Guy Kawasaki
Chief Evangelist, Canva. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
authorinvestorhostexecutiveoperator@GuyKawasaki ↗LinkedIn ↗guykawasaki.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
Kawasaki popularized product evangelism while marketing Apple's original Macintosh computer line in the 1980s. He later co-founded Garage Technology Ventures and authored over a dozen business books, including The Art of the Start and The Art of Social Media.
Everything Guy Kawasaki said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kawasaki: If Apple and Tim Cook cannot take moral stands, nobody can
“Your moral compass should exist at a higher level than, how can I make the most money? And so you may have to, you know, you may have to take stands. And to take an extreme example if Apple and Tim Cook cannot take a stand, who can? Who can? You're the most fr…”
Kawasaki: Product is the single most important factor when investing in startups
“I must admit that I think that the most important thing is the product.”
Kawasaki: Sequoia's best investments are unproven teams in unproven markets
“If you talk to someone like Mike Moritz of Sequoia will tell you that the richest vein for Sequoia's investments, and there's no company, no VC that has, you know, created such value as Sequoia. It's two people creating the product that they want to use. They …”
Kawasaki: VCs demanding rigid return projections are usually giving soft rejections
“Many times when, if you face, like, rigid recommendations for, I need your internal rate of return, I need your return on capital, I need this kind of projection. In a sense, the investor is telling you no, and is trying to put these fences up in front of you,…”
Kawasaki: Truly interested VCs overlook flaws and reframe weaknesses as positives
“If an investor is truly interested in your business, they're not going to throw these fences up in front of you. What they're going to be thinking is they do not have a world-class team, but I at Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia, I can tap the greatest talent in the…”
Kawasaki: AI is bigger than PCs, chips, social media, and internet combined
“To me, AI is, is a bigger deal than personal computers, chips, social media, internet, all combined.”
Guy Kawasaki names Elon Musk as the closest equivalent to Steve Jobs
“Yeah, I mean, he's the closest thing we have to Steve Jobs right now, so.”
Kawasaki: AI will soon evaluate business plans in 30 seconds
“I would think that pretty soon you'll just be able to stick a PowerPoint or business plan into an AI model, and 30 seconds later, it'll give you a thumbs up or thumbs down.”
Kawasaki: Leading AI models lack distinct brand positioning and differentiation
“Like today, if I had to explain to someone when to use ChatGPT, when to use Bard, when to use Perplexity, when to use Claude, when to use all this, you know, I don't know if I could, I can't. I mean, I use all fives kind of at random, and it's like, in the car…”
Kawasaki: Corporate innovation requires an egomaniac leader to withstand internal pressure
“So first of all, you will need an egomaniac leader because this egomaniac leader has to withstand a lot of pressure from the existing infrastructure of the company.”
Kawasaki: Corporate innovation teams must be placed in separate physical buildings
“A second thing you need is you need a separate physical building. I don't think you can do intrapreneurship inside physically a company that is already existing and, you know, going forward and maybe even successful because you're going to be matrix to death.”
Kawasaki: My success came from evangelizing great products, not fixing bad ones
“Guy's golden touch is whatever is gold, guy touches. So I touch Macintosh, and I touch Canva, I would touch Liquid Death. It's because it's easy to evangelize great stuff, and it's hard to evangelize crap.”
Kawasaki: Apple changed more major industries than Google
“Yeah, no, I, I'm leaning towards Apple, and it's because Apple has made multiple changes, right? So they changed the face of computing, and they changed the face of phones, and then they invented the face of tablets, and you can't, you know, Google has definit…”
Kawasaki: Apple Mail feels designed for someone receiving ten emails daily
“When I use Apple Mail, it feels like somebody at Apple who gets 10 emails a day has designed it.”
Kawasaki: Tech is in a bubble, but macro conditions don't matter
“I believe it is, but I also believe, so what if it is or it isn't, you know, what really matters is your one company. Not the big picture.”
Kawasaki: Massive companies start with simple questions, not grand master plans
“These companies that do achieve, you know, quote, worldwide domination, they often start or almost always start with very simple questions. And I think from the outside looking in, if you look at an apple or something that has acquired this lofty status, you t…”
Kawasaki: Claiming no competitors exist is a foolish startup attitude
“Because I don't know about you, but I've met many entrepreneurs and they always say that, you know, No one else is doing what we're doing, and no one else is capable of doing what we're doing. And I'll tell you that my initial reaction to anyone who says that …”
Kawasaki: Selling jewelry was harder than evangelizing the original Macintosh
“I think selling jewelry was harder because jewelry is, it's made of commodities, albeit valuable commodities like gold and diamonds, but you can stick that on a scale. Whereas with Macintosh, you know, we really had magic”
Kawasaki: Apple's corporate structure cannot accommodate major creative side projects
“Let's just say that the Apple HR mechanism is not geared towards people writing 16 books or conducting a podcast”
Kawasaki: Incumbent companies must cannibalize their own products before competitors do
“If we don't cannibalize our business, Two guys or two gals in a garage are. So isn't it better that we create a Macintosh that kills an Apple II, or we create an iPhone, iPod, iPad that kills a Macintosh? Isn't it better we kill it than somebody else kills it?”
Kawasaki: Best career and investing thesis is backing products you personally use
“One of the very good investment thesis, or even job
Search thesis is go work for places that you love their products, that you use their products.
Not, not that you know that there's this theoretical baby boomer who's gonna use this product.
But be the cust…”
Kawasaki: A great product demo is essential for early-stage entrepreneurs
“If there's a skill that is necessary for entrepreneurs to succeed, you know, this dancing in the field stage, it is, you have to do a great demo. A demo counts for a thousand slides.”
Kawasaki: Life consists of being underpaid, overpaid, and paying back
“In the first third of your life, you're underpaid. In the second third of your life, you're overpaid. And in the third third of your life, you pay back.”
Kawasaki: I rejected an interview for Yahoo CEO because of the commute
“Michael Moritz. The Michael Moritz of Sequoia. He called me after I left Apple, and he said, guy, I have a company down here by Stanford. I want you to interview for the CEO position. And I said, Mike, what's the company's name? And he told me the name. I look…”
The other half of the tape: Guy Kawasaki's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 28 times in 10 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 16Philipp Moehring 4Andy Pflaum 2Cliff Obrecht 1
Statements about Guy Kawasaki, by other people (1)
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 28
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 5 mentions in 1 episode
2022 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2018 2 mentions in 1 episode
2016 13 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
- Index's Martin Mignot on Sourcing Rocketship Companies, Evaluating Founders and His Attitude Towards Risk At The Early Stage
- 20 VC: Philipp Moehring, Head of AngelList Europe on Scaling Seed Stage Funding and Why 500 Is Not Your Traditional VC
- 20VC: Andy Rachleff, Founder @ Benchmark & Wealthfront on What Makes The Best CEO & Board Member & Why Ivy League Endowments Are The Best Managed Capital In The World
- every mention in 2016, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Guy's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Chief Evangelist, Canva | 1 | 21 | — | full record on Masters of Scale → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Chief Evangelist, Canva | 1 | 10 | — | full record on 20VC → |