236: Bootstrapping a $300M Cinema Company, With Grant Petty of Blackmagic Design

“I don’t think CEOs should be able to be CEOs if they can’t code,” says Grant Petty, founder and CEO of Blackmagic Design.

That’s a bold statement, but Petty is a bold guy. Working as an engineer in the television industry, he realized the technology was overpriced. So he started a company that cut costs and put power into the hands of creators.

“Really what I was doing was a protest against the way the TV industry was,” he says.

And soon, Petty began to challenge the status quo of business in general. He runs his company a little differently: There are no spreadsheets, very little planning, and to him, metrics hardly matter.

“In the Western world, business culture becomes so rigid and so inflexible,” he says. “If you’re a creative person, you can get destroyed by that because they don’t allow you to exist.”

Today, Blackmagic Design boasts nearly $300 million in annual revenue and is still 100% bootstrapped. Its technology is used by 80% of modern day feature films. We sat down with Petty to discuss what he’s learned about how to run a meaningful business in the face of opposition.

Key Takeaways

• How his frustrations with the TV industry inspired him to start Blackmagic
• The story behind Blackmagic’s first product and how he got it off the ground
• The challenges with getting funding and the struggles he faced when he decided to self-fund
• The “wave of hatred” that can come when you try to disrupt an industry
• How long it took to become an industry leader
• How to know when it’s the right time to add a new product to your line
• Balancing his creative side with the operational duties of being CEO
• One common thing that’s destroying creativity in businesses
• Blackmagic’s culture and how it fosters creativity
• What’s next for the company