Grit

Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness

Cisco bought Jyoti Bansal’s first company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, making him a very wealthy man. But after two African safaris, a week of Michelin-starred meals in Tokyo, and more adventures all around the world, he realized that spending his money didn’t truly make him happy. After some soul-searching, he realized what he really enjoyed: “I liked to build companies. That is my craft ... If someone enjoys playing gold for six hours, I would enjoy working on a startup for six hours.”

In this episode, Jyoti and Joubin discuss the evolution of Grit, Carlos Delatorre, Tom Mendoza, Glean, growing up in India, traveling the world, three-star restaurants, soul-searching, automating gruntwork, paying for nice hotels, red-eye flights, product-market fit, Jeff Bezos, the “three-layered cake,” Frank Slootman, raising the bar for distribution, technical debt, structural efficiency, and taking pride in your work. 

In this episode, we cover:

  • (00:59) - Top-tier CROs
  • (04:18) - The video game levels of startups
  • (07:24) - Selling AppDynamics to Cisco
  • (09:16) - Keeping up with high-growth companies
  • (12:10) - The chip on Jyoti’s shoulder
  • (16:15) - How he thinks about money
  • (18:02) - Do what you enjoy every day
  • (22:32) - “What would make me happy?”
  • (24:56) - Starting BIG Labs and Harness
  • (29:16) - Adjusting to a new reality
  • (34:13) - Work-life balance
  • (36:30) - What gets easier — and harder — over time
  • (41:44) - Product vs. distribution
  • (46:46) - Paying it forward
  • (48:29) - The next level
  • (50:24) - The four lists
  • (53:45) - Assigning clear responsibilities
  • (56:06) - Jyoti’s favorite interview question
  • (57:41) - Who Harness is hiring

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What is Grit?

Grit explores what it takes to create, build, and scale world-class organizations. It features weekly episodes highlighting the leaders who are pushing their companies to make a difference. This series is hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, go to market operating partner at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm investing in history-making founders.