Between Two COO's with Michael Koenig

Angela Tucci, COO at Uplight, joins to talk about running a $1.5B company created from the M&A of 6 companies, advocating for voice & equity for women in the workforce, finding an inspiring CEO, working with utility companies to reduce their carbon footprint, taking private equity vs. VC funding, integrating acquisitions remotely during covid, the impact of politics, and systems thinking.Prior to Uplight, Angela was Chief Strategy Officer at Symantec, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Rally Software, and Chief Executive Officer at Apto, so she's a clear underachiever. :)Uplight is a technology partner for energy providers and the clean energy ecosystem to help them reach their decarbonization goals.  Uplight was last valued at $1.5 billion dollars, which is an achievement in and of itself, let alone for a company that's only 3 years old.Episode Website: https://betweentwocoos.com/uplight-coo-angela-tucci/Angela Tucci on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelatucci/Uplight: https://uplight.com/Michael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514 The 80/80 Marriage: https://www.8080marriage.com/ 

Ken Weary is the COO of Hotjar and joins to chat on running a fully remote 220 person company, being a digital nomad traveling for over 7 years as a COO with a family, going through M&A and diligence on the buyer, always having a just cause as the "why" behind what you do, the impact of remote on the great resignation, and bringing the Houses from Harry Potter to the workplace.Hotjar, is a European headquartered start-up with over 200 fully remote team members distributed across the globe. Ken is also a digital nomad and has been traveling with his family across Central America, Europe, and Africa for nearly 7 years.Prior to his travels, Ken held leadership positions in traditional corporate environments where he gained great experience but was tied to his desk. He relishes life “outside the cube”. Ken on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenweary/Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/Michael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514 

Steve Taylor is an operating executive with experience building high-performing teams and scaling high-growth, category-defining companies. After spending the early part of his career flying E-2C Hawkeyes in the US Navy, he received a Masters of Policy Management from Georgetown University and spent five years as a management consultant. Steve joined Lyft in 2015 with just 220 employees, led two of the company's largest territories, launched multiple product lines, and managed a P&L with >$500M in annual revenue as we grew to 5,500 employees and a $20B IPO. In 2020, as COO at Fixt, with just 20 employees and $6M raised, he helped guide the company through a successful acquisition by Assurant (NYSE: AIZ), a $10B global insurance provider. He's now Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at HipTrain, an online fitness company. Steve Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-h-taylor/HipTrain: https://hiptrain.comEpisode Webpage: https://betweentwocoos.com/hiptrain-coo-steve-taylor/Michael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514 

Joe is Founder & CEO of ExecThread, a VC-backed crowdsourcing platform and premium job-sharing network that enables professionals to access the “hidden job market”. ExecThread is the largest global aggregator of unpublished executive-level job opportunities.Joe has been a successful start-up CEO and operating executive at high-growth tech companies including HopStop (acquired by Apple), Quigo (acquired by AOL) and eBay (EBAY) with a strong track record of recruiting teams, launching new products, raising venture capital, growing traffic, eliciting engagement, scaling revenue and achieving liquidity.Joe was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012 by Crain's New York Business, and was #9 on Business Insider's 2013 "Silicon Alley 100" list (as one of the Top 100 tech executives in NYC). Joe is a Board Member of the Hoyas Unlimited Board of Governors Company for Georgetown University, was previously on the Board of Directors of Kalexo (acquired by Autodesk) and Belief Networks (acquired by Benefit Focus), and also served on the Board of Advisors of Adtuitive (acquired by Etsy), Spongecell (acquired by Flashtalking, Inc., which was subsequently acquired by Mediaocean) and Snooth (wine discovery platform). ExecThread: https://execthread.comJoe Meyer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joejmeyer/Michael Koenig: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514/

Kettle COO, Nathaniel Manning, talks about balancing risk in a changing climate, structure without bureaucracy, evolution by design, good decision making, the social contract of insurance, and sitting on a monastery cushion for 3 months. He also talks about old guard vs new guard, building the plane while it's flying, making the implicit explicit, and evolution by design.Nathaniel has a long career of founding and leading companies including Fellow Robots, BRCK, the largest provider of public wifi in Africa, and Ushahidi the world’s largest open-source platform for crisis response. Along the way, he worked on furthering clean energy as part of the Clinton Climate Initiative at the Clinton Foundation, and Nathaniel was part of the Obama Administration's first class of Presidential Innovation Fellow where he was special advisor on open data at USAID, the world's premier international development agency, where he went on to become the Chief Data Officer.With that kind of track record, it’s safe to say that Nathaniel puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to creating technological solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. Nathaniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanielmanning/Kettle: https://ourkettle.com/Episode Website: https://betweentwocoos.com/kettle-coo-nathaniel-manningMichael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514 

Dave Weiss, co-founder, and COO of Hatch, joins us to discuss what it takes to confound a hardware company with his wife, sell 2 million IoT devices, the heightened consumer expectations of hardware, visit customers' homes, going from Shark Tank to VC fundraising, moving from CTO at BabyCenter to COO, and believing in wet paint.Prior to co-founding Hatch, Dave was the CTO of BabyCenter, where he was responsible for software engineering and product. Dave Weiss on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveweiss99Hatch: https://www.hatch.coMichael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514 Episode website: https://betweentwocoos.com/hatch-coo-dave-weiss

Dia&Co. COO and former LVMH Chief Digital Officer, Valerie Hoecke, joins to chat on how a $50B co. like LVMH preps you for anything, how Dia&Co. solves the shopping challenges faced by plus size women, the impact of size discrimination in the workforce, the challenges that "try before you buy" creates, and going from growth to survival mode and back again.Valerie kicked off her career in the early days of the internet with one software exit followed by one agency exit, in the Web 1.0 days. She gained a ton of experience across brand building and performance marketing, as well as e-commerce, in 15 years working in digital agencies in various roles including VP Operations, GM, VP Client Services.Most recently she served as the Global Chief Digital Officer for the world’s foremost luxury conglomerate, LVMH, across 16 beauty brands. LVMH Beauty brands include a mix of iconic centuries-old luxury household names such as Parfums Christian Dior, powerhouses like Benefit Cosmetics, Givenchy, and Fresh, as well as more recently incubated hot businesses such as Fenty Beauty.She’s recently returned to her startup roots at Dia & Co, where she has been the COO for the last 6 months. Dia & Co is the leading online multi-brand clothing retailer serving women who wear sizes 10 - 32. Dia & Co offers a membership service where stylists curate monthly boxes to help customers find their style, as well as a fast-growing marketplace where customers can shop direct for the very best brands offering inclusive sizing.Valerie Hoecke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoecke/Dia&Co: https://www.dia.com/Michael Koenig on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514

Catherine Stewart is the former Chief Operating Officer at Shippo and Chief Business Officer at Automattic (WordPress),  joins us in part one of a special two-parter, to talk about the craft of scaling operations at hyper-growth tech companies. Topics include shifting strategic priorities at Automattic to also focus on revenue generation and e-commerce through the acquisition of WooCommerce, the shift from Facebook to Automattic, balancing the entrepreneurial mindset with the need for processes, not sugar-coating it, and why her time at Random House yielded some of the most valuable learnings of her career.Part two, coming next month, focuses on scaling the go-to-market and creating $B's in value.Shippo is a shipping software company backed by Bessemer and D1, where she led Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Customer Success, Customer Support, People Ops, and Strategic Planning. During her time at the company, Shippo's revenue grew 3x faster than the US eCommerce shipping market, and the company's valuation grew from $220M to over $1B in just 18 months.Prior to joining Shippo, Catherine was the Chief Business Officer at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, during the company’s growth from a valuation of $1B to $3B. While at the company, she led the acquisition and integration of WooCommerce. Previously at Facebook, she helped launch the Facebook Audience Network and led the three-year planning process, and at Random House, worked on the transition from physical to digital books. Catherine began her career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey. Stay up to date with Catherine at:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-stewart-800b841/Website: https://catherinetaylorstewart.comEpisode Webpage: https://www.betweentwocoos.com/catherine-stewart-part-one-peopleStay up to date with Michael at:  https://linkedin.com/in/mkoenig514

Doug Hanna, COO at Grafana Labs, dives into the rapid growth journey of the open-source observability platform that skyrocketed from a $5M to a $15M revenue stream. He shares insights on scaling commercial operations, the importance of customer experience, and the challenges of hiring in a competitive market. Doug emphasizes the significance of adapting go-to-market strategies and engaging with the open-source community. With humor and personal anecdotes, he reflects on startup lessons and Grafana's ambitious growth plans in the EMEA markets.

Doug Hanna, COO at Grafana Labs and former VP of Operations at Zendesk, discusses his journey in scaling companies during hyper-growth phases. He shares insights on rapidly growing Grafana Labs from 70 to 500 employees in just 18 months, emphasizing the importance of hiring for cultural fit and adaptability. Doug highlights the challenges of maintaining community and connection in a distributed workforce, and the balance between asynchronous and live communication for effective team dynamics, especially in the open-source environment.