#GlueCon 2013 Notes: Keynote: Confessions of a Tech CEO Who Still Loves to Code Everyday – Lew Cirne, New Relic
Keynote: Confessions of a Tech CEO Who Still Loves to Code Everyday – Lew Cirne, New Relic New Relic was a “Do Over”, now has 50k customers, 250 employees, 3 offices, 100 billion metrics a day, $115M in financing “I don’t do typical CEO stuff” The last company he felt that he had to do certain things and be a certain type of person, now he does what he skilled and loves to do, redefining the CEO role within the organization Last year, released New Relic for Mobile Apps Working the last 3 months with 4 developers to build the next product in a cabin near Mount Hood New product announcement next month Lew’s github commits show when he was raising money and when he was building software and inspiring engineers “Developers are the new CEOs” 4 Lessons learned along the way: Lesson 1: Surround yourself with exception people They need to love to do what they do, have complementary skill sets, and that can execute while you are away developing product Mondays at 9:30am has a standing meeting with his leaders, perhaps an occasional meeting with others – they handle the rest of the execution Lesson 2: Do what you love Find complementary skills so that you can do what you love and are good at Trust those around you to fill in the gaps and provide time to do what you love Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid to re-invent often Even your own platform, API, or career In his last company, he said ‘yes’ to all people when they dangled checks in front of him At New Relic, chose to skip customization, reduce friction on the front-end interface/experience Lesson 4: Disrupt yourself Apple launched Nano and killed the Mini (the #1 product on the market) This requires supporting people around you (team, board of directors) They are trying to create an evergreen growth engine that builds new products before people need them This should reduce time while increasing revenue CEOs should focus on producint this revenue with their time/skills (via code for developer CEOs) This requires disrupting yourself, rather than slowing down and becoming complacent The results: His team is 2X more productive and worth 2X more than his last company Update: The slides are now available
Keynote: Confessions of a Tech CEO Who Still Loves to Code Everyday – Lew Cirne, New Relic
- New Relic was a “Do Over”, now has 50k customers, 250 employees, 3 offices, 100 billion metrics a day, $115M in financing
- “I don’t do typical CEO stuff”
- The last company he felt that he had to do certain things and be a certain type of person, now he does what he skilled and loves to do, redefining the CEO role within the organization
- Last year, released New Relic for Mobile Apps
- Working the last 3 months with 4 developers to build the next product in a cabin near Mount Hood
- New product announcement next month
- Lew’s github commits show when he was raising money and when he was building software and inspiring engineers
- “Developers are the new CEOs”
- 4 Lessons learned along the way:
- Lesson 1: Surround yourself with exception people
- They need to love to do what they do, have complementary skill sets, and that can execute while you are away developing product
- Mondays at 9:30am has a standing meeting with his leaders, perhaps an occasional meeting with others – they handle the rest of the execution
- Lesson 2: Do what you love
- Find complementary skills so that you can do what you love and are good at
- Trust those around you to fill in the gaps and provide time to do what you love
- Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid to re-invent often
- Even your own platform, API, or career
- In his last company, he said ‘yes’ to all people when they dangled checks in front of him
- At New Relic, chose to skip customization, reduce friction on the front-end interface/experience
- Lesson 4: Disrupt yourself
- Apple launched Nano and killed the Mini (the #1 product on the market)
- This requires supporting people around you (team, board of directors)
- Lesson 1: Surround yourself with exception people
- They are trying to create an evergreen growth engine that builds new products before people need them
- This should reduce time while increasing revenue
- CEOs should focus on producint this revenue with their time/skills (via code for developer CEOs)
- This requires disrupting yourself, rather than slowing down and becoming complacent
- The results: His team is 2X more productive and worth 2X more than his last company
Update: The slides are now available