{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The General Podcast","title":"Claire Hughes Johnson (Stripe) x Gretchen Howard (Robinhood) on the COO job","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3507,"description":"Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO at Stripe) and Gretchen Howard (former COO at Robinhood) join The General Podcast for a rare, candid conversation about what it really means to operate at the highest levels inside two of the most ambitious fintech companies of the past decade. \n\nBoth left safe jobs to take bets that looked “crazy” from the outside. Both joined hyper-growth startups without the COO title, built trust with founders in real time, and ended up shaping the companies from the inside out. In this episode, they dig into what the COO role actually is, how to avoid “organ rejection” when you’re the outsider, and why the people function is the most underrated lever for scaling. \n\nYou’ll hear Claire and Gretchen swap notes on why the hardest problems are often unglamorous—compliance, self-clearing, comp plans—and why the real work is about earning trust, building velocity, and protecting the integrity of the company as it grows. \n\nIn this conversation, you’ll learn: \nWhy Claire and Gretchen said yes to Stripe and Robinhood when everyone around them said no\nTheir takes on founder chemistry and how to know if you can actually work with someone\nHow to walk into a COO role without blowing up the culture\nWhat founders get wrong when hiring their first COO\nHow Stripe and Robinhood scaled the ‘unsexy’ parts of business\nHow to build systems without adding bureaucracy\nHow to use the people function as a strategic weapon\nBeing okay with not being liked as your leadership evolves \nClaire’s “full stack leader” framework\nWhat great operators actually obsess over\n\nWhere to find Gretchen: \nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchenehoward\n\nWhere to find Claire: \nX: https://x.com/chughesjohnson\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-johnson-7058\nBook: Scaling People\n\nWhere to find TheGP: \nX: @thegp\nNewsletter: https://thegeneralpartnership.substack.com/","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/N-1p3XIEyEjCUxWdYitTH0E15NVtmrVv5g7qxd9tinc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80Yjhh/ODEyMDcyZDY5OTE4/NDhiMzFlY2Y3N2E2/MTNiYi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}