Masters of Scale
Masters of Scale is a business and finance podcast hosted by Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn. The show is created and owned by WaitWhat.[1] In each episode, Hoffman introduces a theory on how successful businesses scale, and tests its validity by interviewing founders about their path to scale. Guests have included Facebook founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Starbucks founder and former CEO Howard Schultz, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings, FCA and Exor Chairman John Elkann and others. Episodes also feature brief "cameo" appearances from other founders and experts in different industries who build on Hoffman's theories.[2][3]
| Masters of Scale | |
|---|---|
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | Reid Hoffman |
| Genre | Business |
| Language | English |
| Updates | Bi-weekly |
| Production | |
| Production |
|
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 56 |
| Publication | |
| Original release | May 3, 2017 – present |
| Provider | WaitWhat |
| Website | mastersofscale |
Masters of Scale was the first American media program to commit to a 50/50 gender balance for guests.[4][5] Hoffman told Quartz: "Silicon Valley prides itself on being a meritocracy, but the data shows it's not. [Masters of Scale] launched with and maintained our commitment to a 50/50 gender balance of guests on each season. It's important to not just talk about this topic, but to take action ... set an example."[4]
History
Executive producers Deron Triff and June Cohen approached Hoffman with the idea for the podcast, pitching it as a way of "sharing his ideas on scale in a way that could, well, scale."[2] The first episode of Masters of Scale, featuring Airbnb CEO and cofounder Brian Chesky, aired on May 3, 2017.[1] In March 2018, the show completed its second season. In July 2018, the show launched its third season.[6] In April 2020, a spinoff series Masters of Scale: Rapid Response was launched to cover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business community.[7]
Credits
According to the show credits, the show's executive producers are June Cohen and Deron Triff. The supervising producer is Jai Punjabi. The producers are Chris McLeod, Adam Skuse, Dan Kedmey, Jordan McLeod and Ben Manila. The show is produced with support from Jennie Cataldo. Original music and sound design are by Ryan Holladay.[8]
Episodes
| Episode | Title | Notes | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Handcrafted" with Brian Chesky of Airbnb | May 3, 2017 | |
| 2 | "The Money Episode" with Mariam Naficy of Minted | May 10, 2017 | |
| 3 | "The Beauty of a Bad Idea" with Tristan Walker of Walker & Co. | May 17, 2017 | |
| 4 | "Imperfect is Perfect" with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook | May 24, 2017 | |
| 5 | "Lead, Lead Again" with Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook | May 31, 2017 | |
| 6 | "Innovation=Managed Chaos" with Eric Schmidt of Google | June 7, 2017 | |
| 7 | "Your Plan B Needs A Plan B" with Nancy Lublin of Crisis Text Line | June 14, 2017 | |
| 8 | "Culture Shock" with Reed Hastings of Netflix | June 28, 2017 | |
| 9 | "The Next Silicon Valley Is..." with Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor | July 12, 2017 | |
| 10 | "Let Fires Burn" with Selina Tobaccowala of Gixo | July 19, 2017 |
| Episode | Title | Notes | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Escape the Competition" with Peter Thiel of PayPal | November 8, 2017 | |
| 2 | "Look Sideways" with Diane Greene of VMware | November 10, 2017 | |
| 3 | "The Big Pivot" with Stewart Butterfield of Slack | November 15, 2017 | |
| 4 | "Infinite Learner" with Barry Diller of IAC | December 6, 2017 | |
| 5 | "Learn to Unlearn" with Barry Diller of IAC | December 13, 2017 | |
| 6 | "Model Behavior" with Caterina Fake of Flickr, Yes Ventures | January 24, 2018 | |
| 7 | "Why Customer Love is All You Need" with Sam Altman of Y Combinator | January 31, 2018 | |
| 8 | "How to Build Your Company to Last" with John Elkann of Fiat | February 7, 2018 | |
| 9 | "How to Price Your Product to Scale" with Payal Kadakia of ClassPass | February 14, 2018 | |
| 10 | "Never Underestimate Your First Idea" with Ev Williams of Medium / Twitter | February 21, 2018 | |
| 11 | "How to Do Good—And Do Good Business" with Howard Schultz of Starbucks | March 7, 2018 | |
| 12 | "How to Find Your Big Idea" with Sara Blakely of Spanx | March 21, 2018 |
| Episode | Title | Notes | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Keep Humans in the Equation" with Stacy Brown-Philpot of TaskRabbit | July 10, 2018 | |
| 2 | "How to Kill Your Bad Ideas" with Mark Pincus of Zynga | July 24, 2018 | |
| 3 | "How to Make the Star Employees You Need" with Marissa Mayer of Yahoo / Google / Lumi Labs | August 7, 2018 | |
| 4 | "How to Scale Big While Keeping it Simple" with Kevin Systrom of Instagram | September 5, 2018 | |
| 5 | "How to Build Trust Fast" with Daniel Ek of Spotify | September 19, 2018 | |
| 6 | "What Great Founders Do At Night" with Arianna Huffington of Thrive Global | October 3, 2018 | |
| 7 | "When to Ignore Conventional Wisdom" with Danny Meyer of Shake Shack | October 22, 2018 | |
| 8 | "The Elusive Formula for Great Hiring" with Aneel Bhusri of Workday | November 5, 2018 | |
| 9 | "The Millennial Episode" with Brit Morin of Brit + Co | November 14, 2018 | |
| 10 | "Master the Skill of Storytelling" with Scott Harrison of Charity: Water | December 17, 2018 | |
| 11 | "Let Your Customers Be Your Scouts" with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite. | January 8, 2019 | |
| 12 | "Make Everyone Your Hero" with Reid Hoffman | January 22, 2019 |
Format
Each episode of Masters of Scale is based around one of host Reid Hoffman's theories on how companies scale, which he sets out to prove, using the guest's life and experience, as well as other additional guests. Each episode is scored with an original soundtrack.
Guests
A typical episode of Masters of Scale features one primary guest, whose story is told in detail, and who helps explain the theory, and several cameo appearances by other guests. These guests have been drawn from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, and have included Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, Hall of Fame sportscaster Dick Stockton, National Geographic explorer Andrés Ruzo and Olympic runner Natasha Hastings.
Awards
In April 2018, Masters of Scale won the Webby People's Voice Award for Best Business Podcast.[9] In 2020, Masters of Scale was short-listed for the Webby for both Best Business Podcast and Best Live Podcast Recording.[10]
References
- Huspeni, Andrea (April 25, 2017). "Check Out a New Podcast Hosted by Reid Hoffman". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
- Ramachandran, Anjali (June 8, 2017). "Masters of Scale: Reid Hoffman Tests His Theories of Success". Other Valleys. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- Swisher, Kara (July 18, 2017). "Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman on Recode". Recode. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- Fessler, Leah (October 30, 2018). "Reid Hoffman Wishes He Could Go Back to Stanford and Befriend More Women". Quartz. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- McPherson, Susan (February 7, 2018). "Media Mastermind June Cohen On Why Gender Balance Matters In Storytelling And In Business". Forbes. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- "Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman — on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- "Podcast: Masters of Scale: Rapid Response". Podcast: Masters of Scale: Rapid Response. April 18, 2020.
- "About Us - Masters of Scale". Masters of Scale. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- "Best Series". Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- "Best Live Podcast Recording". Retrieved October 13, 2020.