#218 CEO Etsy, Josh Silverman: Second Acts
Grit25 Nov 2024

#218 CEO Etsy, Josh Silverman: Second Acts

Guest: Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy

When Josh Silverman joined the board of Etsy, he had one condition: “Don’t ask me to the be the CEO.” And technically, they didn’t ask. One day, he got a phone call informing him the board had elected him as the new CEO, just days before an earnings miss. He knew the odds were against him — layoffs would be necessary, and “I was going to have to be the villain” — but decided to say yes out of a sense of duty to Etsy’s users and workers. “If I can be helpful, I have a responsibility to do it,” Josh says.

Chapters:

  • (00:55) - Energy management
  • (02:42) - Meetings
  • (09:56) - Etsy’s strategy
  • (13:36) - Learning to delegate
  • (17:10) - Setting an example
  • (24:17) - Evite’s rise and fall
  • (27:46) - Self vs. company
  • (30:22) - Legacy
  • (34:21) - Control and agency
  • (37:44) - Joining Etsy’s board
  • (40:40) - Becoming CEO
  • (46:16) - Culture shock
  • (48:09) - “We need you, trust us”
  • (51:25) - eBay and Skype
  • (57:15) - Pushed out
  • (01:00:40) - Accountability and family
  • (01:03:53) - Time horizons
  • (01:05:55) - Gen AI-supported art
  • (01:08:29) - Who Etsy is hiring and what “grit” means to Josh


Mentioned in this episode: Ken Chenault and American Express, Nick Daniel, Rachana Kumar, Ticketmaster and IAC, Etsy Studios, Silverlake, Shopping.com, Google, Microsoft, and Austin City Limits.


Links:

Connect with Josh

Connect with Joubin


Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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