I agree that her post is certainly better than Sridhar's post. This might be credit to her Information editors, but I'm also inclined to think that she's very savvy. She's on the board of Shopify and OpenAI after all -- Tobi seems sensitive to this quality and very "founder mode" himself.
That said, without knowing the backstory, her post did not feel like it was trying to get a substantive point across. It seemed to just say that "leaders should be in the details" (Shreyas would call this a "motherhood and apple pie position [0] .") It felt like a proactive PR move before Apoorva could post his own founder mode schpiel. It felt defensive, in the sense that she is the CEO of a YC-backed marketplace that is the ~same era and employee base as Airbnb, except she is *not* the founder. I imagine she has a lot of work to do PR-wise to convince people that Instacart is just as hungry and innovative as it was under its founders, if not more so.
I think these people (Sridhar included) are probably high quality executives that have many, many plus points -- but this whole PR moment, from executives, VCs, and founders alike, just felt so devoid of substance and rife with posturing. I just learned nothing reading her post. My thought was, "the best "learning" in this post is how to manage one's PR as a non-founder CEO of a tech company."
0. " Apple pie position: statement that instantly elevates the person who is saying it and is simultaneously hard for anyone else to push back on, and so everyone avoids the personal risk and just nods “yes”, even though its actual value in this specific situation might be relatively low, zero, or even negative." https://x.com/shreyas/status/1628567045800591361
Sridhar’s post does feel cringy but Fidji’s read well IMO
I agree that her post is certainly better than Sridhar's post. This might be credit to her Information editors, but I'm also inclined to think that she's very savvy. She's on the board of Shopify and OpenAI after all -- Tobi seems sensitive to this quality and very "founder mode" himself.
That said, without knowing the backstory, her post did not feel like it was trying to get a substantive point across. It seemed to just say that "leaders should be in the details" (Shreyas would call this a "motherhood and apple pie position [0] .") It felt like a proactive PR move before Apoorva could post his own founder mode schpiel. It felt defensive, in the sense that she is the CEO of a YC-backed marketplace that is the ~same era and employee base as Airbnb, except she is *not* the founder. I imagine she has a lot of work to do PR-wise to convince people that Instacart is just as hungry and innovative as it was under its founders, if not more so.
I think these people (Sridhar included) are probably high quality executives that have many, many plus points -- but this whole PR moment, from executives, VCs, and founders alike, just felt so devoid of substance and rife with posturing. I just learned nothing reading her post. My thought was, "the best "learning" in this post is how to manage one's PR as a non-founder CEO of a tech company."
0. " Apple pie position: statement that instantly elevates the person who is saying it and is simultaneously hard for anyone else to push back on, and so everyone avoids the personal risk and just nods “yes”, even though its actual value in this specific situation might be relatively low, zero, or even negative." https://x.com/shreyas/status/1628567045800591361