#196 CEO & Co-Founder Braze, Bill Magnuson: Principles of Change
Jun 24, 2024
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CEO and co-founder of Braze, Bill Magnuson, discusses the impact of smartphones, generative AI, customer churn, and the historic deployment of smartphones. They also touch on international hiring, the benefits of youth, survivor bias, and what 'grit' means to Bill.
Smartphones had significant global impact, accelerating Gen AI development.
Transition from CTO to CEO required boundary setting for productivity and collaboration.
Prior experience in engineering aids system-level thinking essential for effective leadership strategies.
Deep dives
Adapting Earnings Day Preparation
Spike Braid works better in the afternoon for earnings activities. Conducting analyst calls post-earnings call in the evening streamlines the process without interruptions during the workday. The preference for late-night work aligns with productive outcomes as opposed to early mornings, reflecting individual work patterns and efficiency in managing tasks as a CEO.
CEO Transition Impact on Schedule
Transitioning from the role of CTO to CEO resulted in a schedule shift towards standard working hours, influenced by global operational demands. The expansion of Braze globally necessitated a 24-hour operational framework due to revenue generation across different time zones, requiring boundary setting for effective productivity and team collaboration.
Tech Background in Leadership
The transition from software engineering to leadership roles highlights parallels in building capabilities across different domains. Comparing leadership and engineering principles reveals a focus on evolving capabilities, abstract thinking, and compositional problem-solving. The CEO's system-level thinking and adaptable skills from engineering contribute to effective organizational leadership strategies.
Evolution of Technology Adoption and Business Opportunities
The podcast highlights the evolution of technology adoption and business opportunities, emphasizing the swift progression witnessed in recent times compared to historical shifts such as electricity, TV, PCs, and the internet. The speaker discusses how mobile devices, particularly smartphones, have achieved global penetration faster and more widely than previous technologies, creating vast business potential. This rapid adoption has facilitated the deployment of Gen AI technologies onto existing platforms, enabling businesses to scale and innovate efficiently in a globally connected landscape.
Career Trajectory and Lessons in Entrepreneurship
The episode delves into the speaker's early career decisions, including working at established companies like Google and Bridgewater before embarking on entrepreneurial ventures. It explores the role of experience gained from large-scale organizations in shaping entrepreneurial endeavors. The speaker emphasizes the value of diverse exposure to scaling challenges and business operations, highlighting the significance of prior learnings in navigating entrepreneurial journeys. Additionally, the discussion touches on the impact of science fiction reading on problem-solving and strategic thinking, emphasizing the importance of a nuanced approach to tackling real-world challenges.
The deployment of smartphones around the world was more impactful than any other technology to date, says Braze CEO Bill Magnuson — and that has big implications for emerging fields like generative AI. “If we get to the point where they [LLMs] really can be useful, human-like companions ... they will be usable by everyone that has smartphone technology.” In other words, the question is not business opportunity or scale: It’s capability.
In this episode, Bill and Joubin discuss earnings days, Aaron Levie, MIT, customer churn, shower thoughts, technical co-founders, lacking context, AGI, “hands on keyboard,” the T-Mobile G1, app marketing, the 2008 financial crisis, Bob Iger, World War II, Peter Reinhardt, Watershed, and international offices.
