20VC: A Masterclass in Leadership and Scaling Companies: The Decisions only the CEO Can Make, The Secret To Talent Acquisition and Retention and How To Find The Unscalable Things that are Fundamental To Scale with Christa Quarles, CEO @ Corel Corporation
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2021
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Christa Quarles is the CEO @ Corel Corporation, building software solutions that simplify the task journey for knowledge workers. Prior to Corel, Christa spent close to 4 years as CEO @ Opendoor, driving a chapter of transformational change for the company. Before Opendoor, Christa was Chief Business Officer @ NextDoor, and finally pre-NextDoor, Christa spent 4 years at The Walt Disney Company where she led Disney Interactive to profitability as Senior Vice President, Interactive Games. If that was not enough, Christa is also on the board of Affirm and Kimberly Clark.
In Today’s Episode with Christa Quarles You Will Learn:
1.) How Christa made her way into the world of startups having spent close to 10 years in investment banking? What were the biggest takeaways from her time at Walt Disney? How did her 3 years as CEO @ Opentable impact how she approaches leadership today?
2.) Company Breakpoints: What are the different breakpoints in the scaling of companies? When did this start to happen at Opendoor? How does decision-making need to change with scale? How can leaders ensure teams feel safe to be the most ambitious they can be? In what ways can leaders create environments of safety for them to be their best selves?
3.) The Role of the CEO: What decisions can only the CEO make? How can leaders determine when a C-Suite hire is a stretch too far? How has Christa's board membership on other boards changed how she runs her board today? Given a board's limited information, how can leaders extract the most out of them?
4.) "Operating is a Full Contact Sport": When has Christa found operating and leading the hardest? When faced with hard times, how does she push through them? How does Christa advise leaders on the challenges of their own scaling process? Where do many make mistakes in their own scaling? What is a "stuck state" and why is it the worst state to be in?
5.) Team Building and Trust: How does Christa approach trust today? Does she start from a position of being fully trusting or not trusting and there to be gained? What is Christa's favourite interview question to ask? In what way does Christa believe truly special candidates represent their passions in interviews?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Christa Quarles
Christa’s Favourite Book: Caste, The International Bestseller
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today we're joined by one of the best |
| 0:04.0 | operators in the Valley today in my mind. So diving straight in, I'm so thrilled to welcome |
| 0:08.2 | Krista Kuales, CEO at Coral Corporation, building software solutions that simplify the task |
| 0:13.9 | journey for knowledge workers. Prior to Coral, Krista spent close to four years as CEO at Open |
| 0:18.7 | Table, driving a chapter of transformational change for |
| 0:21.5 | the company, before Krista was chief business officer at Nextdoor, and finally pre-Nextdoor, |
| 0:26.1 | Krista spent close to four years at the Walt Disney Company, where she led Disney Interactive |
| 0:30.2 | to profitability, as senior vice president of interactive games. If that wasn't enough, Krista's |
| 0:35.2 | also on the board of a firm and Kimberly Clark today. I'd also |
| 0:38.6 | want to say huge thank you to Jeremy Liu at Lightspeed, both for the intro and for some |
| 0:42.2 | amazing questions suggestions today. But before we dive into the show today, did you know that |
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| 1:36.7 | And finally, I've always been a big history fan. |
... |
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