Guest: Filip Kaliszan, CEO and co-founder of Verkada

Great founders try to grow personally at least as fast as their companies do — but sometimes, says Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan, that’s just not possible. By the time the company had about 200 employees, he says, “the scale of the business and the rate of the growth of the business ... outpaced my rate of learning, or my ability to consult the right people.” But over time, he has worked to fix past errors and earn everyone’s trust: “I can be only as good as the rate at which I fix my mistakes,” Filip says.

In this episode, Filip and Joubin discuss “the good old days,” first principle thinking, the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bay Area bubble, going public, Aaron Levie, going down rabbit holes, power dynamics, idea validation, Brian Long, Hans Robertson, DIY entrepreneurship, commercial kitchens, cash efficiency, VR headsets, zeitgeist-y platform shifts, Mark Zuckerberg, and John Doerr.

In this episode, we cover:

(00:50) - Verkada’s office culture
(04:37) - The loss of community
(10:37) - Not going remote during COVID
(16:37) - Palo Alto Networks
(22:15) - Does Filip like being CEO?
(26:02) - Time management and flow state
(29:47) - The problem with huge meetings
(31:59) - Fundraising for Verkada
(34:02) - Building a “camera company”
(37:29) - Zero to one
(41:17) - The first 10 people
(42:48) - Allocating capital wisely
(46:19) - Hiring in-house
(51:17) - Biggest screw-ups
(54:00) - The feeling of failure
(55:05) - Customer therapy
(56:39) - Divide and conquer
(01:00:47) - The Apple Vision Pro
(01:05:05) - Mark Zuckerberg’s response
(01:09:25) - Who Verkada is hiring and what “grit” means to Filip

Links:

#180 CEO and Co-Founder Verkada, Filip Kaliszan: Outlier

Grit