From Engineer to CEO - Andrew Lau - Not Another CEO Podcast - Episode #22

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Dec 17, 2024

Andrew Lau, Co-founder and CEO of Jellyfish and veteran of the Boston startup scene, discusses his journey from engineer to leader. He shares insights on building a startup with a strong culture, emphasizing the importance of founder alignment and core values. Andrew recounts interviewing over 50 engineering leaders to shape Jellyfish’s vision, while advocating for a version of a startup that accommodates life’s responsibilities. He also reflects on the evolving role of CEOs, the significance of customer discovery, and the challenges of scaling a business.

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ADVICE

Formalize Co-Founder Alignment

Write down co-founder alignment and use it as a North Star for tough decisions.
Revisit that document periodically to guide hiring, investment, and product choices.

ANECDOTE

Sushi Bar Napkin Became The Playbook

The three co‑founders met at a sushi bar and wrote down their culture and business goals on a note app.
That ritual created shorthand for hiring, investment choices, and company cadence.

ADVICE

Design A Startup That Works With Life

Build a company that fits your life stage and accepts responsibilities like family.
Hire more mature, higher-cost people if needed so the business can sustain a 'startup for grown-ups.'

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Joining the show this week is a veteran of the Boston start-up community and leader in engineering management platforms. Having served as the VP of Engineering to a company that as acquired for $1B, this guest is none other than the Co-Founder & CEO of Jellyfish, Andrew Lau.

Lau shares his journey from an engineer in startups to a CEO managing a high-growth company. He provides insights on aligning leadership and culture, fundraising, and work-life balance.

Takeaways:

Co-Founder Alignment: The Jellyfish team created a detailed vision for Jellyfish before starting the company. They established core values that emphasized culture, people, and building a scalable business. This became their North Star for decision-making.
Engineering for Growth: Jellyfish's platform helps engineering leaders align their teams’ work with broader business objectives. The company's vision is inspired by Salesforce’s transformation of sales management.
Early Customers through Discovery: The team interviewed over 50 VPEs and CTOs to deeply understand pain points in engineering management. These conversations led to a service-driven approach to validate Jellyfish’s product vision.
Startup for Grown-Ups: There was a conscious effort to build a "grown-up" startup that accommodates life responsibilities. They designed their business to work with their life stages, creating a sustainable culture.
Leadership Evolution: Andrew reflects on his transition from engineering management to being a CEO. This journey required learning sales, fundraising, and storytelling while balancing the operational and strategic demands of scaling a company.
Fundraising with Trust: Andrew describes the importance of aligning with investors who understand the domain and trust the founding team. Jellyfish's seed funding came from building relationships within the Venn diagram of trust and domain expertise.
Adapting to Change: As the tech landscape evolves with AI and macroeconomic shifts, Jellyfish focuses on being adaptable. Andrew emphasizes that startups have the agility to tackle new challenges, creating opportunities for growth and innovation.

Quote of the Show:

“It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. And we also live lives as humans here too… We have to make this thing work for us.” - Andrew Lau

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amlau/
Twitter: https://x.com/amlau
Website: https://jellyfish.co/

Ways to Tune In:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NQ9oAB2XKlgWeL8iEQXg0
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-another-ceo-podcast/id1751581707
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c6328f0-9b42-41db-8fe2-d263b4fbb261
Transistor: https://podcast.notanotherceo.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotAnotherCEOPodcast

#NotAnotherCEO #BusinessSuccess #Jellyfish