The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Episode #256 features Shernaz Daver, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected executive advisors and communications strategists, who has worked alongside leaders including Steve Jobs, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla and Waymo/Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Shernaz reflects on a remarkable journey shaped across India, Japan and the United States — from growing up between cultures as part of the small Zoroastrian community to navigating the inner circles of Silicon Valley’s most influential founders and companies.

She shares stories from Motorola, Electronic Arts and Sun Microsystems, the rejection that changed her trajectory, the unforgettable moment Steve Jobs told her she had done a “terrible job” marketing a product, and the lessons she learned working alongside elite founders and operators.

The conversation also explores insecurity, ambition, storytelling, AI, burnout, hype versus reality in Silicon Valley, and what separates visionary leaders from merely successful ones.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

________

Get in touch with us via email at [email protected]

Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. 

Show notes and more episodes here

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Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here

Contact us via our website

________

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths),  David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.

Episode #255 features Andrew Fraser, Chair of Bank of Queensland, Chancellor of Griffith University, President of Motorsport Australia, and former Deputy Premier and Treasurer of the state of Queensland.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Andrew shares his journey — from entering politics young and rising rapidly to the top of Queensland Government, to the very bitter public loss that ended his political career, becoming a stay-at-home dad in the aftermath, and the reinvention that led him to some of Australia’s most significant boardrooms.

He breaks down what that period of collapse taught him about ego, judgment and sustainable leadership, how he now thinks through complex strategic decisions, why he uses sport constantly as a metaphor for teams and performance, the importance of “keeping up the chat” as a leader, and the revealing question he asks every new hire to test for self-awareness and honesty.

Andrew also unpacks the realities of chairing major institutions, transitioning from operator to governance, and how Australia should think about leadership, sovereignty and long-term competitiveness.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

________

Get in touch with us via email at [email protected]

Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. 

Show notes and more episodes here

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube

Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here

Contact us via our website

________

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths),  David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more

Episode #254 features Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, COO at Vercel, and former Chief Business Officer at Stripe, and one of the most respected go-to-market leaders in tech.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Jeanne shares her journey — from growing up in California with a psychologist mother and tech sales father, to joining Google as an early employee in 2004, to navigating an unplanned career that led her to leadership roles at Stripe and now Vercel.

She breaks down how to manage your energy at work and at home, how she learned to influence effectively in engineering-led environments, why “perfect” careers rarely feel that way, and how those lessons shaped her approach to leadership, decision-making, and company building.

Jeanne also unpacks how to build credibility with engineers, design modern go-to-market systems, transition from founder-led sales, and rethink sales and marketing in an AI-native world.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

________

Get in touch with us via email at [email protected]

Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. 

Show notes and more episodes here

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube

Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here

Contact us via our website

________

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths),  David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.

Episode #253 features Andrew Fraser, President at Halter, the fast-scaling agritech company using smart collars, virtual fencing and AI to transform livestock farming. Founded in 2016, Halter has raised over US$400 million, with their most recent Series E led by Founders Fund.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Andrew shares his journey — from growing up in Auckland with just his mum, to an unexpected detour as a uranium explorer in Ethiopia that nearly cost him his health and his savings, to becoming one of New Zealand's most respected go-to-market leaders.

He breaks down how Halter rebuilt its sales motion from the ground up, why he abolished the customer success function in favour of account managers with targets, the revenue operations secret behind his success across Vend, Lightspeed and Halter, and how a tight-territory outbound model beat inbound every time.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

________

Get in touch with us via email at [email protected]

Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. 

Show notes and more episodes here

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube

Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here

Contact us via our website

________

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths),  David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.

Episode #252 features Ethan Choi, Partner at Khosla Ventures (KV), where he leads their Growth Fund.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Ethan shares his own journey— from growing up in Australia with Korean heritage and often acting as the “mum and dad” in his family, to taking a non-traditional path into investing and earning a seat at one of the world’s most respected firms, Khosla Ventures.

He breaks down how KV actually makes decisions, how Vinod Khosla operates, his learnings from each of the KV partners, why conviction beats consensus, and what it takes to build a growth investing strategy inside a firm known for backing ideas early — including the early bet on OpenAI, and why it didn’t look obvious at the time.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

________

Get in touch with us via email at [email protected]

Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. 

Show notes and more episodes here

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube

Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here

Contact us via our website

________

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths),  David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.