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In Depth

In Depth

Auteur(s): First Round
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 Welcome to In Depth, a new podcast from First Round Review that’s dedicated to surfacing the tactical advice founders and startup leaders need to grow their teams, their companies and themselves. Hosted by Brett Berson, a partner at First Round, In Depth will cover a lot of ground and a wide range of topics, from hiring executives and becoming a better manager, to the importance of storytelling inside of your organization. But every interview will hit the level of tactical depth where the very best advice is found. We hope you’ll join us. Subscribe to “In Depth” now and learn more at firstround.com Développement commercial et entrepreneuriat Entrepreneurship Gestion et leadership Économie
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  • Starting an education giant in a “bad market” | ClassDojo’s story | Sam Chaudhary (Co-founder and CEO)

    Starting an education giant in a “bad market” | ClassDojo’s story | Sam Chaudhary (Co-founder and CEO)
    Sep 3 2025
    Sam Chaudhary is the co-founder and CEO of ClassDojo, a multi-product education platform used in 95% of U.S. schools and over 180 countries globally to connect teachers, students, and families. In this episode, Sam shares the full arc of building ClassDojo, from early skepticism about education and a failed group-making tool, to creating a communication platform loved by millions. In this episode, we discuss: Why ClassDojo was built for consumers (teachers, students and parents) instead of schools How ClassDojo grew entirely by word-of-mouth Sam’s unusual approach to building multiple new businesses The founder mindset required to build an industry leader Why relentless resourcefulness is an underrated skill And much more… References: Accel: https://www.accel.com/ Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/ Bill Gates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates/ Brendan Kereiakes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/product/ ClassDojo: https://www.classdojo.com/ Dominick Bellizzi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominickbellizzi/ Geoff Ralston: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffralston/ Gonzalo Aguilar Málaga: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzalodecheck/ Hamilton Helmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamilton-helmer-42983/ Imagine K12: https://www.imaginek12.com// Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/ Liam Don: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamdon/ McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/ Paul Graham: https://x.com/paulg Plaid: https://plaid.com/ Reid Hoffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/ Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/ Sal Khan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khanacademy/ Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/ Tim Brady: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-brady-7a632510/ Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ Where to find Sam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samchaudhary/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/samchaudhary Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Timestamps: (01:36) Why education is a “bad market” (02:52) Why enterprise education is broken (03:35) Building for families, not schools (06:53) Early challenges and insights (09:45) Sam’s unusual background (11:42) Meeting co-founder Liam at a hackathon (13:22) Getting into Imagine K12 with a group-making tool (19:47) The conversation with Reid Hoffman that changed everything (21:52) Building a network to reach more families (23:30) Scaling by building a community (33:18) Designing for delight and word-of-mouth growth (40:09) Launching the first monetization feature after 7 years (41:35) How to pick markets and when to go broad (46:04) The explosive expansion into the tutoring industry (55:11) Creating safe online spaces for kids (58:01) Harnessing AI in education (59:52) Lessons from ClassDojo’s playbook
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    1 h et 12 min
  • From Chrome extension to $5B platform | Postman’s journey | Abhinav Asthana (Co-founder & CEO)

    From Chrome extension to $5B platform | Postman’s journey | Abhinav Asthana (Co-founder & CEO)
    Aug 28 2025
    Abhinav Asthana is the co-founder and CEO of Postman, the world's leading API collaboration platform used by millions of developers and thousands of companies. What began as a personal itch, a simple Chrome extension Abhinav built to make his own API work easier, became a global phenomenon within weeks. In this episode, we discuss: Making the leap from India to Silicon Valley The moment Abhinav realized Postman could win His principles behind building for developers and non-developers alike The early monetization experiments that led to their SaaS model The value of progressive complexity in product design How community building became a powerful growth lever And much more… References: Abhijit Kane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijitkane/ Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/ Ankit Sobti: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-sobti/ Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Kong Inc.: https://konghq.com/ National University of Singapore: https://nus.edu.sg/ Postman: https://www.postman.com/ Ram Gupta: : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ram-gupta-39b9711/ Slack: https://slack.com/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Stewart Butterfield: https://www.linkedin.com/in/butterfield/ Yahoo: http://yahoo.com/ Where to find Abhinav: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavasthana/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/a85 Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (01:18) Why early computer access changed everything (03:39) The first taste of the entrepreneurial bug (09:58) Building BITS360 in college (11:14) Curating entrepreneurial taste (15:49) The ventures that didn’t make it (20:53) The problems that preceded Postman (29:56) How Postman’s team was formed (34:01) Why clear roles prevent chaos (34:50) Scrappy startup life in the early days (36:26) Postman’s path to monetization (39:59) Building a truly collaborative platform (43:00) Navigating market and customer needs (46:02) Cracking the go-to-market code (49:39) Bridging the developer-enterprise divide (54:43) The open-source dilemma
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    1 h et 6 min
  • How Canva leveraged unconventional growth levers to grow to $42B | Cameron Adams (Co-founder & CPO)

    How Canva leveraged unconventional growth levers to grow to $42B | Cameron Adams (Co-founder & CPO)
    Aug 20 2025
    Cameron Adams is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Canva, the design platform valued at $42B as of July 2025, used by over 230 million people every month. Before starting Canva, Cameron was a designer and engineer at Google and co-founded Fluent, an email startup. In this episode, Cameron walks through Canva’s earliest days — from the remarkably fast courtship with co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, to the counterintuitive product decisions that helped Canva instantly resonate with users who thought they would never design anything. In this episode, we cover: How Canva turned social media managers into early evangelists Balancing a huge vision with scrappy execution Hard lessons from their near-silent launch day The two growth levers that changed everything And much more… References: Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/home Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/ Campaign Monitor: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/ Canva: https://www.canva.com/ Cliff Obrecht: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-obrecht-79ba9920/ Dave Greiner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegreiner/ Lars Rasmussen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larserasmussen/ Melanie Perkins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins/ Mike Cannon-Brookes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcannonbrookes/ New York Stock Exchange: https://www.nyse.com/ Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/ Scott Farquhar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottfarquhar/ Where to find Cameron: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themaninblue/ Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (01:24) The birth of Canva (04:32) Meeting Canva’s co-founders (11:22) Building the first iteration of Canva (15:26) The discovery that changed prototyping (20:48) Why onboarding was the unlock for retention (27:36) The anticlimactic launch day (32:43) How word-of-mouth spurred early retention (36:33) Targeting different user personas (41:02) Building a community on social media (43:38) Two impactful growth levers (47:14) Why Canva should have gone mobile sooner (48:12) What underpins Canva’s dominance today (53:37) Rebuilding for enterprise (58:38) Lessons from Canva’s tough times
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    1 h et 4 min
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