Engineering Founders

By: The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)
  • Summary

  • The show for engineering leaders making the leap to start their own company! We dive into the stories, pivotal moments and critical insights from former eng leaders turned founders, that helped them take those early leaps to launch their own company!
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Episodes
  • Scaling costs & being enterprise ready from day 1 w/ Nancy Wang
    Nov 7 2024

    Nancy Wang, Venture Partner @ Felicis and Former GM @ AWS, joins us to discuss strategies & considerations for scaling costs, becoming enterprise ready on Day 1, maintaining business health, and more. We cover Nancy’s journey as a founding product manager at AWS and how those lessons have guided her throughout her career & how she coaches founders. We address why it’s paramount to prioritize scaling costs early on as a founder, how to make design decisions with cost considerations in mind, and what tools you can employ to identify the features that most benefit your customers. Finally, Nancy & Patrick talk about how to land on your V1 while being enterprise-ready from the get-go and trends / growth opportunities that founders should be aware of today.

    ABOUT NANCY WANG

    Nancy is a product & engineering executive, advisor, and investor who is passionate about creating seats at the table for women, especially within engineering and technical roles. Most recently, as General Manager of Data Protection at AWS Nancy scaled her engineering teams from 18 to 100+, all while averaging over 45% female and delivering triple-digit YoY growth businesses that delivered over $1B+ ARR including its integration into Amazon’s suite of AI products.

    Previously, Nancy launched Rubrik’s (NYSE: RBRK) first Cloud SaaS business, growing their company valuation to over $4B in less than 2 years. Rubrik IPO’ed in Q22024, as one of the fastest-growing enterprise SaaS businesses. As Founder and Board Chair of the non-profit Advancing Women in Tech since 2016, Nancy helps prepare women and underrepresented minorities for leadership roles. She is currently a Venture Partner at Felicis, looking after their infrastructure and cybersecurity investments.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • Nancy’s journey as the founding product manager for AWS (2:57)
    • Why AWS was launched & how it scaled (5:31)
    • How to build a successful business within the confines of your org (7:41)
    • Insights into the people side of scaling your business (10:25)
    • Understanding the cost component of scaling / founding (13:12)
    • Ensure your processes aid the overall health & mission of the company (15:43)
    • Why founders need to prioritize scaling costs early (17:15)
    • Breaking down different cost scenarios founders may face (20:08)
    • Avoiding design decisions that create exponential cost but linear revenue (22:51)
    • Considerations for being enterprise-ready from Day 1 (28:10)
    • Think of hyperscalers like a T-rex (32:31)
    • Nancy’s lessons learned on landing your V1 while being enterprise-ready (34:05)
    • Questions founders can ask to help identify their market & where to start (39:24)
    • Current trends / growth opportunities for founders to consider (40:59)
    • Rapid fire questions (43:31)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • CEO Excellence - McKinsey & Company led a research effort to identify those CEOs whose companies grew demonstrably healthier during their tenures, looking across more than 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries to further identify those whose actions have led to breakaway success.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    46 mins
  • Why you SHOULDN’T become a founder w/ Travis McPeak @ Resourcely
    Oct 24 2024

    In this episode of Engineering Founders, we discuss something we’ve never covered before – why you SHOULDN’T be a founder! Travis McPeak (CEO & Co-Founder @ Resourcely) joins the pod to share his founder story and questions to ask yourself to truly validate if the founder lifestyle is right for you. We also address how to de-risk your org & understanding the two main kinds of risks; things to consider when raising capital, like going bootstrap vs. VC; balancing the wedge vs. long-term vision; and how to create a lifestyle that supports you as a founder.

    ABOUT TRAVIS MCPEAK

    Travis is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Resourcely which enables platform, security, and DevOps engineering teams to offer simple self-service to their developers. Prior to Resourcely, Travis served as the Head of Product Security at Databricks. With an extensive background in application and cloud security, Travis enjoys building automated solutions to hard and critical problems. Prior to joining Databricks, Travis led the team at Netflix that automates application security including vulnerability management, asset inventory, and security reviews. During his time at Netflix Travis also built Repokid, a tool that automates least privilege at scale. Previously Travis led large security initiatives at IBM, HPE, and Symantec.

    Travis is an extrovert and enjoys sharing ideas and meeting new people. In his spare time, Travis leads the OWASP Bay Area chapter, mentors people getting started in security, and loves to help startups. He is an advisor for four companies including Ermetic and Appaegis. Travis is an angel investor in startups including Temporal, Truffle Security, and AuthZed.

    " The stress is going to get you anyway, and your mindset about how you approach that stress is going to make the difference. So you're the one that's like, ‘All right, it's challenge time. Let's do this.’ Or are you like, ‘I'm overwhelmed right now. This feels too hard for me and then you go like hide in your shell.’”

    - Travis McPeak

    SHOW NOTES:
    • The origins behind Resourcely & Travis’s founder journey (1:52)
    • Questions to ask before starting a company (5:07)
    • What it was like for Travis to answer these questions for himself (8:00)
    • Processes for becoming more self aware (9:06)
    • What you should do / think about before starting a company (11:12)
    • Methods for de-risking the two main kinds of risks (14:28)
    • Resources for better understanding de-risking business risk (16:30)
    • Identifying when to go bootstrap vs. VC for funding (19:00)
    • Frameworks for differentiating which investor path is the right fit (21:30)
    • Presentation strategies & considerations when raising capital (22:48)
    • Linking together the wedge vs. long-term vision (28:21)
    • How Travis was able to have 45 conversations in the first 45 days (32:31)
    • Adapting to the founder lifestyle & increasing your odds for success (34:25)
    • Strategies for prioritization & developing discipline (35:39)
    • Practice rigorous scheduling (40:23)
    • Rapid fire questions (41:49)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick’s quick and easy handbook about how to get more learning and more sales out of your customer conversations. Even when everyone is lying to you.
    • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin's dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    45 mins
  • Leveraging distribution & community to accelerate your startup w/ Mariane Bekker @ Founders Bay
    Jun 13 2024
    Mariane Bekker, Founder & CEO @ Founders Bay, joins us to discuss the power of building your distribution channel and network within the startup community. She shares best practices for community building based on her own experiences developing Upward Recruiting and Founders Bay & why being able to articulate / communicate your company’s mission (the “why” of it all) is instrumental. Mariane shares her favorite networking conversation starters, tools for staying organized as your community expands, and pitfalls to avoid. She also dissects strategies for building an MVP in eight weeks and the role of distribution/community in accelerating that process.ABOUT MARIANE BEKKERMariane is a tech executive and the founder & CEO of Founders Bay, a venture studio in Silicon Valley, where she works closely with early-stage founders to build their products from the ground up with her team of engineers and designers. She also runs the most active community of female tech founders in the Bay Area on a mission to increase funding for women founders."Do you have an audience or do you have a channel where when you have a product, you can easily reach out to and convince them to use your product? When I started my community, I already had the audience. I already had the distribution channel. So all I had to do was send a few messages and within a month, I had already a hundred startups in my community. So that's when distribution comes to play, when you have the audience and the channels where you can distribute your product effectively.”- Mariane Bekker ABOUT FOUNDER’S BAYFounder’s Bay is a leading venture studio dedicated to empowering women-founded startups in Silicon Valley by providing them with the engineering resources to build their product.Recognizing that only 1.9% of funding goes to women-led startups, they are committed to bridging this significant gender and funding gap in the tech industry. As part of this commitment, Founder’s Bay runs the largest and most active community of female founders in the Bay Area providing resources, mentorship, and support.Join us at ELC Annual 2024!ELC Annual is our 2 day conference bringing together engineering leaders from around the world for a unique experience help you expand your network and empower your leadership & career growth.Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to expand your network, gain actionable insights, ignite new ideas, recharge, and accelerate your leadership journey!Secure your ticket at sfelc.com/annual2024And use the exclusive discount code "podcast10" (all lowercase) for a 10% discountSHOW NOTES:Mariane’s founder origin story with Upward Recruiting (2:52)Transitioning from Upward Recruiting to Founders Bay & recent milestone events (5:09)Strategies for articulating your mission & avoiding common pitfalls (7:48)How knowing & communicating your “why” impacts early hiring decisions (11:13)Becoming good at hiring functions outside of engineering (13:12)Defining distribution & what this means for startups (16:13)Tactics for building your initial audience & testing what content works (18:04)Distribution’s impact on community, sales, marketing, etc. (22:44)Common networking / community building challenges while starting your own org (26:04)Mariane’s favorite networking questions & conversation topics (28:03)How Mariane’s technical background benefits community building activities (30:50)Tools for staying organized as you expand your network (32:55)What building an MVP in eight weeks typically looks like (35:15)Leveraging your distribution network to accelerate your MVP’s launch (37:01)How your distribution & community can provide access to traction capital (40:07)Rapid fire questions (41:46)LINKS AND RESOURCESHolly - Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
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    44 mins

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