Kayak co-founder Paul English discusses his experience with bipolar disorder
Paul English · 20VC: From Sequoia To Accel To General Catalyst: What Makes The Best Board Member & The Hiring Methodology To Attract World Class Talent with KAYAK & Lola Founder, Paul English · Jun 8, 2018 · at 33:22
Paul English, co-founder of Kayak and Lola, shares a personal health disclosure during a discussion on career inflection points on The 20VC.
0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.4s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So I'm bipolar, and one time early in my career, I was a young VP running a big team.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Paul English
Paul English omits distracting board member suggestions from official meeting minutes
“I don't write down everything the board says, and maybe this is bad. I write down the things that are the most significant or things that I'm going to take action on. But if it's something someone mentioned about some side project that I think is Defocused, ev…”
Paul English argues interpersonal charisma and recruiting skills are fully trainable
“And a lot of these skills you can do in personal life transfer directly into business life. So I think it's absolutely trainable.”
Arrogant founders fail by hiring subservient employees who avoid challenging them
“Well, I think either the tech founder lacks humility, and they're arrogant, and they only hire people that would be subservient to them, so they don't hire people that are daring enough, and they're going to challenge them and push them.”
Philanthropists should fund non-profit leaders upfront without imposing bureaucratic reporting hurdles
“Find the leader that inspires you. Write them checks first, and ask the question second. And I know from being in the boards and helping start some non-profits, a lot of donors make the non-profit leader, like, jump through hoops, do so much work in reporting.…”
Paul English: Music arrangement requires coordination similar to software programming
“The coordination part of music arrangement, to me, feels similar to a lot of the coordination parts of programming, so I felt very comfortable in both areas.”
Tech startup creativity requires problem empathy and relentless iteration
“In tech entrepreneurship, I think most creativity comes out of people who are empaths for problems, and when you see something that irritates you, rather than just say that's irritating and move on, you kind of focus on it, and you try to think about other peo…”