Between Two COO's with Michael Koenig · 2026-01-20 · 57 min
Get Brad's new book, Give First . 00:00 - Cold open: “Something new is fucked up in my world every day” 02:00 - The Yoda t-shirt story + the mythology of Brad Feld 04:00 - “Give First” vs. “Pay it Forward”: philosophy, not obligation 07:00 - Why giving isn’t altruism - and how it works in complex systems 10:00 - Positive-sum vs. zero-sum: tennis, trust, and long games 13:00 - Does giving create outcomes, or just energy? 16:00 - Why Brad writes books: longform thinking as meaning-making 20:00 - Searching for meaning through mentorship and reflection 23:00 - “I hate the phrase pattern recognition” - mentorship done right 28:00 - The power dynamic between founders and mentors 32:00 - Management through commitment, not control 35:00 - Agile as an operating system for accountability 38:00 - Emotional intelligence and the role of executive coaches 41:00 - Mentor vs. coach vs. therapist vs. advisor 45:00 - Trust as the foundation of all high-leverage relationships 47:30 - Wild story: when the second floor of Sphero’s building collapsed 52:00 - “They can’t kill you and they can’t eat you” - Len Fassler’s advice 55:00 - Closing thoughts on being the Bill Murray of venture capital
Zulema Quintans, COO of Noda, on Why Your OKRs Don't Get Done66 / 100
Peter Rojas, New Products at Mozilla, on Why Ideas Don't Decide Success
AI Agents Need Logins Too: Identity, Security, and the Future of AI | Greg Keller, CTO, JumpCloud
Seth Levine of Foundry Group on Capital Evolution, AI, and the Future of Company Leadership
AI, Fraud, and the Next Era of Commerce with Peter Dougherty, President of Spreedly