Crucible Moments Season 3: Coming October 23

Did you know that mobile gaming giant supercell didn't initially set out to make mobile games? Or that autonomous drone delivery company Zipline originally produced a robotic toy? Many of the best things we've learned have actually come through failures. Every great company's story is defined by moments when the founders make bold decisions. Sometimes to expand scope, sometimes to narrow scope, sometimes changing the business model or the target customer, or even upending the founding premise. These are high stakes moments that risk the business, but can lead to greatness.

I think it's worth pointing out that all of our investors thought focusing on logistics was an extremely stupid thing to do. People were like, what are you talking about?

I'm Rudlof Botha, managing partner of Sequoia Capital and the host of Crucible Moments. Previously on Crucible Moments we explored the inflection points that shaped some of the most significant names in technology. Now we're returning for a brand new season. Join us as leaders from Stripe, Zipline, Palo Alto Networks, Klarna, Supercell and more. Share what it's actually like to navigate the make or break decisions. Early stumbles and leaps that turned scrappy startups into market defining forces. You will hear about moments of doubt.

It's just so scary. You're totally emotionally raw. You have no idea if you know you're going to make it to the next week or let alone the next month. I think that we had to get lucky and it also helped that we were just totally stubborn and hard headed and we're like, we're doing this. No one's going to get in our way.

We have to change things if and when we want to build this company that would last forever. We have to change moments of resolve.

So we pivoted the business and that was a big risk because you're effectively starting to go in some ways start to compete against your own customers. So the stakes actually were very high.

If you're going to be a successful company, you probably will have these re founding moments because inevitably your first product, your first idea, is not the product that gets you to the largest scale ever. Stories of audacious bets.

We thought we're going to take the gamble. We were very ambitious. We had a lot of confidence that this is the bet we want to do as a company. We thought this is really a crucible moment where you can actually meaningfully change your position in the entire market.

And the moment when it all pays.

Off, I think the whole company stops breathing. In that moment. It felt like the longest, like five minutes of our lives. And then we started just screaming and jumping up and down.

Crucible Moments is back on October 23rd. Until then, catch up on seasons one and two. Wherever you find your podcasts.