Reid Hoffman and Brian Chesky on Handcrafting and Scaling Airbnb [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Reid Hoffman and Brian Chesky on Handcrafting and Scaling Airbnb [pdf]

mastersofscale.com

149 pointspaladin31415916 comments

If it isn't clear, this is the transcript of the first episode of a podcast called "Masters of Scale". https://mastersofscale.com/

This is a tremendous podcast. The guests and subjects are A+. It is a the best new podcast around (for me anyway). (Only point of criticism would be, there are too many little jingles and maybe one too many commercials).

Haha. Agree totally! Makes it feel too radio-y due to that.

Funny, I listened to this recently and had exactly the same reaction. The cheesy audio jingles aside, the idea of contemplating your customer's experience in terms of stars ("What's a 1-star experience? What's a 6-star experience?") was a really neat way to think about product vision.

I also loved the idea that you can't just ask users "what would make this better?", but rather "what could we do that would make you tell all your friends about this?"

Overall, great examples of how when humanism comes first and tech comes second, the results can be magical.

I kinda like the jingles, gives the podcast a bit of style and swag.

Yes. I dislike the jingles and sound effects, but I appreciate Reid's commentary.

As much as I like/respect/admire both Reid Hoffman and Brian Chesky, I find this podcast... terrible. So much that I had to stop listening to it after a few minutes.

I really hate the weird sounds and interruptions. It feels like a podcast designed to appeal to the masses, and to "overdo" every aspect of what a podcast should be.

I hope this is read as "constructive feedback", because that's the intention.

I listed to 10-12 podcasts a week, and I have never experienced this "repellence" to a single podcast, like this one. I believe this is the style of other podcasts of this series, if I recall correctly.

Am I the only one, or is there anybody else that shares the same feelings about it?

I've listened to all of them so far, but the jingles are pretty grating. They take away from the actual moment and become a distraction.

Honestly sounds like the work of a Fiver gigster to me. Super tacky.

It isn't. Audio production was done by respected pros.

I liked the sound assist. I actually prefer this to a regular podcast format, which tends to get monotone sometimes. Reminds me a little bit of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibuiUXOTE4M

I found the sound blips to be entertaining, and refreshing compared to other podcasts, but thats just me. I can see how it would be distracting for others.

I agree on the audio production but maybe it's just a taste I have not acquired.

What really surprised me is how lauded this podcast has been. I was expecting at least the level of depth of YC's Startup School series from a few years ago, hoping for even more insight. The kind of depth I imagine was in Hoffman's 'blitzscaling' course. It never reached that level and even seemed less detailed than NPR's How I Built This.

The podcast seems geared to a more general audience, which is why I have been befuddled by many who are deeply entrenched the startup/valley/software worlds praising it as a must-listen.

I do echo your respect/like/admiration for Chesky and Hoffman. This free podcast they have made is just not for me.

The same thing led me to stop listening to Radiolab too.

I agree. I have an allergy to highly edited podcasts. I got into podcasts to here unfiltered conversations that you wouldn't see on TV or here on radio.

Masters of Scale podcast RSS feed: https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale

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