Behance

Being a creator in 2025 is tough—but building for creators is even harder. Perhaps no one understands this conundrum better than Scott Belsky. As the founder of Behance, a longtime executive at Adobe, and an advisor to companies like Pinterest and Atlassian, Scott has spent his career at the intersection of technology, design, and creativity. In this speedrun episode, recorded live in San Francisco during the fourth iteration of our a16z Games Speedrun program, we dive into: How AI can actually enable creators—and where its toolset should end The evolution from the "prompt era" to the "controls era" of AI Whether people really want bespoke, personalized experiences or simply crave familiarity What happens when creative scarcity disappears and AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous The future of creative tooling, from generative UI to AI-native interfaces Plus, Scott shares insights from his time building Behance, leading product strategy at Adobe, and investing in the next generation of creative tools. If you want to learn more about A16Z Games Speedrun, visit a16z.com/games/speedrun.   Stay Updated:  Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/ Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky is the chief strategy officer and executive vice president of design and emerging products at Adobe. He joins Big Technology Podcast to examine the impact of generative AI on creativity. In this interview, we discuss whether AI homogenizes creativity or creates more possibilities. We talk about how Adobe is baking it into its products with generative fill. We also discuss creative attribution for images used to train generative AI models and how friction is actually good. Tune in for one of the most fascinating discussions on the podcast in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Gustav Söderström is the Co-President, CPO & CTO at Spotify. Gustav has been instrumental in taking Spotify from a 30-person operation in Sweden when he joined to being the global leader of the space. Scott Belsky is Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott oversees all of product and engineering for Creative Cloud, as well as design for Adobe. Tomer Cohen is the Chief Product Officer @ Linkedin where he is responsible for setting and executing the global product strategy at LinkedIn. In Today's Episode on How AI Changes The Future of Product and Design We Discuss: 1. Why AI Is Now the Product that UI Serves: Why does Gustav believe that AI is now the product? How has the importance of UI changed with the rise of AI? How did TikTok change the product paradigm over the last few years? 2. What Matters More Models or Data: What is more important the size of the model or the amount of data a company has? Will companies use many models at the same time? Why will companies using many models at once create a huge opportunity for startups? Will every company have their own model? What will be the decision-making framework of whether to have your own model or leverage another? How does the rise of AI change how companies approach data acquisition, collection and cleaning? 3. The Workforce Needs to Change with AI: How do product leaders and teams need to change in an AI-first world? What do designers need to do to stay up to date in an AI-first world? What does it mean to be good at prompting? How can people get good at prompting? Why will AI kill companies that charge by the hour? Why will seat pricing die in a world of AI? What will be the business model for AI? 4. Incumbents vs Startups: Who Wins: Do incumbents win in a world of AI or do startups? Why is AI primed for incumbents to win and move fast in a way they could not in prior technology cycles? What are the biggest hurdles and challenges incumbents have to face that startups do not? What are the biggest barriers that startups have to win in a world of AI that incumbents do not have?

Gustav Soderstrom

Chief Research & Development Officer

Spotify

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Tomer Cohen

Chief Product Officer

LinkedIn

Scott Belsky, CSO, and EVP at Adobe, does a deep dive on the profound transformations taking place in the creative world. As technology continues to reshape the landscape, Cloud and SaaS Founders, VCs, and Executives must adapt and evolve to stay ahead. Discover the playbook to thrive in this dynamic environment and unlock unprecedented opportunities. Belsky will share his deep insights into the rapidly changing creative industry, drawing from his vast experience at the forefront of innovation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave50 SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent When starting your business, it's important to use a service that will actually help you. Northwest Registered Agent is that service. They'll form your company fast, give you the documents you need to open a business bank account, and even provide you with mail scanning and a business address to keep your personal privacy intact. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Brought to you by Braintrust—For when you needed talent, yesterday | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments | Rows—The spreadsheet where data comes to life — Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and currently Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design and Emerging Products. He founded Behance, an online platform for creative professionals to showcase and discover work, and served as CEO until its acquisition by Adobe. Scott is an early advisor and investor in several businesses at the intersection of technology and design, including Pinterest, Uber, Warby Parker, Airtable, and Flexport. He is also the author of two nationally bestselling books and founded 99U, a publication and conference focused on productivity in the creative world. In today’s episode, we discuss: * How to strengthen your product sense * Why you should only do half the things you want * What it takes to build a successful consumer product * Why you are probably underinvesting in onboarding * The future of AI and how to prepare for it * Advice for founders and PMs who are feeling stuck * Why resourcefulness will take you further than resources * Adobe’s current priorities and their exciting path ahead — Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-on-building-product-sense — Where to find Scott Belsky: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottbelsky • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/ • Blog: https://www.implications.com/ • Website: www.scottbelsky.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Scott’s background (04:50) Why Scott shifted roles at Adobe (08:29) Advice for PMs looking to build product sense (10:43) The first mile (13:18) How to develop more empathy (16:33) How to build consumer products that work (20:42) Scott’s philosophy that you should “only do half the things you want to do” (26:15) Scott’s optimism about how the world will look in five years with AI (29:44) How AI will impact product teams (32:55) How the PM role will change as a result of AI (35:09) How Adobe is leveraging AI tools (36:59) What the term “golden gut” means (38:15) Advice for PMs to stay ahead of the new AI trends (41:02) How to start writing more (41:49) The messy middle (47:03) What Scott looks for as an angel investor  (50:16) Why resourcefulness will take you further than resources  (52:41) Adobe’s current priorities and the path ahead (54:58) Lightning round  — Referenced: • Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/ • Behance: https://www.behance.net/ • Casey Winters on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/thinking-beyond-frameworks-casey-winters-pinterest-eventbrite-airbnb-tinder-canva-reddit-grubhub/ • Crafting The First Mile Of Product: https://medium.com/positiveslope/crafting-the-first-mile-of-product-7ed25e8f1027 • Shishir Mehrotra on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-coda-youtube-microsoft/ • Scott’s tweet on only doing half the things you want to do: https://twitter.com/scottbelsky/status/1441469886975279109?s=20 • Matt Mochary on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-fire-people-with-grace-work-through-fear-and-nurture-innovation-matt-mochary-ceo-coach/ • Adobe Firefly: https://www.adobe.com/sensei/generative-ai/firefly • Howie Liu (CEO at Airtable): https://www.linkedin.com/in/howieliu/ • ChatGPT: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt • The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky: https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Middle-Finding-Through-Hardest/dp/0735218072 • Adobe Express: https://www.adobe.com/express • Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Unorthodox-Guide-Making-Things/dp/0063046067 • Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey on Netflix: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Cosmos-A-Spacetime-Odyssey/80004448 • Vinod Khosla’s prediction: https://futurism.com/80-of-it-jobs-can-be-replaced-by-automation-and-its-exciting • Queue: https://www.queue.co/ • Tome: https://tome.app/ • Kevin Kelly on The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/2014/08/29/kevin-kelly/ — 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. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Today on the flagship podcast of the difference between CMYK and RGB colors: 02:19 - David talks about the future of Photoshop with Adobe's Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky. 13:37 - Verge senior reporter James Vincent joins the show to discuss generative AI art and all its possibilities and complications. 43:05 - The Verge's Kristen Radtke and Jess Weatherbed chat with David about Pantone's new subscription service and what it means for artists and designers. Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we'd love to hear from you. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, master of product reviews, author, investor, and currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most game-changing products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest. Lenny Rachitsky is one of the OGs of product, having spent over 7 years at Airbnb as a product lead he left to start his newsletter, find it here. Kayvon Beykpour is one of the most prominent product leaders of the last decade. For the last 7 years, Kayvon has been at Twitter where he led all of the teams across Product, Engineering, Design, Research and Customer Service & Operations. Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ Robinhood, the company revolutionising consumer finance with commission-free investing. In Today's Episode Breaking Down Product Reviews We Discuss: 1.) What makes a truly great product review? 2.) What are the biggest mistakes that product leaders make when leading product reviews? 3.) Who should be invited to the product review? How does this change with scale? How does this change in a world of remote work and Zoom? 4.) Who should set the agenda for the product review? 5.) How can leaders assign accountability and ensure that the follow-ups from product reviews are executed on? 6.) How can leaders ensure that they do not dominate product reviews with the weight of their words? How can they give designers and devs the space to share their thoughts without being judged?

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Tony Fadell

Engineer, Designer, and Investor

Future ShapeNest

Lenny Rachitsky

Writer and Investor

Lenny's Newsletter

Kayvon Beykpour

Former Head of Product

TwitterMacroscope

(00:00) Introducing Josh Wolfe (02:41) Elon Musk Buys Twitter Because No One Told Him He Can Buy Other Stuff (39:58) Bolt, Katara, and the World’s Greatest Time to be a Law Firm (56:53) Introducing Scott Belsky (57:18)  Trying to Explain Twitter (67:55) Algorithms and Free Speech   Follow the show: https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars https://www.instagram.com/cartoonavatars/ https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars   Follow the hosts: https://twitter.com/loganbartlett https://twitter.com/wolfejosh https://twitter.com/scottbelsky   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   Musk buys Twitter: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/technology/twitter-employees-elon-musk.html Sam Lessin article: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/elon-musk-is-silicon-valleys-new-hero-for-better-or-worse Jack Dorsey’s tweet on Musk’s purchase: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1518772753460998145?s=20&t=njyqUGHJChL4oAQdEkkTCw Bolt Sued by Forever 21: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/forever-21-parent-authentic-brands-sues-bolt-startup Katera sues ex-CEO: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/bankrupt-startup-that-blew-2-billion-from-softbank-sues-ex-ceo-board-directors-over-self-dealing Softbank cuts spending: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/softbank-cuts-back-spending-leaving-startups-desperate-for-cash Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Josh Wolfe

Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Lux Capital

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott oversees all of product and engineering for Creative Cloud, as well as design for Adobe. In 2006, Scott founded Behance, the leading online platform for the creative industry, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Behance now has over 25M members. Scott is also an early advisor and investor in Pinterest, Uber, Sweetgreen, Carta, Flexport, Airtable, and several others. Finally, if that was not enough, Scott is the author of two national bestselling books - Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle. In Today's Episode with Scott Belsky You Will Learn: 1.) Narrow the Focus, Increase the Quality: What does Scott believe is the core challenge in product? What was the single biggest product challenge Scott faced at Behance? How did they overcome it? When should product teams listen to customer feedback vs ignore it? What are the core questions product teams should ask user groups to extract the most feedback and value? 2.) The Importance of the First Mile: What does Scott believe makes a great first mile when it comes to the product experience? Where do so many companies go wrong in creating the first mile user experience? Which company at scale has retained this simplicity of the first mile? How did they do it? What does Scott mean when he says, "the devil is in the defaults"? What can product teams learn from this? 3.) The Makings of a Great Product Leader: What are the 3 core questions every great product leader should ask on every screen? How do the best product leaders structure product reviews? Who is invited to product reviews? How often are they? Who sets the agenda? When is it sent? What do the best product leaders do to retain direction and productivity in reviews when there are many people and many ideas? How do they stay on track? 4.) The Hirings of a Great Product Team: How can founders know whether to hire the product leader or retain the role? When is the right time? What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring their first product hires? How should founders structure the hiring process for product hires? What should they look to gain from each interview? What are the must ask questions in those interviews? How do the best respond? What case studies or physical tests can be done to determine the quality of a candidate?

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Adobe is one of those companies that I don’t think we pay enough attention to — it’s been around since 1982, and the entire creative economy runs through its software. You don’t just edit a photo, you Photoshop it. We spend a lot of time on Decoder talking about the creator economy, but creators themselves spend all their time working in Adobe’s tools. On this episode, I’m talking to Scott Belsky, chief product officer at Adobe, about the new features coming to their products, many of which focus on collaboration, and about creativity broadly — who gets to be a creative, where they might work, and how they get paid. Transcript Links: NFTs Explained Adobe brings a simplified Photoshop to the web Adobe is adding a collaborative mood board to Creative Cloud Soon you can use Photoshop to prepare your art as an NFT The Dog Ramps Tweet The Furry Lisa, CryptoArt, & The New Economy Of Digital Creativity A $120,000 Banana Is Peeled From an Art Exhibition and Eaten Adobe and Twitter are designing a system for permanently attaching artists’ names to pictures "I still own you" clip Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams, and Andrew Marino and we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

My guest today is Scott Belsky. Scott was the co-founder and CEO of Behance, the world's largest creative network, and a prolific angel investor, having made early-stage investments in Pinterest, Uber, Carta, and Airtable. His company was acquired by Adobe in 2012, where he is currently the chief product officer. In this conversation, we cover the importance of focusing on the first mile of a customer's experience with your product, why every user is (at first) either lazy, vain or selfish, and what the rise of creativity tools means for creators and investors in the future. We also cover the major trends that Scott thinks will dominate for the next decade. This was one of those conversations where I was left with 10 great lessons that will stick with me for a long time. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott Belsky.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:24] - [First question] - Philosophy for building great products [00:04:52] - Starting the journey of building a great product  [00:06:08] - Making the first mile better [00:08:12] - Understanding user progress in product building  [00:10:25] - Getting to awareness and attention and interest in a product  [00:12:41] - The concept of window dressing [00:14:24] - Taking an idea and turning it into a high-value product  [00:14:42] - The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture and Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality [00:16:49] - Keeping rewards structure in place for teams to stay engaged [00:19:56] - Using his knowledge in product building to invest in other companies [00:24:00] - The concept of object model [00:25:52] - User psychology concepts they keep in mind when designing a product [00:27:51] - Implementing all of these strategies into a product [00:29:25] - The era of eduployment [00:31:05] - How this will impact colleges [00:33:27] - The evolution of the talent/audience relationship [00:35:32] - Decentralization and the companies of 1 [00:37:44] - How that decentralization will impact his investment thesis [00:39:21] - How increased productivity tools could help with more creativity in the workplace [00:42:04] - Training people to be more creative in the workplace [00:44:33] - Future of user interfaces [00:44:58] - The Interface Layer: Where Design Commoditizes Tech [00:48:10] - Good design principles [00:49:51] - The future coming out of Covid [00:52:09] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Success in the Enterprise means ensuring consumerization is a part of your strategy. Scott Belsky, CPO, EVP of Creative Cloud at Adobe will explore key tactics to focus on the user experience. This episode is an excerpt from a session at SaaStr Summit: Enterprise. Full video: https://youtu.be/FPMKXanghWM Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-scott-belsky-robin-choy-and-jason-lemkin/

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Chief Product Officer of Adobe Scott Belsky chats with Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and reporter Dami Lee about what he learned from putting Photoshop on the iPad, adapting products to new creators and platforms, Creative Cloud for the Mac Pro, and the goals of the Content Authenticity Initiative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

We've got a different flavor today for you. We sat down with Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) join us today and instead of hearing his backstory, we bounced around a bunch of topics. Scott has done it all. He's been a founder (Behance), angel investor (Uber, Pinterest), VC (Benchmark), Tech Executive (CPO of Adobe currently), and Author (The Messy Middle). So sit back, grab a salad (cause we're healthy in 2020) and enjoy this conversation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky is an executive, entrepreneur, author, and investor. He currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Before Adobe, Scott co-founded Behance in 2006 and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Alongside his role at Adobe, Scott is a Venture Partner at one of the world's leading venture firms, Benchmark. Scott also actively advises and invests in startups personally having one of the most incredible angel portfolios with early checks in Pinterest, Uber, Periscope, Warby Parker, Carta, Flexport and more. Scott is also the author of Harry's favourite book of 2018, The Messy Middle. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Scott made his way into the world of startups with Behance, how that translated to the world of angel investing and being Chief Product Officer @ Adobe? WHat does Scott mean when he discusses the correlation between utilisation and happiness? 2.) What does Scott mean when he says he looks for people whereby 'conversations improve by step function?" What are the best examples of this? How have they shown this? How does Scott think startups founders can manufacture motivation? How has Scott seen the best founders hire the very best team? How do the best founders determine between a stretch and a stretch too far? 3.) In terms of product, what does Scott mean when he refers to the "value of slow cooking"? How does that relate to product creation? Why does Scott often have issues with the MVP approach seen today? How does Scott think about the importance of product simplicity? How can one maintain that over time? Why does Scott believe more founders should spend more time crafting the last mile user experience than they do? 4.) Simplicity is great but VCs often suggest, non-defensible, how does Scott think about building defensibility with simplicity? Simplicity often also narrows market size, how does Scott think about and analyse market size today when investing? Where does Scott think many investors go wrong today when trying to measure market size? 5.) What does Scott mean when he says "resources are like carbs, resourcefulness is muscle"? Why does Scott believe we need to challenge our faith in the strength of resources? What advice does Scott given when founders ask, "when is the right time to raise big"? How has Scott's writing of the book influenced his mindset when engaging with founders today and investing? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Scott's Fave Book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic Scott's Most Recent Investment: Assembled Brands As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Scott on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky, a venture partner at Benchmark and the chief product officer at Adobe, talks with Recode's Teddy Schleifer about his book, "The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture." In this episode: (02:32) Why Belsky came to California and started Behance; (07:14) Bootstrapping, taking investment and selling the company; (10:44) Leaving Adobe to join Benchmark; (14:53) Returning to Adobe; (18:36) Belsky's new book; (21:20) The difference between starting a company and keeping it going; (26:05) Belsky's favorite lessons from the book; (30:37) How he became an early investor in Uber; (33:54) Pinterest and other investments; (38:56) What would Belsky change about the startup world? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky brings Photoshop to the iPad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Ben and David are joined by Adobe’s Chief Product Officer, Behance founder, Benchmark partner, author, and product luminary, Scott Belsky, to tell the story of Adobe Systems’ 2012 acquisition of Behance. We dive into the role it played in of one of the greatest (and least well-known) pivots of all time: Adobe’s transition from packaged software to services, which over the past 6 years has generated an astounding $100B+ in market cap and nearly 10x growth in Adobe’s share price! Sponsors: Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25 Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry WorkOS: https://acquired.fm/unpluggedPlaying Cards: https://bit.ly/workOSshop (Code: ACQDECK) Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Links: Scott’s great new book,  The Messy Middle, out today!

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) is an entrepreneur, author, investor, Chief Product Officer of Adobe, and venture partner with venture capital firm Benchmark. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006 and served as CEO until Adobe acquired the company in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries. Scott is an early investor and advisor in Pinterest, Uber, and Periscope among many other fast-growing startups, and his new book, The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture, hits the shelves October 2nd. I urge you to check it out, but until then, please enjoy this interview in the meantime! This podcast is brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients. FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more. Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month and see how the brand new Freshbooks can change your business, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “how did you hear about us” section. This episode is also brought to you by LegalZoom. I've used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast such as Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame. LegalZoom is a reliable resource that more than a million people have already trusted for everything from setting up wills, proper trademark searches, forming LLCs, setting up non-profits, or finding simple cease-and-desist letter templates. LegalZoom is not a law firm, but it does have a network of independent attorneys available in most states who can give you advice on the best way to get started, provide contract reviews, and otherwise help you run your business with complete transparency and up-front pricing. Check out LegalZoom.com and enter promo code TIM at checkout today for special savings and see how the fine folks there can make life easier for you and your business. *** If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews! For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast. Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

This episode sets a new record with five guests -- each considered among the best in their field. It features Adam Robinson (@IAmAdamRobinson), Debbie Millman (@debbiemillman), Neil Strauss (@neilstrauss), Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky), and Veronica Belmont (@Veronica). This roundtable discussion covers topics including best investments, favorite failures, and bad advice to avoid. I really enjoyed all of the answers from the guests as there's lots of actionable advice. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. While I often praise this company's lion's mane Mushroom Coffee for a minimal caffeine dose wakeup call that lasts, I asked the founders if they could help me -- someone who's struggled with insomnia for decades -- improve my sleep. Their answer: Reishi Mushroom Elixir. They made a special batch for me and my listeners that comes without sweetener; you can try it with a little honey or nut milk, or you can just add hot water to your single-serving packet and embrace its bitterness like I do. Try it right now by going to foursigmatic.com/ferriss and using the code Ferriss to receive 20 percent off this rare, limited run of Reishi Mushroom Elixir. If you are in the experimental mindset, I do not think you'll be disappointed. This podcast is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. As a listener of The Tim Ferriss Show, you’ll get 30 percent off your first order at AthleticGreens.com/Tim. *** For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast. Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the form at tim.blog/sponsor. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Veronica Belmont

Content Creator and Technologist

GRGrowbot

Scott Belsky is a Venture Partner @ Benchmark, one of the world's leading VC funds. As an early-stage investor himself he has made investments in the likes of Uber, Warby Parker, Pinterest and Flexport just to name a few. Prior to Benchmark, Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. After Behance's acquisition, Scott served as Adobe's Vice President of Products, rebooting Adobe's mobile product strategy and leading Behance until 2016. If that was not enough Scott is also, the co-founder and Chairman of a new marketplace product under development. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Scott made his move into VC with Benchmark having founded Behance and been a VP @ Adobe? 2.) How did Scott see his investment decision making process change when comparing being an angel to a VC? What was it about VC that made Scott realise that he would not be a traditional VC? 3.) Why does Scott believe that when momentum is growing too fast it is generally likely to fade out? At what point is the transition point between large momentum that is and is not sustainable? 4.) Why is Scott fascinated by 'the journey in between'? What gives Scott hope when reviewing a company in this stage? What does he always look for? 5.) Why does Scott think that autonomous vehicles in cities will be a public utility? Will the data sets produced be publicly or privately owned? Who will operate mass transit systems? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Scott's Fave Book: Tribe: On Homecoming & Belonging Scott's Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Information As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Scott on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. X.ai is AI-poweredered personal assistant for scheduling meetings bringing you Amy or Andrew. The assistant you interact with like you would to any other person and it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. Even better, there is no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is cc amy@x.ai beautiful! And you can check it out now on x.ai it really is a must! Workable is the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, Workable provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, organized candidate profiles, structured interviews and a full reporting suite gives hiring teams the information they need to make the best choice. Workable is available for desktop and mobile and you can find out more on workable.com where you can try it for free.

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky (@ScottBelsky) is the VP Products & Community at Adobe and cofounder of Behance. Scott is also a successful investor in major tech companies such as Periscope and Uber. Scott and I talk about the fundamental nature of creativity, why he created Behance, staying focused, the value of formal education, and what he wishes more people would ask him. Finally, at the end of the second part of the interview, Scott shares specific advice for developers who are wanting to work better with visionaries. Enjoy the interview! Links: Behance ActionMethod (discontinued) 99U Scott's book, Making Ideas Happen 99U Book Series This episode is sponsored by Intuit. Check out the developer sandbox and API explorer at http://intuit.me/DevTea to get started building apps for millions of small business today!

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance

Scott Belsky is the VP Products & Community at Adobe and cofounder of Behance. Scott is also a successful investor in major tech companies such as Periscope and Uber. Scott and I talk about the fundamental nature of creativity, why he created Behance, staying focused, the value of formal education, and what he wishes more people would ask him. Finally, at the end of the second part of the interview, Scott shares specific advice for developers who are wanting to work better with visionaries. Enjoy the interview! Links: Behance ActionMethod (discontinued) 99U Scott's book, Making Ideas Happen 99U Book Series

Scott Belsky

Chief Product Officer

AdobeBenchmarkBehance