Ep 69: Leading Teams Across Borders with Manuel Martinez-Herrera, BetterCloud GM

What does a general manager role involve? How do you establish your company's first international office? And what skills from lawyering can you draw on to do it well?

Join Manuel Martinez-Herrera, General Manager and General Counsel at BetterCloud, as he shares his journey from law school in Spain to offices in Argentina and the U.S., to earning an LL.M at Harvard, jumping from big law to in-house counsel, moving beyond the GC role, and opening his company’s first office in Mexico City.

Listen as Manuel offers tips for lawyers who want to move into business roles, why it’s important to explore new and different opportunities, the traits that lawyers and software engineers share in common, and more.

Read detailed summary:  https://www.spotdraft.com/podcast/episode-69

Topics:

Introduction: 0:00
Why did you decide to practice law in United States?: 2:18
Gravitating towards in-house legal: 5:10
Feeling ready to lead a legal team: 7:32
Becoming General Manager at BetterCloud: 11:35
Shifting your mindset from legal to business: 13:43
Working with software engineers: 15:23
Transitioning from advisor to doer: 18:31
How has working as GM changed your relationship with the executive team?: 21:57
Leading a team through its maturation process: 24:19
Investing in company culture: 26:50
Tips for listeners thinking of taking a job abroad: 30:07
What’s next for Manuel: 32:12
Rapid-fire questions: 33:15
Book recommendations: 36:23
What Manuel wishes he’d known as a young lawyer: 38:50

Connect with us:
Manuel Martinez-Herrera - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuel-martinez-herrera-71a2a763/
Tyler Finn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerhfinn
SpotDraft - https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotdraft

SpotDraft is a leading contract lifecycle management platform that solves your end-to-end contract management issues.

Visit https://www.spotdraft.com to learn more.