Write 150-300 words about what you think about the interview. This interview with Roman Stanek, chief executive of GoodData in San Francisco, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. You’ve started more than five companies. Did you have the entrepreneurial itch when you were a kid? A. It’s funny, because the likelihood of me sitting here today and talking about these companies was exactly zero when I was a kid. I lived in Communist Czechoslovakia, and when I was 15, I was sent to vocational school to study accounting. When I was 18, I decided to study computer science, but we didn’t have access to any computers. So it was more science than computers. The first time I saw a computer or had access to a PC was when I was almost 25. Q. Tell me about your leadership style. A. A big part of my leadership approach is about confidence, and confidence comes from understanding. If you have a deep understanding of the industry you’re in, and of the problem you are solving, and you are ahead of everybody else in your space, then you can give your team the confidence to trust you. So if people are questioning what you’re doing, and the task looks impossible, you have to give them the confidence that we have a vision, and we understand the space better than anybody else. The second thing is the importance of communication skills. Having a vision and having confidence doesn’t mean anything unless you’re able to communicate it to your team, investors and customers. The ability to communicate well didn’t come easily for me. I always assumed that everybody would see things the same way I see them, and now I understand it takes a lot of time to get people aligned. Q. What about the culture you’re trying to foster? A. The No. 1 thing for us is openness. It’s about trust — people can trust me, and I can trust people. So we have open calendars, for example, and certain rituals. Most Thursdays, I get in front of everybody to answer questions. Leading up to that, people will put questions online and then vote on the most interesting ones. Q. And the open calendars? A. Anyone at the company can see my calendar. Sometimes I’m surprised by how many people ask me what a particular meeting is for. You can never underestimate how curious people are about the C.E.O. Photo Roman Stanek, chief executive of GoodData, a business analytics company, says, “I don’t like my managers essentially talking to their people without being able to express their opinion and position what they’re discussing.” Credit Earl Wilson/The New York Times Q. What else have you learned about culture? A. You can never be out of your role as a C.E.O. You always have to be careful about how you carry yourself and how you act with people because, again, it’s about confidence. For me, any start-up is one big, giant mood swing — every bit of news is extremely bad or extremely good and that’s what makes it so difficult for some people to work in that kind of environment. That’s why t.