Carly McGinnis — Startup Scrappiness, Trusting Your Team, and the Rhythm of Leadership (#96)

Carly McGinnis — Startup Scrappiness, Trusting Your Team, and the Rhythm of Leadership (#96)

December 4, 2025 · 1h 23m

About this episode

Carly McGinnis discusses her journey in leading Exploding Kittens and shares insights on leadership and team management.

About Carly Carly McGinnis is the driving force behind one of the fastest-growing tabletop companies in history. As CEO of Exploding Kittens , she’s helped lead the company to over 25 million games sold and dozens of successful launches, all while keeping the promises of the most-backed crowdfund ever. Carly’s path—from surviving the Hollywood talent-agency grind to building a global game business—has given her a rare blend of resilience, humor, and no-nonsense leadership. In this episode, we discuss how she scales teams, navigates creative chaos, and builds a culture that can actually deliver on big ideas. Related episodes with Elan Lee, Creator of Exploding Kittens Justin’s Ah-Ha Notes: * Slow Down to Grow Faster: Carly reminds us that speed isn’t the same as progress. When you rush just to keep moving, you create confusion, rework, and stress that ultimately slow you down. The real skill is learning to pause long enough to think clearly, set the right priorities, and avoid doing things simply for the sake of doing them. When you give yourself and your team permission to slow down, you actually create the conditions to grow faster and make better decisions. * Define “Good…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Gary

Guest: Carly McGinnis

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Exploding Kittens

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