This is very professional looking it looks like I've just been given the nuclear football

Okay

So here we go

microphone recorder mic stand base. Okay

Yeah, you just screw that do that in and then put the mic in it that goes in there. That's right

Gotcha, there you go

That's it. That's the whole damn thing and are we rolling? Yeah

six seven eight. It's recording

That was Stephen Colbert

comedian writer and host of the late show was Stephen Colbert and what you're about to hear is our

Complete original interview so you can experience it in full. I'm Reid Hoffman co-founder of LinkedIn partner

Graylock and your host in each episode of the classic masters of scale. I proved a theory about scaling a company through this story of our guest

We originally talked to Stephen as part of an episode on the power of small goals featuring Charles best of Donor's shoes

Now you won't hear my voice in this conversation

Instead you'll hear two of our executive producers

Jordan McLeod who just helps Stephen set up our recording kit and June Cohen who conducts the interview

You might also hear some laughter from the rest of our team

Stephen joined the Donor's shoes board of directors in 2009 and he's helped raise millions of dollars for the organization

But the story you're about to hear is how Stephen first got connected with Donor's shoes and it starts with his

satirical run for president of the United States as host of the Colbert report on comedy central

Many of you told us you'd love to hear the full interview and now as a master's scale member you can

All right Stephen we love laughing with you, but I should ask you some questions so we can stick roughly to our time

...