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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Instacart CEO Fidji Simo on Why You Need Sponsors Not Mentors, Where Management Skills Align with Good Parenting & The First 100 Days as CEO at Instacart; The Challenges, The Surprises and The Next Chapter

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Tech News, News, Business, Investing

4.4693 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fidji Simo is the CEO @ Instacart, the company that allows you to order whatever you want from local stores, delivering it straight to your door. Fidji joined the Instacart board 10 months ago and just 3 months ago, Fidji joined Instacart full time as CEO. Prior to Instacart, Fidji spent an incredible 10 years at Facebook in numerous different roles including Head of Facebook App and before that Vice President of Games, Video and Monetisation. If this was not enough, Fidji earlier this year announced her co-founding of Metrodora, an integrated medical ecosystem with the vision of advancing women's health.

In Today's Episode with Fidji Simo You Will Learn:

1.) How Fidji made her way from a small coastal fishing town in France to leading the Facebook App and becoming one of the most powerful CEOs in tech with her new role at Instacart?

2.) The Rise @ Facebook: How did Fidji rise in the ranks at Facebook so much faster than anyone else? What were the biggest inflection points in her rise? What bets did she make that others did not see? How did they play out? Did any of the bets go wrong? What did Fidji learn about management style when the bet went wrong?

3.) Problem Solving and Decision-Making: What framework does Fidji use to have the most effective problem-solving and decision-making process? How does Fidji built such tight trust and honesty with her team members? In what way can leaders make people feel safe to take big bets but also not lose accountability if it does not work out?

4.) The Move To Instacart: Why did Fidji decide that CEO of Instacart was the right next move for her? What was Fidji's hypothesis of how the first 100 days would go? What has been a surprise in the first 100 days? How do the best leaders onboard into new CEO roles? How does the role of CEO change when moving from private to public company?

Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Fidji Simo

Fidji's Favourite Book: The Night Circus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited for our episode today.

0:04.3

For many years, I'd heard about the most incredible stories on today's guests, and there are

0:08.3

sent in Facebook, being fast than anyone had ever seen. And so with that, I'm so thrilled to

0:12.6

welcome Fiji Sumo, CEO at Instacart, the company that allows you to order whatever you want

0:17.4

from local stores, delivering it straight to your door. Fiji joined the

0:21.0

Instacart board 10 months ago and joined three months ago as full-time CEO. And prior to Instacart,

0:26.6

Fiji spent an incredible 10 years at Facebook in numerous different roles, including head of

0:30.9

Facebook app and before that, vice president of games, video and monetization. And if this wasn't

0:36.0

enough, Fiji also earlier this year announced

0:38.3

her co-founding of Metrodora, an integrated medical ecosystem with the vision of advancing

0:43.0

women's health. I'd also want to a huge thank you to my dear, dear friend Julia Cordoneur at

0:47.5

Facebook Workplace for the intro, and then also to Mike Moritz, Jeff Jordan, and Dan Rose for some

0:52.7

fantastic questions suggestions today. I really

0:55.1

did so appreciate that. But before we dive into the show today, Mercury is building full

0:59.7

stack banking for startups applying under 10 minutes from anywhere for FDIC insured bank accounts,

1:05.1

physical and virtual debit cards, domestic and international wires, and integrations with

1:09.6

gusto, stripe, quickbooks, plaid,

1:11.8

basically every other tool your startup uses.

1:14.0

They also offer unusual features like API access, custom team management, and their newly launched

1:19.2

Mercury Treasury, a cash management product for high-growth startups.

1:22.9

They'll even help you build your startup with Mercury Rays, a program to connect you to Silicon

1:27.2

Valley's top investors, head over to Mercury.aze, a program to connect you to Silicon Valley's top

...

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