About Maximos
Executive Coach and founder of Emboldened LLC, Maximos Lih’s leadership story traces back to his grandfather, an orphan who taught himself to read and eventually rose to become a four-star general in the Chinese military. Years after his grandfather’s retirement, strangers would approach the family with stories and gratitude for how “the General” had impacted their lives. From him, Maximos learned that true greatness is measured in how you make people feel.
After immigrating to America, Maximos carried that lesson forward. As he navigated a new world with English as his second language, he quickly recognized the power individuals have to shape the energy of a room. We can choose to foster kindness, excellence, and belonging, or exclusion and mockery. He committed himself to the former, a choice that has guided his journey ever since.
After graduating from UC Berkeley, Maximos was hired at Google as a data specialist in technical recruiting. His mandate: bring in the best engineers without scaling to mediocrity. That work propelled him into the startup world and later to Google Ventures, where he helped hundreds of founders scale their companies and leadership. He witnessed Uber grow from 80 to 500 employees in six months, supported Flatiron Health through a billion-dollar exit, and learned that high-performing teams must be built like Olympic teams—driven by mission, rare talent, and deep trust.
After nearly a decade at Google Ventures, Maximos now shares those lessons with the next generation of leaders, helping small teams scale without losing their edge and ensuring more people have the opportunity to thrive.
Today We Talked About
- Leadership
- Background
- Venture at good
- Scaling yourself
- Hero to Host
- Coffee is slow
- Context over control
- Highly aligned, loosly coupled
- What are the things that “only” I can do?
- Humane Layoffs
- AI
- Having craftsmanship… taste and structure, rather than just throwing things at the wall.
Connect with Maximos
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