Smash Notes
Why Did Jensen Huang Bet Nvidia on a Market That Didn't Exist? · Founders

Founders

#403 How Jensen Works

This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Jensen Huang—and nothing else. I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Jensen and Nvidia written by Tae Kim I then spent several days editing down 30 pages of notes from the book. I deleted everything that was not How Jensen Works. List of ideas: 1. Professor Jensen…

People

Notes

  1. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang keeps 60 direct reports and does not hold one-on-one meetings. Full answer

  2. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang's speed of light is the only benchmark Nvidia uses for how fast work should move: the… Full answer

  3. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang's top-five email is how he gets unfiltered news from Nvidia's tens of thousands of employees. Full answer

  4. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says a pilot in command at Nvidia is the named leader Jensen Huang assigns at the start of every project. Full answer

  5. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang has no five-year plan because he treats strategy as action, not as words. Full answer

  6. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang would rather create a market than fight for share of one that already exists. Full answer

  7. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang will choke his best people with gold so they will work with him. Full answer

  8. David Senra, reading Tae Kim's The Nvidia Way, says Jensen Huang kept funding CUDA through 2007 and 2008 while Nvidia's gross margin fell from 45% to 35%. Full answer

Related notes

Plays from this note through the rest of the episode.

Weekly highlights

One letter a week.

The notes worth hearing, with the minute they were said.