First Time CEOs | Panel w/ Anna Lisa Somera, Joe Urban & Doug Teany

Joe Mullings  0:08  
So team, thanks for joining me today team CEOs. And we know this panel is first time CEOs, all of you with really interesting backgrounds coming from some big hits. Joe, before where you were, you're at Oris and Corindus to just realize that to robotics. Yeah. And your background before you came in was where?

Anna Lisa Somera  0:31  
Well, I spent about 18 years with startup. So yep. Just in the startup. So you

Joe Mullings  0:35  
just stepped into your first startup now as the CEO. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So what was it? Like? What was it like when you're like, we're gonna hire you as the CEO? Did you sit in the car and put your hand on the steering wheel and stare out the window and go? Yeah, oh, crap.

Anna Lisa Somera  0:51  
Yeah. Actually, those are the words I spoke to myself initially, and then out loud. Yeah. So it was one of those moments where, you know, I knew I wanted to lead the company. But then when I officially became the CEO, I was like, Oh, my God, wait, you chose me? Okay. But I had to collect myself. And I'm like, Okay, I gotta do it. Gotta do it. Gotta gotta gotta run with it. You know, they chose me. So, you know, gotta leave it to you.

Joe Mullings  1:16  
And what, who was the first person you told?

Anna Lisa Somera  1:22  
My husband? Okay. Yeah, my husband.

Joe Mullings  1:25  
Did he know what he was in for?

Anna Lisa Somera  1:27  
Well, you know, thankfully, is a little broken in the fact that I work with startups. You know, all my professional life. He's the kind of the same one with the very stable job with excellent benefits, you know, really good. There's one time however, he said to me, I should go to startup as, No, no, no, no, you stay right there where you are, I'll be the one that you know, kind of ventures off into a little unknown. But, you know, I told him first and he's like, I'm proud of you. You know, good for you. He's like, you know, this is something that you wanted to do. You didn't know that you want to do it until now.

Joe Mullings  2:03  
And Joe, you came from some big machines, you barred? Well, actually, first military, thanks for your service,

Joe Urban  2:09  
And Boston Scientific hard, plus startups. And then Oris was the was the first like, true, successful startup. And that was a whirlwind back in 2015, to 2017. And then 17, I was invited to join the board of Potrero medical. And then seven months into it the, the board asked me to come on as the CEO Yeah,

Joe Mullings  2:32  
And that's an intimidating board, too. So on that board is J.

Joe Urban  2:36  
Before that, it was it was Carter, and Alan Chesler and Dan Burnett, yeah, at the time, and a guy named George Ferpeer and the, I came in in 2017, and invited Fred to come in look at the technology. And he agreed that this is where the future is going. It's a sensors that are inside the body that are feeding information to the clinicians outside. And so he he joined the board. And that's where the trajectory just took off. We had Jay join, and now it's a very, like, it's it was a very strong board. Now, it's an incredibly strong board with, with what we have.

Joe Mullings  3:16  
And I want to come back to the importance of boards, and first time CEOs as well. And my friend, so Corindus, Boston Sci. And then now CEO of your own role, and we've chatted a lot over the years, you and I, and you were waiting, you had been offered many, many roles to lead organizations. So why now?

Doug Teany  3:37  
Well, I felt like Corindus was a fantastic experience of solving that equation of how to differentiate the robot from manual procedures. And so I think my waiting was, where does that go next? I've always had a desire to have a role in shaping the way robotics will be used in the future of healthcare. And so just sorting through those opportunities, and then one up at method where, as you know, we're a digital surgery company focused on surgical oncology. And we think that digital strategies are the key to unlocking the precision of these robotic systems. So I'm, I'm excited of what we're doing. And I think we've learned a ton from the Corindus experience that will help us on the path forward.

Joe Mullings  4:16  
What when you got the head nod for the CEO role, and again, you had options you and I worked together quite a bit over the years and looked at a number of things. But method was one that you said, Yeah, this is it. What was that feeling when you found the right one for you? Do you recall that moment? And and I don't mean to be so romantic about this, but there is something that happens in your first CEO role.

Doug Teany  4:39  
Yeah, I'm gonna go back to what what Joe said about the board. I think that's when I knew when I met you know, method is a Cleveland Clinic company. So when I met Akhil Saklecha, who's the chair of the board and had that instant chemistry and that shared vision about what we can accomplish. I think my mind was made up in 30 seconds. It's just finding that right fit so if you know what you're looking for, and you find that fit have the right team and the right chemistry with with a board, I think it becomes an easier decision. Not easy but easier.

Joe Mullings  5:07  
And Joe, so you have for that we use the word Fred because it is iconic. It's like, Cher, but Fred Moll, who sort of you could argue as the godfather of robotics in the med tech industry. Right. Jay Watkins. Right. So how important is that board for for first time CEO? And can they be empowering? Or could they be intimidating, or both on the same side of the coin?

Joe Urban  5:29  
Yes, Fred. And I also with Dan Burnett, he's, he's a visionary as well. And it was his vision when we sat down and had a beer in San Francisco. And he walked through, like what his vision was for the company, was one of the reasons I joined the board. Fred was super supportive of me joining the board, when I came on as a full time CEO, and then we later built out the rest of it. It's Fred had said something I think it was my third board meeting. He said, Joe, if I come in, and it's nothing but like butterflies and sunshine, and there is no problem. So why am I here? Because we, I was looking at it totally different. It was in my mind, an information exchange and an update. And what I learned very early in this process is their job is to help with the most difficult challenging problems that you have. And after that, it was like, great, and it just became a lot easier because when we had a cogs issue, and we're upside down in our cogs, Jay and Fred and Colby spent four and a half hours on a whiteboard with me, you know how valuable their time is mapping out every possible solution. And we were able to get our cogs under control very early earlier than most startups. When I had questions on clinical or the innovation side, you know, I talked to Dan Burnett, because he's an incredible thinker from a creativity standpoint. Andrew offer from a finance and just the the other areas where I just have questions. So I think the leaning on the board at the right time for the right reasons is, is always helpful. Alan Chesler, every time we raise money, he would always bring in the introductions along with Fred and everyone else. But I learned early that I have to lean on the board to solve to help me solve some of these problems, because otherwise I'm doing it in a vacuum with with what I know, and what I, they've forgotten, more than I'll ever know, you know, like Fred Moll or Jay Watkins and they've seen every scenario, like one time I brought a problem to Jay, he's like, Oh, it's this thing. And he's like, and he knew, right off the bat.

Joe Mullings  7:41  
So what didn't you know, as a CEO, in your first 90 days that you wish you did?

Anna Lisa Somera  7:49  
I knew that I had to have thick skin, but I know how thick it really had to be as a first time CEO, especially one that is, you know, raising a seed round, do during the pandemic, targeting an indication that not many people know about, right, so I got so many nos from so many investors, and I've been told by investors, oh, you've got stars in your eyes, oh, this is not going to make it. And, you know, it was it was hard to take because it was you know, during the, you know, time when the world was upside down, I had two small children, you know, at home, and, you know, that that thick skin had to be really thick, because, you know, I'm the CEO, I had to, you know, maintain composure, you know, make sure that, you know, we're still you know, focusing on our goal to, to close that round, and, you know, proceed with our clinicals that, you know, that sort of thing. So, you know, I knew it was going to be a really tough job. But you know, I wish I kind of like, prep myself even more, you know, back then.

Joe Mullings  8:54  
I wrote a article recently about CEOs. And we talked about for you Doug and the rest of the panel, it was this curve, I saw your curve, the curve. And it was a curve that ran cortisol stress cortisol dump on the on the Y side of the the axis on the X was hierarchy. And so when you start with the CEO, and the stress factor is the highest and then when you drop it down, when you start to go into your VP people and maybe even your CEO and CTO and CFO. And then as you come back up and you get down to the hourly worker, the stress level goes back up. Now their stress may or may not be from the workplace, it may be life being making enough money, right? Am I staying current with skill sets, relevancy, etc. But that CEO slot? Did you feel different stress from the sea level you were at and you were EVP level at or a director or director level? Right? So how's that stress differentiate today though?

Doug Teany  9:59  
I think it's different when you're in a larger company, you have the benefit of an established team that acts like a network of advisers. And for the first time, I think for all of us find ourselves alone alone at the top, and how do you, that creates a lot of stress. And so for me, it was really falling back to how you got there in the first place. So I've practiced this rule for years on discipline without formalism. So the first thing that probably came into my mind, like Anna Lisa said, is a little bit of a panic. And then I thought, I need a roadmap. And so I went about doing what I've done of thinking about the end game and mapping back to what we need to do today to kind of mitigate that stress, but doesn't make it go away completely. And it definitely is a it can be a lonely position, like trying to figure out the right thing to do for the, for the right purpose, you have lots of stakeholders, lots of inputs. And so I agree, the stress is really high. And I think all you can do is give it your best shot on how you've been successful in the past and lean on those strategies of who make you who you are.

Joe Mullings  11:01  
And how do you not personalize that stress, though? How do you not bring it home? How do you not have a bad day, and then, you know, have to re-walk maybe your words, when you had with somebody so Joe,

Joe Urban  11:14  
It happens. Like it happened before I was a CEO sometimes like it's, there's good stress, and there's there's bad stress. And you know, like there's pressure and the way I looked at this as we've had four or five, which should have been company ending events. And that should have been, and I've been fortunate each step of the way to have a mentor step in and save, save the day, it wasn't me or anything else, it was just being able to listen and tune in to what Jay Watkins was telling me or Fred was telling me or Dan or anybody from the board and investor or when my pitch wouldn't work, it was Rick Cloud, Google Ventures that just grabbed my face mask and said, You've got to stop what you're doing is totally wrong. And once I changed that, and pivoted, it became a lot easier. So there's, there's a whole different level of stress, the key is not letting it translate to your people. Because when your stress translates to your people, then you're you're making short term decisions or making decisions that are not what they should be. And I've found over the last four and a half years, just making sure as much as possible to shield the the employees on that focusing on the problem, look at the solutions, and then just calmly approach it. And even though the, the stress might be cracking, like hasn't cracked totally. It's, it's it's been a formula, it seems to work for us.

Joe Mullings  12:43  
And your communication as a CEO, do you pause more now as a CEO before you speak to the team than before you sat in that CC?

Anna Lisa Somera  12:56  
No, absolutely. Well, absolutely. Because, you know, when I when I speak at meetings, you know, my, my team, you know, they listen, right, and I don't want to, you know, say something that will, you know, catch them off guard or, you know, where it'll take offense to it, you know, that sort of thing. So yeah, you know, I definitely mentally prepare, you know, what I say before I say it, especially in front of them, I want to, you know, exude that, you know, I have the you know, leadership to bring our technology to the market that I want them to maintain that confidence that they have in me.

Joe Urban  13:30  
Joe, your words? For me? The there's no question that over the last four and a half years, it's been an evolution from just running and just like pushing as hard as we can to realizing like, at times in Jeff Mac, the CFOs over there, he'll laugh at this the, for me it's it's it's hard sometimes just to sit back and, and not just grab control. But what I've come to realize over time is watching the guys like Jay and Fred, who listen and and understand that I have a very, I'm very proud of the team that we've assembled at Potrero. And they're such great thinkers that sometimes when I walk out of the room and come back, they've done a much better job than I stayed in the room. So don't tell the board that.

Joe Mullings  14:23  
Doug, you and I, we did a nice job building out the back into Corindus, especially for the exit with Siemens, that was a lot of fun. And I was always impressed and how you lead your teams, because you were really down in the dirt with them. You know, even though a COO and the times we climbed around gear in the lab, and you always connected with your people. So now as a CEO, do you what are you doing different or the same or focusing on now as you level up?

Doug Teany  14:52  
It has been a little different. And I'm glad you noticed that because I think we figured out an operating rhythm between executive leadership and engineers at Corindus that allowed us to have that open exchange? I think one of my earliest lessons learned in the CEO suite is how much people cue off of what you say. And so it's great that you're so thoughtful about speaking, I learned the hard way. And you know, you say what you think you're used to working that way where you're part of a technical team. And then you realize later, you have to say, Oh, I didn't mean that. Let's back it up a little bit. So I've had to, in the hard way, learn that sometimes you do need to pause. And like Joe said, it's hard not to grab control. And just to get in there and draw the map. But it really is that the more you can let go and surround yourself with people that are smarter than yourself, and then allow them to do the job that you brought them in for, the better it is. And it requires pause and thoughtfulness and understanding how engineering teams and r&d teams think and then figuring out how best to support that occur. At Corindus it was one way in the CEO job with four of us now at a seed level startup, it's very different.

Joe Mullings  16:01  
Let's talk about financing for a second because it's the it's generally you've got to check that box to get a C level suite. I will tell you out of the I don't know I've probably done 200 CEO searches in my career. And I don't know if there's one who said I don't worry about fundraising. Right? We'll do it we'll do it. And then you know, you get the finalists in the slates got three people who don't have financing like, but they don't have financing. I'm like, But wait a second. So like financing, Who here had an upset stomach when you pitched your first deck to the first VCs raising money? How did that feel? Joe?

Joe Urban  16:36  
Is? Here's the thing, like when I came in, I watched Fred raise $700 million. And all I was trying to do is raise only 15. And how hard can it be like let's just do this, like, let's get the money. And then we'll build the company. And I came in and developed a with the team and the presentation deck. I went to sand hill, I met with the first investor. And I told them exactly what I wanted to tell them. And they just like sat there and watched me and they're just like, okay, and then I was like, they're good at trying to give me feedback. Like there are a couple of people as a syndicate, it was, it was one of the most painful like humbling experiences. I kept doing this for about 17 times down Sand Hill Road, I finally go to Google Ventures. And it was a favor to the guy's dad who runs Google Ventures and called him and said, Son, I need you to do me a favor and listen to Joe's pitch. I went in there and he wouldn't make eye contact. We're sitting at a round table like this. And I'm pitching I'm trying to lean over to get his eye contact. And he just stared at my presentation. When I was telling, he looked at me, he goes, Are you done? I said I'm done. He goes go to slide one. And he proceeded to just totally undress the entire presentation to the point where I went to the car and I just sat in the front seat for 10 minutes just thinking like, what am I doing? Like this is horrible. And but it was a good lesson from that moment forward. I realized that to raise money. It's an alignment of mutual goals. Like they have somebody they're answering to. They have a very important thesis, they have LPS that they have to deliver for. And if it's a no, it might not be, it might not be a forever, no might be just right now. And as you go along and you prove out some of their their areas that were risks, then it's a yes. And so I found that some people that were no early are yeses. Now, in some that were yeses back then, or were just a different company. And the it got to the point where it was three weeks before Christmas, and 2017, which, sorry, two weeks before Christmas, and we had three weeks of cash in the bank and talk about like the acid reflux of stress in the middle of the night, trying to figure out I didn't know it at the time. But my wife's like crossing off Christmas gifts from the kids. And, you know, I'm looking, she tells me that afterwards. But you know, like, I'm looking at this thing. And I have 23 people at the time, that are depending on me to be successful and are shouldering everything. And all of a sudden, like a Christmas miracle. We had our first funding and then the rest was history. But it took that like just just can't stop. You just have to keep going. And you have to listen and pivot listen and pivot. And just understand that every single investor is is accountable to somebody.

Joe Mullings  19:11  
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. My first my first VCs were American Express, Visa and MasterCard. Same thing, right? When we started the firm in 92, it was just leveraged it all up against that right. And raising money. So you're in seed round right now. Right

Doug Teany  19:29  
Seed round. Yeah, that's like a preview into my future. This is brilliant insight, because I'm living that stress now learning those conversations in that dialogue. And I think I think it's very insightful advice that everybody's got goals, finding that mutual alignment of goals and having a dialogue based conversation about what you're both trying to accomplish is it's great advice. But yeah, the nerves are still real for

Joe Mullings  19:55  
sure. Yeah. Fundraising.

Anna Lisa Somera  19:57  
Yeah. So I mean, fundraise for my seed round was was very tough. But to answer your question on the butterflies my meeting with my the first VC that I had didn't go well. He pretty much said no on the spot. Did I stop? No. Like, I went back to him again. said no, again, like, absolute gonna stop. And then on the third time he's like, okay, so he said no to me twice, but I couldn't give up is one of those moments where, you know, I had the pressure that my colleagues here where it's like, I have a team of 10 people, they rely on me for their rent for, you know, their their preschool fees, I had to keep going. So, you know, it's that thick skin, that persistence, that sort of thing. So when I went back to a VC in Florida, you know, I said, Well, you know, thanks for the feedback. This is what I did. You know, I, you know, I move things around, you know, I made the changes, what do you think he's like, Alright. And then he's, like, tell you what it's like, you know, who else would be into this? This other guy over here? And then and then it just started happening, this effect. So, you know, it's the persistence of a thick skin, especially during the seed round.

Joe Mullings  21:14  
Yeah. And the adjustment on the fly to like, the thing that I see most CEOs first time when they're raising, they start out with a clinical slide. Like, the data doesn't matter yet. Yeah. Right. Get me emotionally bought into this investment, why? And then I'll justify it logically. Yep.

Joe Urban  21:29  
And, and you have to have that emotional tie. The other piece of advice from a fundraising standpoint is, after I raised the Series C, we stopped raising money and focused on building the company, that was a huge mistake. Because when we realized that the drywall was coming, I was like, Oh, my gosh, we have to raise money, and it was starting it from scratch. And from that moment forward, I committed to myself that I'll never stop raising money until we either have an IPO or we're cashflow positive, or we have an exit, just will not stop. And so from that time, until now, I haven't stopped. So the one piece of advice I'd give is, you cannot stop raising money ever. And it could be just updates and you keep people connecting dots over time. So they don't you're not trying to catch them up after two years of not talking to them then saying, Hey, I'm talking to because I need money. You're saying, okay, hey, in about six months, we're gonna be it looks like the board's gonna be raising money and approving that. So just keeping in a loop.

Joe Mullings  22:31  
So, well, Joe, you know, you bring up an interesting point. And Doug, you and I had an experience there. Joe, you were one of the earliest CEOs in med tech to pull on to that media platform on LinkedIn. You did it early. You did it confidently. You rolled it into the patients, you rolled it into the clinicians, you rolled it into your team? I mean, you made urine sexy. Yeah. How did you know that was the way to go? And I remember we were in your office on Potrero Hill. And you said, Joe, the way I look at it is I want my investors to always be able to go to their Facebook account, as if they're looking at their grandchildren or their children. What's going on with my investments today? So where did that come from? Because that was not alive in med tech before that.

Joe Urban  23:22  
No, it wasn't, I had watched you. And we were talking about this last night with the memes and everything leading into what is now all of this. And I had nothing to lose. We were a little tiny voice in a loud crowd. And I saw LinkedIn as a way to force multiply and amplify our voice and you know, people listen, great. But what I think's happened over the last four and a half years is that discipline of building across multiple platforms, is has created a hopefully a community that's following and keeping track of what we're doing in Potrero. And, you know, I've heard this from clinicians, we had sales that came from this. We've had clinical investigators say, I've been watching you passively for six months. I want to talk to you guys, we've had investors. So it's been it's been kind of fun to take that we've we've done a lot of experimentation. Some is work, some has not. But for the most part, it's, I look at it, it's free. So why would we not do this? Like it's a free platform. And it's an opportunity where people opt in to listen, it's not a commercial on TV where they can mute it. They can they can still do that. But it's a free free opt in type of platform for us. It was a no brainer.

Joe Mullings  24:40  
Doug, you did the same thing at Corindus, right? You came out early and you knew you needed to develop a hiring brand. So with that. I believe that CEOs in every industry, but med tech, which is near and dear to my heart, need to be bonused and judged on their company's hiring brand. So you've got your product narrative and you've got your value to the clinicians. However, developing a hiring brand, you mentioned a Joe, that I've been watching you for six months, a clinician said. And then one day they decided or they got a call from your your market development people. So thoughts about developing and being held accountable for hiring brand, as one of your deliverables by your board? How come that hasn't happened yet?

Doug Teany  25:27  
I think it's an interesting point. Because I do agree with you the the art of storytelling, when you're telling the story of your vision and how you're going to achieve it is really powerful, not just to employees, but to candidates to investors. I hadn't processed through the question you've got ever before, of should CEOs be held accountable, but I don't see why not. I think it's you're held accountable to raise money, you're held accountable to culture, I don't know why you wouldn't be held accountable to build a team and to recruit and create that brand in LinkedIn is a very powerful medium to do it in videos here to stay, whether we like it or not. So you've got to figure out how to adopt it and how to thrive in this environment, or you're going to be forgotten or not noticed. So I think I think it's very interesting idea. Don't hold me to it yet.

Joe Mullings  26:11  
I'm not gonna hold you to it yet. But what sort of tools do you use? In order to keep your bat signal on 24/7? For the marketplace for hiring that you don't want to hire when you have to hire? That's the worst time to hire?

Anna Lisa Somera  26:27  
Yep, yep. So one of my investors told me, you know, Anna Lisa, you always have to be recruiting, okay, you might not be hiring this person today, you might hire him or her, you know, a few months from now, maybe a year from now. So every time, you know, I get connected from investors to to new people, or attend events like this, you know, I kind of keep them in mind, I'll say, you know, that, you know, that Joe is really good at, you know, finance or Claire's, you know, really good on the clinical side, I'm gonna remember her keep her in my back pocket. So, you know, it's, you know, these in person events, as well as LinkedIn. You know, I'm always, you know, checking out folks at LinkedIn, and, you know, talking to folks on my network to see who they know, because they're, you know, there's, there's, like I said, I'm always recruiting.

Doug Teany  27:09  
Joe, just another thought on that was really interesting. As we were talking, I was thinking most of us in our careers, and I think it still exists today, you're rewarded as a hero. So even within corporations, there's a lot of talk about team building and recruiting, but you still find most of the rewards most of the bonuses, most of the compensation go to people who individually stand out that rise as an individual. And this is the first seat that I've been in, where you've got to put your money where your mouth is on the team matters more than the individual. As I make the video tool, the concept of continuously cultivating that talent pool is critical for our success. But I felt that I don't know if you guys felt that I felt more in this role than in any role in the past.

Joe Mullings  27:53  
Scott Hawkins has an interesting graphic on that he shared it with us. He said, when when most of the time you look at an organization, it starts like this right at the top of the CEO. And Scotty says, I flipped that upside down. And right, I'm at the bottom. And my job is to win. We've heard this from insightful people is my customer doesn't come first. My patient doesn't come first. My team member comes first. Because if those are aligned, by default, the patient, the customer, the clinician gets served. I agree. So when you come in every day, how do you set your day up? Joe? How do you set your day up every day?

Joe Urban  28:30  
Like, it's like the chapters of Potrero. Like, right now we're, we're in the middle of a commercial ramp, we're raising money, we're we're raising our series D, we have a lot of just really strong positive momentum. So to like where my brain is, today is morning tonight on the financing. So I know that's probably not the the right answer. I don't know if there is a right answer. But right now, it's myself, Jeff Mac and Rebecca Lin that are hyper focused on on that deliverable. And then I have a team that has been developed over the last four years that it's just, they're just running. And that to me is a great thing. So for me setting up the day, is it happens the beginning the week. Just to take a step back, we've been aggressive with how we set goals, and we back into those goals, makes it easier. And then we have micro goals. So Monday, I know what I need to do. By the end of the day, I know what I need to do by Wednesday. And if it hasn't been achieved what has to happen on Friday, I hold myself accountable to the board, we send weekly reports to them. That was something that we drove. The team is proud of it some days and sometimes it's like, we got to do better next week. So I think a lot of it is it comes down to how we've established our vision for that. Like let's say it's the year the quarter the month, the week, all the way down to the to the day.

Joe Mullings  30:02  
You judge yourself on weeks, months or quarters?

Joe Urban  30:05  
Yes, we do everything like, I personally look at weeks, every week, we send a report to the, to the board, on a monthly basis, Jeff and I get on to calls with bankers, strategics, investors, pre like they're there, we're looking for them to be investors. And we we tell them every single month what we said we'd do what we did what we're going to do every single month, and they write it down. And for me, I love it because it holds us accountable. Jeff keeps getting notes. And he's like, Joe, you didn't do this. So you better tell them. For me that I love that because it keeps us very, very sharp, and always driving forward.

Joe Mullings  30:45  
So last question for each of you. What did you wish you were more prepared with? Before you stepped into your seat today, that you will coach the next person that you mentor, that you know, they're destined for the C suite? So what do you think? What do you wish you had more of before you stepped into this? And what will you prepare from a succession planning the person who you believe will be your next CEO?

Anna Lisa Somera  31:14  
I think it's a wish I prepared more and just kind of just trying to fit in all my goals, you know, for the day, because as a CEO, you're you're in charge of so much. And you should, you know, be able to spring it in any moment, like in any of the jobs, right. So you bring in the cash, and you also throw out your ass, you know, you should be able to, you know, fill in, you know, any, any role at any time. And I kind of, you know, wish I was prepared for that kind of overwhelming feeling of just being able to, you know, jump in at any time. And then also, you know, accomplish, you know, you know, all those goals, I guess it's in general, it's just that overwhelming feeling. Yeah.

Joe Mullings  31:58  
What do you think you wish you had more of before you stepped in?

Doug Teany  32:02  
Well, I think it would be the coaching concept, that inverted pyramid of my customers, the employee, I've I've recognized, there's a really big difference between getting the principle of something and then doing it well. And so for anyone coming into the seat, I was thinking about Joe talking about his week and month and quarter plan. I've been very intentional about when I start my week plan what I'm going to get done through and with others and not do myself, I inevitably end up with a long list for myself. And then I look at it again, and think about what's the best way to get this done with others and co-collaborate rather than take on too much. So that's been a it's been a learning curve to really put your money where your mouth is on coaching and being a good coach and empowering the team and building that high performance culture. That's what I would advise anyone come into the seat that it sounds simple to do. And it sounds completely logical, but doing it well can be very challenging.

Joe Mullings  32:57  
And Joe, what do you think you would prefer to have more planning or experience

Joe Urban  33:01  
Outside of fundraising? That's become easier over time. Jay it sounds again, like what he's saying like, it sounds simple, but it's hard to internalize it. Jay Watkins once said, Joe, your job is to think a year from now. And you have to think one year in advance. And that's where your brain needs to be. Your your direct reports are thinking for the next six months, and everyone else is executing. And if you can do that, and incorporate it into your planning, it's very effective. And if you can always have that forward looking one year in advance thing, it's takes a lot of discipline to do. We were kind of doing it but we weren't as effective as we are today. The other aspect that I would look at is we've been like I tell people often that it's three things that make a successful startup, it's the team. It's the technology, and it's the market. If you have a great team and A players hire A players to demand a performance of themselves and their people and their people and their people, they reflect that leadership. The technology has to it doesn't have to work perfectly when you launch it. But you have to have a plan to get that to where it delights the customer. And then finally, the market has to be big enough to where investors say, Yeah, I believe in that. That makes sense. And that's a big, big thing you're chasing. And so understanding that pulling in that team and knowing what I know now, with how easy the team makes it for me versus where it was four years ago, is a light year difference from where I was just looking at the team and saying, Man, this is this is a wonderful thing. We don't want to lose anybody because they're operating at such a high tempo all the time. So from that standpoint, those are it seems pretty simple. It's very hard to execute it's and then managing personalities and making sure that everybody is aligned to the mission ever Nobody is collaborative and working through the problems, that there's healthy debate. But at the end of the day, as soon as we walk out of the doors, we're in agreement that that's the mission. And that's what we're doing.

Joe Mullings  35:11  
So I said, there's one more question because you made me think, okay, okay, good. We've all had great performers on our team. And sometimes they're the same person that needs to get removed from the team. Right? They they're, they're great performers, but they're toxic. They're disrespectful of others on the team. How do you manage isolating that person and removing them from the organization? And have you done it as a CEO yet?

Anna Lisa Somera  35:47  
So? Well, you know, fortunately, that hasn't happened to me yet. But, you know, I have done things to, you know, reduce that risk. And whenever, you know, I'm interviewing candidates, you know, that sort of thing. I have my people talk with them, too. It's not just me, and maybe one or their manager, I have, you know, a number of, you know, folks on my team, you know, you know, chat with this candidate, because, you know, I don't have a huge team, you know, right now we have up to 12 employees, that sort of thing, it's not huge. So when you bring in someone new, that person can just change things if their personality does not match and blend with the rest of ours so, you know, Team harmony is really important to me, because it's such a small team, we have really lofty goals we gotta get along. So, you know, that's the, you know, that's my risk mitigating stuff is like, I tried to live, but not let those people in.

Joe Mullings  36:38  
Yeah, I like I like contrarian people in my organization is as as long as they're not contrarian for the sake of contrarian. Right, right. So you can attack ideas, not people. So Joe, I know you've you've with a D round coming up, potentially, you've cycled through functions and people as well, you should have from an early round to now a late round and revenue round. So what's your guidance, the first time CEOs have to pull the trigger on a big performer? Who just is not moving the organization forward? Oh,

Joe Urban  37:09  
shoot, that's a big question. You know, the, as I, as I was thinking through like your question, I think that I take accountability for anytime that there's been massive friction. I honestly do because I've put people in positions where the vision wasn't clear, or the objective wasn't clear. And they're just driving to get this done. And they're there. I'm putting them on and saying that deadlines and what would have helped and what we've now shifted to have more of a consistent planning process throughout the year, to make sure that it's not a one time static thing. And it's like, Alright, now hit your goals. It's quarterly, and sometimes even monthly, depending on what the objective is. So I take full responsibility for those friction moments in the history of betrayal. There have been some some friction where it was unnecessary. And it's, it's never an easy conversation. to coach somebody. It's, it's evolved to tears at times with with folks but just like Rick cloud, grabbed my face mask at Google Ventures and helped me become better, I hope that the honest communication helped others become better, or at least understand the situation as others see it. And it's just, it's never easy, especially when you're in a high tension, like very driven performance, organization, that's, it's trying to do more with less. And, you know, people poured their heart and soul in it. And so it's just takes a lot a lot of conversations and, and coaching. And sometimes at different chapters of, of the history of the company. There are people that are very, very, very good as the first seven, eight employees, the further along this gets, they're not good, and they know it and they self select out, or their conversations to, to make sure that they do either figuring out how to move forward or select something else.

Doug Teany  39:19  
Two thoughts when you ask this question, I had a mentor decades ago, give me a book. And the title of it was talented people are difficult, get ready for it. So I've always walked into it knowing that some of the more talented people actually are the more challenging people and I think when you can accept that, you're ready for it. And then I had Marcus Buckingham give a speech years ago and I completely agree with him that you cannot change someone's personality. If there's an aggressive kid on the playground when they're six, all you can do is channel that energy and they're either going to grow up to be a jerk or they're going to grow up to be a great salesperson. And I sort of have applied that on this high talent high difficulty situation that might before any discussion about whether there's a fit, whether they're being toxic, whether they're contributing, it's an effort to channel, what they're bringing to guide them to how to contribute. And I think a lot of times people don't get that kind of guidance, people get frustrated with certain behaviors, or they get frustrated with how they communicate. And if you just step back and watch it, and figure out how to redirect it or channel it, I've had a lot of success with that. There are cases where it fails. And I think, as Joe said, that can end in tough discussions, and usually people self acknowledging that they're not a great fit. But I think the advice I give to anyone thinking about this role is Get ready for it. Talented people are tough and figure out how to channel and

Joe Mullings  40:39  
especially when you increase your headcount from 10, to 40 to 100

Joe Urban  40:43  
Always changes it doesn't get easier. doesn't get easier.

Joe Mullings  40:47  
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your generosity and your candidness. And this will be helpful to other future CEOs for them to understand what they should be aware of more of these conversations need to happen. So thanks for everybody. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Thanks, Joe. I'm Joe Mullings, from LSI 2020. Be well