Lenny's Newsletter - Failure
Brought to you by Sendbird—The (all-in-one) communications API platform for mobile apps | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments — In this special compilation episode, we delve into failure—an overlooked source of wisdom. From freezing onstage in front of thousands of people, to coworkers staging an intervention, to huge product investments that went to zero, we’ve pulled our favorite stories of failure from 100+ podcast episodes. I hope these stories serve as a gentle nudge to view failure not as a setback but as a crucial detour toward growth. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, and YouTube. Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT. In this episode, you’ll hear from: (00:00) Lenny: Why I’m focusing on failure (03:25) Katie Dill: The single meeting that changed how Katie leads forever (08:03) Paul Adams: Freezing onstage in front of thousands of people (18:38) Tom Conrad: Lessons from Pets.com and Quibi—two of the most famous product disasters of all time (33:19) Sri Batchu: When you fail, make sure you fail conclusively (39:00) Jiaona Zhang (JZ): One of the biggest product misses at Airbnb (44:32) Gina Gotthilf: Everyone has an “A side” and a “B side,” and we should all share our B sides more (57:57) Maggie Crowley: Her favorite interview question about failure, and lessons from a personal failure (1:00:33) Thanks for listening Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Lenny's Newsletter, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |
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How to tell better stories | Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)
Friday, December 15, 2023
Listen now (103 mins) | Brought to you by OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster | Maui Nui Venison—The healthiest red meat on the planet delivered directly to your door | Vanta—Automate compliance.
The Best of Lenny’s Newsletter 2023
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
The single best way to discover my best stuff across both the newsletter and podcast
Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Listen now (87 mins) | Brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian's new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams — Kim Scott is the author of Radical Candor, currently
The full-stack PM | Anuj Rathi (Swiggy, Jupiter Money, Flipkart)
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Listen now (72 mins) | Brought to you by Sanity—The most customizable content layer to power your growth engine | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | Wix Studio—The web creation platform
Lessons on building a viral consumer app: The story of Saturn
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
How single-player utility, hyper-personalization, doing things unscalably, and thinking long-term helped us bootstrap a brand-new social network
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