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.

Founder interviews

Podcast

What investors really look for: hunger, speed, and humility

Masters of Scale March 30, 2021


Founder interviews 10
Fundraising & VC 7
Resilience & grit 6
  • Investors bet on founders, not ideas — character beats concept.
  • Raising money is an obligation, not an achievement.
  • Being broke removes fear of failure and sharpens execution.

Business models

Podcast

How Disney built a sustainable brand ecosystem through strategic acquisitions

Masters of Scale March 23, 2021


Business models 9
Case studies 8
Long-term planning 6
  • Keep acquired brands separate — merging them destroys the value you bought
  • Shanghai Disneyland: localise culture, don't export it, for faster loyalty
  • A diverse ecosystem survives shocks that kill a monoculture

Case studies

Podcast

Airbnb's rebound: Crisis leadership and the second inflection point

Masters of Scale March 16, 2021


Case studies 9
Management 7
Pivoting 6
  • Lost 80% of revenue in eight weeks; rebounded through deliberate principle-driven crisis management.
  • Laid off one-third of staff while providing year-long health coverage, severance, and job placement help.
  • Committed $100 million host endowment to ensure community shared in IPO upside and future growth.

Community building

Podcast

How FIGS built fierce loyalty among healthcare workers

Masters of Scale March 4, 2021


Community building 10
Case studies 9
Branding 7
  • Ignored by Nike and Lululemon, healthcare workers needed a premium brand
  • Donating 70,000 units of gear during COVID deepened loyalty, not just goodwill
  • Co-CEO model works when both founders share destination, not just direction

Business models

Podcast

How Bob Iger turned Disney acquisitions into a lasting brand ecosystem

Masters of Scale March 2, 2021


Business models 9
Case studies 7
Culture building 5
  • Protect what made each acquisition special — double the sandbox, don't change the name
  • Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm: each pitched with autonomy, not absorption
  • Consumers distinguish brands; Disney stamping its name on everything destroys value

Management

Podcast

Nike CEO John Donahoe on wartime leadership during the pandemic

Masters of Scale February 25, 2021


Management 9
Pivoting 8
Processes & SOPs 6
  • Wartime leadership demands top-down clarity, not decentralised experimentation.
  • Nike hit its 2023 digital target two years early — then accelerated further.
  • Guaranteed staff pay and purpose-led decisions drove Nike's crisis resilience.

Management

Podcast

How Feeding America scaled crisis response during COVID-19

Masters of Scale February 11, 2021


Management 8
Processes & SOPs 7
Case studies 6
  • Demand, volunteers, and food supply all collapsed simultaneously.
  • A $100M Bezos gift was received and fully dispersed within days.
  • Dignity in choice: recipients must pick their own food, not just accept boxes.

Founder interviews

Podcast

Stewarding AI responsibly: lessons from Affectiva's Rana el Kaliouby

Masters of Scale February 2, 2021


Founder interviews 9
Business models 6
Culture building 5
  • Turning down $40M to stay true to your founding ethics
  • Consent and on-device processing as non-negotiable privacy defaults
  • Stewardship scales when competitors and ethicists share the responsibility

Case studies

Podcast

How Sunrun became the US residential solar market leader

Masters of Scale January 28, 2021


Case studies 10
Business models 9
Culture building 6
  • Solar adoption is a friction problem, not a demand problem
  • Sunrun closed its first bank deal the day Lehman Brothers went bankrupt
  • Customers don't need to care about climate — solar just saves money

Resilience & grit

Podcast

How to master your emotions with Sam Harris

Masters of Scale January 26, 2021


Resilience & grit 9
Productivity & habits 7
  • Your mind is the toolbox — every leadership tool depends on it.
  • Meditation trains you to witness thoughts without being controlled by them.
  • Failing fast and beginning again are the same mental skill.

Founder interviews

Podcast

How Eric Schmidt managed chaos to make Google innovative

Masters of Scale January 19, 2021


Founder interviews 9
Culture building 7
Management 5
  • Your job is to manage chaos, not eliminate it
  • 20% time's hidden power: a legitimate check on bad managers
  • Schmidt nearly killed the auction model that made Google billions

Management

Podcast

Eight reliable lessons for unreliable times

Masters of Scale January 7, 2021


Management 9
Pivoting 7
Communication 6
  • Move faster than you think possible—speed trumps perfection in crisis.
  • Create your own trajectory instead of reacting to chaos.
  • Repeat your message until you tire of it; your team is still absorbing.

Origin stories

Podcast

How Shopify became a platform by solving one problem first

Masters of Scale December 15, 2020


Origin stories 9
Business models 7
MVP & prototyping 5
  • Leave economics for developers — that's what makes a real platform.
  • You are not a platform until builders on you earn more than you do.
  • Silicon Valley missed a $4 trillion market by ignoring commerce entirely.

Culture building

Podcast

Loneliness at work: causes, costs, and what leaders can do

Masters of Scale December 3, 2020


Culture building 9
Mental health & wellbeing 7
Relationships & family 5
  • Lonely workers are less productive and more likely to quit
  • Open-plan offices make employees feel more isolated than cubicles
  • Valuing care explicitly — meals, rewards, leave — drives real ROI

Founder interviews

Podcast

How Kind's Daniel Lubetzky built bridges to scale a food brand

Masters of Scale December 1, 2020


Founder interviews 9
Pivoting 6
Scaling infrastructure 5
  • Grit without strategy wastes a decade — wit matters as much as persistence.
  • One bad product flavour can permanently destroy customer trust in physical goods.
  • Confronting the FDA head-on reversed a ruling and built a lasting partnership.

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