Gabe Kleinman's guest appearances

Gabe Kleinman

IDEO Futures

Creative Confidence Podcast

On Boards Podcast

Dear BAMf

Justin Bieber

Jake Knapp

David Kelley

Bonny Simi

David Rosen

Bryce Roberts

Patrick Dempsey

Kevin Kelly

Michael Dearing

Andreas Antonopoulos

John Zeratsky

Shoshana Berger

Kanyi Maqubela

John Lilly

Adam Ludwin

OwlTail

In a very short time - six, seven years - we’ve gone from impact investing being referred to as "invest for less" to “companies responsibly harnessing technology to solve big problems will outperform.”  In this episode we discuss how ESG has helped to drive that shift and the impact it is having on investing and board governance.   Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here.   Links   Board education &amp; certification: https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/exceptionalboarddirector   Book on Board Architecture: https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/books   Gabe Bio: https://obvious.com/team/gabe-kleinman     Quotes   Ev Williams on why he founded Obvious Ventures: "I want to fund the companies that I wish existed in the world."   Obvious exists to back purpose-driven founders reimagining trillion dollar sectors. We are a multi-specialty firm investing in the fundamental building blocks of life and society: food, transportation, housing, healthcare, and more, investing in companies that are completely reimagining each of those sectors for the better.   For the first number of years at Obvious Ventures, we did not talk about impact. We actually banned the "I" word because the industry of “impact investing,” as it was originally constructed, was not a returns-focused industry. It was an industry wishing to realize some returns alongside some sort of social or environmental impact. There was a general belief that one would have to sacrifice profits in order to get that impact return, so to speak.   We founded Obvious Ventures on the simple belief that the most valuable companies of our time will be the ones solving humanity's biggest problems." For earlier-stage venture, board observers are common, and I think that's due to the nature of the stage of the company and what they need to do in order to survive, because for early-stage venture-backed companies the fatality rate is high – they want as much good advice and help as they can get.   A colleague of mine has a saying, "Startups don't die of starvation. They die of indigestion." And so helping them figure out what to focus on and how to get there really helps, and from a CEO standpoint, the board is an extension of your team.   Board meeting agenda So many boards get bogged down in the actual board room with these graphs and data and charts and everyone's squinting and it's like going through a boring presentation for 80% of the meeting. We recommend that CEOs really anchor their meetings in OKRs, (known as Objectives and Key Results), walking through a literal scorecard of how we are doing.   Red, not going so well, yellow, we're doing okay, and green, things are going really well.   If you're spending 80% of your board meeting with presentations, you're wasting your time. The board meeting is not the time to educate the board. That is the board's homework. They should come to the meeting, having done their homework and be prepared to do exactly what you just said, address the issues that the CEO and/or whatever, the management team is really grappling with to get the most value out of the people that are in the room.   Boring presentations at a meeting can be a telltale sign. Most early-stage startup and venture-backed boards are hands-on problem-solving boards.  The nature of the meeting tells you a lot of what's going on with early-stage boards.   Objectives and Key Results, and it's a framework popularized by John Doerr, and before him, Andy Grove at Intel, can be an effective way of running organizations from small to large, and especially an effective dashboarding mechanism for board meetings.     Big Ideas/Thoughts   What is a B Corp What it means to become a certified B Corp is you have to score above a certain threshold on an assessment that an organization called B Lab has created which assesses what are functionally environmental, social, and governance practices of the company.  I think it's a great tool for any company of any size to take just as a reflective tool to understand your operation and how you're doing.     Refreshing your board A company is a different company at a Series B stage or series C stage with $50 million in annualized revenue, then when it had a $100,000 ARR and it was just getting started with three board members. So often it makes sense that a CEO may need a different set of directors with a different kind of experience at a different stage, while still maintaining some continuity and understanding of the roots and the original purpose of the organization.     Impact Investing vs Investing in purpose-driven companies We believe that the biggest challenges that our world is facing, oftentimes highlighted by activists and social entrepreneurs were, in fact, big market opportunities and that companies solving those problems would realize the greatest returns   If you look at both consumer sentiment as well as companies that are trying to attract the best employees, the best employees want to work at companies that are having some sort of an impact, and the easiest way for us to measure that impact is through revenue generated and services rendered. It’s that simple.   For example, if you look at Proterra, every time they sell an electric bus, they're taking a diesel bus off the road.  Every time Diamond Foundry sells an engagement ring or creates a semiconductor wafer chip that is lab grown, it's hopefully taking a diamond mine, which is carbon-intensive with horrible labor practices, out of business.   It's everywhere now, and everybody is waking up to the reality of these problems that we have to solve. It’s important to note that we need the public sector. There's no question about that. Without a healthy public sector, none of these can be solved, and same with social activists who often highlight these areas for us, but we need the private sector to be a driver of innovation and delivering those solutions through the market. We are believers in capitalism. We think we need to change the definition and the practices of capitalism, but that's kind of happening on its own. Everyone is waking up to these new realities and the role of the private sector in helping solve them.   Beyond Meat as a great example of the shift. There were plenty of plant-based options before Beyond Meat, Morningstar Burgers and Quorn, and they were all in the novelty food section of the supermarket. The epic shift that Beyond Meat pioneered was you don't have to be a vegetarian to love a plant-based product.  We are not creating something that is for vegetarians only …we are competing with Angus, and we are going to take them on. One of the big defining moves that Ethan Brown pioneered at Beyond Meat was getting Beyond Meat placed in the meat case alongside Angus options so that everyday people could choose these things. What it really boiled down to was creating a super product that competed with the "original," and you see this playing out across a host of industries, not just in plant-based protein. Tesla makes the safest, fastest car – which also happens to be the best for the reducing carbon. Nest makes the most beautiful, money-saving thermostat ­– which also happens to be best for efficient energy use. And so on.

In a very short time - six, seven years - we’ve gone from impact investing being referred to as "invest for less" to “companies responsibly harnessing technology to solve big problems will outperform.”  In this episode we discuss how ESG has helped to drive that shift and the impact it is having on investing and board governance. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions <a href="http://onboardspodcast.com/contact/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Links Board education &amp; certification: <a href="https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/exceptionalboarddirector" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/exceptionalboarddirector</a> Book on Board Architecture: <a href="https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.pfisterstrategy.com/books</a> Gabe Bio: <a href="https://obvious.com/team/gabe-kleinman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://obvious.com/team/gabe-kleinman</a> Quotes Ev Williams on why he founded Obvious Ventures: "I want to fund the companies that I wish existed in the world." Obvious exists to back purpose-driven founders reimagining trillion dollar sectors. We are a multi-specialty firm investing in the fundamental building blocks of life and society: food, transportation, housing, healthcare, and more, investing in companies that are completely reimagining each of those sectors for the better. For the first number of years at Obvious Ventures, we did not talk about impact. We actually banned the "I" word because the industry of “impact investing,” as it was originally constructed, was not a returns-focused industry. It was an industry wishing to realize some returns alongside some sort of social or environmental impact. There was a general belief that one would have to sacrifice profits in order to get that impact return, so to speak. We founded Obvious Ventures on the simple belief that the most valuable companies of our time will be the ones solving humanity's biggest problems." For earlier-stage venture, board observers are common, and I think that's due to the nature of the stage of the company and what they need to do in order to survive, because for early-stage venture-backed companies the fatality rate is high – they want as much good advice and help as they can get. A colleague of mine has a saying, "Startups don't die of starvation. They die of indigestion." And so helping them figure out what to focus on and how to get there really helps, and from a CEO standpoint, the board is an extension of your team. Board meeting agenda So many boards get bogged down in the actual board room with these graphs and data and charts and everyone's squinting and it's like going through a boring presentation for 80% of the meeting. We recommend that CEOs really anchor their meetings in OKRs, (known as Objectives and Key Results), walking through a literal scorecard of how we are doing.   Red, not going so well, yellow, we're doing okay, and green, things are going really well. If you're spending 80% of your board meeting with presentations, you're wasting your time. The board meeting is not the time to educate the board. That is the board's homework. They should come to the meeting, having done their homework and be prepared to do exactly what you just said, address the issues that the CEO and/or whatever, the management team is really grappling with to get the most value out of the people that are in the room. Boring presentations at a meeting can be a telltale sign. Most early-stage startup and venture-backed boards are hands-on problem-solving boards.  The nature of the meeting tells you a lot of what's going on with early-stage boards. Objectives and Key Results, and it's a framework popularized by John Doerr, and before him, Andy Grove at Intel, can be an effective way of running organizations from small to large, and especially an effective dashboarding mechanism for board meetings. Big Ideas/Thoughts What is a B Corp What it means to become a certified B Corp is you have to score above a certain threshold on an assessment that an organization called B Lab has created which assesses what are functionally environmental, social, and governance practices of the company.  I think it's a great tool for any company of any size to take just as a reflective tool to understand your operation and how you're doing. Refreshing your board A company is a different company at a Series B stage or series C stage with $50 million in annualized revenue, then when it had a $100,000 ARR and it was just getting started with three board members. So often it makes sense that a CEO may need a different set of directors with a different kind of experience at a different stage, while still maintaining some continuity and understanding of the roots and the original purpose of the organization. Impact Investing vs Investing in purpose-driven companies We believe that the biggest challenges that our world is facing, oftentimes highlighted by activists and social entrepreneurs were, in fact, big market opportunities and that companies solving those problems would realize the greatest returns If you look at both consumer sentiment as well as companies that are trying to attract the best employees, the best employees want to work at companies that are having some sort of an impact, and the easiest way for us to measure that impact is through revenue generated and services rendered. It’s that simple. For example, if you look at Proterra, every time they sell an electric bus, they're taking a diesel bus off the road.  Every time Diamond Foundry sells an engagement ring or creates a semiconductor wafer chip that is lab grown, it's hopefully taking a diamond mine, which is carbon-intensive with horrible labor practices, out of business. It's everywhere now, and everybody is waking up to the reality of these problems that we have to solve. It’s important to note that we need the public sector. There's no question about that. Without a healthy public sector, none of these can be solved, and same with social activists who often highlight these areas for us, but we need the private sector to be a driver of innovation and delivering those solutions through the market. We are believers in capitalism. We think we need to change the definition and the practices of capitalism, but that's kind of happening on its own. Everyone is waking up to these new realities and the role of the private sector in helping solve them. Beyond Meat as a great example of the shift. There were plenty of plant-based options before Beyond Meat, Morningstar Burgers and Quorn, and they were all in the novelty food section of the supermarket. The epic shift that Beyond Meat pioneered was you don't have to be a vegetarian to love a plant-based product.  We are not creating something that is for vegetarians only …we are competing with Angus, and we are going to take them on. One of the big defining moves that Ethan Brown pioneered at Beyond Meat was getting Beyond Meat placed in the meat case alongside Angus options so that everyday people could choose these things. What it really boiled down to was creating a super product that competed with the "original," and you see this playing out across a host of industries, not just in plant-based protein. Tesla makes the safest, fastest car – which also happens to be the best for the reducing carbon. Nest makes the most beautiful, money-saving thermostat ­– which also happens to be best for efficient energy use. And so on.

39. Gabe Kleinman - The most valuable companies of our time will be the ones solving humanity's biggest problems

In this week's episode of the Dear BAMf podcast, we speak with Gabe Kleinman, Head of Portfolio Services &amp; Marketing at Obvious Ventures. Gabe provides numerous case studies that answer some tough marketing and PR questions for our listeners, including the notion that any press is good press.

In this week's episode of the Dear BAMf podcast, we speak with Gabe Kleinman, Head of Portfolio Services &amp; Marketing at Obvious Ventures. Gabe provides numerous case studies that answer some tough marketing and PR questions for our listeners, including the notion that any press is good press.

Gabe Kleinman of Obvious Ventures

We're back from Spring Break, feeling centered, serene, and mellow. Because what you create reflects what you feel, we hope you get a sense of that state of mind while listening to this podcast. As always, we're super grateful for the time you give us as listeners and as part of the greater IDEO Futures community.Our special guest for Episode 17 of the IDEO Futures podcast is Gabe Kleinman of Medium.  Also known in the halls of Medium as "The Wolf", Gabe joins Joe for what we think is a really interesting plunge into the future of media and hacking tools for expression and design thinking.Along the way, Gabe and Joe have an in-depth discussion about holacracy.  Wikipedia defines holacracy as follows:Holacracy is a social technology or system or organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested at the top of a hierarchy.Those of you who are organizational design aficionados will know that both Medium and Zappos have been at the vanguard of the holacracy movement. You can see articles about each of their experiences with holacracy here: http://firstround.com/review/How-Medium-is-building-a-new-kind-of-company-with-no-managers/ and here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3044417/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-adopt-holacracy-or-leave. Gabe brings a unique perspective to what it means to live, work, and lead within a holacratic work environment, so we hope that you enjoy listening to his thoughts, insights, and stories about holacracy at Medium.Of course, it isn't the IDEO Futures podcast without a big helping of VDTBOM, Venture Design That Blows Our Minds! Diego returns to his emerging obsession for the overlap of innovative business models and great food with a VDTBOM inspired by MAD and Korean tacos. This one focuses on Roy Choi and Loco'l, and it's awesome. It reminded us of our Taco Truck DDP episode. Joe investigates an entrepreneur who has reinvented the coloring book, but for adults.Many thanks to the folks at MAD for the clip from Roy Choi's MAD presentation.If you're curious about our design themes for 2015, take a listen to Episode 10. And if you'd like to check out the "Humans + Bits + Blocks" series we mentioned, you can find those articles here on Medium: https://medium.com/humanizing-bitcoin-blockchainWant to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. You can sign up for our newsletter at www.ideofutur.es.As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2Thank you for listening! Kingship!#kingship  #dontgetreadygetstarted #peace

We're back from Spring Break, feeling centered, serene, and mellow. Because what you create reflects what you feel, we hope you get a sense of that state of mind while listening to this podcast. As always, we're super grateful for the time you give us as listeners and as part of the greater IDEO Futures community. Our special guest for Episode 17 of the IDEO Futures podcast is Gabe Kleinman of Medium. Also known in the halls of Medium as "The Wolf", Gabe joins Joe for what we think is a really interesting plunge into the future of media and hacking tools for expression and design thinking. Along the way, Gabe and Joe have an in-depth discussion about holacracy. Wikipedia defines holacracy as follows: Holacracy is a social technology or system or organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested at the top of a hierarchy. Those of you who are organizational design aficionados will know that both Medium and Zappos have been at the vanguard of the holacracy movement. You can see articles about each of their experiences with holacracy here: <a href="http://firstround.com/review/How-Medium-is-building-a-new-kind-of-company-with-no-managers/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://firstround.com/review/How-Medium-is-building-a-new-kind-of-company-with-no-managers/</a> and here: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3044417/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-adopt-holacracy-or-leave" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.fastcompany.com/3044417/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-adopt-holacracy-or-leave</a>. Gabe brings a unique perspective to what it means to live, work, and lead within a holacratic work environment, so we hope that you enjoy listening to his thoughts, insights, and stories about holacracy at Medium. Of course, it isn't the IDEO Futures podcast without a big helping of VDTBOM, Venture Design That Blows Our Minds! Diego returns to his emerging obsession for the overlap of innovative business models and great food with a VDTBOM inspired by MAD and Korean tacos. This one focuses on Roy Choi and Loco'l, and it's awesome. It reminded us of our Taco Truck DDP episode. Joe investigates an entrepreneur who has reinvented the coloring book, but for adults. Many thanks to the folks at MAD for the clip from Roy Choi's MAD presentation. If you're curious about our design themes for 2015, take a listen to Episode 10. And if you'd like to check out the "Humans + Bits + Blocks" series we mentioned, you can find those articles here on Medium: <a href="https://medium.com/humanizing-bitcoin-blockchain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://medium.com/humanizing-bitcoin-blockchain</a> Want to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. You can sign up for our newsletter at <a href="http://www.ideofutur.es" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.ideofutur.es</a>. As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2</a> Thank you for listening! Kingship! #kingship #dontgetreadygetstarted #peace

Episode 17: the future of media + a conversation about Holacracy with Gabe Kleinman