Scaling companies is incredibly difficult but at each stage the building blocks need to be set in place properly. Charles Zedlewski has been COO, GM, and a product leader at companies like Temporal, Cloudera, and SAP. In this episode, we cover what the COO & GM roles do, stories from early Cloudera days especially around figuring out what products to sell and pricing and packaging. We cover hiring Player/Coaches, nailing positioning, and talk about countless anecdotes from both Temporal and Cloudera to learn how to build and scale a great org.

Where to Find Charles:

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/zedlewski

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleszedlewski/

Where to Find Shomik:

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/shomikghosh21

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shomik-ghosh-a5a71319/

·       Newsletter: https://www.shomik.substack.com

·       Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.

In this episode, we cover:

(01:02) – Joining Cloudera Early from SAP

(04:14) – Fighting Company Politics in Culture

(07:38) – Figuring Out Commercial Products to Sell At Cloudera

(14:58) – How Customers Weight Support & Services Differently Over Time

(16:42) – Closing Early Customers at Cloudera

(19:14) – Embracing the GM Role at Cloudera

(23:41) – Reasons Cloudera Wasn’t Able to Realize Full Potential

(31:00) – Moving from Cloudera to Temporal

(34:34) – Differences Between COO and GM Roles

(38:29) – What a COO Does in the First Few Months

(44:02) – Nailing Positioning & Product Messaging

(50:00) – When’s the Right Time to Hire a COO

(54:35) – Hiring Player / Coaches

(59:27) – Common Failure Paths of Startups

How to Subscribe:

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shomik.substack.com