Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness
Cisco bought Jyoti Bansal’s first company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, making him a very wealthy man. But after two African safaris, a week of Michelin-starred meals in Tokyo, and more adventures all around the world, he realized that spending his money didn’t truly make him happy. After some soul-searching, he realized what he really enjoyed: “I liked to build companies. That is my craft &#8230; If someone enjoys playing gold for six hours, I would enjoy working on a startup for six hours.”
In this episode, Jyoti and Joubin discuss the evolution of Grit, Carlos Delatorre, Tom Mendoza, Glean, growing up in India, traveling the world, three-star restaurants, soul-searching, automating gruntwork, paying for nice hotels, red-eye flights, product-market fit, Jeff Bezos, the “three-layered cake,” Frank Slootman, raising the bar for distribution, technical debt, structural efficiency, and taking pride in your work. 
In this episode, we cover:

<ul>
<li>(00:59) &#8211; Top-tier CROs
</li>
<li>(04:18) &#8211; The video game levels of startups
</li>
<li>(07:24) &#8211; Selling AppDynamics to Cisco
</li>
<li>(09:16) &#8211; Keeping up with high-growth companies
</li>
<li>(12:10) &#8211; The chip on Jyoti’s shoulder
</li>
<li>(16:15) &#8211; How he thinks about money
</li>
<li>(18:02) &#8211; Do what you enjoy every day
</li>
<li>(22:32) &#8211; “What would make me happy?”
</li>
<li>(24:56) &#8211; Starting BIG Labs and Harness
</li>
<li>(29:16) &#8211; Adjusting to a new reality
</li>
<li>(34:13) &#8211; Work-life balance
</li>
<li>(36:30) &#8211; What gets easier — and harder — over time
</li>
<li>(41:44) &#8211; Product vs. distribution
</li>
<li>(46:46) &#8211; Paying it forward
</li>
<li>(48:29) &#8211; The next level
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<li>(50:24) &#8211; The four lists
</li>
<li>(53:45) &#8211; Assigning clear responsibilities
</li>
<li>(56:06) &#8211; Jyoti’s favorite interview question
</li>
<li>(57:41) &#8211; Who Harness is hiring</li>
</ul>

Links:
<ul>
<li>Connect with Jyoti
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyotibansal/">LinkedIn</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Connect with Joubin
<ul>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/Joubinmir">Twitter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joubin-mirzadegan-66186854/">LinkedIn</a></li>
<li>Email: <a href="https://feeds.transistor.fm/grit@kleinerperkins.com">grit@kleinerperkins.com</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.kleinerperkins.com/">Learn more about Kleiner Perkins</a></li>
<li>This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from <a href="https://lightningpod.fm/">LightningPod.fm</a></li>
</ul>

Joubin Mirzadegan

#183 CEO and Co-Founder Harness, Jyoti Bansal: Three-Layered Cake

Guest: Jyoti Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Harness Cisco bought Jyoti Bansal’s first company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, making him a very wealthy man. But after two African safaris, a week of Michelin-starred meals in Tokyo, and more adventures all around the world, he realized that spending his money didn’t truly make him happy. After [&hellip;]

Grit Episode #183

#183 CEO and Co-Founder Harness, Jyoti Bansal: Three-Layered Cake