When you starting up, your scale is kind of small, and will grow in terms of a number of users. For a start up team, how do you solve this scaling problem? Do you start by solving for small scale first? Or you build a design in such a way that it can handle a large scale? Every time you have to go through one of these steps and you have to bring in something in focus, you will have to make new technical decisions. And every time t 50 thousand, five 500 thousand, five million, yourebuild. That's very ciple. Jerome's 50 % rule.
"Leading others is leading yourself first. That's a very big work of self awareness, and you should always do that."
Jerome Poudevigne is a serial CTO who has co-founded multiple startups with multiple successful exits. Recently, he has been working at Google Cloud and AWS to help startups grow and make the most of cloud technologies.
In this very first episode of Tech Lead Journal, Jerome shares with us his startup wisdom from his lessons learned; advice for hiring, building culture, pitching, and managing stakeholders. He also shares with us his "Rule of 50%", a practical strategy that you can use to build your startup/product from zero scale to planet scale. Moreover, Jerome shares his interesting anecdotes about cultural differences between different regions based on his experience.
Listen out for:
- Jerome's career highlights, lowlights, and his lessons learned - [00:04:03]
- How to pitch yourself to (potential) investors, and how to assess good investors - [00:06:49]
- Some tips for hiring, especially in a startup, and how you can assess someone's personality and culture fit - [00:09:37]
- How to ensure that everyone works towards the same vision of the company - [00:16:37]
- "Jerome's Rule of 50%" - how to build your startup from zero scale to planet scale - [00:20:49]
- How you should not get distracted by the latest technologies when you're starting up - [00:21:07]
- Stakeholders management, and how to explain about technology to non-technical stakeholders - [00:28:42]
- Anecdotes about cultural differences between different regions - [00:32:40]
- Jerome's 3 Tech Lead Wisdoms - [00:43:56]
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Jerome Poudevigne's Bio
Jerome got his first computer when he was 12 and got into programming games, hacking copy protection schemes, and
putting together electronics during his school years. He decided that computers and software were too much fun, so he
got a CS degree and started doing it professionally, building radar systems and avionics for Airbus.
In the mid-90s, he moved to the Silicon Valley where he got the startup bug, and soon after he co-founded his first
startup, Kermeet, a Web-based event management. After it was acquired, he very soon started another one, acquired too,
and then a third one, that is still growing. In-between co-founding companies, he was an independent software
consultant helping out clients solving tough technical problems and other start-ups to take off the ground.
Since 2017, Jerome has been working at Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, helping startups make the most of cloud
technologies. When not traveling around Asia to a meet-up, he spends time running his small social enterprise helping
people with autism.
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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/1.
