Suggestions
Joel Toledano
Director & General Manager at Wayfair - ex-Amazon, Yahoo! - former startup founder & CEO
Joel Toledano is a seasoned leader with a wealth of experience in consumer Internet and high-growth environments, including 20 years in Silicon Valley.
Currently, Joel leads the platform and services that drive Alexa's voice and multimodal customer feedback experiences, demonstrating a passion for creating business impact at scale by utilizing data efficiently and innovating daily.
His expertise lies in conversational AI, voice-based experiences, online search and advertising, retail/shopping, and location-based services, with a proven track record of managing P&L's of $250+MM and spearheading innovation from concept to massive execution.
He has a diverse educational background, holding a Doctor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History from Georgetown University Law Center and Binghamton University, respectively.
Joel's professional journey includes key roles such as Director & GM at Wayfair, Sr. Product, Engineering, and Data Science leader at Amazon's Alexa Experience, as well as General Manager of Performance Advertising at Amazon.
His career also encompassed positions at prestigious organizations like Progress Partners, Curbside (acquired by Rakuten), and Yahoo, showcasing his versatility in strategic partnerships, business development, and entrepreneurship.
With a dynamic skill set that blends ML/data science, product management, engineering, business development, and operations, Joel excels in driving growth strategies, leading cross-functional teams, and fostering rapid experimentation to shape the future of technology.
Highlights
100% Marc Randolph. Prioritize and execute rather than peanut buttering your workload across every task. I use the Eisenhower 2x2 Matrix to quickly determine what rises to the top of urgent (do it now) and important (do it yourself rather than someone else).
“So many entrepreneurs [are] up all night polishing their deck ... double checking every detail [and working] so hard,” Randolph said. But “you don’t lose the deal at 2 o’clock that morning because you didn’t check the fonts. You lost the deal four weeks ago when you didn’t have some fundamentals right.”
"We suck less than the competition" works ... until it doesn't.
The lesson founders should take from the last month of head-spinning US political news - don't rest on your laurels. You may look GREAT today compared to your weak incumbent competition ... but overnight a competitor crops up and all your customers flock to them, highlighting that you weren't as good as you thought you were - you just sucked less than the competition.
Pay close attention to your customers and question every favorable vanity metric that your team produces. Just ask "how do we KNOW that customers love us?" and see what you uncover.
