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20VC: Inside UiPath, The World's Fastest Growing Startup, How The Best Leaders Approach Decision-Making & WhY Vulnerability Is Central To SuccessFul Leadership Today with Brandon Deer, VP of Operations & Strategy @ UiPath

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Dec 20, 2019

Brandon Deer, VP of Operations & Strategy at UiPath, discusses his journey from venture capital to leading a cutting-edge automation company. He shares insights on decision-making and the importance of distinguishing between what to prioritize and delegate. The conversation delves into the realities of robotic process automation, clarifying its impact on jobs and efficiency. Brandon emphasizes vulnerability as a key trait for effective leadership, highlighting the need for genuine communication and trust in a fast-growing startup environment.

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ANECDOTE

Personal over Professional

Brandon Deer prioritized his personal life by moving to New York for his girlfriend.
This led him to UiPath through networking, rather than ambition.

ADVICE

Rubber vs. Crystal

Weigh decisions by considering what's "rubber" (bounces back) and "crystal" (irreversible).
Prioritize "crystal" aspects like relationships and family.

INSIGHT

Investor to Operator

Investing can be a "lone sport," while operating involves a "full-on army."
Building responsive companies and scaling rapidly are surprisingly challenging.

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Brandon Deer is VP of Operations & Strategy @ UiPath, one of the world's fastest-growing companies providing a complete software platform to help organizations efficiently automate business processes through robotic process automation. To date, UiPath has raised over $977m in funding from some of the best in the world including Sequoia, Accel, Meritech, IVP, CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, Coatue and more. As for Brandon, prior to UiPath he spent 4 years as Vice President @ OpenView Partners where he made investments in Expensify, Logz.io, VTS and Pipefy to name a couple. Before OpenView, Brandon spent close to 4 years at Intuit in Strategy and Business Development.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Brandon made his way from being a rising star in the world of venture with Openview to leading one of the fastest-growing companies in history in UiPath? What has been the most surprising element in making the transition from investor to operator?

2.) How does Brandon think about decision-making today? How does he determine what to spend time on vs what to delegate? What does he mean when he says, "you have to think whether it is rubber or crystal?" How does that ultimately guide decision-making?

3.) What does the UiPath software actually do? What is the relationship between RPA and AI? Where do they differ? Where do they intersect? Recently, RPA has seen a meteoric rise, is this sustainable over the long term? How does Brandon respond to the suggestion that RPA is replacing human jobs? What is the human and societal impact?

4.) How does Brandon think about vulnerability in leadership? Why does Daniel and Brandon's relationship work so well today? What has Daniel (Founder) taught Brandon about communicating that vulnerability the right way and authentically? What does Brandon advise founders in terms of being open to their vulnerabilities?

5.) What are the biggest challenges in scaling an organisation to the 1,000+ person organisation that UiPath is today? What breaks When does it break? How does one maintain culture wit such scale? What have been the challenges of building a truly global business from Day 1? How do they look to mitigate them?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Brandon’s Fave Book: The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brandon on Twitter here!