What does it take to scale a company from an idea to a $13B industry leader? In my latest episode, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon dives into the essential lessons he’s learned on high-stakes decision-making, managing up to the board, and competing against tech giants like Microsoft.
Todd also reflects on his journey to founding Okta, his bold choice to team up with a co-founder he hardly knew, and the motivations that have fueled him for over seven years as a public company CEO. Some key takeaways…
0:00 Intro
0:38 Todd McKinnon’s Early Career and Founding Okta
1:43 Challenges and Psychological Shifts in Leadership
2:54 Decision Making and Company Culture
6:15 Milestones and Early Successes
18:08 The Importance of Market Timing
30:39 Hiring and Building a Strong Team
39:27 Setting Expectations with Board Members
40:55 The Shift in Board Dynamics
41:46 Maintaining Context and Strategic Input
43:20 Navigating Public Company Governance
45:26 Trusting Instincts and Founder Mode
47:16 Breaking Out of the Echo Chamber
51:05 The Importance of Prioritization
53:10 The Loneliness of Innovation
1:05:38 The Role of a CEO in Decision Making
1:18:22 The Journey to IPO and Beyond
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Sam Dewees and JR Bohannon
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint’s AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures – a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you’re interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
