The CEO of the hottest IPO of the year focused on an “unbelievable” problem

Cloud computing data warehouse company Snowflake has the hottest technology IPO of the year (and the largest software IPO in history), and it will shine in 2020. The key to its success is that its CEO Frank Slootman entered the public market and became one of the most respected CEOs in the field of enterprise technology.

Slootman was appointed as CEO of Snowflake 19 months ago. The company provides companies with new ways to store and access data instead of relying on clumsy databases bound to hardware. Before his arrival, under the guidance of former Microsoft executive Bob Muglia (Bob Muglia), the company had been valued by venture investors at approximately $4 billion.

Asheem Chandna, a software investor at Greylock Partners, told CNBC a few months ago: “He is one of the most impressive, accomplished, and respected CEOs in corporate technology.” “He is an eclectic leader. He can point to a hill and inspire the whole team to follow him up the hill.”

Greylock invested in the first two companies listed by Slootman, Data Domain (later acquired by EMC and now part of Dell) and ServiceNow. He served as President and CEO from 2011 to 2017, bringing the organization’s revenue from approximately US$100 million increased to US$1.4 billion after the initial public offering.

Before going public, Snowflake ranked 40th in this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 ranking.

Slootman claimed to have a question for everyone (including himself): “If you can’t do anything but one thing this year, then you can’t do anything for one thing, then what is it?”

Anyone who has no answer to this question should be fully prepared, because it can make the difference between attention and failure.

Slootman said he had asked a chief product officer candidate during ServiceNow, and he stared at him blankly.

Slootman said at the CNBC Technology Executive Council summit last month: “This is a difficult question to answer.” “It’s easy to come up with three [things]. It’s hard to come up with one, because you may be wrong. “

Slootman said: “I often attend board meetings in other companies, and the CEO will make a list of 10 priorities… Well, it’s like there are no priorities.” “If you are in an executive position, you must Train yourself very, very clearly. [The answer to that question] It means that that is the most important thing, this is the most critical… and arbitrage is what we have to do. “

The CEO of Snowflake also maintains a contrasting style with many other Silicon Valley technology leaders. Although he disagrees with his advice, he is not polite and does not hide it.

He told CNBC’s Jon Fortt in October: “I put all my attention on the latte and neck rub, not on the success of the team.” He said: “Silicon Valley is a very creative, self-congratulating culture. They like to just win a lap. We don’t like it.” “People want to be slapped on the back and feel good. — I feel uncomfortable. “

According to previous reports from CNBC’s Ari Levy and Jordan Novet, “Some people who transitioned from Muglia to Slootman in the snowflakes describe a culture of fear. Put your foot down and finish their work, Long enough, so that the company can be publicly listed and have ownership rights.”

But at the CNBC Technology Executive Summit last month, when Fortt was talking to Fortt, Slootman explained that his method of breaking leaders and talents (which he called “incrementalism”) was to require them to pass a specific, through Well-planned questions to choose the most important things:

Slootman said: “A lot of things that happen in technology are incremental… this is just the essence of the development platform, bug fixes, enhancements, etc.” “But if you fall into that mode completely after a while, then you Everything you do will no longer be original or attractive.”

“To be a priority, you must be a highly abstract, very horizontal thinker, a very comprehensive thinker.”