Page 6 of 30 · Back to latest writing
Stewart Butterfield, the Canadian entrepreneur behind Flickr and Slack, applies a background in philosophy to communication, collaboration, and software at scale, grounding his work in empathy, craftsmanship, and technology’s capacity to augment human potential.
Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, turned a personal frustration into a global cloud-storage utility, pairing continuous learning and “healthy paranoia” with a practical framework for entrepreneurship, product design, personal growth, and life’s finite days.
Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, moved from teaching design in Perth to building a global platform, demonstrating how persistence, visionary thinking, and sustained attention to meaningful problems can turn an ambitious idea into widely used technology.
Andy Sparks, co-founder of Mattermark and Holloway and a coach to startup CEOs, translates operational experience into frameworks for leadership, sales, and self-management while asking how companies can combine high performance with genuine attention to people.
Garrett Lord, co-founder and CEO of Handshake, built a career network around democratizing professional opportunity for students, confronting the role pedigree plays in hiring and widening access beyond the institutions traditionally favored by employers.
Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, pairs long-range vision with close attention to the lowest operational detail, showing how immigrant grit and precision can address the messy physical-world logistics underlying the modern local economy.
Brandon Sammut, Zapier’s chief people and AI transformation officer, leads at the intersection of talent and technology in a remote company, pairing an AI-first philosophy with transparency, human-centered culture, and experience managing large-scale digital change.
Allen Shim, Slack’s first chief financial officer, helped guide a direct listing and Salesforce acquisition before becoming a strategic advisor in Singapore, drawing on experience scaling organizations to mentor a new generation of technology founders.