Why Leadership Is About Repetition, Not Charisma | Emmett Shear

Why Leadership Is About Repetition, Not Charisma | Emmett Shear Former Twitch founder and interim OpenAI CEO ⁠Emmett Shear⁠, now Co-founder of Softmax, joins for a deep conversation on leadership, AI, and what it really takes to build meaningful, long-lasting companies. Recorded at Istanbul Slush’D 2025,  this episode explores why leadership is less about charisma and more about clarity and repetition, how founders must evolve as their companies scale, and why investors often don’t fully understand their own decision-making. We also dive into one of the most critical questions in AI today: how to move beyond performance toward systems that can act as responsible, trustworthy collaborators, a core idea behind Emmett’s work at Softmax. Hosted by Burcu Ağma, Co-Founder of Connectmind AI, this conversation offers grounded insights for founders, operators, and investors navigating leadership, innovation, and responsibility in a rapidly changing technological landscape. Timestamps [00:00] – Welcome & introduction [05:10] – How leadership evolves with scale [11:13] – Mindset shifts founders must make [18:48] – Building Softmax & responsible AI [19:40] – Balancing speed, care, and results Credits Host: Burcu Ağma Guest: Emmett Shear Recorded at:  Istanbul Slush’D 2025⁠ – ⁠KoProduction Podcast Studio⁠  Production: Poddict⁠⁠