
Vercel’s COO Jeanne De Witt Grosser, former Stripe leader, joins First Round’s Executive Function podcast to dissect what separates good executives from great ones. She details Vercel’s rigorous executive interview framework, the use of driver trees for metric ownership, and why COOs often absorb marketing to control the full customer journey. The conversation also explores the transition from frontline manager to manager of managers, and the importance of context‑driven performance feedback.

Gusto, founded by Tomer London, Josh Reeves, and Edward Kim, grew from a YC‑backed payroll tool for California SMBs into a $9.5 billion people‑platform serving over 400,000 businesses. The founders relied on relentless cold‑calling and early customer discovery to validate demand,...