Leading a scaling business requires systems and plans for various stages of growth. Dave McJannet shares lessons learned from scaling HashiCorp, including: how to implement overlapping systems for the business (finance, people, product, go-to-market); how to manage the layered time horizons of various teams (36 months for a CEO, 90 days for sales); and how to reinvent these systems as the company enters new phases of growth.

1. CEO Systems
Five learnings from Traversing
Multiple Phases of Growth
Dave McJannet
CEO, HashiCorp
@davidmcj 1

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Building companies = three elements
Pick the market
Find the people
Build the systems

5. 5
B2C example
Pick the market Social media company or
metaverse company?

6. 6
Pick the market
Find the people
Social media company or
metaverse company?
This requires new and
different teams
B2C example

7. 7
Pick the market
Find the people
Build the systems
Social media company or
metaverse company?
This requires new and
different teams
Which requires new and
different systems
B2C example

8. 8
B2B example
Pick the market Data warehouse or
CLOUD data warehouse?

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Pick the market
Find the people
Data warehouse or
CLOUD data warehouse?
Which requires functional leaders
for product, GTM, etc.
B2B example

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Pick the market
Find the people
Build the systems
Data warehouse or
CLOUD data warehouse?
Which requires functional leaders
for product, GTM, etc.
Which requires systems to
make this company go
B2B example

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Let’s talk about five learnings
from systems building…

12. The phase shifts
of growth companies
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The problem with most startup
advice is that it doesn’t account
for phase shifts.

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$500M $1B+
$250M
$100M
$30M
$10M
Repeatability Early Scale Mid Scale Scale &
diversify
Product /
Market Fit
Pattern
Matching

15. A framework for systems
Inspired by Ray Dalio’s Systems Thinking
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Outcomes
Goals
A framework for systems

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Machine Outcomes
Goals
A framework for systems

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Input:
Employee expenses
and invoices
Output:
╶ Expenses paid within 14 days
╶ Error rate <0.1%
A framework for systems
Example: Expense processing system

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Input:
Employee expenses
and invoices
System
Output:
╶ Expenses paid within 14 days
╶ Error rate <0.1%
A framework for systems
Example: Expense processing system

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Input:
Employee expenses
and invoices
System
Output:
╶ Expenses paid within 14 days
╶ Error rate <0.1%
Your startup will have a different system for expenses
than a Fortune 500 company
A framework for systems
Example: Expense processing system

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Machine Outcomes
Goals
Culture People
A framework for systems

22. A company is comprised
of four core plans
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23. Financial
Plan
GTM
Plan
Product
Plan
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People
Plan
How many people?
How much can
we build?
How much, how fast?
How do we get users
on the journey with us?
A company is comprised of four core plans

24. Financial
Plan
GTM
Plan
Product
Plan
24
People
Plan
A company is comprised of four core plans

25. Those plans are achieved
through systems
4

26. Financial System
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A company is a set of interlocking
systems
People System Product System GTM System
Goals System Outcome

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A company is a set of interlocking
systems
Financial System People System Product System GTM System
Goals System Outcome Goals System Outcome Goals System Outcome Goals System Outcome
Case Collection System Talent Acquisition System New Product Intro System Lead-to-Cash System

28. Financial System
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Goals System Outcome
People System Product System GTM System
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
A company is a set of interlocking
systems

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$500M $1B+
$250M
$100M
$30M
$10M
Repeatability Early Scale Mid Scale Scale &
diversify
Product /
Market Fit
Pattern
Matching

30. Financial System
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Systems must change with each phase
Goals System Outcome
People System Product System GTM System
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome
Goals System Outcome

31. Time horizons
and system design
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CEO
Leadership team
Managers
ICs 6mo
12mo
18mo
Laddering time horizons
36mo

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The CEO’s job is to anticipate
phase shifts
CEO
Leadership team
Managers
IC 6mo
12mo
18mo
36mo

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We live this at HashiCorp…
$500M $1B+
$250M
$100M
$30M
$10M
Repeatability Early Scale Mid Scale Scale &
diversify
Product /
Market Fit
Pattern
Matching

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● Phase shifts
● Goals → [SYSTEM] → Outcomes
● Finance plan, People plan, Product plan, GTM plan
● Visualize the interlocking systems. People come and go,
systems endure
● Laddered time horizons
Summary
Pick the market. Find the people. Build the systems.

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The three “IPs” of startup life
Unlocking puzzles, or intellectual curiosity as a driver
Intellectual
Philanthropy
Sharing ideas freely.
The startup world is small, you cross
paths with people multiple times on
the upswing and downswing.
Most startups and people are
struggling to survive. They’re
talented but often seeing things for
the first time. Help them.
Institutional
Paranoia
Continuous inspection.
No matter how well you do, or well
you did a thing, assume someone
is about to do it better.
This is about ‘professional’ critique
of oneself and team, not personal
fear of failure.
Information Flow
Privileged perspectives.
Things that seem mundane or
obvious to you are simply not
obvious or mundane to others.
Your ‘unique value’ can be
derived from your position in the
information flow.
They also know things you don’t. “An adventure is an inconvenience
rightly considered.”
Feel the “Gell-Mann Amnesia
Effect”.

37. THANK YOU
hashicorp.com/jobs