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Rabois: The better a company performs, the harder the CEO must push

Keith Rabois · Hard truths about building in the AI era | Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures) · Apr 12, 2026 · at 28:41

Keith Rabois (Managing Director at Khosla Ventures) discusses leadership heuristics and organizational dynamics with host Lenny Rachitsky.

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“The more success you have, the more complacent the organization tends to get in the single role for the CEO is offsetting that complacency. So, to the point, the more success you have, the better you're doing, the more complacency naturally kicks in. And unless you've erected a network effect, you do not want to get complacent. And even then, you can debate whether you should. But like, fundamentally, most businesses are not network-affected businesses. They are not going to run on, you know, on their own for a long time. So, I think that's one insight, is the better you're doing, the more the CEO should push.”

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