#6 Des Traynor, Co-founder & CSO of Intercom | The surprising principles that built a €1B+ customer comms business

Ahead of Slush 2022, we sit down for a conversation that provides everyone who’s joining us in Helsinki with a bit of the backstory and context behind the event you’re about to attend. We'll cover:Why and how Slush was foundedHow it became a student-run event (and continues to be that to this day)The impact Slush has had on the Finnish ecosystemWhat lies ahead now that Finland has a prospering ecosystemWhy Slush 2022 is the best Slush to dateWhat you should do on Nov 16–18 to make the most of your time hereIn the episode, you'll hear from:Slush's CEO Eerika SavolainenSlush President Mikko MäntyläSlush's first CEO and Wolt founder Miki Kuusione • fıve founder Claire Gusko – one of 4,600 founders & operators joiningAmin Hassan – one of the 1,500 volunteers building the eventHope you enjoy the conversation! See you November 17–18.

We bring you two sides of the German collaborative presentation company Pitch as its Co-founder and CEO Christian Reber is joined by board member and Lakestar partner Stephen Nundy to discuss product-driven companies.Christian and Stephen (as a CTO himself) discuss the various balancing acts companies can struggle with from both founder and board member perspectives: marketing and product team inputs, product-led CEOs and their CTOs, and even the emotional toll of such leadership positions.

Jeppe Rindom is the Co-founder and guiding hand of Pleo- The corporate card and expense claim company and the fastest to reach the €1bn valuation in Denmark. Jeppe dives deep with Mikko Mäntylä into the granular details of how to define your problem space, some key ways to create investor FOMO, and what he believes is a counterintuitive company-building truth.

Sonali de Rycker is a true icon of European venture. In her fourteen years with Accel, she has made early investments in success stories ranging from Spotify to Avito, Hopin to Kry and Monzo to Sennder.Together with Sonali, we explore everything that more than a decade of backing the greats of European tech has taught her about the formative choices that build legendary tech companies.

Cristina Cordova spent a decade leading partnerships at two of the most iconic tech success stories of the past decade – Stripe & Notion – before joining First Round Capital in March of 2022. Today, we discuss tactical company-building lessons that that her decade as an operator taught here.

Today, we speak to Des Traynor of Intercom about problem selection, pricing, using principles to scale yourself as a leader, and maintaining alignment as an organisation grows. Des is one of the most succinct communicators in European tech. He didn't disappoint on the episode. Throughout it, you'll come across surprising, unique principles and heuristics that have helped Des propel Intercom into €1B+ business it is today.

Today, we’re speaking to Brian O’Malley, Managing Partner at Forerunner Ventures – the famously consumer-savvy Silicon Valley firm – on everything it takes to build generational outcomes in the consumer space.

Guy Podjarny is Co-founder and President of Snyk – the €8B developer-first security platform. Together, we unpack tactical considerations that go into scaling a business – especially one with a product-led, freemium-based go-to-market.Guy started Snyk with his co-founders Assaf and Danny in 2015, spent four years as CEO, and migrated into his current role of President in 2019.Built dually in Tel-Aviv and London, and later in a distributed fashion around the world, Snyk is a platform that enables developers to automatically detect and fix vulnerabilities in their code and stack.Today, Snyk employs 1200 people is valued at closer to 8 billion euros. They’ve got there by raising a whopping 1.3 billion euros from iconic investors like Accel, GV, Coatue, Tiger Global, Addition, Blackrock and so many more.---1:11 What are the most important traits to have within a founding team?2:17 What should non-technical founders spend time on in the early days?3:23 What are the humane characteristics of great founding teams?4:51 How do you know to stop pursuing a given idea?6:16 Snyk's most critical milestone in the first month, quarter and year?9:28 Why should you launch a crappy product early?11:36 With a product-led go-to-market, which systems ensure deep learning?15:09 Why did you choose a product-led go-to-market?18:11 What are the signs that you should hire a professional CEO to replace you?20:12 What can an exceptional external CEO bring to the table?21:42 Having been acquired in the past, what do you optimize for acquiring companies?24:22 How do you judge when to say yes and when to say no?25:02 What do founders underinvest in early on? How about the inverse of that?26.18 What is one important truth about company-building that very few people would agree with?

Today on the Soaked by Slush podcast, we're joined by Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital – the notoriously frontier tech focused fund. We cover topics ranging from recognizing iconic entrepreneurs early to Deena’s efforts to write a children’s book about a young girl who starts a company.Deena herself has the most fascinating of backgrounds. She is a first-generation daughter of Iraqi immigrants and she self-funded her way through Harvard and Georgetown. After kicking off her career in media, she moved to public service, working for Hillary Clinton’s office during the Obama administration, and eventually ended up leading product partnerships at Google before jumping into venture– first at GV and later Lux.At Lux, Deena invests in transformative technologies improving lives – especially in women’s health, digital health and the intersection of those. She has led investments in some exceptional companies from Maven Clinic to Ramp.

When it comes to building legendary engineering and product organizations, there really aren’t many people more experienced than Quentin Clark. Having spent 20 years moving up the ranks at Microsoft, Quentin went on to become CTO at two legendary software companies in SAP and Dropbox.These days, Quentin looks for next-generation products at General Catalyst, and sits on the boards of some exceptional startups like Coda, Commure, Hopin, Minio, and Aviatrix.In this episode, we unpack what Quentin has learn about leading and scaling technical organisations for world-class outcomes.Note: Any mention of or reference to any specific company is for discussion and illustrative purposes only and is not a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. The views and opinions expressed by the speaker are their own as of the date of the recording and not of General Catalyst. These views should not be relied on as investment or financial advice of any kind.---0:50 What has made Microsoft such an exceptionally enduring company?2:49 How does Microsoft circumvent the Innovator’s dilemma?4:29 What characteristics are non-negotiable in good CEOs?6:16 When have you been most surprised by a trait of an individual CEO?7:05 What separates truly exceptional CTOs from good CTOs?9:08 How do you balance input from your sales team with long-term vision in your product roadmap?11:13 What are the signs that you should replace your technical co-founder with an experienced hire?12:43 What have you learned about finding and evaluating great technical talent?14:19 What do great technical co-founders look like?16:15 How should you think about the structure of your technical organization?18:33 For a CTO, what really changes when the company scales from 5 to 50, and 50 to 500 people?21:12 What are the 3 most common root causes of company failure?22:46 What do founders think matters in the early stages that doesn’t?23:45 What are the most insightful questions you ask when being pitched by founders?24:43 What is one important truth about company-building that very few people would agree with?