Hello again,

This week’s Second Harvester is Jon McNeill, a walking example of reinvention.

Standing at the edge

A few years ago, Jon was leading Tesla through one of the most precarious moments in its history. Cars were being built in tents, cash was measured in weeks, and bankruptcy was a real, looming outcome. When you’re peering over the edge like that, you get to know yourself very well.

But Jon is no stranger to closing the gap on cashflow, "I started my first company at age 8 (a lawn mowing company for my neighbors in my hometown of Kearney, Nebraska) because my family didn’t have the money to buy shoes and clothes."

That story captures a lot about Jon. He was purpose driven then, and nothing seems to have changed.

Now, at 60 years old, Jon is very much in his second harvest. He's decades into his journey but Jon still believes that purpose is a key driver of happiness and success. "I see purpose as the thing that drives you most. So, what is my purpose? It’s creating jobs." The stability of a job might be a nod to his financially insecure childhood, but it also gives his work meaning.

Scale is the judge, not the goal

His executive career didn’t start with the usual disruption theater. It started with learning how fundamental systems actually work. First at Bain, then as a founder, then inside companies moving at extraordinary speed. Over time, he saw the same pattern repeat: scale doesn’t create problems, it reveals them.

As President of Tesla, he helped grow revenue from $2B to $20B in just 18 months. At Lyft, he served as COO during a critical stretch, doubling revenue and helping guide the company toward its IPO. He’s sat in rooms where velocity is oxygen and mistakes compound fast. What's obvious when you meet Jon is that he doesn’t romanticize any of it.

When you talk with him, what stands out is the restraint. His thoughtful pauses give you the sense that he’s thinking through the second- and third-order consequences before opening his mouth. Leadership, in his telling, isn’t about speed for its own sake. It’s about judgment under pressure.

Over time, that perspective pulled him back toward entrepreneurship where he can continue delivering on his purpose.

Today, Jon is the CEO and co-founder of DVx Ventures, a venture studio building companies aimed at large, complex problems. He’s also an active board member at General Motors, Lululemon, Asurion, CrossFit, and Stash, and serves on the Liquid AI advisory council. He helped guide Lululemon through a profound turnaround. Not with dramatic gestures, but with his familiar operational discipline and cultural clarity.

Clarity through subtraction

If there’s a through-line, it’s this: Jon is less interested in going faster than in clarity.

In contrast to the current addition-addiction tactics we're seeing in businesses today, Jon talks about deleting steps before adding them. About decision hygiene. About knowing when not to scale something that isn’t ready. Growth, to Jon, is a discipline. One that carries a human cost when it’s done carelessly.

That’s why he spends time teaching at Harvard, MIT, Stanford. Students at these business schools might expect stories of domination and disruption. What they get instead are frameworks that hold up when things get messy. Jon is a walking reminder that leadership is less about having answers than about asking better questions.

Jon’s upcoming book, Jon’s upcoming book, The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, SpaceX, Lululemon, and General Motors, reflects that same posture. It’s not a victory lap. It’s a field guide for clear judgement. A distillation of what he’s seen work, and fail, across industries where the stakes and the consequences are real. At its core is a simple, uncomfortable idea: maybe growth isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing less, better, sooner.

Second Harvest exists for people like this. People who already know how to run hard. Who don’t need more motivation, but still seek fresh perspectives. People who see the value in subtraction, not adding complexity.

We're delighted to announce that Jon will be with us for a fireside chat at the Second Harvest Spring Summit on May 21st. Tickets for the summit are available on our site. We look forward to seeing you there.

With appreciation,

Richard & Devon