Guest: Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy

When Josh Silverman joined the board of Etsy, he had one condition: “Don’t ask me to the be the CEO.” And technically, they didn’t ask. One day, he got a phone call informing him the board had elected him as the new CEO, just days before an earnings miss. He knew the odds were against him — layoffs would be necessary, and “I was going to have to be the villain” — but decided to say yes out of a sense of duty to Etsy’s users and workers. “If I can be helpful, I have a responsibility to do it,” Josh says.

Chapters:

• (00:55 ) - Energy management
  


• (02:42 ) - Meetings
  


• (09:56 ) - Etsy’s strategy
  


• (13:36 ) - Learning to delegate
  


• (17:10 ) - Setting an example
  


• (24:17 ) - Evite’s rise and fall
  


• (27:46 ) - Self vs. company
  


• (30:22 ) - Legacy
  


• (34:21 ) - Control and agency
  


• (37:44 ) - Joining Etsy’s board
  


• (40:40 ) - Becoming CEO
  


• (46:16 ) - Culture shock
  


• (48:09 ) - “We need you, trust us”
  


• (51:25 ) - eBay and Skype
  


• (57:15 ) - Pushed out
  


• (01:00:40 ) - Accountability and family
  


• (01:03:53 ) - Time horizons
  


• (01:05:55 ) - Gen AI-supported art
  


• (01:08:29 ) - Who Etsy is hiring and what “grit” means to Josh

Mentioned in this episode: Ken Chenault and American Express, Nick Daniel, Rachana Kumar, Ticketmaster and IAC, Etsy Studios, Silverlake, Shopping.com, Google, Microsoft, and Austin City Limits. 

Links:

Connect with Josh

• LinkedIn

Connect with Joubin

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm