After her failure in the governor race, Meg Whitman found herself watching daytime TV until her husband encouraged her to take action, leading her to become the CEO of Hewlett-Packard shortly after.

Despite the risk of failure, Meg Whitman took on the challenging role of CEO at Hewlett-Packard right after her significant loss, demonstrating resilience and confidence in her abilities.

After the blackout, Ellen Pao resigned as CEO following community backlash, highlighting the challenges of leadership without the moral authority of a founder.

The decision to reject the offer was stressful, as many believed we should sell the company, and I realized I hadn't effectively communicated our mission to the team. Turning down Yahoo's billion dollar offer was painful because it led to a significant loss of trust within the company, resulting in many employees leaving due to a lack of belief in our vision.

After selling Kiko Calendar on eBay for about $4 million, we realized we wanted to continue pursuing startups, despite not keeping all the money from the sale.

I was forced out as CEO after a period of rapid growth, which was influenced by market changes and compliance issues that made investors nervous. David, the CEO, focused on attacking me for six months, which ultimately drove the company into the ground.

Susan Wojcicki, an early Google employee who championed YouTube's acquisition, played a critical role in its growth and served as CEO until 2023, significantly impacting the platform's trajectory.

We realized that if PayPal failed, it would create a massive loss of over $200 million in venture capital, so we decided to pitch our best ideas to each other, including an early version of LinkedIn.

Screwing up with investors' money can have permanent consequences, including a negative public record that can follow a founder for life.