Dharmesh Shah: commitment

Transcript context

…Wow. Okay. Let's see how the YouTube comments react and how many people would want this and slash pay for it. Let me go in a slightly different direction. We talked about how you have no direct reports, you've never had any direct reports? I know that's somewhat related to a piece of advice you often share, which is to lean into your strengths and to not do things that you're not amazing yet. So can you just talk about why this is the case? Why don't you have any reports? And then I think this idea of just strengths and the importance focusing on strengths. Yeah. I'll tell you the quick story as to how this came about. My co-founder and I had the founding meeting for HubSpot. This is the week where we've decided we're going to do this, and then we have this list of questions or topics for the founders discussion. One of them, and I think I've published a list, these are the questions all co-founders should ask each other in that kind of early period. One of the ones it's like, okay, well who's going to be CEO? This was an easy one because I had been CEO twice before and had figured out I'm not that good at it. I actually suck at that. And one of the reasons I suck at that is that part of the CEO role is being good at managing people. It's not just about leading and having a vision or whatever. Actually have to do the management as a craft. And so, that part I already had in my head. I think Brian, my co-founder, already had in his head that with... That's how this... that was a very quick conversation. And in the moment, as soon as I had that win behind me, it's like, "Okay, well I don't want to be CEO." Brian wanted to be CEO because he'd never done it before. I'm like, "okay, that was easy." And then I said, "Oh, and by the way, I don't want to have any direct reports." It just popped into my head as an idea. I had not pre-planned it or anything, and I sprung it on him. He's like, "Okay, well..." And the reason is because I have learned that I suck at management. I'm a reasonably smart person. I think I could become passively okay at management with some training, with some coaching or whatever. I don't want to spend any years of my life becoming passively okay at something. I would rather take those same calories and take the things that I'm good at that I actually enjoy. And those things are highly correlated. You tend to be good at the things you enjoy. You tend to enjoy the things you're good at. And Brian was like, "Yeah, sure." And then I'm like, "No, no, Brian, you don't understand." Because then I was like, "There's going to be a time in the company." He was like, "Oh, our VP of engineering just quit. Just be interim with something or whatever and have this team report to you until we find.." It's like, "We're going to have those things and you're going to have to promise to me we're not going to do that. We're going to..." It's like I am not going to have direct reports. And we had that kind of heart to heart conversation, and it was one of the best decisions I've made both for myself and for HubSpot. Had I not made that decision, I'm a startup guy, I don't know that I would've survived at a company at HubSpot scale. And right now I can honestly say I'm having a better time at HubSpot now at 7,000 people than I was having at 70 people. And the reason is, I get all the upside of scale, which is I can make big bets. And right now I can honestly say I'm having a better time at HubSpot now at 7,000 people than I was having at 70 people. And the reason is, I get all the upside of scale, which is I can make big bets. So we can have long-term things and plans, whatever, and plan for global domination without the downsides of scale, which is, "Oh, you're having to manage all these people and all the kind of mechanics." And that's hard. It's a hard skill to have. I appreciate other people that have it. I don't. And so I get all the upside with very little of the downside of scale, and that's what kind of keeps me engaged and energized and happy at HubSpot. So I think it's been both productive for HubSpot and good for me.…

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