#143 CEO HashiCorp, Dave McJannet: Phase Shifts

Guest: Dave McJannet, CEO of HashiCorp

To scale a company effectively, says HashiCorp CEO Dave McJannet, you will have to make something like 10 decisions every single day. “There’s generally one that really needs to be right, but there are eight that if you get them wrong, you will cause real damage to yourself,” he says. “It won’t be fatal, and a lot of times, it’s cultural damage.” Sometimes, he adds, these decisions can seem innocuous, like deciding how to run internal town halls with workers. But even small choices can create a “cultural crater” that you’ll have to dig yourself out of three months later.

In this episode, Dave and Joubin discuss returning to the office, the sales data flow, unstructured problem-solving, why companies grow like trees, anonymous town halls entrepreneurs-in-residence, go to market vs. product, committing to the job, the executive “CPU tax,” and the 30-to-100 phase shift.

In this episode, we cover:

• In-person vs. remote collaboration (00:43)
• How to build any kind of business (05:26)
• The value of being in the sales motion (07:30)
• Thinking like a venture capitalist (11:51)
• Commiserating with other CEOs (13:28)
• Systems-based thinking (17:37)
• Administrators vs. builders (20:25)
• The daily 10 decisions (22:29)
• Staving off decision fatigue (24:17)
• Dave’s past jobs and the path to CEO (26:01)
• The reluctant CEO (28:46)
• Rapid change vs. high-profile maintenance (32:20)
• The pressure of being at the top (35:12)
• The state of HashiCorp when Dave arrived (37:39)
• How he got the CEO job (40:38)
• Product-building POV (45:50)
• The first “oh shit” moment (48:48)
• Being motivated by competition (50:47)
• Laddered time horizons (53:47)
• Paul Moritz and empathy (55:17)
• Misconceptions about CEOs (57:10)
• Deciding to go public (59:45)
• Time and energy management (01:03:10)
• Anticipating phase shifts (01:06:12)
• Fierce independence (01:08:12)
• Getting the right feedback (01:09:13)
• Who HashiCorp is hiring and what “grit” means to Dave (01:12:30)

Links:

• Connect with Dave
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm