtrics was stuck as SurveyMonkey on steroids. Al Ramadan asked the exec team one question: when someone builds a survey, what are they really trying to find out? Same tech went from $50k surveys to $3M contracts. What's your product really answering? Ask him on Delphi: delphi.ai/alramadan
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Zoom in on any chart that looks like a clean climb and you get huge highs and huge lows, every single day. Chad Byers of Susa Ventures got used to that. The hard part after 13 years: showing up with the same energy every day. How does he do it? Ask him on Delphi. delphi.ai/chadbyers #startup #growth #venture #vc #delphi
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99% of every species that ever lived is extinct. Most of the S&P 500 from 50 years ago is gone. Roelof Botha says survival takes effort, and at Sequoia it's one sentence on the kitchen wall, in every investor's own handwriting. Talk to his digital mind on Delphi: delphi.ai/roelofbotha #Sequoia #VC #Venture #Risk #Delphi
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Nobody wants to talk out their design. Fashion designers reach for a mood board before writing a word. Julie Zhuo says most AI tools settled on chat interfaces too quickly and skipped the question she'd ask first. Wondering where else the chat-first default gets it wrong? Chat with her digital mind on Delphi: delphi.ai/juliezhuo #UI #interface #craft #productdesign #delphi
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Should founders be charismatic? Yes and no. Charisma breaks when people can't tell you the truth. The charisma brings a team along, then builds something closer to a cult, and the founder ends up inside a reality distortion field. When that founder is wrong, nobody says so. As an executive coach and the author of From Start-Up to Grown-Up, she describes this as bringing people off a cliff and no one is there to say we're going off a cliff. The part that surprises founders is how the toxicity starts: people want to please you. They want your approval. That instinct, which feels like loyalty, is what removes the last person willing to say the plan doesn't make sense. Wondering how she'd know whether your own team can still say no to you? Chat with Alisa's digital mind on Delphi: delphi.ai/alisacohn.
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The most successful people Alisa Cohn coaches get deep imposter syndrome and can't tell anyone. Her three tools: challenge the thoughts with evidence, keep a highlight reel, find people who remind you who you are. Wondering how she'd tell imposter syndrome from being out of your depth? Ask her digital mind anything on Delphi: delphi.ai/alisacohn
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Great new episode with @AlisaCohn!
One of the strangest parts of becoming a founder is realizing your team can’t tell which of your ideas are ideas - and which are instructions. You think you’re thinking out loud. They think the strategy changed again. @AlisaCohn, named the world’s #1 startup coach by Thinkers50, put it simply: founders generate ideas, teams hear priorities. At some point, protecting the team means keeping some ideas to yourself, and being painfully clear when one actually becomes the priority. New episode of The Library of Minds with Alisa Cohn. Join the conversation with her Delphi: delphi.ai/alisacohn 1:09 - Founder Mode: What Everyone Gets Wrong 4:58 - High Standards Without Micromanaging 8:13 - Death by Being Polite 14:15 - Why You Can't Copy Elon Musk 20:48 - Founders, Please Keep Your Ideas to Yourself 22:48 - The #1 Hiring Mistake with AI 35:11 - Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
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Two experts told Chad Byers the idea had been tried in the 2000s and would never work. He invested anyway, and it became one of his most important investments. His takeaway: sometimes experts know too much. Wondering how he decides which expert advice to ignore? Ask him anything on Delphi. delphi.ai/chadbyers
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She nuked every recurring meeting at her company except a two-hour demo hour on Thursdays. Julie Zhuo says deleting them was the easy part. The hard part was being honest about why she'd wanted to be in every room in the first place. Wondering how she'd think through that call for your own team? Ask her anything on Delphi: delphi.ai/juliezhuo
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The Library of Minds retweeted
We spend so much time studying how Stripe hires, how Airbnb designs, how Meta ships, how Jobs presented... According to @joulee, the useful question probably isn't “what do the best companies do?” It's “what are we unusually good at, and what kind of company should exist around that?” Julie Zhuo spent 14 years at Facebook and eventually ran design for the Facebook app. Then she started her own company and realized she couldn't copy Facebook. Her explanation was pretty simple: “I’m not Mark.” Companies have personalities just like people do. Their strengths and weaknesses often come from the same traits, which means copying another great company’s operating system can actually make you worse. Really loved chatting with Julie on The Library of Minds. Join the conversation by chatting with her Delphi: delphi.ai/juliezhuo 0:58 - Why She Refused the CEO Title 6:48 - Delete Every Meeting but One 12:19 - The Oldest Interface Always Wins 15:40 - From Intern #1 to Facebook's Design Leader 21:08 - Writing the New Manager Bible 24:45 - How to Manage Agents
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Too many people I know got into startups because of The Social Network. @hnshah claims it ruined Silicon Valley. It turned startups into an outcome to pursue rather than something you do because you actually love building. And so instead of attracting true builders, it attracted hype-chasing tourists. He spent 20+ years building Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and Nira (acquired by Dropbox), invented playbooks the whole industry copied, and came back to run Crazy Egg again as CEO. Our conversation was one of the better reminders I've had recently that startups really aren't that deep. Have fun. Do things. Get in contact with reality. 1:02 - Bootstrapping vs. VC 5:27 - His Content Playbook Everyone Copied 10:25 - The Best Marketing Channels Are Secrets 25:52 - The AI Workflow He Figured Out Before the Frontier Labs 29:00 - The Social Network Ruined Startups 46:15 - The Only Startup Advice Worth Keeping
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Be sure to watch the full episode with @rabois • Lessons learned building PayPal, LinkedIn, Square • Joining a great team is > starting your own company • The new physics of AI startups • Why stretching & Slack are actually bad for you Watch here: piped.video/watch?v=sLZoJ_Wv…
This brilliant lesson on communication by @rabois is why the AI leaders are failing. It’s not sufficient just to “speak your truth.” You have to communicate in a way that elucidates your audience. Convincing the public that your company is a menace obviously fails that test.
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The Library of Minds retweeted
"For the past decade, people have wished I could help them directly." @Karamo built a Digital Mind you can talk to, anytime.
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The Library of Minds S2 featured 10 guests who reshaped tech, product, and investing. Now, their thinking is interactive. Talk to their digital minds: @JohnZimmer – delphi.ai/johnzimmer @EnriqueSalem – delphi.ai/enriquesalem @braveben – delphi.ai/benbraverman @SpenserSkates – delphi.ai/spenserskates @ChadByers – delphi.ai/chadbyers @thisisGrantLee – delphi.ai/grantlee @BenBlumenrose – delphi.ai/ben-blumenrose @nbt – delphi.ai/nbt @keysersosa – delphi.ai/chrisslowe @Farshchi – delphi.ai/shahin-farshchi If you are a founder, builder, operator, or simply curious, you can use their digital minds to pressure-test your decisions, borrow their mental models, and challenge their unique perspective.
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We need to redesign our cities. Watch the full episode below
Uber had $3B in the bank. Lyft had 5 months left to live. In this week's episode of The Library of Minds, Lyft cofounder @johnzimmer tells the story of how he fought back, stood up for drivers, and refused to lose. 00:55 - My Lifetime Lyft Ban 07:00 - Uber Had $3 Billion. Lyft Had 5 Months Left. 15:08 - The Lyft Strategies Nobody Talks About 20:20 - COVID Almost Broke Him 23:47 - Tips for Founder Mental Health 27:45 - Self-Driving Cars Will Kill Uber and Lyft… Right? 36:57 - The #1 Skill Every Founder Needs 39:54 - The Real Reason He Walked Away From Lyft
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