The Exchanges

Q Cash-Twenty-two here. We ourselves talk about investing in technical founders and, and product-driven CEOs. Isn't part of what we're looking for, for CEOs to have a sense of that roadmap in their head already without needing to, to have to get all these inputs, that vision? I mean, I'm thinking of an example, a classic example, like Steve Jobs. Like, did he really ever listen to what his customers said?

A Well, yeah, I mean, so he's famous for saying that they don't know what they want and, and we, you know, we'll figure it out. But first of all, I don't think There's a lot of Steve Jobses. I think that there's people that have talent in different areas, but he was a pretty unique person. Why miss out on the opportunity to benefit from, you hire great sales reps. In our case, we had a thousand. They can give you an amazing amount of data that you cannot get otherwise. And so I made it a rule that product management would never have a meeting discussing roadmap without having sales reps in the meeting. And they have a different temperament Combining with the rest of the temper of the organizations. Um, and one of them is that I think product management, which I love and is important and essential for a company has a different sense of urgency than a sales force has, because the sense of urgency that a sales force has, we need to go sell something now. And so of course, just making the whole roadmap about that becomes a problem, but you can definitely use that in meetings that get stuck run by product management where you can fall in love with new technologies. Um, ideas you had in your own head that nobody actually cares about. And so getting it validated instantly by the Salesforce, I think is a massive thing to take advantage of.

AI assessment note: “I don't think There's a lot of Steve Jobses. I think that there's people”

Q Cash-Twenty-two here. We ourselves talk about investing in technical founders and, and product-driven CEOs. Isn't part of what we're looking for, for CEOs to have a sense of that roadmap in their head already without needing to, to have to get all these inputs, that vision? I mean, I'm thinking of an example, a classic example, like Steve Jobs. Like, did he really ever listen to what his customers said?

A Well, yeah, I mean, so he's famous for saying that they don't know what they want and, and we, you know, we'll figure it out. But first of all, I don't think There's a lot of Steve Jobses. I think that there's people that have talent in different areas, but he was a pretty unique person. Why miss out on the opportunity to benefit from, you hire great sales reps. In our case, we had a thousand. They can give you an amazing amount of data that you cannot get otherwise. And so I made it a rule that product management would never have a meeting discussing roadmap without having sales reps in the meeting. And they have a different temperament Combining with the rest of the temper of the organizations. Um, and one of them is that I think product management, which I love and is important and essential for a company has a different sense of urgency than a sales force has, because the sense of urgency that a sales force has, we need to go sell something now. And so of course, just making the whole roadmap about that becomes a problem, but you can definitely use that in meetings that get stuck run by product management where you can fall in love with new technologies. Um, ideas you had in your own head that nobody actually cares about. And so getting it validated instantly by the Salesforce, I think is a massive thing to take advantage of.

AI assessment note: “I don't think There's a lot of Steve Jobses. I think that there's people”

Q a cultural difference in the mindset. Lars, you talked about the coin operated idiots. I know that you say it's a phenomenon, but I don't believe that every technical founder believes that like they, they actually want to hire a salesperson, but maybe there's a fear that that's going to change their culture. Can you talk a little bit more about the cultural integration of, you know, engineering and sales?

A Yeah, so I think this is an area where you need to open your own mindset. If you want to be a strong CEO that can lead a complete and comprehensive company that has all the strengths that you can benefit from in building a real team, then you need to open your mind that a sales person and a sales manager might not behave and think the way you did when you were in undergrad or grad school doing CS. But that's the strength. You don't want a CS person necessarily. That's not necessarily your target. You don't want People that are exactly like you. Of course, you can have a basic cultural value concept of treating people with respect, for instance, which was one of our values, and that you need to truly take care of customers, and that's what matters. But if they have a different personality, they live in a different way, and they have values around how they make money that's different than yours, that's okay. You need to open yourself towards that concept, and you need to include them in your culture. And you need to find them. You don't want to dilute out anybody you can find that you like how they tell, they think and talk and, and what their story is so much so that they don't have the true powers of what a salesperson is and, and what they're excited about. And so I think it's super important for all roles, but particularly sales, that you are very open-minded around how they …

AI assessment note: “you need to open your mind that a sales person and a sales manager”

Q a cultural difference in the mindset. Lars, you talked about the coin operated idiots. I know that you say it's a phenomenon, but I don't believe that every technical founder believes that like they, they actually want to hire a salesperson, but maybe there's a fear that that's going to change their culture. Can you talk a little bit more about the cultural integration of, you know, engineering and sales?

A Yeah, so I think this is an area where you need to open your own mindset. If you want to be a strong CEO that can lead a complete and comprehensive company that has all the strengths that you can benefit from in building a real team, then you need to open your mind that a sales person and a sales manager might not behave and think the way you did when you were in undergrad or grad school doing CS. But that's the strength. You don't want a CS person necessarily. That's not necessarily your target. You don't want People that are exactly like you. Of course, you can have a basic cultural value concept of treating people with respect, for instance, which was one of our values, and that you need to truly take care of customers, and that's what matters. But if they have a different personality, they live in a different way, and they have values around how they make money that's different than yours, that's okay. You need to open yourself towards that concept, and you need to include them in your culture. And you need to find them. You don't want to dilute out anybody you can find that you like how they tell, they think and talk and, and what their story is so much so that they don't have the true powers of what a salesperson is and, and what they're excited about. And so I think it's super important for all roles, but particularly sales, that you are very open-minded around how they …

AI assessment note: “you need to open yourself towards that concept, and you need to include them”