20VC: Why Self-Awareness Is The Most Important Characteristic For Founders, When Is The Right Time For A CEO To Hand Over The Reigns & What CEO's Can Learn About Company Culture From Teaching Middle School with Lloyd Tabb, Founder & Chairman @ Looker
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2017
⏱️ 25 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lloyd Tabb is the Founder & Chairman @ Looker, the startup leader pioneering the next generation of business intelligence (BI). They have raised over $175m from some of the best in the business including CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, First Round, Redpoint & PivotNorth. As for Llyod himself, he has spent the last 25 years revolutionizing how the world uses the internet, starting with his founding of Commerce Tools, which was acquired by Netscape. At Netscape, Lloyd led several releases of Communicator and helped define Mozilla.org. Following Netscape, Lloyd later was CTO of LiveOps, co-founder of Readyforce and founder then advisor to Luminate.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Lloyd make his way into the world of startups and come to sell his first to Netscape at such a young age?
2.) Why did Lloyd decide to hand over the reigns of CEO to Frank at such an early stage? What was the thought process? What advice does Lloyd have for founders contemplating the same? What is the most important skill for the original founder to have?
3.) How did Lloyd learn about creating and scaling company culture from teaching middle school kids? What are the inflection points in scaling company culture? What are the foundations that must always be core? Why does Lloyd dislike the "burnout culture so much"?
4.) What is the hardest element for Lloyd in scaling Looker to this day? How does Lloyd believe automation must be used within business processes to create a streamlined and efficient organisation? What should the ultimate goal of all CEOs be?
5.) Why does Lloyd believe that the conventional wisdom, "the common path is the safe path", is fundamentally not true? How does Lloyd view the role of mentors, in terms of career progression? What can people do to attain the mentor they would like?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Lloyd’s Fave Book: Seth Godin
Lloyd’s Fave Blog: What The F*** Just Happened Today
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Lloyd on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the third and final show this week on the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:04.3 | at H. Stebbings with two Bs on Snapchat. Now, for this Founders Friday, we have an exceptional |
| 0:08.8 | founder for you. If you listened to last episode, Eric Reese described management styles and |
| 0:13.3 | structures. If you haven't checked that out, then that really is a must. But what really struck me |
| 0:17.0 | about our guest today is his incredible people management and culture building skills. |
| 0:21.4 | So joining us in the hot seat, we have Lloyd Tab, found and chairman at Looker, the startup leader, |
| 0:26.4 | pioneering the next generation of business intelligence. They've raised over $175 million |
| 0:31.3 | in funding from some of the best in the business, including Capital G, Google's Growth Arm, |
| 0:36.1 | Kleiner Perkins, first round capsule, Red Point and Pivot North, |
| 0:39.8 | just to name a few. As for Lloyd himself, he spent the last 25 years revolutionising how the world |
| 0:45.0 | uses the internet, starting with his founding of commerce tools, which was acquired by Netscape. |
| 0:49.7 | At Netscape, Lloyd led several releases of communicator and helped define Mozilla.org. Following |
| 0:54.8 | Netscape, Lloyd later was CTO of LiveOps, co-founder of Readyforce and founder and then |
| 0:59.3 | advisor to Luminate. However, this show would not have been possible without the kind |
| 1:03.0 | intro from Bill Trenchard at first round, so a massive hand-in for that, we really do appreciate it. |
| 1:08.0 | But before we dive into the show today, in this profession, we all do a lot |
| 1:11.3 | of travel, and it was always a nightmare for me. My phone would die, I'd worry about lost cases, |
| 1:15.9 | the list goes on. And then I had Josh Udashkin from Raiden on the show. I bought one in the |
| 1:20.3 | cases after the episode, and it's genuinely changed the game for me. With a removable battery |
| 1:24.6 | and two external USB ports, I never have to worry about a dead battery when travelling now. |
| 1:29.2 | It's also location aware with built-in Bluetooth, meaning you have this incredible digital passport from your Radin. |
| 1:34.7 | It even has this self-wearing ability, so you ensure you never go over your allowance. |
... |
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