For You Leaders

What the Heck Does A Product Person Do? Christopher O’Donnell, Chief Product Officer at Hubspot and Ash Devata, Head of Product at Duo Security share their incredible insights as product leaders. Before you brush off this podcast as something only for high-tech startups or product-centric companies, think again. This episode is full of important perspectives and tips for ANY company, even if you don’t have a "product person" in your business.

There are approximately 55 million meetings in the US every single day. Yes, you read that right. On top of that, executives said 72% of their meetings were unproductive. What side does your team fall on?

Today, we are talking all about meetings. We provide you with several tips that do not cost you a dime and you can implement immediately.

Today, we are continuing our conversation with the award-winning CEO of Four Hands, Matt Briggs. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics from goal-setting to acquisitions to reducing stress. If you missed the previous episode, don’t miss the chance to hear the way Four Hands operationalizes their core values.

One topic to pay extra close attention to in this episode is how Matt and Four Hands set their company goals. In working with businesses around the world, it’s incredible how many companies struggle with goal setting that get (and keep) people focused. Do they set them so they are achievable or so they are more aspirational and very difficult to achieve? Matt does a great job sharing the unique perspective Four Hands has used to set goals to scale. Tune your ear to their approach and how it will help you and your business set goals and grow.

You might have heard CEOs talk about their core values and wondered: how do they practically live out the core values in the business? Furthermore, how do they use them to drive performance?

Today, you’re going to hear from award-winning CEO, Matt Briggs of Four Hands, Four Hands is a home furnishing company based in Austin, TX. In this episode, Matt shares how they actually live out one of their most unique core values: Fun. You’ll be surprised by the many ways they live up to this core value, how it drives their culture, performance, customer empathy and more. It’s not just window dressing.

Matt shares his unlikely journey from a self-proclaimed ski bum to the CEO of Four Hands, which will surpass $200m in revenue this year. 

We continue our conversation with John James, the CEO of Engine. John dives into many of the how-to’s and “wish I would have knowns” from his deep experience.

He candidly shares about the health scare that led to his resignation at Country Outfitter, how he thinks about his legacy and the principles he’s taken with him to his newest venture, Engine. He also provides the powerful and simple advice Alex Dillard, the President of Dillard’s Department Stores, gave him that totally changed the way he viewed being a leader - both at home and the office. Don’t miss this episode. 

As a serial entrepreneur, John created several online companies that ultimately led to the creation of Country Outfitter, a giant in western wear eCommerce. Today, John shares the lessons he’s learned from being a medical doctor to scaling an eCommerce company. He candidly shares the story of how Country Outfitter ultimately failed and how he had to step down as CEO. However, that is not the end of the story, John is wildly successful again, both in business and life.

This is the final episode in our series of interviews with Duo Security co-founder, Dug Song. In this episode, we cover a variety of topics from managing the board to work-life balance. We also dive into how Duo Security actively operationalizes their values to ensure they come to life within the business. There are no cheesy inspirational posters in this episode, just real and raw tactics and advice you can start implementing today. Listen now:

As you scale a business, there’s no shortage of tactics and advice. But how do you decide what to do, when to do it and in what order? Today’s guest, Dug Song, will tell you: “Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. The list of all the things you could be doing are probably the right things to do….at some point in the company.” He warns that doing things “too early will literally kill you...you just can’t afford it when you’re small.”

You often hear the headlines like Cisco to Aquire Duo Security for $2.35b, and wonder - what’s the story behind the story? Today you’re going to hear part one of our interview with Dug Song, co-founder and General Manager of Duo Security at Cisco. Dug is a self-proclaimed hacker who humbly describes himself as a one-trick security pony. As you’ll learn today, Dug is an incredible leader that knew, in order to put a unique company together, like Duo, he needed to build it differently.

Dug shares, candidly, the thought processes that drove him to build a business that was ultimately sold to Cisco for $2.35b. However, as Dug highlights, he can’t call the acquisition “an exit” - he’s still in the business.
Listen now to learn from Dug’s humble beginnings at his father’s liquor store to how he built “the most loved company in security,” Duo Security.

Dirk Elmendorf, a co-founder of Rackspace, learned the hard way: interviewing is hard. It’s even more difficult when hiring for highly technical positions like engineers, that may not excel in a traditional interview. In this episode, Dirk explains his unique approach to hiring and provides tips you can use in your next interview. He discusses gut instinct vs. raw data, how to ask great questions and what you should be listening for in your next interview. Dirk also tells the deeply personal life event that changed the way he views work-life balance. Listen now!