Grit

#176 CEO MongoDB, Dev Ittycheria: Edge

Feb 5, 2024

01:05:31

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Dev Ittycheria, CEO of MongoDB, discusses the importance of intellectual honesty, being vulnerable, and recognizing strengths and weaknesses. They explore topics like looking for bad news, Ivy League schools, imposter syndrome, introverts, and time management.

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Quick takeaways

Scaling a business requires individuals to learn and adapt at different rates as the business grows.

The burden of persona is a pressure to live up to one's public image, and managing a public persona can be challenging.

CEOs need trusted mentors to navigate the loneliness of their position, make controversial decisions, and seek objective perspectives.

Deep dives

Adapting to Business Growth

Scaling a business requires individuals to learn and adapt as the business grows. Managing a business with 50, 500, or 5,000 people is very different, and not everyone scales at the same rate.

Navigating the burden of persona in entrepreneurship

01:47

Introduction

5min

The Boston Advantage

4min

The Drive to Prove Oneself

19min

The Hidden Cost of Being a CEO

6min

Effective Leadership and the Importance of Action

20min

Founder-led businesses and the challenges they face

6min

Benefits of New York City and Work-Life Harmony

4min

Hiring, Grit, and a Thank You

2min

Guest: Dev Ittycheria, CEO and President of MongoDB

When you think about who you were and the decisions you made two, or four, or eight years ago ... how do you feel? Dev Ittycheria, the President and CEO of MongoDB, says he’s embarrassed about certain things he did — and that’s a good thing. “If you’re not [embarrassed], that means you’re not really growing that fast,” he says. He recalled one of his mentors, former BladeLogic chairman Steve Walske, explaining that everyone has an overinflated opinion of themselves, and the great leaders keep the gap between that opinion and reality narrow. One of the hallmarks of such a leader, Dev says, is that they have the intellectually honesty to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, which others perceive.

In this episode, Dev and Joubin discuss looking for bad news, chips on your shoulder, Ivy League schools, being an outsider, highly educated parents, “aging out,” Bruce Springsteen, Chief People Officers, Frank Slootman and John McMahon, passive aggression, vulnerability as strength, imposter syndrome, open-source licenses, introverts, and time management.

In this episode, we cover:

Shlomo Kramer and the “burden of persona” (00:59)
Why BladeLogic started in Boston (04:30)
The psychological edge (07:08)
Dev’s family and education (08:56)
“Am I good enough?” (13:11)
“Do not squander this opportunity” (16:22)
Dev’s wife (19:32)
Fear of irrelevance (21:23)
Relevance after retirement (26:06)
Why CEO is a lonely job (28:14)
Trusting your team (31:43)
The meaning of life (35:16)
Judgment and introspection (38:16)
Taking people to the woodshed (40:54)
What matters to other people (44:39)
Taking risks at MongoDB (51:08)
Founder-led businesses (53:26)
What type of company is MongoDB? (57:39)
Work-life harmony (01:00:20)
Who MongoDB is hiring (01:03:17)

Links:

Connect with Dev
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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