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David Politis

Founder & Executive Chairman, BetterCloud · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutivehostauthorinvestorLinkedIn ↗bettercloud.com ↗

David Politis is the founder and former CEO of SaaS management platform BetterCloud. He previously held leadership roles at Vocalocity and Cloud Sherpas, authored The IT Leader's Guide to SaaSOps, and hosts the Not Another CEO podcast.

7statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 4.29/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 3said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 assertions · 3 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how David argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

247 words/min while actually speaking · 1.7 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for David Politis: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 12 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,589 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of David Politis is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 1/10
pushed back at the host 0/10
setup questions received 85%

Everything David Politis said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Politis: Recruiting and retaining employees via perks is lazy and unhealthy
“In general, I feel like incentivizing or recruiting or retaining people through perks is, is pretty lazy. I think it's superficial. It's unhealthy.”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 11:30 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Insight
Startup culture breaks down at 80 employees without deliberate management
“When you get to 80, 90, a hundred people, that's at least where I've seen it, if you're not deliberate about it breaks down. It breaks down because there's just, especially if you think about how many people you've been hiring and how fast, usually at that poi…”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 14:09 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Disclosure
BetterCloud requires leaders to share 360 feedback and weaknesses with team
“The key part of this is that the leader has to then take that feedback, good, bad, and ugly, and show it to their entire team. And with that feedback, they also have to tell them what they're going to do to work on their weaknesses.”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 17:42 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Disclosure
BetterCloud caused culture shock by introducing ten HR programs simultaneously
“We made a mistake in is we got so excited about being deliberate. We made 80 changes that, you know, I don't know, we made something like we put in 10 people programs at once over a period of a couple months, and it was shock. It just shocked everyone. It was …”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 19:00 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Insight
Politis: VCs do not mean it when saying 'stay in touch'
“When people said, oh, this is interesting, you know, stay in touch. I thought they actually meant this is interesting. Stay in touch. They don't, you know, they don't at all.”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 20:26 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Politis failed to articulate BetterCloud's 10-year vision in early fundraising
“I did not do a good job in any round. Really articulating the really, really big vision for BetterCloud. I kind of take this under-promise, over-deliver approach, and I'm just conservative in, in my approach in general, in planning and in, in everything. And s…”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 23:23 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud
Assertion Partly supported
Politis became Vocalocity CEO after the firm laid off almost everyone
“Six months after starting that job, they ended up letting go of everyone in the company except for me and one engineer, and so the two of us were left there to build this business. They actually made me CEO of the company.”
David Politis Dec 23, 2016 ▶ 3:37 20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Lazy & Why Founders Should Always Under-Promise & Over-Deliver with David Politis, Founder @ CEO @ Bettercloud

The other half of the tape: David Politis's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Ryan Denehy 2Harry Stebbings 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011212016201720182019episodesmentions
0112016201720182019episodes it came up in
0010.5212016201720182019episodesmentions per episode
2019 2 mentions in 1 episode
2016 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: What VCs Really Mean They Say 'Stay In Touch', Why Incentivisation Through Perks Is Dec 23, 2016 21m
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