Nirav Tolia | The Only Indian Kid in Odessa, TX
At 28, three weeks from shutting down a startup during the dot-com crash, Nirav Tolia had Bill Campbell walk into his office. Campbell — the coach behind Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the founders of Google — didn't want the pitch. He wanted to know about the business, and he wanted it plain. He called Tolia "boy." He swore constantly. And he told him that his title was not CEO but coach.
Tolia grew up in Odessa, Texas, one of the only Indian kids there, in a place he describes as genuinely happy because everyone had each other — the beginning, in retrospect, of a career spent building neighborhoods online. He got to Stanford and found he wasn't prepared for it. What pulled him toward tech was an Ethernet connection in his dorm room and an obsession with the Dallas Cowboys; what pulled him away from medicine was an a cappella group. In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about running Nextdoor to a billion-dollar valuation and then leaving it in 2019 because he felt like a shell of a man, unable to be the best CEO and the best father at once. He moved his family to Italy for a sabbatical that turned into years. Then they asked him to come back.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Nirav Tolia
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
More description
At 28, three weeks from shutting down a startup during the dot-com crash, Nirav Tolia had Bill Campbell walk into his office. Campbell — the coach behind Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and the founders of Google — didn't want the pitch. He wanted to know about the business, and he wanted it plain. He called Tolia "boy." He swore constantly. And he told him that his title was not CEO but coach.
Tolia grew up in Odessa, Texas, one of the only Indian kids there, in a place he describes as genuinely happy because everyone had each other — the beginning, in retrospect, of a career spent building neighborhoods online. He got to Stanford and found he wasn't prepared for it. What pulled him toward tech was an Ethernet connection in his dorm room and an obsession with the Dallas Cowboys; what pulled him away from medicine was an a cappella group. In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about running Nextdoor to a billion-dollar valuation and then leaving it in 2019 because he felt like a shell of a man, unable to be the best CEO and the best father at once. He moved his family to Italy for a sabbatical that turned into years. Then they asked him to come back.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Nirav Tolia
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
Listen elsewhere
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.