#159 CEO 1Password, Jeff Shiner: Chief Eliminator of Obstacles
Guest: Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password Far from the Silicon Valley bubble, in Waterloo, Ontario, they try to do things a bit differently, says 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner. “Our mantra has been, build a good product, support the heck out of your customers,” he says. Some businesses and VCs in the Valley, he argues, don’t draw enough of a distinction between customers and users, spending all their time chasing the latter. For many years, the whole team at 1Password — including the co-founders — would try to empty out the customer support queue every day. If the company hadn’t waited 14 years to raise outside funding, Jeff says, it would have been a lot harder to listen to them and build the best product. In this episode, Jeff and Joubin discuss PowerPoint slides, LEGO sorting, early computers, artificial general intelligence, e-commerce, users vs. customers, loss of control, outsourcing, managers and team leads, OKRs, password schemes, Polish food, Ryan Reynolds, and live TV hits. In this episode, we cover: Abnormal sleeping patterns (02:39) “Playing farmer” (05:00) Running and competition (07:05) Fear of failure & the speed of technology (10:14) Jeff’s pre-1Password jobs (14:46) The Silicon Valley bubble (17:05) Raising $920 million (19:47) Hiring after the signals (23:44) Chief Eliminator of Obstacles (30:52) “We need to do less” (33:32) Could 1Password have grown differently? (38:22) 1Password vs. the competition (41:43) Customer Support Monday (43:57) Hiring by doubling (46:23) Thinking about exits (49:16) Imposter syndrome (54:29) “Do I have any real skills left?” (57:04) Speed and confidence (59:26) Who 1Password is hiring and what “grit” means to Jeff (01:03:02) Links: Connect with JeffLinkedIn Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm