Masters of Scale

This Thursday marks the 99th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Macy’s Inc. chairman and CEO Tony Spring joins Rapid Response with a behind-the-scenes preview of what to expect. It’s been a tumultuous year for the legacy retailer, shaped by new tariffs, shifting consumer habits, and the constant flip between “wartime” and “peacetime” leadership. Spring shares why his team is now on “version twenty-seven of the plan...

What does it take to turn tragedy into advocacy, and advocacy into lasting change? This week, Reid and Aria are talking to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and Kris Brown, president of Brady, the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention organization. Together, they explore how sports, storytelling, and civic engagement can move the needle on one of America’s most polarizing issues: guns.

In the first part of this episode, Stev...

The brilliant computer scientist Fei-Fei Li is often called the Godmother of AI. She talks with host Reid Hoffman about why scientists and entrepreneurs need to be fearless in the face of an uncertain future.

Li was a founding director of the Human-Centered AI Institute at Stanford and is now an innovator in the area of spatial intelligence as co-founder and CEO of World Labs. 

This conversation was recorded live at the...

In recent weeks, OpenAI faced seven lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT contributed to suicides or mental health breakdowns. To spotlight the controversial relationship between AI and mental health, host Bob Safian is joined on stage at Innovation@Brown Showcase by Brown University's Ellie Pavlick, director of a new institute dedicated to exploring AI and mental health, and Soraya Darabi of VC firm TMV, an early investor in men...

When Emilie Choi first left Linkedin to go work at a crypto company called Coinbase, her old colleagues thought she made a big mistake. But after surviving a crypto winter, she’s become a key figure in the rise of the company – and the industry. Now Coinbase President and COO, Choi talked with host Reid Hoffman about the operating lessons that enable hyper-scaling and the future of money. This conversation was recorded liv...

Reid Hoffman, Stacy Brown-Philpot, and Aileen Lee are three of the most successful, legendary leaders and investors in Silicon Valley. (The term “unicorn” for a startup valued at a billion dollars? Well, Aileen coined that.) This power trio sat down with journalist Van Jones live onstage at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit, October 8 in San Francisco, to share candid snapshots of the investor’s mindset during this time of ...

What happens when a world-class chef learns that success doesn’t taste like he imagined?

David Chang—the culinary force behind Momofuku and author of Eat a Peach—joins Guy Kawasaki to talk about ambition, burnout, scaling the unscalable, and learning to trade Michelin stars for family time. From plumbing disasters to poetic revelations, Chang opens up about the messy, beautiful art of creating something worth tasting.

See Pr...

She built her first company, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, into a billion-dollar brand. But when things soured between her and her parent company, Estée Lauder, she had a choice: retire from the industry, or reinvent herself with a new brand. Brown joins host Jeff Berman to reveal the lessons she learned from scaling – and leaving – her first company. She’s leveraging those decades of insights now in her new venture: Jones Road B...

In a special episode of Rapid Response, we feature two fast-paced, lively conversations from Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder breaks down branding and marketing lessons from the most high-profile campaigns of 2025. Treseder shares her unvarnished read on Sydney Sweeney, Cracker Barrel, Taylor Swift, and more. In the second half of the episode, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen assesses the five...

For everyone from Superbowl-winning coaches to CEOs, Ryan Holiday’s writing has made the timeless wisdom of ancient Stoic philosophers accessible and relevant in a modern age. He joins host Jeff Berman to reveal how he scaled his audience at The Daily Stoic and why the four Stoic virtues (courage, discipline, justice and wisdom) feel more important than ever.

Wisdom Takes Work: https://store.dailystoic.com/products/wisdom-t...

Anastasia Soare is responsible for how everyone from Oprah to Kim Kardashian shape their eyebrows. Soare started as a Romanian immigrant in a single room salon in Beverly Hills, and decades later, her beauty brand peaked at a valuation of about $3 billion. She joined host Jeff Berman to reveal the lessons she has learned building a global beauty empire, how listening to her daughter helped the brand leverage the influencer...

In these volatile times, how do we navigate the intersection between values and commerce? Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya join the New York Times’ David Gelles on stage at Masters of Scale Summit to reveal their different strategies for dealing with an activist White House, the pressure for what David calls "anticipatory compliance," and how they grow their businesses while also prioritizing causes...

Is the stock market in an AI bubble? What happens if it bursts? To understand our current economic moment, it’s essential to understand history. That’s why journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin joined host Jeff Berman onstage at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco in October. His new book is 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation. Sorkin explains the lessons we can ...

From attacks by President Trump to active lawsuits against Microsoft and OpenAI, The New York Times is engaged in a fierce fight to preserve the future of independent journalism. It also keeps building a multi-faceted, excellence-obsessed brand with more users for games, recipes and podcasts than ever before. President and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien joins Bob Safian live on stage at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Franci...

Author and researcher Brené Brown joined host Reid Hoffman on stage recently in San Francisco for the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit. She reveals insights about how to lead courageously, the underrated skills leaders need to thrive, and why compassion is essential for success – even if it’s currently being crowded out of the zeitgeist. 

"Strong Ground": https://brenebrown.com/book/strong-ground/

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Amid dramatic disruption, what role should business play in building the future? Recorded live at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky shares his candid perspective on business, politics, creativity, and AI — taking listeners from Airbnb’s humble beginnings to bold plans for the company’s future. Through a designer’s lens, Chesky also reveals the single question leaders ...

How do you create authentic partnerships to build scale? In this archival episode, Reid Hoffman talks with the iconic entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Daymond John about how he built FUBU from scratch. 

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In this encore episode of Rapid Response, we chart OLIPOP’s surging popularity. As Gen Z and millennials ditch sugary sodas, OLIPOP is leading the prebiotic beverage trend, sparking the likes of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to enter the fray. OLIPOP’s co-founder, CEO, and formulator, Ben Goodwin, shares how the brand is navigating the turbulence of rapid growth and rising competition, what leadership lessons he's had to embrace a...

Chomps co-founders Rashid Ali and Pete Maldonado had an unusual side hustle: selling meat sticks online. The co-founders join host Jeff Berman to reveal the phone call from Trader Joe’s that changed everything, how they used lessons from failed startups, and how they built Chomps into a snack empire.

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