B2BaCEO: Edith Harbaugh @ LaunchDarkly
FC BUILD next week, taking the startup leap, Respond gets acquired
FC BUILD
We’re only five days away from Foundation’s first-ever enterprise conference! In case you haven’t been online in the past two months, FC BUILD is a two-day virtual event for entrepreneurs and executives who are building the modern enterprise. Our lineup of more than 50 speakers includes Frank Slootman, CEO of Snowflake; George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike; Doug Merritt, CEO of Splunk; Janine Pelosi, CMO of Zoom; Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign, Olivia Nottebohm, COO of Dropbox; and so many more.
For a limited time, subscribers to this newsletter can take advantage of a special offer that I’ve created to thank you for reading (or at least not unsubscribing). In honor of Foundation’s Capital 25th Anniversary and the release of the 25th episode of the podcast, I’m making tickets to FC BUILD available to purchase for $25 for the next 25 hours. (All proceeds go to support StreetCode Academy.) Just click on the link below to purchase a ticket and register.
“How to Sell Yourself, Your Startup, and Your Product,” Featuring Edith Harbaugh, CEO & CoFounder of LaunchDarkly
In this episode, I interview Edith Harbaugh, co-founder and CEO of feature management platform LaunchDarkly. We discuss what it takes to leave a great job to pursue a crazy idea, as well as how to tackle the woes of fundraising. We spend the lion’s share of the conversation on the all-important topic of sales: how to sell yourself, your company, and your product. And what to look for when you’re hiring a sales leader. (To hear more from Edith, register for FC BUILD, where she’ll be in conversation with another #B2BaCEO alum, Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora.) Listen here.
ICYMI: Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box
In this special two-part episode, I talked to Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie. In part one, Aaron discusses how he made the decision to pivot Box from a consumer product to an enterprise solution. In the second part, the discussion pivots to how he maintained company culture as Box scaled, why bringing on a COO was integral to achieving that scale, and the pros and cons of going public. Finally, Aaron gives enterprise entrepreneurs some advice on how to compete against the established tech giants. Listen here.
FireEye Acquires Respond Software
I’m excited to announce that our portfolio company, Respond Software, has been acquired by FireEye, an industry leader in intelligence-led cyber security solutions.This marriage allows Respond’s eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) software to reach even more customers, while supporting FireEye’s growth and scale. All glory and praise to our dear friend Mike Armistead, co-founder and CEO of Respond, an experienced captain who brought his ship into happy harbors. Congratulations to the team at Respond and FireEye!
Ashu Recommends…
This month’s recommendation is a long-time favorite, Kasa Indian Eatery. This fast-casual restaurant puts a creative twist on classic Indian dishes. Their boxed meals come individually wrapped, making it simple to reheat once you’ve gotten through your daily Zoom meetings. Kasa is owned by a repeat FC entrepreneur, Suresh Khanna, who was the CRO at AdRoll and President at Kutubi, which is only a fraction of the reason I eat there. 😋