Scott Galloway Wants to Be “the Most Influential Thought Leader in the History of Business”

Scott Galloway begins our phone call with an admission. “To be honest, I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of a profile,” he says before I’ve asked him any questions. “I suffer from imposter syndrome. I’m waiting for the profile that reveals me for the less talented, lower-character person I am.” He pauses. “Anyways, here I am.”

Radical honesty—unusual for a public figure—is characteristic for Galloway, who has fashioned himself as an earnest, candid truth teller for an audience obsessed with business, tech and culture. He speaks his mind; he calls people out; he makes bold predictions and admits when he’s wrong (see his advice to sell Tesla’s stock when it was priced around $45 a share–it’s now at over $1,000)—and he isn’t afraid of a Twitter fight.

The 57-year-old juggles a wide array of professional ventures. He has two podcasts: Pivot, which he has hosted with Kara Swisher since 2018, and The Prof G Pod, which he hosts solo and launched just before the pandemic. He sends out a weekly newsletter, “No Mercy No Malice,” pontificating on topics ranging from “Squid Game” to the metaverse, each with a grabby illustration and typically a series of illustrative charts. He has founded a number of companies and has taught marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business for the past decade. He has written several best-selling books. And he tweets regularly to his more than 420,000 followers, sometimes posting photos of his dog and sometimes weighing in on political and cultural events and sometimes getting into public spats with Elon Musk.