Peter Beck

Many companies claim they’re a rocketship—but few mean it literally. As a young child growing up in New Zealand, Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, spent a lot of time stargazing. His fascination in space inspired a passion-driven career of building a billion-dollar rocket company. Today, Rocket Lab touts the highest launch success rate of any rocket company in history—and was the first private company in the southern hemisphere to go to space. In this conversation, he shares founder lessons on how to build an unlikely business, driven by passion.Listen to all the Wish I Knew episodes: https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew 

Many companies claim they’re a rocketship—but few mean it literally. As a young child growing up in New Zealand, Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, spent a lot of time stargazing. His fascination in space inspired a passion-driven career of building a billion-dollar rocket company. Today, Rocket Lab touts the highest launch success rate of any rocket company in history—and was the first private company in the southern hemisphere to go to space. In this conversation, he shares founder lessons on how to build an unlikely business, driven by passion. Listen to all the Wish I Knew episodes: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew</a>

Peter Beck: How one CEO transformed his fascination with space into a billion-dollar rocket company 

Failure. It's no fun, but it's a part of life — and big failures can often be the springboard to even bigger successes. That's why we're launching Wish I Knew, a new show from Bessemer Venture Partners about the revelatory, life-changing, "a-ha" moments that founders, CEOs and leaders discover along their business journeys and why taking risks leads to growth. Season 1 premiered on November 14th, so tune in.

Failure. It's no fun, but it's a part of life — and big failures can often be the springboard to even bigger successes. That's why we're launching Wish I Knew, a new show from Bessemer Venture Partners about the revelatory, life-changing, "a-ha" moments that founders, CEOs and leaders discover along their business journeys and why taking risks leads to growth. Season 1 premiered on November 14th, so tune in.

Introducing: Wish I Knew

Daniel Dines

Daniel Dines is the co-founder and CEO of UiPath, a leading provider of enterprise automation software. Dines started UiPath in 2005 with the goal of building a solution that could help humans reduce the time and stress that come from menial, administrative business tasks. Today, Dines’ vision is to make software robots, powered by computer vision and AI, as common as PCs in the workplace. He not only graduated from the Cloud 100 list in 2021, but also did so with record-breaking success in its most recent IPO in April. UiPath raised $2 billion of venture capital on their way to a blockbuster IPO and today trades well above $30 billion in the public markets. In this episode, Daniel talks about the early days of being a developer, the challenges and opportunities of starting a business in Bucharest, Romania, and his unique way of leading and managing his own mindset in order to drive success for UiPath with 3,000 employees around the globe.  Join us for The Cloud 100 - RSVP before August 10, 2021! https://thecloud100.com And to hear more from Cloud Giants go to https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldines/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daniel Dines</a> is the co-founder and CEO of UiPath, a leading provider of enterprise automation software. Dines started UiPath in 2005 with the goal of building a solution that could help humans reduce the time and stress that come from menial, administrative business tasks. Today, Dines’ vision is to make software robots, powered by computer vision and AI, as common as PCs in the workplace. He not only graduated from the Cloud 100 list in 2021, but also did so with record-breaking success in its most recent IPO in April. UiPath raised $2 billion of venture capital on their way to a blockbuster IPO and today trades well above $30 billion in the public markets. In this episode, Daniel talks about the early days of being a developer, the challenges and opportunities of starting a business in Bucharest, Romania, and his unique way of leading and managing his own mindset in order to drive success for UiPath with 3,000 employees around the globe.  Join us for The Cloud 100 - RSVP before August 10, 2021! <a href="https://thecloud100.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://thecloud100.com</a> And to hear more from Cloud Giants go to <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giantshttps://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

Daniel Dines, CEO of UiPath 

In this final episode of this special micro season of Cloud 100 conversations, we’re highlighting the rising stars of the cloud industry and the ways in which Millennial and Gen Z entrepreneurs are approaching company building with fresh eyes and unique values. In this conversation, we hear the founding stories of Baron Davis, former NBA allstar and CEO of Baron Davis Enterprises, Elizabeth Zalman, CEO of StrongDM, and Yonas Beshawred, CEO of Stackshare and what motivates them to build new solutions on the cutting edge of their fields. To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

In this final episode of this special micro season of Cloud 100 conversations, we’re highlighting the rising stars of the cloud industry and the ways in which Millennial and Gen Z entrepreneurs are approaching company building with fresh eyes and unique values. In this conversation, we hear the founding stories of Baron Davis, former NBA allstar and CEO of <a href="http://www.barondavisenterprises.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Baron Davis Enterprises</a>, Elizabeth Zalman, CEO of <a href="https://www.strongdm.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">StrongDM</a>, and Yonas Beshawred, CEO of <a href="https://stackshare.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stackshare</a> and what motivates them to build new solutions on the cutting edge of their fields. To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

The Rising Stars of the Cloud 

Welcome back to Cloud Giants in a special micro season featuring the incredible conversations we had with top CEOs at this year’s Cloud 100 virtual summit. Edith Harbaugh, CEO of LaunchDarkly, Yancey Spruill, CEO of DigitalOcean, and Dave MacJannet, CEO of HashiCorp, come together to discuss how their companies serve the global developer community, the strategies they’ve implemented to earn the trust of developers who use their products, and the stories behind how organizations and the world have changed due to developer innovation. Let’s dive into this insightful conversation about how developer platforms are the foundation to today’s digital industrial revolution. To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

Welcome back to Cloud Giants in a special micro season featuring the incredible conversations we had with top CEOs at this year’s Cloud 100 virtual summit. Edith Harbaugh, CEO of LaunchDarkly, Yancey Spruill, CEO of DigitalOcean, and Dave MacJannet, CEO of HashiCorp, come together to discuss how their companies serve the global developer community, the strategies they’ve implemented to earn the trust of developers who use their products, and the stories behind how organizations and the world have changed due to developer innovation. Let’s dive into this insightful conversation about how developer platforms are the foundation to today’s digital industrial revolution. To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

How Developer Platforms Will Run The World 

For any leader that has helped a company go public they know one thing is true: The IPO isn’t the finish line—it’s a new beginning. In this conversation, Pierre Naude, CEO of nCino, Therese Tucker, CEO of BlackLine, and Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey share what they wish they knew before leading their company through the transition of going private to public, and the leadership advice they’d offer emerging cloud leaders today. To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

For any leader that has helped a company go public they know one thing is true: The IPO isn’t the finish line—it’s a new beginning. In this conversation, Pierre Naude, CEO of nCino, Therese Tucker, CEO of BlackLine, and Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey share what they wish they knew before leading their company through the transition of going private to public, and the leadership advice they’d offer emerging cloud leaders today. To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

What I Wish I Knew Before The IPO

In this special episode from Cloud 100, we’re talking about how the go-to-market strategies of B2B SaaS companies have evolved over the years, as more companies successfully scale at breakneck speeds. In this conversation, Karen Peacock, CEO of Intercom, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach, discuss the various models of GTM success as cloud companies build, grow, and scale. Plus they share frameworks and advice to leaders on the decisions they navigate in order to align functionally across the organization and drive customer adoption, retention, and expansion.  To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

In this special episode from Cloud 100, we’re talking about how the go-to-market strategies of B2B SaaS companies have evolved over the years, as more companies successfully scale at breakneck speeds. In this conversation, Karen Peacock, CEO of Intercom, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach, discuss the various models of GTM success as cloud companies build, grow, and scale. Plus they share frameworks and advice to leaders on the decisions they navigate in order to align functionally across the organization and drive customer adoption, retention, and expansion.  To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

The Go To Marketing Learning Curve

As we all know, today’s leaders are the drivers of tomorrow’s innovations but they also play a large role in supporting social movements, philanthropy, and giving back to build a better tomorrow. At Cloud 100, we heard what the new guard of tech increasingly wants as told through the stories of four CEOs: Stephen Curry, CEO of SC30, Inc. and athlete for the Golden State Warriors, Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, Frank Slootman, CEO of Snowflake, and Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty. In this conversation, They discuss the legacies they hope to build with the companies they’re leading and how their values translate into the change they’re driving and the decisions they make each day. Together these leaders dive into the strategies to future-proof their businesses and the future of the tech industry. You’re in for a real treat.  To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants

As we all know, today’s leaders are the drivers of tomorrow’s innovations but they also play a large role in supporting social movements, philanthropy, and giving back to build a better tomorrow. At Cloud 100, we heard what the new guard of tech increasingly wants as told through the stories of four CEOs: Stephen Curry, CEO of <a href="https://sc30.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SC30, Inc.</a> and athlete for the Golden State Warriors, Eric Yuan, CEO of <a href="http://zoom.us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Zoom</a>, Frank Slootman, CEO of <a href="https://www.snowflake.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Snowflake</a>, and Jennifer Tejada, CEO of <a href="http://pagerduty.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PagerDuty</a>. In this conversation, They discuss the legacies they hope to build with the companies they’re leading and how their values translate into the change they’re driving and the decisions they make each day. Together these leaders dive into the strategies to future-proof their businesses and the future of the tech industry. You’re in for a real treat.  To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

What Matters to the New Guard of Tech

As we close out the year, I wanted to bring you a special micro season featuring some of the conversations we had at this year’s Cloud 100 2020 Summit. In these five episodes, you’ll hear from top CEOs on topics ranging from what matters to the new guard of tech, how developer platforms will run the world, what makes millennials and Gen Z approach entrepreneurship differently, and so much more.  To learn more, go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants 

As we close out the year, I wanted to bring you a special micro season featuring some of the conversations we had at this year’s Cloud 100 2020 Summit. In these five episodes, you’ll hear from top CEOs on topics ranging from what matters to the new guard of tech, how developer platforms will run the world, what makes millennials and Gen Z approach entrepreneurship differently, and so much more.  To learn more, go to: <a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.bvp.com/atlas/cloud-giants</a>

Trailer: Cloud 100 2020 Summit

Scott Farquhar

In the tenth episode of Cloud Giants, we have Scott Farquhar, the co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian. At a roughly $50 billion dollar market cap, they’re not only the pride of Australian tech, but one of the flag bearers for cloud and developer platforms globally. Millions of users globally rely on Atlassian products every day for improving software development, project management, collaboration, and code quality.  We dive into Scott’s story of Atlassian’s founding, the leadership insights he’s learned throughout Atlassian’s 18-year journey, and what he thinks work will be like in the coming decade.

In the tenth episode of Cloud Giants, we have Scott Farquhar, the co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian. At a roughly $50 billion dollar market cap, they’re not only the pride of Australian tech, but one of the flag bearers for cloud and developer platforms globally. Millions of users globally rely on Atlassian products every day for improving software development, project management, collaboration, and code quality. We dive into Scott’s story of Atlassian’s founding, the leadership insights he’s learned throughout Atlassian’s 18-year journey, and what he thinks work will be like in the coming decade.

Scott Farquhar, co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian

Cloud Giants is brought to you by Bessemer Venture Partners. We talk to entrepreneurs, founders and great leaders who have built world changing cloud platform companies.

For any founder in tech, these are great conversations to hear from the people who have built billion-dollar cloud companies. I love the personal stories Jeff shares in episode 2 — such a reminder of what it takes to be a resilient business owner.

Insightful stories from top entrepreneurs

Cloud Giants

Aaron Levie

Aaron Levie is the founder and CEO of Box, the cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. If you work in the modern business world, then you have almost certainly used Box to save and share documents. In this episode, Byron and Aaron talk about how he and his co-founders first built the company in 2004, why they decided to serve enterprises over consumers, and insights on building an a C-Suite, culture, and transitioning into being a CEO of a public company. Top highlights from this episode include:  How Aaron and his founding team approached their pivot to the enterprise: “By ‘06 and ‘07, we asked ourselves: ‘What if we let an enterprise deploy a hundred or a thousand users and we’ll just charge per seat? It’ll be a monthly recurring business model and we’ll have all the IT and the security features that they need?” Aaron said. “We’ll sell this as an enterprise software product with a bottoms-up distribution motion with a sales team that works off of those customers. And so in a matter of a few weeks, maybe to a month or two, we designed the business model that has stuck with us to this day. In ‘06 and ‘07, this model pivoted the company, and made sure that we had a kind of a modern enterprise software model that was bottoms-up, consumer-driven, but also focused on selling to large enterprises and to the Fortune 500.” Why all feedback is always useful to consider: “I can look back now with the benefit of hindsight and I’d say 95% of the feedback that we got from the investors that turned us down was actually correct,” said Aaron. “Either it took us longer to realize it, we didn’t get it, maybe we didn’t answer in real time in the right way. Maybe we didn’t portray actually why we agreed because we were taken aback by the feedback. Take feedback from everybody you can, because oftentimes you can synthesize it and take just the bits and pieces across all of the people that will give you constructive or critical feedback.” The importance of finding a great COO: “COO has become obviously quite a catch all term in the Valley and I think one company’s COO doesn’t look like another company’s COO. That’s because the role is usually a way of complimenting and balancing out the skills or the gaps of the CEO,” said Aaron. “For me, I’m very product oriented. I tend to lean more toward thinking about the strategy, our customers, the culture, and not necessarily the entire day measuring the pipeline, building out the salesforce, and coordinating the end-to-end go-to-market execution.” The power of achieving positive cash flow early on: “Ultimately the reason why cash flow early in a business matters is because it gets you in a mindset of having to build a business that is a real business that’s going to scale,” said Aaron. “When you’re thinking about scaling a company early on, this mindset ensures that you’re not burning lots of money, the model works, and you don’t need to raise an unbelievable amount of capital to keep the business going.” Why an IPO exit is just the beginning for a company: “For the entrepreneurs and for the team going public is truly when the clock starts and it’s really game time. I think too many startups, too many founders, too many people, they think of the exit or the IPO as some sort of flag in the ground moment,” said Aaron. “All I can tell you is it only gets way harder and so going public at the right time, going public with the right team, with the right business model, both are really, really important because nothing will get easier about your company once you go public. It will only get harder. It’ll only get more stressful. It’ll get more gratifying for sure, but nothing gets easier.”

Aaron Levie is the founder and CEO of Box, the cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. If you work in the modern business world, then you have almost certainly used Box to save and share documents. In this episode, Byron and Aaron talk about how he and his co-founders first built the company in 2004, why they decided to serve enterprises over consumers, and insights on building an a C-Suite, culture, and transitioning into being a CEO of a public company. Top highlights from this episode include: <ul> <li>How Aaron and his founding team approached their pivot to the enterprise: “By ‘06 and ‘07, we asked ourselves: ‘What if we let an enterprise deploy a hundred or a thousand users and we’ll just charge per seat? It’ll be a monthly recurring business model and we’ll have all the IT and the security features that they need?” Aaron said. “We’ll sell this as an enterprise software product with a bottoms-up distribution motion with a sales team that works off of those customers. And so in a matter of a few weeks, maybe to a month or two, we designed the business model that has stuck with us to this day. In ‘06 and ‘07, this model pivoted the company, and made sure that we had a kind of a modern enterprise software model that was bottoms-up, consumer-driven, but also focused on selling to large enterprises and to the Fortune 500.”</li> <li>Why all feedback is always useful to consider: “I can look back now with the benefit of hindsight and I’d say 95% of the feedback that we got from the investors that turned us down was actually correct,” said Aaron. “Either it took us longer to realize it, we didn’t get it, maybe we didn’t answer in real time in the right way. Maybe we didn’t portray actually why we agreed because we were taken aback by the feedback. Take feedback from everybody you can, because oftentimes you can synthesize it and take just the bits and pieces across all of the people that will give you constructive or critical feedback.”</li> <li>The importance of finding a great COO: “COO has become obviously quite a catch all term in the Valley and I think one company’s COO doesn’t look like another company’s COO. That’s because the role is usually a way of complimenting and balancing out the skills or the gaps of the CEO,” said Aaron. “For me, I’m very product oriented. I tend to lean more toward thinking about the strategy, our customers, the culture, and not necessarily the entire day measuring the pipeline, building out the salesforce, and coordinating the end-to-end go-to-market execution.”</li> <li>The power of achieving positive cash flow early on: “Ultimately the reason why cash flow early in a business matters is because it gets you in a mindset of having to build a business that is a real business that’s going to scale,” said Aaron. “When you’re thinking about scaling a company early on, this mindset ensures that you’re not burning lots of money, the model works, and you don’t need to raise an unbelievable amount of capital to keep the business going.”</li> <li>Why an IPO exit is just the beginning for a company: “For the entrepreneurs and for the team going public is truly when the clock starts and it’s really game time. I think too many startups, too many founders, too many people, they think of the exit or the IPO as some sort of flag in the ground moment,” said Aaron. “All I can tell you is it only gets way harder and so going public at the right time, going public with the right team, with the right business model, both are really, really important because nothing will get easier about your company once you go public. It will only get harder. It’ll only get more stressful. It’ll get more gratifying for sure, but nothing gets easier.”</li></ul>

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box

Dan Springer

Dan  Springer founded Responsys in 2004 and after a successful exit, he took  four years off to be a stay at home dad. In 2017, Dan Springer joined  DocuSign as their CEO. In this episode of Cloud Giants, Byron Deeter talks to Dan about transitioning back to work, how to be a good leader, setting boundaries, and how Dan increased DocuSign's value by $14 billion during his time as CEO. Takeaways include:  As a leader, be aware of your gender bias: “People make this construct around being a stay-at-home dad and describe how strange it is,” Dan said. “Usually people say, ‘You were at the top of your game. All these people must be calling you for these great deals.’ My feminist friends say if I were a woman, people wouldn’t be asking that question. They’d get, ‘Well, you should have been staying home with your kids anyway.’ We should be aware we have these biases. I probably had a little bit of that bias myself at the time, but I’ve been educated. As we like to say, feedback is a gift. Thank you for all the women and men who are great feminists that have given me that perspective that I missed.” Why ambiguity kills productivity for leadership teams: “As a founder, be unbelievably clear on what skills you’re bringing in and how the company is going to change over time. Are you bringing in a COO who over time is going to maybe grow into the CEO? Well, then how much time? When will you know that person is ready? What will your new role be? Get clarity on all those questions because most issues arise when people are too polite and ambiguous.” If you failed the first time, set the boundary the second time: “As a person who is admittedly weak on setting boundaries, this is a big lesson for me still,” said Dan. “If someone shows up at my office or someone sends me an email asking me for something, I say yes. I’ve learned to set the boundary on the second time. I say, ‘Hey, happy to help. In the future, I need you to do it this other way.’ For example, we have all hands meetings every quarter where I speak to the entire company and I also do town hall meetings in all our offices. I try to drive people into those lanes where I’ve already allocated the time. So that means if I’m visiting customers, this isn’t the time for you to ask me about another issue. I’m with a customer.” Leadership is about understanding the trade offs: “One of the biggest things that executive leadership can provide is the ability to bifurcate the discussion into which things are really competing with each other and which things are independent,” said Dan. “If you get down to each of those discussions, you’re able to find better solutions because of the way you’ve framed the question.”

Dan  Springer founded Responsys in 2004 and after a successful exit, he took  four years off to be a stay at home dad. In 2017, Dan Springer joined  DocuSign as their CEO. In this episode of Cloud Giants, Byron Deeter talks to Dan about transitioning back to work, how to be a good leader, setting boundaries, and how Dan increased DocuSign's value by $14 billion during his time as CEO. <h2>Takeaways include:</h2> <ul> <li>As a leader, be aware of your gender bias: “People make this construct around being a stay-at-home dad and describe how strange it is,” Dan said. “Usually people say, ‘You were at the top of your game. All these people must be calling you for these great deals.’ My feminist friends say if I were a woman, people wouldn’t be asking that question. They’d get, ‘Well, you should have been staying home with your kids anyway.’ We should be aware we have these biases. I probably had a little bit of that bias myself at the time, but I’ve been educated. As we like to say, feedback is a gift. Thank you for all the women and men who are great feminists that have given me that perspective that I missed.”</li> <li>Why ambiguity kills productivity for leadership teams: “As a founder, be unbelievably clear on what skills you’re bringing in and how the company is going to change over time. Are you bringing in a COO who over time is going to maybe grow into the CEO? Well, then how much time? When will you know that person is ready? What will your new role be? Get clarity on all those questions because most issues arise when people are too polite and ambiguous.”</li> <li>If you failed the first time, set the boundary the second time: “As a person who is admittedly weak on setting boundaries, this is a big lesson for me still,” said Dan. “If someone shows up at my office or someone sends me an email asking me for something, I say yes. I’ve learned to set the boundary on the second time. I say, ‘Hey, happy to help. In the future, I need you to do it this other way.’ For example, we have all hands meetings every quarter where I speak to the entire company and I also do town hall meetings in all our offices. I try to drive people into those lanes where I’ve already allocated the time. So that means if I’m visiting customers, this isn’t the time for you to ask me about another issue. I’m with a customer.”</li> <li>Leadership is about understanding the trade offs: “One of the biggest things that executive leadership can provide is the ability to bifurcate the discussion into which things are really competing with each other and which things are independent,” said Dan. “If you get down to each of those discussions, you’re able to find better solutions because of the way you’ve framed the question.”</li></ul>

Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign

Join Byron Deeter and Jeremy Levine from Bessemer Venture Partners as they bring together three resilient founders who built their startups during the immediate aftermath of the 2008 Recession.  In this conversation, we talk to Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio, Tobi Lütke, CEO and founder of Shopify, and Ben Silbermann, CEO and co-founder of Pinterest. Key insights include:  What inspired Twilio to keep pushing even after they didn’t get any funding in the summer of 2008: “Our customers were telling us we’re on the right track,” remembered Jeff. “We should be listening to customers. And if we’re right about that, then obviously the investor thing will work itself out. No matter where you’re at as a company, focusing on your customers is the right path. Of course, it’s not everything,” said Jeff. “In 2008, there was a lot of luck involved, but we continue to follow that early lesson today.” Why everything Shopify built was tightly connected to the fundamentals of their business and mission: “None of our customers were going out of business because they had Shopify. It was a well designed, affordable online store. In fact, a lot of people actually ended up selling online to get a second income stream,” Tobi said. “A major disruption, [like the ‘08 Recession or a global pandemic] is sort of like shaking a tree and seeing what fruit fall off.” Founder advice on self care from Pinterest’s CEO: “If you’re a founder, your ability to build a successful company turns on your ability to take care of yourself and the people that are very important around you,” Ben said. “We’re experiencing a global health crisis. So taking care of yourself could mean delaying your startup and staying at your job and supporting your family in a way they need it, or doing it at night, etc. People shouldn’t be ashamed of that.”

Join Byron Deeter and Jeremy Levine from Bessemer Venture Partners as they bring together three resilient founders who built their startups during the immediate aftermath of the 2008 Recession.  In this conversation, we talk to Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio, Tobi Lütke, CEO and founder of Shopify, and Ben Silbermann, CEO and co-founder of Pinterest. <h2>Key insights include:</h2> <ul> <li>What inspired Twilio to keep pushing even after they didn’t get any funding in the summer of 2008: “Our customers were telling us we’re on the right track,” remembered Jeff. “We should be listening to customers. And if we’re right about that, then obviously the investor thing will work itself out. No matter where you’re at as a company, focusing on your customers is the right path. Of course, it’s not everything,” said Jeff. “In 2008, there was a lot of luck involved, but we continue to follow that early lesson today.”</li> <li>Why everything Shopify built was tightly connected to the fundamentals of their business and mission: “None of our customers were going out of business because they had Shopify. It was a well designed, affordable online store. In fact, a lot of people actually ended up selling online to get a second income stream,” Tobi said. “A major disruption, [like the ‘08 Recession or a global pandemic] is sort of like shaking a tree and seeing what fruit fall off.”</li> <li>Founder advice on self care from Pinterest’s CEO: “If you’re a founder, your ability to build a successful company turns on your ability to take care of yourself and the people that are very important around you,” Ben said. “We’re experiencing a global health crisis. So taking care of yourself could mean delaying your startup and staying at your job and supporting your family in a way they need it, or doing it at night, etc. People shouldn’t be ashamed of that.”</li></ul>

Shopify, Twilio, & Pinterest CEOs on building a startup during a downturn

Jeff Lawson

Jeff Lawson is the co-founder and CEO of Twilio, founded in 2008. Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages. As a customer, anytime you call or text your Uber driver, you are using Twilio! Today Byron will talk with Jeff about his career leading up to founding Twilio, how they built the company and the challenges along the way to their IPO. Insights and key takeaways from Jeff Lawson  Internet connection can be the source of invention and inspiration in college: “I arrived at school in 1995. And so, many people arrived at college and the thing they were most excited about was alcohol or other girls or boys or whoever it was, and the freedom of leaving home. And for me, I arrived in the dorm and I was like, “Oh my God, there’s a 10 megabit ethernet jack in this,” remembered Jeff. “That was the thing that was most exciting to me. That was the most life-changing part about going to college. Not the alcohol or the parties or anything. And it was ‘95, so it was right after the Netscape IPO, and I remember one of the first things I did after I said goodbye to my parents was I FTPed down a copy of Netscape Navigator 1.0, and suddenly was able to start browsing this brand new thing called the web.” When Jeff was working on a startup he realized the importance of following your passion: “Why am I grinding out code with these skate kids all around me breaking my flow, when really I belong in tech?” asked Jeff. “I realized I had made that same mistake again, of not following my passion. I was pouring all my blood sweat and tears into a company where it was a good business opportunity, but wasn’t where my heart was.” Twilio was started because Jeff always believed that software is a super power: “Developers can build software quickly and iteratively to serve customers,” said Jeff. “Your work is never done because you can always hear the next problem or the next improvement, and put your mind to work and build a better version of your product.” Experimentation is the prerequisite to innovation. “If you can help a developer and help companies run more experiments for what their customers need, then you’re going to get more innovation. If you ruthlessly remove the friction, the barriers to experimentation, that is what you need to enable innovation. That was the guiding principle that we started the company with,” said Jeff. In the cloud your number one value proposition you’re selling is trust. “No matter what you do. If you’re a communications API, if you’re infrastructure as a service, or if you’re a SaaS product. What you’re fundamentally telling your customer is, “Trust me to run this part of your business for you.”

Jeff Lawson is the co-founder and CEO of Twilio, founded in 2008. Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages. As a customer, anytime you call or text your Uber driver, you are using Twilio! Today Byron will talk with Jeff about his career leading up to founding Twilio, how they built the company and the challenges along the way to their IPO. <h2>Insights and key takeaways from Jeff Lawson</h2> <ul> <li>Internet connection can be the source of invention and inspiration in college: “I arrived at school in 1995. And so, many people arrived at college and the thing they were most excited about was alcohol or other girls or boys or whoever it was, and the freedom of leaving home. And for me, I arrived in the dorm and I was like, “Oh my God, there’s a 10 megabit ethernet jack in this,” remembered Jeff. “That was the thing that was most exciting to me. That was the most life-changing part about going to college. Not the alcohol or the parties or anything. And it was ‘95, so it was right after the Netscape IPO, and I remember one of the first things I did after I said goodbye to my parents was I FTPed down a copy of Netscape Navigator 1.0, and suddenly was able to start browsing this brand new thing called the web.”</li> <li>When Jeff was working on a startup he realized the importance of following your passion: “Why am I grinding out code with these skate kids all around me breaking my flow, when really I belong in tech?” asked Jeff. “I realized I had made that same mistake again, of not following my passion. I was pouring all my blood sweat and tears into a company where it was a good business opportunity, but wasn’t where my heart was.”</li> <li>Twilio was started because Jeff always believed that software is a super power: “Developers can build software quickly and iteratively to serve customers,” said Jeff. “Your work is never done because you can always hear the next problem or the next improvement, and put your mind to work and build a better version of your product.”</li> <li>Experimentation is the prerequisite to innovation. “If you can help a developer and help companies run more experiments for what their customers need, then you’re going to get more innovation. If you ruthlessly remove the friction, the barriers to experimentation, that is what you need to enable innovation. That was the guiding principle that we started the company with,” said Jeff.</li> <li>In the cloud your number one value proposition you’re selling is trust. “No matter what you do. If you’re a communications API, if you’re infrastructure as a service, or if you’re a SaaS product. What you’re fundamentally telling your customer is, “Trust me to run this part of your business for you.”</li></ul>

Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio

Adam Miller

Adam  Miller is the founder &amp; CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand. He started  Cornerstone in 1999 in his one-bedroom apartment to help people realize their professional potential. Under his leadership, Cornerstone has grown to over $500 million in revenue and is one of the largest cloud computing companies in the world. Insights and key takeaways from Adam Miller  Perspective is essential with challenging sales cycles and near-death experiences: “We were very bad at sales back then. We had lined up this great pipeline of potential clients in August of 2001, all northeast financial service firms. While we had very little capital, we had raised no money, and we really needed these sales to keep the business operation,” remembered Adam Miller. “Then, September 11th happened. I was told by the management team, by every advisor, by every investor, ‘Adam, you have to cut the business. Cut the staff down to the minimum number of people.’ We had very few people to begin with. Cutting the staff down would mean we wouldn’t be able to deliver to a client. So, on September 15th, 2001, we started hiring more people. We ended up closing three deals. Those accounts ended up being the capital for the business, and we grew the company from there.” Culture change is inevitable: “One year we were going to go from 45 to 51, and then from 51 to 150. So, we’re going to triple the size of the company. What I’ve learned over the years is that it’s never about the absolute number of people. It’s always about the relative number of people,” said Adam. “Are you adding 10% more people, 50% more people, 100% more people? The higher the percentage, the more of an impact that influx is going to have on the culture of the business. And if you don’t do it by design, you’re going to end up with a culture you don’t want.” As the business scales, there are always new skills you need to welcome: “At Cornerstone onDemand, we try to do a 50-50 hire from outside and promote from within. It’s important to advance those who have invested in the company as well as bring in fresh perspectives at each new stage,” said Adam. The stock market demands precision in your business forecasts and revenue: “If you’re thinking about going public, every quarter, write on a Post-it what number you think you’re going to have at the end of the quarter and put it in a drawer. You should do it, your CFO should do it. After you get it right three quarters in a row, you’re ready to go public,” said Adam. “It’s much harder than people think.” Entrepreneurs need passion, persistence, perseverance, and persuasion: “I like to say that good entrepreneurs need to have the three Ps,” said Adam. “They need to have passion, they need to have persistence, and they need to have perseverance, and I’ll even throw in a fourth one. They need to be persuasive because you got to persuade employees, investors, clients, partners, all the time.”  bvp.com/cloudgiants bvp.com/cloud bvp.com/atlas

Adam  Miller is the founder &amp; CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand. He started  Cornerstone in 1999 in his one-bedroom apartment to help people realize their professional potential. Under his leadership, Cornerstone has grown to over $500 million in revenue and is one of the largest cloud computing companies in the world. <h2>Insights and key takeaways from Adam Miller</h2> <ul> <li>Perspective is essential with challenging sales cycles and near-death experiences: “We were very bad at sales back then. We had lined up this great pipeline of potential clients in August of 2001, all northeast financial service firms. While we had very little capital, we had raised no money, and we really needed these sales to keep the business operation,” remembered Adam Miller. “Then, September 11th happened. I was told by the management team, by every advisor, by every investor, ‘Adam, you have to cut the business. Cut the staff down to the minimum number of people.’ We had very few people to begin with. Cutting the staff down would mean we wouldn’t be able to deliver to a client. So, on September 15th, 2001, we started hiring more people. We ended up closing three deals. Those accounts ended up being the capital for the business, and we grew the company from there.”</li> <li>Culture change is inevitable: “One year we were going to go from 45 to 51, and then from 51 to 150. So, we’re going to triple the size of the company. What I’ve learned over the years is that it’s never about the absolute number of people. It’s always about the relative number of people,” said Adam. “Are you adding 10% more people, 50% more people, 100% more people? The higher the percentage, the more of an impact that influx is going to have on the culture of the business. And if you don’t do it by design, you’re going to end up with a culture you don’t want.”</li> <li>As the business scales, there are always new skills you need to welcome: “At Cornerstone onDemand, we try to do a 50-50 hire from outside and promote from within. It’s important to advance those who have invested in the company as well as bring in fresh perspectives at each new stage,” said Adam.</li> <li>The stock market demands precision in your business forecasts and revenue: “If you’re thinking about going public, every quarter, write on a Post-it what number you think you’re going to have at the end of the quarter and put it in a drawer. You should do it, your CFO should do it. After you get it right three quarters in a row, you’re ready to go public,” said Adam. “It’s much harder than people think.”</li> <li>Entrepreneurs need passion, persistence, perseverance, and persuasion: “I like to say that good entrepreneurs need to have the three Ps,” said Adam. “They need to have passion, they need to have persistence, and they need to have perseverance, and I’ll even throw in a fourth one. They need to be persuasive because you got to persuade employees, investors, clients, partners, all the time.”</li> </ul> <a href="http://bvp.com/cloudgiants" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bvp.com/cloudgiants</a> <a href="http://bvp.com/cloud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bvp.com/cloud</a> <a href="http://bvp.com/atlas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bvp.com/atlas</a>

Adam Miller, co-founder and CEO of Cornerstone onDemand

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