#206 CEO & Founder Rivian, RJ Scaringe: Electrified

Guest: RJ Scaringe, CEO and Founder of Rivian“I’m very comfortable with things not being in their end state,” says Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe. The company’s challenging mission — to help make 100% of the world’s cars electric — will take a long time, and a lot of willingness to build the metaphorical plane in midair. As Rivian has grown from one person to seven to 17,000, though, RJ admits that there’s a lot more pressure to not screw up. “There’s all these conflicting emotions I had ... is this the right product?” he recalls. “Is it the right strategy? Am I capable of doing this? But at the end of the day, I try really hard not to let that be overly distracting.”Chapters:(01:58) - Starting from scratch (05:35) - Auto tech innovation (08:03) - The supply chain (09:52) - Rivian’s deal with Volkswagen (14:28) - Outsourcing (16:10) - Capable EVs (19:06) - Brand and customer satisfaction (21:05) - That nagging feeling (27:26) - Raising capital (31:31) - RJ’s father (32:35) - The dark side of cars (34:43) - Tesla’s influence (37:13) - Financial challenges (42:38) - Entrepreneurial mindset (44:59) - Hard decisions (46:46) - Don’t screw this up (49:56) - 25,000 decisions a day (52:16) - Daily routines (54:57) - Who Rivian is hiring (55:34) - What “grit” means to RJ Mentioned in this episode: Porsche, Alex Honnold, Amazon AWS, Mercedes, Elon Musk, Lotus, U.S. News and World Report, MotorTrend, J.D. Power, Ford, Blue Origin, SpaceX, MIT, Jeff Bezos, and the Tesla Roadster.Links:Connect with RJTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: [email protected] Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm