6. 布萊恩?切斯基和約翰?多納霍

eBay首席執(zhí)行官約翰?多納霍于2012年通過馬克?安德森認(rèn)識(shí)了Airbnb的首席執(zhí)行官布萊恩?切斯基,。安德森是位有影響力的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本家,，目前擔(dān)任eBay董事，他的公司安德森-霍洛維茨（Andreessen Horowitz）在Airbnb有投資,。多納霍說,，他當(dāng)時(shí)想結(jié)交“硅谷最好的創(chuàng)始人”，因?yàn)樗嘘P(guān)于創(chuàng)新和設(shè)計(jì)的問題要請(qǐng)教,，于是安德森安排兩位首席執(zhí)行官碰了面,。他倆成了不太可能的朋友——多納霍 53歲，曾在達(dá)特茅斯大學(xué)（Dartmouth）主修經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué),，獲得過斯坦福大學(xué)（Stanford）的MBA學(xué)位,，還在貝恩公司（Bain & Co.）工作了將近20年。切斯基32歲,，畢業(yè)于羅得島設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)校（the Rhode Island School of Design）,，為了支付房租才創(chuàng)辦了Airbnb公司。正是他倆跨越年齡,、跨越行業(yè),、相互依賴的關(guān)系促使《財(cái)富》雜志開始尋找其他亦師亦友、坦誠(chéng)直言,，但偶爾也互相鼓勵(lì)的好朋友,?！猄.N.M.

多納霍：布萊恩提到（在Airbnb上）享受“七星級(jí)體驗(yàn)”，我反過來（去eBay）想：“如果我們是七星級(jí)體驗(yàn),，它會(huì)是什么樣,？”在遇到布萊恩這前，我是問不出這個(gè)問題的,。

切斯基：我確實(shí)不知道怎么發(fā)展壯大一家公司,。我和各種各樣的很多人談過，可當(dāng)我遇到約翰——神奇的地方在于,，一個(gè)人能認(rèn)識(shí)很多人,，但你想要確定得到的建議跟你掛得上鉤，而且就在當(dāng)下,。在我的市場(chǎng)上找到擁有眼下真實(shí)經(jīng)驗(yàn)的當(dāng)代人,，這得多幸運(yùn)？不久前,，約翰給我們的新組織的運(yùn)營(yíng)提供了幫助：我該怎么集中運(yùn)營(yíng),？怎么給團(tuán)隊(duì)瘦身？我需要哪些不同的職能,？我怎樣管理一支團(tuán)隊(duì),？我怎樣管理董事會(huì)？我甚至從沒有考慮過所有這些事情,，因?yàn)槟汩_公司時(shí)不會(huì)考慮商業(yè)的問題,，不會(huì)考慮公司的問題，你考慮的是產(chǎn)品,。

多納霍：創(chuàng)始人擁有異常明確的方向,；他們通常在產(chǎn)品和設(shè)計(jì)方面十分出色。他們靈活,，知道怎樣加快執(zhí)行的速度,。他們有更短的周期。所以我認(rèn)為,，我們對(duì)話的一部分內(nèi)容和硅谷正在發(fā)生的事情將最佳小企業(yè)與最佳大企業(yè)連接了起來,。事實(shí)是，大公司能從新創(chuàng)企業(yè)那里學(xué)到很多東西,，也能從它們的創(chuàng)始人那里受益,。我認(rèn)為的確存在互惠關(guān)系。

6. Brian Chesky & John Donahoe

eBay CEO John Donahoe met Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in 2012 through Marc Andreessen, the influential venture capitalist who sits on eBay's (EBAY, Fortune 500) board and whose firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is an investor in Airbnb. Donahoe says he was seeking to meet "the best founder in Silicon Valley" because he had some questions on innovation and design, and Andreessen put the two CEOs together. They make an unlikely duo -- Donahoe, 53, was an econ major at Dartmouth, got an MBA at Stanford, and worked at Bain & Co. for nearly 20 years; Chesky, 32, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and started Airbnb to help pay his rent. Their intergenerational, intercorporate, interdependent relationship was what inspired Fortune to look for other pairs of non-colleagues who provide each other with good counsel, honest feedback, and the occasional encouraging word. --S.N.M.

Donahoe: Brian talks about having a "seven-star experience" [on Airbnb]. And I went back [to eBay] and said, "If we had a seven-star experience, what would that look like?" I wouldn't have asked that before I met Brian.

Chesky: I didn't really know how to scale a company. I had talked to a number of different people, but when I met John -- the amazing thing is, you can meet a lot of people, but you want to make sure the advice you get is relevant to you, and it's contemporary. How lucky could I be to find somebody in my market, a contemporary, with real lessons for right now? John helped me recently with the new organization we have for operations: How do I centralize operations and lean out the team? What do I need in different functions? How do I run a team? How do I manage a board? All these things I never even thought about because when you start a company, you don't think about the business, you don't think about the company, you think about the product.

Donahoe: Founders have incredible clarity of direction; often they're great at product and design. They're nimble, and they know how to drive execution faster. They have a faster cycle time. So I think part of what's happening both in our conversations and what's happening in the Valley is a bridging between the best of the small companies and the best of the large companies. The reality is big companies can learn a lot from startups and can benefit from founders. And I think the reciprocal is probably true.