Becoming a Startup CEO

There's a sense of responsibility. You're not just responsible for Zoox and the execution, the roadmap, the fundraising. You're responsible for a lot of families. When you work in a big corporation, you can always look up. It's the CEO's fault, it's the board's fault, it's the market's fault. Somebody just doesn't get it. Well, here the but stops with you. You don't get to whine and complain. You can have a support system. And so the first thing, I think you were there, the first all hands, they were like, you know, what's your goal for the first? I can't remember, like 90 or first year or whatever. And, you know, usually people have their normal baked talking points. One, two, three, and I'm going to do. And I was like, look, I don't know in terms of outcomes and deliverables, my first objective is to be one of you. And so a year from now, I want you to kind of forget that I wasn't here for the beginning of the journey. So I'm going to spend a lot of time with all of you. I'm going to learn, I'm going to listen, I will form opinions. I won't talk a lot at the beginning, not because I don't have opinions, but because I want to understand what makes this company tick and what is important. And then after that, and in the process of doing that, I had a very good board. Thank you for that. That was lucky, too. Started sort of forming some opinions. You're in a startup, so capital is top of mind. This is a capital intensive endeavor. So the whole fundraising strategy, who we are. The second part was a little bit more funny, a little funnier. At Intel, I was known as the change agent and renegade. Why do we have this process? Why this bureaucracy? Why can't we do this? Why can't we do that? Why all this infrastructure? Well, at Zoox, you're not just driving execution, you're building a company, hopefully an American icon. So I was like, wow, nobody's coming, it's me. I have to build the infrastructure, hr, finance, all of the systems and sort of like have an integrated roadmap, drive towards milestones, but do it from a place of generosity, from a place of teaching and learning, and really manage the rhythm and cadence so that you meet people where they are and then you go along the journey with them. Human beings do not like change. And so you have to try to make the change positive and extra credit, make it even feel good. And that doesn't mean you don't make tough decisions. I think within the first, what, three months, a few executives were no longer with us. That was hard. Make the calls. Don't sweat the small stuff. And remember what Andy Grove told me once? I was criticizing him and saying, I heard that during your days, this. And this happened. I can't believe you didn't deal with that, because, you know, I know it all, right? I'm opinionated, like, all of them. And he's like, aisha, I knew about that. But that was number 25 on my list. And number one and three were so much more important. So sort of learn where to put your attention. Where do you teach to fish? But it's been a great journey, and I've learned a ton, too. This is a technology that I didn't know in detail. This is probably the smartest collection of people that I've worked with, and this is definitely the greatest variety of skill sets that I've had the pleasure to work with. And building one thing together.