The Myth of the Startup in a Large Company with Kevin Stewart

It Depends: Lessons in Technology Leadership

In this special episode, Kevin Goldsmith is joined by longtime friend and peer Kevin Stewart, SVP of Engineering at Splice, to challenge the familiar but flawed narrative: that a team inside a big company can "operate like a startup." Drawing on their shared experiences at Adobe and divergent paths through startups, they explore why innovation often stalls inside large organizations and what makes real startup environments fundamentally different.

This wide-ranging conversation touches on culture, risk, incentives, and why resource contention, not imagination, derails corporate innovation. Whether you lead a startup or a legacy company trying to move faster, this episode offers valuable perspective.

• Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/JVeKHsHJKhEM3dvK6
• The book: It Depends: Writing on Technology 2012-2022
• Your host: Kevin Goldsmith
• The Guest: Kevin Stewart
• This chapter in the newsletter: https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-the-startup-in-a-large-5c7