Newcomer · Nov 10, 2026 · 1h 8m · 57m saved
With Ken Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst and former Chairman and CEO of American Express
Photo via generalcatalyst.com
General Catalyst had about $4 billion under management when its current chairman joined nine years ago, and it now has $43 billion. Ken Chenault, chairman and managing director of General Catalyst and former chairman and CEO of American Express, told Eric Newcomer on Newcomer that the bigger change is in what the firm does with that money.
Private-equity roll-ups usually buy companies and cut costs. General Catalyst's applied-AI roll-up has made more than 30 acquisitions without net layoffs and aims for revenue growth instead.
"I asked him, is the objective that you're going to make these companies more productive, cut costs? He said, no, Ken — if we have to lay off many people, that means we failed at our strategy." — Ken Chenault
Ken ran American Express, where he recast the company as a service business, and he put Amex money into Stripe's Series A when the company had about eight to ten employees.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 1 hour 8 minutes of audio, 11 minutes of reading.
Here are the 16 principles that matter.
Key Takeaways
General Catalyst's AI roll-up has made more than 30 acquisitions without net layoffs
Its latest was the Amex business-travel unit Ken spun out about 15 years earlier
Business exists because society allows it to exist, so it has to earn both profit and purpose
Harvard set its red lines before the pressure came, which is why it could refuse to settle
CEOs should speak out when core values or democracy itself are at stake, not on every issue
Ken invested in Stripe after Patrick Collison named his target market: "global GDP"
AI demand is outstripping supply, which makes this unlike the internet bubble in Ken's view
Ken thinks the era of move fast and break things is over, because long-term business needs trust
1. Born 3 Years Before Brown
Ken was promoting his memoir, Equal to the Task, and he frames his life against the civil rights and antiwar movements he grew up through. He was born three years before Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision against segregated public schools.
Ken Chenault says his life would have been totally different 30 years earlier
"If I was born 30 years before Brown v. Board of Education, we wouldn't be sitting here. My life would have been totally different." — Ken Chenault
