Masters of Scale team picks: five favorite moments from 2023

Executive overview

The Masters of Scale team steps in front of the mic to share their favorite clips from 2023. Each pick spotlights a different lesson: financial literacy, AI experimentation, community building, creative reinvention, and curiosity-driven networking.

Simplicity, experimentation, and genuine human connection are the recurring engines behind every story of scale.

Damon John: keep it simple, keep it current

• FUBU founder Damon John wrote a children's book on financial literacy after noticing a gap in the market.
• Little Damon Learns to Earn centres on a six-year-old starting a t-shirt business — rooted in Damon's own childhood.
• Kids' ability to count to five is the book's core mechanic: relatable hooks drive retention.
• Clarity and simplicity are non-negotiable in any business — Nike, FUBU, White Castle all distil to a few words.
• The challenge is staying simple without staying static; timeless brands evolve their expression, not their core.

Priya Krishna: AI as kitchen assistant, not kitchen leader

• Food journalist Priya Krishna committed to cooking AI-generated Thanksgiving recipes word for word.
• More specific prompts produced more creative (and stranger) results — GPT suggested naan bread stuffing.
• The finished dishes ranged from a well-received pumpkin spice cake to a turkey "dry as a bone."
• Verdict from four NYT food columnists: overall, not a success — but the experiment revealed real use cases.
• AI excels at ingredient substitution and temperature queries; it struggles as a head chef.
• Useful discovery only came through full commitment to the experiment — no hedging.

Reshma Saujani: coding as a path out of poverty

• Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code after noticing that 74% of high school girls wanted careers that changed the world, yet under 0.2% studied computer science.
• Her insight: connect coding to changemaking to recruit a generation of girls into tech.
• The first cohort was deliberately small — research pointed to groups of 20 as optimal for learning a new skill.
• Alumna Diana Chris Navarro had quit coding after a hostile AP class; Girls Who Code reversed that trajectory.
• The dual mission: close the gender gap in tech and provide a route into the middle class regardless of background.

Ed Catmull on Steve Jobs: reinvention requires self-awareness

• Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull tracked a decade-long change in Steve Jobs — from abrasive to empathetic.
• The 1999 Macworld stunt (actor Noah Wiley impersonating Jobs on stage, with Jobs's blessing) showed a lighter Steve most of the public never saw.
• Steve's personal growth directly enabled Apple's product breakthroughs: MacBook, iPod, iTunes, iPhone.
• Reputation lags reality — early public narratives about Jobs stuck long after the underlying person had changed.
• Constantly tweaking how you work is the creative leader's core discipline.

Brian Grazer and Ron Howard: curiosity as a networking strategy

• Brian Grazer cold-yelled at Ron Howard from a window, then booked a meeting through Ron's assistant — that 1979 conversation launched a lifelong partnership.
• Curiosity Conversations — Grazer's practice of seeking meaningful time with anyone, regardless of status — are the engine behind his network.
• Imagine Entertainment was founded in 1985 by pooling resources, cutting duplicate meetings, and gaining collective leverage.
• An IPO after Splash gave them capital to control development rights — but the model broke when Bruce Willis's Die Hard salary reset A-list fees industry-wide.
• Outside forces will always threaten a creative model; the vision itself must remain the anchor.