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What 30 years in Silicon Valley taught me | Nextdoor, Nirav Tolia

EO20:27Added Aug 31, 2026

From the son of Indian immigrants to one of Yahoo's first 100 employees to building a public company, Nirav Tolia shares his improbable entrepreneurial journey.

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00I am Ner of Tolia, the CEO and
  3. 00:02co-founder of Next Door and someone who
  4. 00:04has been fortunate to work in technology
  5. 00:06for the last 30 years in Silicon Valley.
  6. 00:09I am the son of two incredible Indian
  7. 00:11immigrants who came to America truly
  8. 00:14lived the American dream. The things
  9. 00:15that I did naturally were more
  10. 00:17entrepreneurial. I had a car wash. I had
  11. 00:20a number of other neighborhood
  12. 00:22businesses that made me feel like I
  13. 00:25could create something out of nothing.
  14. 00:28Next Door is now 15 years old, but
  15. 00:31ultimately I wasn't growing with the
  16. 00:33company. The things that I was doing as
  17. 00:36a CEO were too similar to what we needed
  18. 00:38in the early days and not tuned or
  19. 00:41specific enough to what we needed to get
  20. 00:42to the next level. And so the decision
  21. 00:45was made and it was a very hard decision
  22. 00:47that we needed new leadership. And I
  23. 00:49left and for 5 and 1/2 years I was still
  24. 00:52linked to Next Door and I still loved
  25. 00:53the company, but I was on the sidelines,
  26. 00:56not on the field. When I left Next Door
  27. 00:59the first time, I spent five and a half
  28. 01:01years primarily being an investor. One
  29. 01:04of the really fun things I was able to
  30. 01:06do as an investor is to go on this
  31. 01:08popular show, Shark Tank. I went on as a
  32. 01:11shark. But when I went on, I realized
  33. 01:13something really interesting. I loved
  34. 01:16being a shark and I admired my fellow
  35. 01:19sharks. They were all very successful
  36. 01:21business people. But my true admiration
  37. 01:24was for the entrepreneurs because when
  38. 01:26they walked in to pitch us on live
  39. 01:29television, the pressure they were
  40. 01:31feeling, the anxiety, the nervousness, I
  41. 01:35know what that feels like because I felt
  42. 01:37it. And so my empathy for those people
  43. 01:40and what they were doing, it was very
  44. 01:42different than just being an investor.
  45. 01:44And ultimately, I came back to Next Door
  46. 01:46because I loved investing, but I am an
  47. 01:50entrepreneur.
  48. 01:52Even today, the thing that I care most
  49. 01:54about is having positive impact on the
  50. 01:58world. It's not easy to work long hours.
  51. 02:01There are lots of sacrifices. I want to
  52. 02:04feel like I had a positive impact on the
  53. 02:07world. And my way of doing that is by
  54. 02:10building technology companies.

  55. What is Nextdoor?

  56. 02:18Nextdoor is the essential neighborhood
  57. 02:21application. It's a social media service
  58. 02:23that helps you get closer with the
  59. 02:26people around you that makes your house
  60. 02:28feel like a home and makes you come
  61. 02:30together with your neighbors to build a
  62. 02:32stronger, safer, and happier local
  63. 02:34community. One of the big changes with
  64. 02:37this version of Next Door, the Next Next
  65. 02:39Door that we have recently released is
  66. 02:41that we've integrated local news into
  67. 02:44the service. The way that neighbors
  68. 02:46learned about things that were going on
  69. 02:48in their neighborhoods, even predating
  70. 02:50the internet, was through local
  71. 02:51newspapers. We're live in over 11
  72. 02:53countries around the world. As a public
  73. 02:56company, we are also generating hundreds
  74. 02:58of millions of dollars in revenue. But I
  75. 03:01think the important thing is every
  76. 03:03single day we know that neighbors use
  77. 03:05Next Door to make their local
  78. 03:07communities stronger. That was our dream
  79. 03:10when we started the company and we know
  80. 03:12it's happening today, which is so
  81. 03:13fulfilling for us.

  82. In a Rising Tide, All Boats Rise

  83. 03:21I was very lucky to be an undergrad at
  84. 03:23Stanford and through that process I
  85. 03:25heard of a young company that had just
  86. 03:27been started by two other Stanford
  87. 03:29students. The company was called Yahoo.
  88. 03:32The year was 1995 1996 and the internet
  89. 03:35was just beginning to boom. Because of
  90. 03:37my relationships at Stanford, I was able
  91. 03:39to go and work at Yahoo as my first job
  92. 03:42as one of the first 100 employees. And
  93. 03:44it was the lucky break of a lifetime.
  94. 03:47Being an early employee at Yahoo was
  95. 03:49like winning a ticket in a lottery.
  96. 03:52Yahoo in the mid90s was the hottest
  97. 03:55internet company. It was the product
  98. 03:57that not only was a shining beacon of
  99. 04:00innovation in this new field, this new
  100. 04:03dot era, it was a product that was
  101. 04:06beloved by users. I would wear my Yahoo
  102. 04:09t-shirt and walk down University Avenue
  103. 04:11in Palo Alto, California, and so many
  104. 04:13people would come up to me and tell me
  105. 04:15how much they loved using Yahoo. The
  106. 04:18first thing I would say about Yahoo is
  107. 04:20it was a very humble place. Even amidst
  108. 04:22its success, it was a very flat
  109. 04:25organization. And I remember the first
  110. 04:27week at Yahoo, I joined, one of the most
  111. 04:29junior people, one of the youngest
  112. 04:31people, a real nobody at the company.
  113. 04:33And the car that I was driving, the
  114. 04:35battery died and it couldn't start.
  115. 04:37Guess who gave me a jump from his car?
  116. 04:41One of the founders of Yahoo, who's gone
  117. 04:44on to become a billionaire and an
  118. 04:46internet celebrity. But that tells you
  119. 04:49about the humility of the place. And it
  120. 04:51wasn't just in helping a new employee
  121. 04:53with a dead car battery. It was in
  122. 04:56everything around building the company.
  123. 04:58No task was too big. No task was too
  124. 05:01small. It was not a hierarchical place.
  125. 05:04It was a place where the quality of
  126. 05:05ideas and the value of hard work is what
  127. 05:09led to success. Yahoo was a place during
  128. 05:12those days where almost every day that I
  129. 05:15came to work, the metrics were better
  130. 05:18because as great as Yahoo was as a
  131. 05:20company, it was caught in a revolution
  132. 05:22that was even bigger than any single
  133. 05:24company. And that was the dotcom
  134. 05:26revolution. And so we hear this
  135. 05:28expression, in a rising tide, all boats
  136. 05:31rise. Well, Yahoo was one of the biggest
  137. 05:34and best boats, but it was the
  138. 05:36beneficiary of that tide. And so over a
  139. 05:39three-year period at Yahoo, I saw the
  140. 05:41company grow from less than 100
  141. 05:43employees to over 10,000. When I look
  142. 05:46back at the lessons I learned at Yahoo,
  143. 05:48particularly about building consumer
  144. 05:51technology products, there's one that
  145. 05:53stands above all the others, and that is
  146. 05:57user value first. Google which came
  147. 06:00after Yahoo has a saying, one of its
  148. 06:02core principles. Follow the user first
  149. 06:06and all else will take care of itself.
  150. 06:09That is the way Yahoo operated and that
  151. 06:11is what I want next door to be like.
  152. 06:18You may ask why did I leave? Why did I
  153. 06:20only spend three years at Yahoo? Well,
  154. 06:22the truth is even though I loved being
  155. 06:24there, something was missing. And that
  156. 06:26thing that was missing is my direct
  157. 06:29influence on the impact the company was
  158. 06:32having. So after three amazing years at
  159. 06:34Yahoo, I left to start my own company.
  160. 06:37And I remember my goodbye party at
  161. 06:39Yahoo. I was lucky enough to have Jerry
  162. 06:41Yang, one of the founders there. And he
  163. 06:44came over to me towards the end of the
  164. 06:45party and he said, "You know, I wish you
  165. 06:48so much luck. I'm excited for you, but
  166. 06:50I'm curious. Why are you leaving Yahoo?
  167. 06:52No one is leaving this company right
  168. 06:54now." And I said, 'Jerry, when I think
  169. 06:56about this amazing thing you've built, I
  170. 06:59want to do the same thing. And he kind
  171. 07:02of looked at me with a puzzled look and
  172. 07:03I said, 'You understand that, right,
  173. 07:05Jerry? And he said, "Yes, I do
  174. 07:06understand it, but do you have any idea
  175. 07:09how hard it is to build a company?" And
  176. 07:12the truth is, I didn't. And one of the
  177. 07:14amazing thing about entrepreneurs, one
  178. 07:16of the amazing things is they don't know
  179. 07:19how difficult it's going to be when they
  180. 07:23start a company. If they did, they might
  181. 07:25not begin in the first place. But I went
  182. 07:29off, I started my own company, lots of
  183. 07:31highs and lows, ultimately a pretty good
  184. 07:34outcome. I went on to start multiple
  185. 07:36other companies. I became an investor,
  186. 07:39but all of it was because I wanted to be
  187. 07:42an entrepreneur because I felt that was
  188. 07:45the best way to have impact.

  189. Do the Right Thing, Even If It’s Slow

  190. 07:54Almost 30% of Americans could not name a
  191. 07:57single neighbor by name. So those bonds
  192. 08:01in the local community, they had been
  193. 08:03eroding. We found a book called Bowling
  194. 08:06Alone by Robert Putnham, the chair of
  195. 08:08the sociology department at Harvard. And
  196. 08:10the book was about the sport bowling and
  197. 08:14its evolution in America and how the
  198. 08:16popularity of the sport has not changed,
  199. 08:18but people no longer bowl in bowling
  200. 08:20leagues. They bowl alone. And it was a
  201. 08:23symbol of the decline and erosion of
  202. 08:26community. So we started to look around
  203. 08:29in our industry, in our lives, in the
  204. 08:32world in general. And here's what we
  205. 08:34noticed. We noticed the emergence of
  206. 08:37social media services. This was the
  207. 08:39summer of 2010. Facebook was starting to
  208. 08:42really ascend. LinkedIn was starting to
  209. 08:44ascend. Twitter, now called X, was
  210. 08:46starting to ascend. And so, there was a
  211. 08:48social platform connecting you to your
  212. 08:51friends, connecting you to your business
  213. 08:53colleagues, connecting you to people
  214. 08:55that you found interesting. There wasn't
  215. 08:57a social platform though that was
  216. 08:59connecting you to the physical world in
  217. 09:02which you lived, your neighborhood. And
  218. 09:04so as we moved from what was happening
  219. 09:05in the industry to what was happening in
  220. 09:08our own lives, we were getting a little
  221. 09:10older. We were getting more rooted in
  222. 09:12our neighborhoods. We were less likely
  223. 09:15to move away. We were more likely to
  224. 09:16invest in the place that we' chosen to
  225. 09:18live. But technology wasn't helping us
  226. 09:21make those investments. The same way
  227. 09:23Facebook was making it seamless for us
  228. 09:25to communicate with friends that we
  229. 09:26hadn't seen in years. There was no
  230. 09:28technology service that was making it
  231. 09:30easy to speak to the person next door.
  232. 09:33Now we don't rely on that village of the
  233. 09:36neighborhood where it does take a
  234. 09:38village. We don't have it anymore. All
  235. 09:41of those things compelled us, really
  236. 09:43inspired us to think,
  237. 09:45can we create a social media service
  238. 09:48that's focused on what we believe is one
  239. 09:50of the most important parts of our
  240. 09:52lives, and that is our local community.
  241. 09:55The idea was the neighborhood is one of
  242. 09:58the most important communities of them
  243. 09:59all. And ironically, while technology
  244. 10:03may have caused us to retreat away from
  245. 10:05our neighborhoods and onto our screens,
  246. 10:08can we use those same screens to bring
  247. 10:10us back to our neighborhoods? And that
  248. 10:13was the original vision
  249. 10:18to hear from actual neighbors what they
  250. 10:21wanted in a technology tool to make
  251. 10:24their neighborhood stronger, safer, and
  252. 10:26happier. And so before we wrote a line
  253. 10:28of code, before we designed a single
  254. 10:30interface, before we thought about the
  255. 10:32business model, we simply drew a mockup
  256. 10:37on a piece of paper and we showed it to
  257. 10:39neighbors and we let them respond. And
  258. 10:42very quickly, we found out that there
  259. 10:44were no existing technology tools that
  260. 10:47were bringing people together locally.
  261. 10:49We could use technology to speak to
  262. 10:51people on the other side of the world in
  263. 10:53real time, but there was no technology
  264. 10:56tool that would introduce us to the
  265. 10:58person right across the street. And so
  266. 11:00instantly we knew there was an
  267. 11:02opportunity. But the problem is when we
  268. 11:05started the company, the need for next
  269. 11:07door existed because people didn't know
  270. 11:10their neighbors. So if you don't know
  271. 11:13your neighbors, how do you invite them
  272. 11:15to a service? And this was a paradoxical
  273. 11:19challenge for us from the very
  274. 11:21beginning. The value we were looking to
  275. 11:23create was squarely in the way of us
  276. 11:26being able to build that value in the
  277. 11:28first place. And so we had to invest in
  278. 11:31really understanding the manual ways to
  279. 11:35get the first few people in the
  280. 11:37neighborhood and make sure they were the
  281. 11:39right few people. And then we had to
  282. 11:41invest in offline mechanisms, flyers,
  283. 11:45postcards. People used to laugh at us
  284. 11:48and say, "Let me get this straight.
  285. 11:50You're using real paper, like dead tree
  286. 11:53paper, to advertise your service." And
  287. 11:56we would say, "Well, our service is
  288. 11:58about the real world, and we aren't
  289. 12:00advertising using flyers and postcards.
  290. 12:03our neighbors are using those mechanisms
  291. 12:06to tell their neighbors who they don't
  292. 12:08know about this new service.
  293. 12:11It ended up working. We're in over 90%
  294. 12:15of neighborhoods in the country, but it
  295. 12:17was very slow, although it was steady.
  296. 12:20And one of the learnings for us is that
  297. 12:22great community building happens bottoms
  298. 12:26up. It can't happen top down. And
  299. 12:29sometimes that means it's slow but
  300. 12:31steady versus fast and instant. And we
  301. 12:35live in an industry where companies seem
  302. 12:37to grow with the snap of fingers.
  303. 12:41Where successes are called overnight
  304. 12:43successes.
  305. 12:45But long-term value and community, which
  306. 12:48is a uniquely human value, well, that's
  307. 12:51something like trust that takes a lot of
  308. 12:54time to build. You can lose it
  309. 12:57instantly, but to gain it takes repeated
  310. 13:00effort. And so all of our challenges,
  311. 13:04they've all been in the variety of
  312. 13:07choosing in many cases the hard thing to
  313. 13:10do because it's the thing that's going
  314. 13:12to drive the most long-term value when
  315. 13:15in almost every case the conventional
  316. 13:17wisdom is go and do the things that you
  317. 13:20can do quickly and easily and
  318. 13:23efficiently. But for us, it's about
  319. 13:25choosing the things that build
  320. 13:27community. And in almost all cases,
  321. 13:31those are the things that take forever.

  322. Focus on Who Not What

  323. 13:39Being a founder, being a CEO, being an
  324. 13:41executive, it's a lonely journey.
  325. 13:45It's not easy to talk about the
  326. 13:47struggle. It's not easy to confide in
  327. 13:50people. You want to be the person who's
  328. 13:52confident, who's optimistic, who's
  329. 13:55secure that what we're doing is the
  330. 13:56right thing. But in reality,
  331. 13:59it's very, very, very challenging. And
  332. 14:02there are many moments when you're
  333. 14:04unsure of yourself. How do you get
  334. 14:07around those moments? For me, I would
  335. 14:10tell entrepreneurs and founders, the
  336. 14:12solution has been to first focus on who
  337. 14:15and then what. And that means first
  338. 14:18thinking about your teammates versus the
  339. 14:22business opportunity. So many founders
  340. 14:24start by saying what is the business
  341. 14:27opportunity here? What is the vision
  342. 14:28that we're trying to build? What is the
  343. 14:30company we want to create? I always
  344. 14:33started by saying who do I want to work
  345. 14:35with? Who is going to be my set of
  346. 14:37co-founders? Because I know that when
  347. 14:40I'm alone, the lows are even lower. And
  348. 14:44frankly, the highs are not as high. But
  349. 14:46when I'm with a group of people, my
  350. 14:48community, when I think about we, not
  351. 14:51me, those lows, they can be overcome.
  352. 14:54And those highs, they are sublime
  353. 14:57because I'm sharing them with someone
  354. 14:59else. And so, the number one piece of
  355. 15:02advice that I give founders that I would
  356. 15:06give anyone trying to do something hard,
  357. 15:09first focus on who. And when I thought
  358. 15:13deeply about the thing that I felt had
  359. 15:16gone really well, but sometimes not so
  360. 15:18well and needed to go better, it was all
  361. 15:20around motivating my teammates. How am I
  362. 15:25interacting with my fellow employees?
  363. 15:27And ultimately what I realized is
  364. 15:30leadership is about lifting people up.
  365. 15:33It's about celebrating their
  366. 15:35accomplishments. It's about helping them
  367. 15:38when they feel stuck. Yes, we need to
  368. 15:40have incredibly high standards. Yes, we
  369. 15:44need to always be shooting for the
  370. 15:45stars. Yes, performance is absolutely
  371. 15:49the single most important thing in
  372. 15:51driving success. You have to perform.
  373. 15:54We're a public company. But as leaders,
  374. 15:56we can do that by championing people,
  375. 16:00not beating them down. And when I
  376. 16:02thought about my decades as a CEO, there
  377. 16:05were many moments where my frustration,
  378. 16:06my stress, and the demands that I put on
  379. 16:09myself ultimately manifested as me being
  380. 16:12hard on people. I think it's okay to be
  381. 16:15hard, but you have to be supportive.
  382. 16:17It's okay to be demanding, but you need
  383. 16:19to be empathetic. And ultimately, every
  384. 16:22single one of my colleagues, I know they
  385. 16:24can get jobs at many other companies,
  386. 16:27and it's a privilege they've chosen to
  387. 16:28work with me at Next Door. And so my job
  388. 16:31as a CEO and I believe the key job of
  389. 16:34leaders is to lift people up and make
  390. 16:37them feel like they can do their best
  391. 16:38work. And if that happens, the company
  392. 16:40can be and will be successful.

  393. How a 15-Year-Old Company Survives the AI Era

  394. 16:49Companies like everything else in the
  395. 16:51world, they need to evolve. They need to
  396. 16:53evolve within their four walls and they
  397. 16:56need to actually harmonize what they're
  398. 16:58doing with the outside world. The way to
  399. 17:01evolve your company as a leader is to
  400. 17:03first evolve yourself. And so what I
  401. 17:06found in trying to become AI first, AI
  402. 17:09fluent, AI native, all of these things
  403. 17:12that we know are critical in today's
  404. 17:14world. I have to use AI myself. I can't
  405. 17:18rely on the old ways of doing things.
  406. 17:20The question is if you could recreate
  407. 17:23your company from scratch, how would you
  408. 17:26use AI from day one? And that is the
  409. 17:29mindset. It's a business theory called
  410. 17:31zero basing. It's not taking something
  411. 17:35and slowly evolving it. It's taking
  412. 17:37something and pretending that it's going
  413. 17:39to be brand new and using the benefits
  414. 17:42of the new technology to build it from
  415. 17:45its foundation using the new technology.
  416. 17:48It's not good enough to simply say, "How
  417. 17:52can I use AI to make my business
  418. 17:54stronger?" The question is, if I were
  419. 17:56starting my business today,
  420. 17:58how would AI play a role in making it
  421. 18:01possible? That's actually the mindset
  422. 18:03shift that will get people to truly be
  423. 18:06AI native. And so ultimately we need to
  424. 18:09use artificial intelligence
  425. 18:11to train systems LLMs
  426. 18:15on what a neighborhood thinks is
  427. 18:16appropriate and what they believe that
  428. 18:19level of bias should or shouldn't be. If
  429. 18:21we try to approach it from a top- down
  430. 18:23basis and say these are nextdoor's
  431. 18:26rules, well we can come up with simple
  432. 18:28things. Be civil, be neighborly, be
  433. 18:31kind, be helpful. But bias is not in
  434. 18:34those kinds of situations. Bias is more
  435. 18:37things like, is it appropriate to have a
  436. 18:39conversation about local politics? Is it
  437. 18:42appropriate to advertise one small
  438. 18:44business? In some neighborhoods, it is.
  439. 18:47In others, commercialism is looked down
  440. 18:49on. The power of artificial intelligence
  441. 18:52is that for all 350,000 of our
  442. 18:54neighborhoods, we have 15 years of
  443. 18:58conversations. We can now take AI, run
  444. 19:01all of those conversations on a
  445. 19:03neighborhood by neighborhood basis
  446. 19:05through an LLM to define a set of biases
  447. 19:09and rules of the road, if you will,
  448. 19:12cultural norms that are not top down,
  449. 19:15but that are bottoms up. A set of
  450. 19:17cultural norms for every single one of
  451. 19:19those individual neighborhoods. The
  452. 19:21backdrop for me and I hope the backdrop
  453. 19:23for many companies and individuals will
  454. 19:26always be how do we use this technology
  455. 19:30tool to make the human race better? Not
  456. 19:33to put the human race out of existence,
  457. 19:36which is the real fear. I don't think
  458. 19:38it's going to happen. It hasn't happened
  459. 19:40in the past. But the reason it hasn't
  460. 19:42and the reason it won't is because
  461. 19:44people will continue to internalize that
  462. 19:48it's all about the human. It's all about
  463. 19:51what makes us people. And that's not
  464. 19:54something even artificial general
  465. 19:56intelligence will be able to
  466. 19:57approximate. And so as long as we
  467. 20:00remember that, this will be the most
  468. 20:02powerful tool so far in the history of
  469. 20:05technology, but still a tool