After rescuing his first startup BigMachines from the brink of bankruptcy and building it to positive cash flow, Godard Abel thought the express lane of life was opening up to him. But after the board replaced him as CEO, Godard — now the CEO of B2B tech buying firm G2 — found himself on a rocky road for 10 years. He had all the money he could want, but also overwhelming fear, anxiety, and depression. To break out of this funk, Godard says he had to embrace presence and reckon with why entrepreneurship called him.
In this episode, Godard and Joubin discuss the mental benefits of running, Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom, ex-Apple CEO John Sculley and “scale at all costs,” turning around a failing startup, a young founder’s “FU mentality,” Jim Dethmer and conscious leadership, the importance of “wallowing in the muck,” the best part about entrepreneurship, WFIO moments, and the advantage of getting older.
In this episode, we cover:
Links:
#193 Former CEO Nextdoor, Sarah Friar: Four Circles
#192 CTO and Co-Founder Discord, Stanislav Vishnevskiy: Ship It
#191 CEO and Co-Founder Intercom, Eoghan McCabe: Second Beginning
#190 Co-Founder Cost Plus Drugs, Mark Cuban: Mavs to Meds
#189 Co-Founder Watershed, Taylor Francis: Worthy Missions
#188 CEO and Co-Founder Synthesia, Victor Riparbelli w/ Josh Coyne: Gorilla in the Room
#187 President & COO of AG1, Kat Cole: Wings to Supplements
#186 COO Asana, Anne Raimondi: Recovering Perfectionist
#185 CEO and Founder Netskope, Sanjay Beri: The Trenches
#184 Former CEO and Co-Founder Sun, Scott McNealy: In the Piñata
#183 CEO and Co-Founder Harness, Jyoti Bansal: Three-Layered Cake
#182 CEO and Co-Founder Cribl, Clint Sharp: Finding Traction
#181 CEO Transcarent, Glen Tullman: Problem Solving
#180 CEO and Co-Founder Verkada, Filip Kaliszan: Outlier
#179 CEO and Co-Founder Zapier, Wade Foster: Missouri’s Connector
#178 Author of “Radical Candor,” Kim Scott: Uncommon Sense
#177 President and Co-Founder Anthropic, Daniela Amodei: AI Hurricane
#176 CEO MongoDB, Dev Ittycheria: Edge
#175 CEO Snowflake, Frank Slootman: Amped
#174 CEO and Co-Founder Ginkgo Bioworks, Jason Kelly: Life Finds a Way
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