Claire Hughes Johnson

Many of us feel like we’re drowning in invisible complexity. So I wanted to hit pause and ask a simple question: What are 1-3 decisions that could dramatically simplify my life in 2026? To explore that, I invited four long-time listener favorites—Anne Lamott, Claire Hughes Johnson, David Yarrow, and Diana Chapman. This episode is brought to you by: Incogni, which automatically removes your personal data from the web, helping shield you from fraud, scams, and identity theft: https://incogni.com/tim (use code TIM at checkout and get 60% off an annual plan) Helix Sleep premium mattresses: HelixSleep.com/Tim: https://helixsleep.com/tim for 27% off sitewide *** Connect with David Yarrow: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook David's previous appearance on this show: David Yarrow on Art, Markets, Business, and Combining It All | The Tim Ferriss Show #443 Connect with Claire Hughes Johnson: LinkedIn | Twitter Claire's book: Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building Claire's previous appearance on this show: Claire Hughes Johnson — How to Take Responsibility for Your Life, Create Rules That Work, Stop Being a Victim, Set Strong Boundaries, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #724 Connect with Diana Chapman: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram Diana's book: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success, co-authored with Jim Dethmer and Kaley Klemp Diana's previous appearance on this show: Diana Chapman — How to Get Unstuck, Do "The Work," Take Radical Responsibility, and Reduce Drama in Your Life | The Tim Ferriss Show #536 Connect with Anne Lamott: Substack | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Anne's new book: Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences, co-authored with Neal Allen Anne's previous appearance on this show: Anne Lamott on Taming Your Inner Critic, Finding Grace, and Prayer | The Tim Ferriss Show #522 * Timestamps: [00:00:00] Start. [00:02:20] David Yarrow: British photographer in America and an unconventional divorcé. [00:02:32] The anti-remarriage thesis: why staying single was the boldest simplification of all. [00:03:19] The unlikely happy ending: ex-spouses who became best friends. [00:04:58] The friend audit. [00:06:07] Energy as a luxury brand. [00:06:34] No agent, no problem: the art of the direct “no.” [00:07:39] Claire Hughes Johnson: COO, author, and self-described bad simplifier. [00:07:59] The switch from default yes to default no. [00:08:39] Root cause analysis on the “yes” problem: earning love through usefulness. [00:09:21] Arthur Brooks’ flip: think people, not tasks. [00:10:35] Mission clarity: knowing exactly why you said yes before you walk in the door. [00:11:16] The “retention exercise”: how Claire negotiated sleep and workouts into her job description. [00:16:45] Diana Chapman: Conscious Leadership disruptor, professional fear-finder. [00:17:07] The “whole body yes”: simplicity lives where your inner and outer worlds agree. [00:17:41] Decision #1: Evicting “should” from the vocabulary entirely. [00:19:15] Decision #2: The relationship contract — same rules, dramatically less drama. [00:20:37] The No-Blame Zone: signs on the wall, accountability in the air. [00:24:02] Curiosity over righteousness, feelings over suppression, play over seriousness. [00:26:29] How play unlocked a hard conversation. [00:27:56] Decision #3: Holding two truths — your work matters and the world will survive without you. [00:30:32] Anne Lamott: 21 books, one husband, and a very heavy 60th birthday. [00:31:00] Ditching the six-plate act: reclaiming the inner goofball. [00:32:18] “The point is not to try harder, but to resist less.” [00:33:18] The belly breath: watching your hand rise as an act of radical simplicity. [00:33:41] Ram Dass’ heart-nostrils: expanding the spiritual core. [00:33:59] The third third: borrowed time, intentional days, and tossing boxes out of the plane. For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast. For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #332 "Coach George Raveling — A Legend on Sports, Business, and The Great Game of Life" and #724 "Claire Hughes Johnson — How to Take Responsibility for Your Life, Create Rules That Work, Stop Being a Victim, Set Strong Boundaries, and More." Please enjoy! Sponsors: Wealthfront high-yield cash account: https://Wealthfront.com/Tim (Start earning 5.00% APY on your short-term cash until you’re ready to invest. And when you open an account today, you can get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more.) Terms apply. AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.) Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: https://shopify.com/tim (one-dollar-per-month trial period) Timestamps: [00:00] Start [05:14] Notes about this supercombo format. [06:17] Enter George Raveling. [06:48] The most important conversation is the one you have with yourself. [09:03] The only two choices George has when he gets out of bed in the morning [11:13] A personal audit once per week. [11:40] Retirement at 80? [12:10] George's controversial collection. [14:50] George's less controversial collections. [15:44] Relationships as a privilege. [17:28] Most of George’s best friendships started by mistake. [18:20] The importance of maintaining friendships with younger people. [19:22] Relationships as a patnership. [19:52] A voracious reading habit. [23:28] How George selects his next book. [25:17] How George continues to grow in his 80s. [29:09] Recommended reading. [30:42] Kindness as an opportunity. [33:32] The 1984 Olympics. [37:32] Enter Claire Hughes Johnson. [37:54] Say the thing you think you cannot say. [43:26] Detoxifying your left-hand column. [51:11] Victim versus player. [58:43] Recommended reading. [1:05:32] The case for reading fiction. [1:12:57] Crafting a working-with-me document. [1:20:47] Make the implicit explicit. [1:26:07] An Irish Goodbye. [1:27:13] Email policies. [1:32:37] Renegotiating the terms of expectations. [1:34:41] Listening for the quiet no. [1:37:06] Money versus time. [1:38:53] Good rules can be liberating. [1:41:39] Leadership and disappointment. [1:46:38] Renegotiating past disappointment. [2:05:45] Asking a question versus stating an opinion. [2:09:37] Training wheels for a "no." [2:11:06] Time, talent, treasure, and testimony. [2:15:16] Spotting bad apples while hiring. [2:17:16] If you're not self-aware, how would you know? [2:20:01] Work style assessments for self-awareness building. [2:27:17] Paragons of no. [2:29:30] No more boards. [2:33:37] Pushers and pullers. [2:40:32] Parting thoughts. * For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast. For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/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, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, 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.

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Claire Hughes Johnson, the former COO of Stripe and author of “Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building,” joins Scott to discuss team management, the role of DEI, and how to identify top talent. Claire is an all-star operator — follow her on X, @chughesjohnson.  Scott opens by telling us about his new book, The Algebra of Wealth, which is out now!  Algebra of Happiness: what do you want to tell your friends and family? Follow our podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Claire Hughes Johnson currently serves as a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the Internet. Claire previously served as Stripe’s chief operating officer from 2014 to 2021, helping grow the company from fewer than 200 employees to more than 6,000. Her book is Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building. Please enjoy! Timestamps for this episode are available below. Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2024/02/27/claire-hughes-johnson/ Sponsors: AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.) LinkedIn Ads marketing platform with 1B+ users: https://linkedin.com/TFS (free $100 LinkedIn ad credit for your first campaign) Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off) Timestamps: [00:00] Start [07:51] Say the thing you think you cannot say. [13:24] Detoxifying your left-hand column. [19:59] Victim versus player. [29:49] Recommended reading. [36:53] The case for reading fiction. [44:18] Crafting a working-with-me document. [52:07] Make the implicit explicit. [57:29] An Irish Goodbye. [58:34] Email policies. [1:03:58] Renegotiating the terms of expectations. [01:06:05] Listening for the quiet no. [01:08:27] Money versus time. [01:10:14] Good rules can be liberating. [01:12:59] Leadership and disappointment. [01:17:59] Renegotiating past disappointment. [01:37:05] Asking a question versus stating an opinion. [01:40:58] Training wheels for a “no.” [01:42:26] Time, talent, treasure, and testimony. [01:46:37] Spotting bad apples while hiring. [01:48:37] If you’re not self-aware, how would you know? [01:51:08] Work style assessments for self-awareness building. [01:58:38] Paragons of no. [02:00:51] No more boards. [02:04:58] Pushers and pullers. [02:11:50] Parting thoughts. * For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast. For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/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, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, 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.

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Claire Hughes Johnson is known as one of the top operators in Silicon Valley. Claire shares the most interesting lessons and stories from her time as COO of Stripe and as an early senior executive at Google. We discuss leadership versus management, how to have difficult conversations with members of your team, lessons she's learned from hiring thousands of people over the years, and much more. Show notes: Claire’s Book, Scaling People: https://press.stripe.com/scaling-people Running an Effective Staff Meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiaFW874q8 (0:00) Intro (0:42) Joining Google vs Stripe (14:17) Holding yourself to a high standard (21:03) Making the hire (24:32) Player vs Victim (28:52) Balance of discussing accomplishments (30:51) Org structure in job interviews (34:07) The most successful hires drove me crazy (37:12) Running a team with inclusivity (41:01) Operating principles (48:06) Say the thing you think you cannot say (53:31) Distinguish between management and leadership (58:32) The golden rule is not a great tactic for a leader or manager (1:03:01) Job titles are cheap (1:11:36) Too many companies make their principles so idealistic that they don't resonate with employees (1:18:57) Don't let perfect be the enemy of good (1:23:38) Disappointing people at the rate they can absorb (1:30:07) Manage people out of seats earlier (1:37:03) Being on the board of a company built to last (1:42:38) What makes the Collison's so special? (1:45:08) You pack it, you carry it   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 🐦 Twitter - 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, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes. 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.

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Kara and Scott talk about the coronation, CNN's Trump town hall, and Elizabeth Holmes. Also, Twitter is bleeding blue checks, and Tucker Carlson reportedly spoke to Elon Musk about his next moves. Then, which party will come out ahead in the debt ceiling negotiations?  And, Friend of Pivot Claire Hughes Johnson to talk about what managers get wrong. You can find Claire on Twitter at @chughesjohnson, and can buy “Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building” here. Send us your questions! Call 855-51-PIVOT or go to nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Guest: Claire Hughes Johnson, author of Scaling People and Corporate Officer at Stripe Former Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson’s new book, Scaling People, is not your typical business book: Informed by her experience scaling one of the most valuable private companies in the world, it’s a tactical reference manual, “almost like a textbook,” aimed at helping managers wrestling with a variety of problems. And one of the big uniting themes is that, to solve anything, they’re going to have to look inwards. “Leadership does not start with the other people in the room,” she says. “It starts with you ... if you don’t know yourself, you are not gonna be very successful, because you have to understand your work style preferences, your habits, your blind spots.” In this episode, Claire and Joubin discuss in-demand books, Google pre-IPO, headcount as a proxy for success, paranoid mentality, self-driving cars, honoring commitments, the illusion of time, customer insights, “act like a founder,” asking for feedback, prioritizing and saying no, “steady Eddies,” imposter syndrome, fruit on the counter, layering titles, and making time for family. In this episode, we cover: Who should read Claire’s new book, Scaling People, and how she expects them to read it (00:57) The challenges of building Stripe in its early days: “It was just consumed by it” (04:51) Why she left Google to become Stripe’s COO, and what she did for them as the business was starting to take off (12:34) How Stripe hired the best people — including Claire — and how they could have done it even better (17:25) Leadership starts with self-awareness (26:05) Honest criticism that rocks your world, and taking feedback well (29:43) The “unauthorized guide” to working with Claire (36:18) Getting hired at Google by Sheryl Sandberg, and why Claire didn’t follow her to Facebook (40:26) “Pushers and pullers,” a framework for working with top talent (46:43) What entrepreneurs can learn from Condoleezza Rice about impact, passion, and ability (58:33) Putting your (imperfect) expertise out into the world (01:02:03) Implementing Stripe’s first performance feedback process, and why it still doesn’t “do” titles (01:07:06) Having a life outside of work, and the “clarifying moment” of a surprise birthday party (01:15:26) Links: Buy Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building Connect with ClaireTwitter LinkedIn Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. | Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision. — Claire Hughes Johnson is the former COO at Stripe, which she helped scale from a small startup to the legendary company it is today. She also spent close to 10 years at Google, where she filled several executive roles, including VP of Global Online Sales and Director of Sales and Ops for Gmail, YouTube, Google Apps, and AdWords. Claire shares invaluable insights from her upcoming book, Scaling People, on how to successfully build and scale organizations. We talk about the importance of building self-awareness, and Claire gives tons of tactical advice on how to say things that are hard to say, as well as how to improve your internal communications, and so much more. Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-stripe-tactics Where to find Claire Hughes Johnson: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/chughesjohnson • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-johnson-7058/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212 • John Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbcollison/ • Patrick Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Discord: https://discord.com/ • Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/ • High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People: https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100 • Myers-Briggs personality types: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/ • Enneagram types: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions • Disc assessment: https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc • Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Business-Build-through-Values/dp/1622032020/ • Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/ • Eeke de Milliano on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-foster-innovation-and-big-thinking-eeke-de-milliano-retool-stripe/ • Running an effective meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiaFW874q8 • Gokul’s S.P.A.D.E. framework: https://coda.io/@gokulrajaram/gokuls-spade-toolkit In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Claire’s background (04:47) How writing Scaling People helped Claire crystallize learnings (07:58) How she got started writing her book (11:11) Advice that changed the way she operates (15:18) The lack of job titles at Stripe (19:01) Scaling your organizational structure (23:46) What founders need to think about in the early days (26:38) Personal operating principles (29:04) How to crystallize your own values to gain self-awareness (34:29) Advice for saying uncomfortable things (37:12) Being an explorer, not a lecturer (43:57) Come back to the operating system (47:17) Organizational structure using Claire’s house metaphor (50:50) Why some chaos is normal (52:45) Founding documents you need (58:30) The components of a company’s operating system  (1:01:31) Finding the right cadence (1:04:48) COOs and which types of businesses need them (1:11:30) Advice on scaling quickly (1:13:56) The importance of internal communications (1:16:03) Running effective meetings (1:17:17) Advice for aligning and making decisions as a manager Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. 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

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Formerly a senior leader at Google, Claire Hughes Johnson is now Chief Operating Officer at Stripe, where she's helped guide the online payments firm through rapid growth. Stripe today has more than 1,400 employees and processes billions of dollars for millions of users worldwide. Scaling the company's employee base, sales teams, marketing, and operations—all while preserving its culture—has required a laser focus on first principles, smart processes, and effective hiring. Missed the session? Here's what Claire talks about: How to avoid trapdoor decisions when scaling Lessons for scaling high-growth organizations If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin SaaStr

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Claire Hughes Johnson, COO @ Stripe the new standard in online payments that handles billions of dollars of business every year for forward thinking businesses around the world. To date, Stripe has raised over $680m in funding from some of the very best in the business including Sequoia, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Thrive, CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins and Tiger Global. As for Claire, prior to Stripe she spent over 10 years at Google in a range of different roles from VP of Google's self-driving car division to VP of Global Online Sales to VP of Google Offers. At Stripe, Claire has helped take Stripe global in February 2016 with the launch of Atlas, a toolkit that enables any business, anywhere in the world, to incorporate in the United States. If that was not enough, Claire is also a Board Member @ Hallmark Cards. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Claire made her way into the world of SaaS with Stripe following her leading of Google's self-driving car division? What does Claire mean when she discusses "founding documents"? What is the right way to go about creating them? What element do they need to contain? How can one optimise internal decision-making process with these documents? What question must one always try and ask when making big decisions? How does Claire define a truly special COO? What does that truly great look like? When is the right time for founders to hire that COO? Where do the majority of people go wrong in their assessment of when and what they need in a COO? What is the optimal relationship one can have between CEO and COO? How does Claire think about what Stripe have done right to hire so effectively at scale? What does it take in terms of benchmarks and standards to do so? What does Claire mean when she says you have to step function up your capabilities with scale? What are the core challenges in hiring at scale? Claire's 60 Second SaaStr: What would Claire say are her biggest strengths and weaknesses? What does Claire know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning? A moment in Claire's life that has served as an inflection point and changed the way she thinks? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Claire Hughes Johnson

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe

Claire Hughes Johnson is the COO @ Stripe, the new standard in online payments that handles billions of dollars of business every year for forward-thinking businesses around the world. To date, Stripe has raised over $680m in funding from some of the very best in the business including Sequoia, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Thrive, CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins and Tiger Global. As for Claire, prior to Stripe she spent over 10 years at Google in a range of different roles from VP of Google's self-driving car division to VP of Global Online Sales to VP of Google Offers. At Stripe, Claire has helped take Stripe global in February 2016 with the launch of Atlas, a toolkit that enables any business, anywhere in the world, to incorporate in the United States. If that was not enough, Claire is also a Board Member @ Hallmark Cards. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Claire made her way into the world of SaaS with Stripe following her leading of Google's self-driving car division? What does Claire mean when she discusses "founding documents"? What is the right way to go about creating them? What element do they need to contain? How can one optimise internal decision-making process with these documents? What question must one always try and ask when making big decisions? How does Claire define a truly special COO? What does that truly great look like? When is the right time for founders to hire that COO? Where do the majority of people go wrong in their assessment of when and what they need in a COO? What is the optimal relationship one can have between CEO and COO? How does Claire think about what Stripe have done right to hire so effectively at scale? What does it take in terms of benchmarks and standards to do so? What does Claire mean when she says you have to step function up your capabilities with scale? What are the core challenges in hiring at scale? Claire's 60 Second SaaStr: What would Claire say are her biggest strengths and weaknesses? What does Claire know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning? A moment in Claire's life that has served as an inflection point and changed the way she thinks? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Claire Hughes Johnson

Claire Hughes Johnson

Former COO

Stripe