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20VC: Intercom Founder, Eoghan McCabe on How To Deal with the Weight of Expectation, Having Your Identity Tied To Your Company, How To Be Your Authentic Self Even with Stakeholders & Why There Are No Rules

Oct 22, 2020

Eoghan McCabe, co-founder and former CEO of Intercom, shares insights from his entrepreneurial journey. He discusses the emotional hurdles of tying identity to success and the importance of self-acceptance. McCabe emphasizes the need for authentic leadership while respecting diverse stakeholder views and warns against conforming to societal expectations. He encourages questioning norms and embracing creativity in business, highlighting how ambition can lead to innovation without losing touch with reality.

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ANECDOTE

Intercom's Origin

Eoghan McCabe's journey into startups stemmed from a passion for building and the internet's potential.
Intercom's mission was to personalize online business interactions, creating messengers and bots for better customer connection.

INSIGHT

The Chip on Your Shoulder

A "chip on your shoulder" signifies a lack of self-love and the belief that external achievements will fill that void.
True self-discovery comes from an inward journey and self-acceptance, not external validation.

INSIGHT

Finding Yourself

Losing oneself in pursuit of external validation leads to adopting others' identities instead of discovering one's own.
Finding purpose involves looking inward to understand who you are and your place in the world.

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Eoghan McCabe is a technology entrepreneur. He's started a number of companies, the most notable of which is Intercom, the conversational relationship platform. He was CEO of Intercom for nearly 10 years, during which he grew the company to hundreds of millions in annual revenue, nearly 700 employees, and raised nearly $250M from the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Index, Bessemer, and ICONIQ. He's also invested in dozens of companies including Stripe, Figma, SuperHuman, and Coda. In the summer of 2020 he moved to the role of Chairman of Intercom.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Eoghan made his way into the world of startups from Ireland and came to build one of the Valley's greats with Intercom?

2.) How does Eoghan thinking about living and thriving with a chip on one's shoulder? What does Eoghan advise in terms of one's search for their true selves? What were his biggest learnings in his search? What does Eoghan advise people who maybe feel they have lost themselves?

3.) Having been CEO of a $Bn company for close to 10 years, how does Eoghan think about dealing with the weight of expectation placed on shoulders? How did he manage it? How does he think about his identity being so tied to his company?

4.) In terms of being one's authentic self, how can one achieve this while also respecting their stakeholders who may hold different views? How does Eoghan think about being an authentic leader vs bowing down to the demands of your team? What is the right balance?

5.) Why does Eoghan think that vision can actually be limiting? How does Eoghan think about stress testing one's vision and ambition? What adversity from early VCs did Eoghan have to fight against? How does Eoghan encourage dissent and debate within his teams?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Eoghan’s Fave Book: Breathe: simple breathing techniques for a calmer, happier life

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