Why Snowflake CEO's retiring wiping out $15B of value
Plus Deel hit $500M ARR within 5 years....
Last week, Frank Slootman retired as CEO of Snowflake and became Chairman. Snowflake's stock price dropped 20% after the announcement, losing $15 billion in value.
Sridhar Ramaswamy is replacing him as the new CEO. He joined Snowflake after it acquired his startup Neeva. Before that, he spent 15+ years at Google where he helped build Google's advertising business.
Here is why Frank Slootman’s retirement shook the market:
Frank joined Snowflake in 2019 when it was worth $4 billion. Less than 2 years later, he took the company public at a $70 billion valuation - an 18x increase.
Before Snowflake, Frank was CEO of ServiceNow. He joined when it was worth $500 million and grew it to a $160 billion company during his time there.
Frank has a track record of massively increasing the value of companies he leads. At Data Domain, he grew the valuation 240x before it was acquired for $2.4 billion.
In a podcast with「Invest Like the Best」’s Patric, Frank Slootman’s sharings make it very impressive:
I have never been too early to fire people. I have been too late.
Narrow the focus. If you have 5 or 10 priorities, you have 0.
Put as many resources on as few things as possible.
Operate through influence, not rank and title. Flatten your org chart.
Raise the bar.
Confrontation is our culture. People settle for the status quo. Fight it constantly.
Wage war on incrementalism. Pretend you have nothing, build something dazzling.
Trust is everything. Show your stakeholders you have their back.
Interviews are overrated. Talk to everyone who has worked with a candidate before. Do your homework.
Your sales problem is probably a product problem.
Sales is a highly repeatable, scalable, predictable process.
If you master and control your own distribution, you become insanely powerful.
Growth is not a mystery, it’s mechanical.
Keep pushing the boundaries of how fast you can grow. Never settle for good enough.
Past glories are poor feeding.
Re-prioritize all of the time. Work on the highest value task. Complete it, move on. Build momentum.
Never take shortcuts.
Playbooks don’t work. Think for yourself and understand things as they are. Every situation is different.
Pyaroll platform Deel surpassed $500M ARR in 5 years
Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz announced on X that Deel has already hit $500M ARR, within 5 years of founding.
What’s more, Deel has already acquired PaySpace, a native payroll company with advanced payroll engines in 44 countries across Africa and the Middle East.
PaySpace has over 14,000 customers, including big brands like Heineken, Coca-Cola, and Puma Sports.
The acquisition of PaySpace enhances Deel's global coverage and payroll capabilities, making it one of the most comprehensive HR and payroll solutions on the market.
Deel aims to serve 100 countries with its native global payroll engine within the next four years.
Deel is an all-in-one HR solution for global teams, offering services such as culture and onboarding, local payroll, compliance, and people management.
PaySpace's cloud-native technology provides multi-country payroll and HR functionality with built-in compliance for organizations of all sizes and industry sectors.