Strategy at Scale

← Strategy at Scale23 sep 2025 · 38 min

After the Idea: Julia Austin on Building Startups That Last

After the Idea: Julia Austin on Building Startups That Last23 sep 202538 min

Most founders obsess over the spark of an idea—but the real test begins after the idea. Julia Austin knows this better than most. As an operator at Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean, an advisor to hundreds of startups, a faculty member at Harvard Business School, and now the author of After the Idea, she’s seen what truly drives sustainable growth. In this episode of Strategy at Scale, Julia challenges the “move fast and break things” mindset and offers a grounded, evidence-driven playbook for...