Meet Meghan Joyce the founder + CEO of Duckbill, an AI-and-human powered answer to tiresome but deeply necessary life admin – think renewing your passport or making appointments with doctors who actually take your insurance.
But MJ wasn’t always “Founder or Bust.” In fact, she has spent most of her career working for pretty iconoclastic founders. First at the ride-sharing app Uber, then at the health insurance provider Oscar. In this episode, MJ vividly describes what it felt like to be baffled or upset by her boss’s behavior. And admits she now sees herself doing some of those same baffling things as founder and CEO! As Joni Mitchell might put it, she’s looked at life from both sides now.
Her executive coach of over 11 years, Libbie Thacker (coach + partner at Talentism), has been with her through all the ups and downs and joins us as well. Listen as MJ brings rare insight into how bosses and employees so often miss each other and what to do about it.
- 3:03 – Reveals the emotional fallout of getting dressed down by Uber founder in leadership team meeting
- 6:16 – Recognizes that culture is what helps you win, and also what can kill you
- 9:57 – Discovers that she blew past her report (just like her bosses had done before!)
- 14:57 – How being a founder has changed her (just like parenting!)
- 22:04 – MJ names the thing CEOs and bosses so rarely do: take time to explain what’s in their heads
- 26:17 – Libbie reveals what happens when people in power “make deposits in the trust bank account”
- 30:10 – What Duckbill’s high ownership and empowering culture actually mean + the business outcomes that follow
- 35:52 – Why MJ has invested in executive coaching for 11 YEARS!
