Vision gets the headlines. Execution runs the company.
Conversations with the operators behind the companies you know, with veteran COO host Michael Koenig.
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Joe Yaffe, COO at Cowboy Space, on Whether Data Centers in Space Are Cheaper
Part 2 of 2. Joe Yaffe explains the only test Cowboy Space holds itself to, which is cost per GPU hour measured against a data center on the ground. He also walks the regulatory maze, and names the thing at the top of his list, which is not rockets.
All Episodes
67 episodes
Cyrus Mistry, GoGuardian COO on Google to Startup Jump
Cyrus Mistry, GoGuardian COO, on jumping from 14 years at Google to startup COO right as the company raised $200M from Tiger Global Management.
May 2, 2022
Art Harding, People.ai COO on Operating Leadership
Art Harding, People.ai COO, on supporting Ukrainian team members and driving efficiency, effectiveness, and transformation through the E2T mandate.
Apr 11, 2022
Angela Tucci, Uplight COO on $1.5B Valuation and B Corps
Angela Tucci, Uplight COO, on building a $1.5B company through six M&A deals, helping utilities cut emissions, and weighing PE versus VC funding.
Mar 17, 2022
Ken Weary, Hotjar COO on Remote-First Culture, M-and-A
Ken Weary, Hotjar COO, on running a fully remote 220-person company, seven years as a digital nomad COO, and going through M&A diligence on the buyer.
Mar 9, 2022
Steve Taylor on the Lyft Pink Mustaches and a $20B IPO
Steve Taylor, HipTrain COO and former Lyft exec, on Lyft's path to a $20B IPO, managing NYC and DC with a $500M P&L, and building an at-home fitness app.
Mar 3, 2022
Joe Meyer, ExecThread CEO on Landing Hidden Exec Roles
Joe Meyer, ExecThread CEO, on the hidden retained-search market, exiting HopStop to Apple and Quigo to AOL, and how to land your next executive role.
Feb 23, 2022
Nathaniel Manning, Kettle COO on Climate Risk Insurance
Nathaniel Manning, Kettle COO and former White House innovator, on balancing risk in a changing climate and structure without bureaucracy in insurance.
Feb 15, 2022
Dave Weiss, Hatch COO on Shark Tank and 2M IoT Devices
Dave Weiss, Hatch co-founder and COO, on selling 2M IoT devices, co-founding with his wife, and going from Shark Tank to VC fundraising in hardware.
Feb 8, 2022
Valerie Hoecke, DiaCo COO on Growth to Survival Mode
Valerie Hoecke, Dia&Co COO and former LVMH Chief Digital Officer, on how a $50B company preps you for anything and serving plus-size women at scale.
Feb 1, 2022
Catherine Stewart on Scaling Ops at Shippo and Automattic
Catherine Stewart, former Shippo COO and former Automattic CBO, on the craft of scaling operations and pivoting Automattic into e-commerce revenue.
Jan 19, 2022
Doug Hanna, Grafana Labs COO on GTM at $3B Scale (Pt 2)
Doug Hanna, Grafana Labs COO, on scaling the GTM machine of a $3B company. Sales orchestration, channel strategy, and pricing at scale. Part 2 of 2.
Jan 11, 2022
Doug Hanna, Grafana Labs COO on Open Source at $3B (Pt 1)
Doug Hanna, Grafana Labs COO, on building a $3B open-source company, scaling culture from 70 to 500 people, and engineering-led growth. Part 1 of 2.
Jan 4, 2022
Micah Rosenbloom on COO to VC at Founder Collective
Micah Rosenbloom, Founder Collective MD and former Brontes Technologies COO, on selling Brontes to 3M and backing Uber, ThredUp, Hotel Tonight, and Venmo.
Dec 20, 2021
Marie Prokopets, Nira COO on Pivoting Search to Security
Marie Prokopets, Nira co-founder and COO, on pivoting from search to security, context switching as an operator, and the $26B of M&A she ran at Diageo.
Dec 14, 2021
Justin Reilly, Tucows CPO on Product Design and Operations
Justin Reilly, Tucows Chief Product Officer, on how product design shapes operations, AI's fit in the stack, and Ting's customer care playbook.
Dec 6, 2021
Jim Stewart, True Ventures COO on Taking 4 Companies Public
Jim Stewart, True Ventures COO, on taking four companies public, the operations behind a VC firm, and the cost of accidentally violating export controls.
Nov 29, 2021
Allie Fleder, SimplyWise COO on Early-Stage COO Roles
Allie Fleder, SimplyWise co-founder and COO, on how the COO role changes across company life stages and maintaining clarity in the early days of a startup.
Nov 21, 2021
Rich Wallach, Deepak Chopra Global COO on Uncertainty
Rich Wallach, Chopra Global COO and CFO and former Credit Suisse Chief Operating Officer, on managing through uncertainty and remote operations at scale.
Nov 21, 2021
Introducing Between Two COOs
Between Two COOs is a podcast where current and former COOs share advice and the never-thought-I'd-see-that stories from inside high-growth companies.
Nov 18, 2021
About the show
Between Two COOs is a podcast about how companies actually run. Not the strategy deck version, the operating version. Every episode is one long conversation with someone who has held the job: chief operating officers, presidents, and chiefs of staff at companies from seed stage through IPO.
The questions are the ones operators ask each other privately. How do you scale a team past the point where you know everyone's name. What do you do when the strategy is right and the execution is not. When do you hire ahead of the revenue, and how do you know if you got it wrong. How do you tell a founder something they do not want to hear, and keep the relationship.
There is no news segment, no panel, and no pitch. One guest, 45 to 90 minutes, and specific answers instead of frameworks. Most guests have made the expensive mistake they are describing, which is what makes the answers worth having.
New episodes land most weeks. Browse every guest who has been on the show, or read the written versions in The Operator's Library if you would rather read than listen. Hosted by Michael Koenig, a veteran COO.
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