76 min listen
Building products that delight customers | Adam Nash (Daffy, Wealthfront, LinkedIn, eBay, Apple)
FromIn Depth
Building products that delight customers | Adam Nash (Daffy, Wealthfront, LinkedIn, eBay, Apple)
FromIn Depth
ratings:
Length:
76 minutes
Released:
Apr 4, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Adam Nash is the co-founder and CEO at Daffy, a platform that makes it easier to donate to charities and non-profits. Before Daffy, Adam was the President and CEO at Wealthfront, where he scaled the company’s assets under management from $100M to over $4B. Adam has also held leadership and technical roles at Dropbox, LinkedIn, eBay, and Apple.
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In today’s episode, we discuss:
Why founders should build platforms, not apps
The importance of “delighting” customers
How Daffy is disrupting donor-advised-funds
Lessons on strategy from LinkedIn
How to think about leadership transitions
—
Referenced:
Andy Rachleff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachleff/
Bill Gates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates/
Daffy: https://www.daffy.org/
Daffy’s 2023 Year in Review: https://www.daffy.org/resources/year-in-review-2023
eBay: https://www.ebay.com/
Jeff Weiner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffweiner08/
Reid Hoffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/
Robinhood: https://robinhood.com/
Ryan Roslansky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanroslansky/
The Innovator’s Dilemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Clayton-M-Christensen/dp/0062060244
Tim Cook: https://www.apple.com/leadership/tim-cook/
Wealthfront: https://www.wealthfront.com/
—
Where to find Adam Nash:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamnash/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/adamnash
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Where to find Brett Berson:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
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Where to find First Round Capital:
Website: https://firstround.com/
First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
—
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:08) Why the last 10 years have been less disruptive
(06:15) Why we think about luck wrong
(08:39) How eBay survived the dot com bubble
(14:37) The value of building platforms, not apps
(22:18) What made LinkedIn successful
(27:31) Good company strategy = good product strategy
(30:58) Setting LinkedIn’s strategy in 2009
(36:41) Why KaChing didn’t work
(40:56) Pivoting to Wealthfront
(43:23) Universal lesson on customer acquisition
(45:11) Treating growth like a product problem
(49:01) Advice on successful leadership transitions
(54:20) How to delegate moral authority
(60:24) The problem with metrics and customer requests
(66:41) Apple’s approach to “delighting” customers
(69:16) The 70/20/10 rule you’ve never heard about
(70:29) How Daffy ships “delight features”
—
In today’s episode, we discuss:
Why founders should build platforms, not apps
The importance of “delighting” customers
How Daffy is disrupting donor-advised-funds
Lessons on strategy from LinkedIn
How to think about leadership transitions
—
Referenced:
Andy Rachleff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachleff/
Bill Gates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates/
Daffy: https://www.daffy.org/
Daffy’s 2023 Year in Review: https://www.daffy.org/resources/year-in-review-2023
eBay: https://www.ebay.com/
Jeff Weiner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffweiner08/
Reid Hoffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/
Robinhood: https://robinhood.com/
Ryan Roslansky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanroslansky/
The Innovator’s Dilemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Clayton-M-Christensen/dp/0062060244
Tim Cook: https://www.apple.com/leadership/tim-cook/
Wealthfront: https://www.wealthfront.com/
—
Where to find Adam Nash:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamnash/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/adamnash
—
Where to find Brett Berson:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
—
Where to find First Round Capital:
Website: https://firstround.com/
First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
—
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:08) Why the last 10 years have been less disruptive
(06:15) Why we think about luck wrong
(08:39) How eBay survived the dot com bubble
(14:37) The value of building platforms, not apps
(22:18) What made LinkedIn successful
(27:31) Good company strategy = good product strategy
(30:58) Setting LinkedIn’s strategy in 2009
(36:41) Why KaChing didn’t work
(40:56) Pivoting to Wealthfront
(43:23) Universal lesson on customer acquisition
(45:11) Treating growth like a product problem
(49:01) Advice on successful leadership transitions
(54:20) How to delegate moral authority
(60:24) The problem with metrics and customer requests
(66:41) Apple’s approach to “delighting” customers
(69:16) The 70/20/10 rule you’ve never heard about
(70:29) How Daffy ships “delight features”
Released:
Apr 4, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
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