Before Nirav Tolia became the CEO of Nextdoor, a billion-dollar company connecting neighbors across America, he was a 28-year-old first-time CEO running a struggling startup during the dot-com crash, three weeks away from shutting down. Then Bill Campbell, the legendary Silicon Valley coach who mentored Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the founders of Google, walked into his office and said the words that changed everything: I don't want fancy quotes. Tell me about the business. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of tech's...
Before Nirav Tolia became the CEO of Nextdoor, a billion-dollar company connecting neighbors across America, he was a 28-year-old first-time CEO running a struggling startup during the dot-com crash, three weeks away from shutting down. Then Bill Campbell, the legendary Silicon Valley coach who mentored Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the founders of Google, walked into his office and said the words that changed everything: I don't want fancy quotes. Tell me about the business. In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of tech's most mission-driven entrepreneurs sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the man who believed in him when he was just beginning to understand what it meant to lead.
Nirav opens up about meeting Bill Campbell at 28, a coach who called him boy, sprinkled profanity into every lesson, and taught him that his title was not CEO but coach. He talks about growing up as one of the only Indian kids in Odessa, Texas, a place where people were genuinely happy because they had each other, and how that shaped his belief in the power of community. He shares what it was like to get to Stanford and realize he wasn't prepared for the rigor, how he found his way into tech through an Ethernet connection in his dorm room and an obsession with the Dallas Cowboys, and why he joined a collegiate acapella group that led him to become a business manager instead of a doctor.
There's also a raw reflection on sacrifice, purpose, and what it means to be a guardian angel. Nirav talks about leaving Nextdoor in 2019 because he felt like a shell of a man, realizing he couldn't be the best CEO and the best father at the same time, and moving his family to Italy for a sabbatical that turned into years. He opens up about being asked to come back to Nextdoor, why he said yes even though he never thought he'd be a CEO again, and how spending time away from the job gave him the space to reflect and become a better human being.
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Chapters ☀️
Chapters
- 00:00:00 Intro: The Coach Who Believed When the Company Almost Died
- 00:02:18 The First Meeting: Boy, Tell Me About Your Company
- 00:10:00 A Stranger in a Strange Land: Finding Community in West Texas
- 00:14:10 Stanford and the Struggle: When Everyone Is Smarter Than You
- 00:17:33 Fleet Street Singers: The Acapella Group That Led to Business
- 00:24:23 999 Failures Leading to One Big Success: The Entrepreneurship Story
- 00:28:36 Your Title Makes You a Manager, Your People Make You a Leader
- 00:31:12 Three Weeks of Cash Left: The Christmas That Changed Everything
- 00:33:46 The Hardest Thing a CEO Ever Has to Do: Laying Off Employees
- 00:38:15 The Kindness of Strangers: Lost Dogs, Cups of Sugar, and Natural Disasters
- 00:40:57 Purpose, People, Product: The Three Ps Bill Taught
- 00:43:00 A Shell of a Man: When Being CEO Meant Not Being a Father
- 00:48:26 Coming Back to Nextdoor: The Second Chance to Refound a Company
- 00:54:58 Moving to Dallas: Choosing Family and Community Over Silicon Valley
- 00:57:21 The Board Meeting in Dallas: Hearing Bill's Voice 20 Years Later
- 01:03:39 Happy 30th Birthday: The Voicemail That Captures Everything
- 01:04:59 Find a Bill or Be the Bill: The Legacy of Lifting People Up
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Nirav Tolia
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
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