Gurley says Jobs's CEO execution level is unprecedented, crediting Cook's operational contributions.
“I don't know if whoever sees CEO execution of this level. Of course, it's not just the CEO execution. You got what Tim Cook's done in operation.”
Gurley argues most great leaders delegate because no one can be expert in everything at scale.
“I think there are very few great leaders. If you were to just take a picture of a whole bunch of great leaders, most of them are good at delegation, getting other people to make decisions because organizations are so large, and no one has the capacity to be an expert in so many things.”
Gurley says Thomas Layton was interim CEO for six-and-a-half years, taking OpenTable from $100K monthly to $20M run rate.
“a guy on the board, Thomas Layton, agreed to come in and be interim CEO, which he held for six and a half years.”
Gurley notes Stitch Fix has over 80% female employees, over 60% female management and board.
“Stitch Fix, people may not know this. Over 80% of the employees are female. Over 60% of the management team's female. Over 60% of the board is female.”
Gurley expresses high confidence in Dara's track record addressing Uber's problems.
“the DAR is starting to build up a track record of having put out these fires and and attack these problems.”
Gurley contrasts Dario and Sam's platitudes with Zuckerberg being transparent and in the arena on AI.
“And Zuck was down in the weeds in the meet. He's in the arena. Yeah. Being super transparent.”
Gurley explains Elon Musk uses time constraints like Jobs used physical constraints to force creative problem-solving.
“And I realized what he's doing is the exact jobs would tell them the phone has to be this thick.”
Gurley describes Collison probing how Elon uses extreme time constraints to force creative problem-solving.
“I think the world has been trying to figure out how Elon does what he does, especially from a leadership standpoint.”
Gurley argues founders are constantly selling to investors, employees, customers, and in deals.
“if you're a founder, you're selling to new investors, you're selling to employees, you own the company culture and the perception of the company, you're striking deals, you're selling to customers, you're just out selling all”