Masters of Scale

About this creator

Masters of Scale is an entrepreneurship podcast about scaling companies, navigating leadership, and learning from experienced founders and executives.

Why they're in the library

Included for clear, credible perspective as entrepreneurship podcast about scaling companies, navigating leadership, and learning from experienced founders and executives.

Showing 461 digests for Masters of Scale.

Culture building

Podcast

Five secrets to keeping your best employees

Masters of Scale September 21, 2021


Culture building 9
Management 7
  • Lead with authentic vulnerability to build trust across your team
  • Distribute decision-making power to junior employees as you scale
  • Celebrate wins visibly and invest in wellness as business necessities

Case studies

Podcast

How Broadway survived shutdown and rebuilt its audience with streaming

Masters of Scale September 16, 2021


Case studies 9
Business models 8
Growth hacking 7
  • Streaming theater converts new fans into live ticket buyers, not replacements.
  • Only 4 in 10 Broadway shows recoup investment — yet it drives $16B in economic impact.
  • Broadway's core audience is narrow; the pandemic forced a reckoning on who makes theater.

Founder interviews

Podcast

How Robert Reffkin built Compass by turning setbacks into momentum

Masters of Scale September 14, 2021


Founder interviews 10
Pivoting 6
Management 5
  • Why losing everything in the dot-com crash made Reffkin a better founder
  • Vague mission statements silently destroy team momentum and alignment
  • Public ambitious targets inspire far more than careful internal goals

Culture building

Podcast

Satya Nadella on refounding Microsoft: culture, mission, and growth mindset

Masters of Scale August 31, 2021


Culture building 9
Vision & mission 7
Resilience & grit 5
  • Why any insider — not just a new CEO — can refounder a company
  • Killing stack ranking: the concrete move that reset Microsoft's culture
  • Earning the right to operate means symmetry between profit and planet

Founder interviews

Podcast

EA CEO Andrew Wilson on gaming, the metaverse, and workplace culture

Masters of Scale August 26, 2021


Founder interviews 10
Business models 7
Pivoting 6
  • Social connection, not escapism, is why gaming growth will stick
  • Games are already mini-metaverses — EA is expanding outward from there
  • EA chose openness over moats: partner with everyone, platform everywhere

Case studies

Podcast

How mission clarity drives risk-taking at Illumina

Masters of Scale August 19, 2021


Case studies 9
Business models 8
AI tools & automation 5
  • A prenatal blood test accidentally revealed cancer signals in mothers
  • Illumina earns 10x more from competitors' sequencer sales than its own tests
  • The pandemic accelerated genomics by five-plus years, per deSouza

Motivation

Podcast

Cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset with Reid, Bob and Sir Richard Branson

Masters of Scale August 17, 2021


Motivation 9
Business models 6
Resilience & grit 5
  • Entrepreneurial mindsets are cultivated behaviors, not innate traits, and apply across all business scales.
  • Continuous learning through action cycles and networks beats pure theory-first learning.
  • Bias to action—asking 'what if' and moving immediately—separates founders who ship from those who plan forever.

Niche selection

Podcast

How Will.i.am turns big opportunities into compounding leverage

Masters of Scale August 10, 2021


Niche selection 9
Case studies 8
Fundraising & VC 6
  • One Super Bowl halftime show served three brands simultaneously
  • Chord progressions are the foundational leverage behind mainstream hits
  • Why owning the hardware beats licensing your music to sell it

Case studies

Podcast

How Harley-Davidson used a crisis to rewire its business for the long term

Masters of Scale July 29, 2021


Case studies 10
Business models 8
Long-term planning 7
  • A crisis is the best time to cut complexity you'd otherwise protect
  • Factory workers got equity grants — because Harley's customers are them
  • LiveWire is a separate brand because electric and touring serve different riders

Business models

Podcast

J.Crew's pivot to purpose: sustainability, resale, and reigniting brand passion

Masters of Scale July 22, 2021


Business models 9
Branding 7
Community building 5
  • Why J.Crew's biggest problem is customer neutrality, not awareness
  • Madewell's resale platform grew from a million recycled jeans
  • COVID flipped stores into experience channels, online into convenience

Founder interviews

Podcast

How Sara Blakely found the idea that became Spanx

Masters of Scale July 13, 2021


Founder interviews 10
Goal setting 7
Customer discovery 6
  • A decade of deliberate searching preceded Spanx's accidental-looking origin moment.
  • Keeping an idea secret from loved ones shields it from well-meaning sabotage.
  • No fashion background, no investors, $5,000 — ignorance can be a competitive asset.

Pivoting

Podcast

How BuzzFeed turned a pandemic crisis into record profitability

Masters of Scale July 8, 2021


Pivoting 10
Case studies 8
Fundraising & VC 6
  • From near-bankruptcy to $30M profit in one year
  • Media creates value; Google and Expedia capture it
  • Patience and a profitable flywheel unlocked the SPAC and acquisitions

Case studies

Podcast

How Mellody Hobson accelerated expertise from intern to co-CEO

Masters of Scale July 6, 2021


Case studies 9
Delegation 6
Vision & mission 5
  • Deliberate practice explains only ~1% of entrepreneurial performance variance.
  • Shadowing the right mentor beats years of solo repetition.
  • Capital without customers can't scale minority businesses to close the wealth gap.

Founder interviews

Podcast

Asking the uncomfortable questions with Michael Seibel

Masters of Scale June 29, 2021


Founder interviews 9
Pivoting 7
Product-market fit 6
  • The right questions at critical moments reveal what strategies and investors cannot.
  • Founders often fear scaling late, but scaling early is the true killer.
  • Personal problems and irrational ties create lasting motivation through hard times.

Crisis leadership

Podcast

How Marriott stayed on offense during the worst crisis in travel history

Masters of Scale June 24, 2021


Crisis leadership 8
Long-term planning 7
Retention & loyalty 6
  • COVID dropped Marriott occupancy to single digits — dwarfing 9/11 and 2008
  • Marriott scaled home rentals from 2,000 to 30,000 properties mid-pandemic
  • Losing CEO Arnie Sorensen mid-crisis: how leadership held and moved forward

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