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.
How Sara Blakely found the idea that became Spanx
Masters of Scale
January 3, 2020
Origin stories
10
Vision & mission
7
MVP & prototyping
6
Blakely hunted for a big idea for 10 years before Spanx found her
"This should exist" — the three words that signal a real opportunity
She built a billion-dollar company with $5,000 and zero outside investment
Scout and scale: how to solve impossible challenges by finding who's already done it
Masters of Scale
December 13, 2019
Vision & mission
9
Management
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Why 'not invented here' syndrome is an ego trap that kills scale
Google Maps was built from three acquisitions — not one line of in-house code
A $350M government saving by refusing to reinvent existing software
Founder interviews
Podcast
Robert F. Smith on building a business as a Trojan horse for human liberation
Masters of Scale
December 5, 2019
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Your second purpose becomes a competitive advantage when structurally embedded in operations.
Vista's aptitude-based hiring unlocks overlooked talent and drives measurable revenue growth.
Eliminating student debt lets graduates play offense instead of servicing financial defense.
Why startups should raise more capital than they think they need
Masters of Scale
November 21, 2019
Fundraising & VC
9
Case studies
7
Pivoting
6
Undercapitalising is itself the risky move in competitive markets.
The planning fallacy guarantees novel projects overrun — always budget for failure loops.
Minted's pivot from failed stationery to crowdsourced design survived only because capital was available.
How to set and sustain a cultural drumbeat as a leader
Masters of Scale
November 15, 2019
Culture building
9
Management
6
Repeat your message until you're sick of hearing it.
Compassion in leadership drives innovation and performance, not softness.
Reward the how, not just the what, or culture drifts.
Long-term planning
Podcast
How Bill Gates identified and accelerated computing's inflection points
Masters of Scale
November 7, 2019
Long-term planning
9
Case studies
7
Business models
6
Spotting an inflection point is worthless without actively accelerating it
IBM's brutal quality standards made Microsoft — pick your toughest customers
The internet nearly killed Windows; Gates pivoted by burning his own standards
How will.i.am turns big opportunities into compounding leverage
Masters of Scale
October 31, 2019
Pivoting
9
Case studies
8
Processes & SOPs
6
How will.i.am snuck a giant Beats logo past the NFL
Owning the tech beats endorsing it — the Beats origin story
Every opportunity properly leveraged seeds the next one
Founder interviews
Podcast
Patience and speed: how Tory Burch built a billion-dollar brand
Masters of Scale
October 17, 2019
Founder interviews
9
Long-term planning
9
Branding
7
Strategic patience means watching carefully, then striking with explosive speed.
Tory Burch built her company specifically to fund a foundation for women.
Saying no to the wrong opportunities protects long-term brand and mission.
Founder interviews
Podcast
How TaskRabbit built a self-teaching workforce by staying human
Masters of Scale
October 10, 2019
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Management
5
Remove worker competition and your community spontaneously starts teaching itself.
Announcing major platform changes in the press before telling your own workers will backfire.
Human networks compound like virality loops — but reshape economic potential, not just growth.
How to build a company that lasts a century or more
Masters of Scale
September 12, 2019
Case studies
10
Long-term planning
8
Pivoting
7
Only 45 in a million companies survive 100 years — growth speeds decline
Truth-tellers at the top are non-negotiable in any real turnaround
Asking 'what are we, really?' unlocks reinvention without losing identity
Founder interviews
Podcast
Anne Wojcicki on embracing gatekeepers, not fighting them
Masters of Scale
August 1, 2019
Founder interviews
9
Pivoting
7
Compliance & regulation
6
Working with regulators (not around them) creates lasting competitive advantage
Ancestry became the bridge from weird genetics concept to mainstream adoption
FDA collaboration built trust and opened pathways for the entire industry
Founder interviews
Podcast
Gwyneth Paltrow on building Goop as a second-act founder
Masters of Scale
July 2, 2019
Founder interviews
10
Fundraising & VC
6
Culture building
6
Why building trust before revenue made Goop fundable
Celebrity status hurt in VC meetings after the first 90 seconds
Going from family to village exposes every assumption about culture
10 Rules for Big Career Changes
Masters of Scale
June 21, 2019
Goal setting
9
Resilience & grit
7
Work-life balance
6
Follow passion, but validate it against real market opportunities and competition.
Think in tours of duty, not lifelong careers—sideways moves and pivots are the norm.
Build grit by learning from failure and adjusting strategy, not by repeating what doesn't work.
How Dara Khosrowshahi transformed Uber from pirate culture to disciplined navy
Masters of Scale
June 5, 2019
Culture building
9
Management
7
Case studies
6
Why Uber's toxic bro culture nearly destroyed a $70B company
Tell people where to go, not what to do — Dara's core management shift
Truth-telling CEOs hear problems early enough to fix them
Business operating systems
Podcast
Open and closed systems: how to scale with both
Masters of Scale
April 30, 2019
Business operating systems
9
Management
6
Neither fully open nor fully closed organizations scale well alone
Volunteer translators caught paid professionals' errors within 36 hours
Open protocols enable value creation; closed networks capture it