01:04:02 · Roman Kirsch, Luca Ferrari
[01:04:02] S0: Roundabout It's got to be 5,000,000,000 in valuation, rumored. And do you see room for the neck? Is there a ceiling? Where do you want to grow? Is there more of the same? Do you feel that you need to kind of rethink some basic strategies? [01:04:27] S2: Not in the immediate future. There's a massive amount of digital technology businesses out there. Many are looking for a permanent home because something that we do also that we found very appealing for sellers is we never sell a business. I mean never say never. We have never sold a business required. We don't have any plans to sell one. It's quite appealing for sellers to know that there will be stability. [01:04:54] S0: And that the brand is going to be around, right? Exactly. So
01:04:54 · Roman Kirsch, Luca Ferrari
[01:04:54] S0: And that the brand is going to be around, right? Exactly. So [01:04:58] S2: there's plenty looking for a buyer and many more will be looking for a buyer in the future. Literally thousands of sizable businesses, the digital technology industry is gigantic. So I think there's room to grow quite a lot further. If you ask me, is there a path to increase revenue by a factor of 100? Probably not a straightforward one. Then maybe we would need to expand into even more industries, go beyond consumer intranet, self serve B2B, maybe even enterprise software. I'd like to think a lot of competitive advantages we're building, employer brand, company culture, deep principles or how to make good decisions from businesses would translate fairly well. But naturally, the evolution would be substantial. There have been companies serially acquisitive compounders, that have managed that transition successfully. One comes to mind, and that's Danaher. They're in industrial, so very physical things and lean manufacturing and whatnot. Started off in the I believe in the 1980s or early 1990s. And they've been compounding for thirty, thirty five years, I think, at very good rates. And they have expanded into health care and diagnostics and very successfully. They're now probably worth 500,000,000,000 or so the last time I checked. So there are examples, although they're different, but close enough that give us a general direction or certain glimmer of possibility, and we'll make sure to pursue that and seize it if possible. But we do have a clear path for the next, say, five years.
01:06:43 · Roman Kirsch, Luca Ferrari
[01:06:43] S0: Okay. And I think you once said this is kind of your thirty year life's work. Is that still the plan? What happens after the thirty years? [01:06:52] S2: We're year 12 so it's long enough that we should be credible on these sort of promises. Yeah absolutely, I've always found that I find it more inspiring to do a few things and do them really well. I feel the same way with the friendships. My wife, I'm a loyal guy. Don't look for volume. I look for few things that matter so to say. So yeah, I'd much rather on my deathbed I'd much rather feel I contributed to one huge highly admired and probably hated too because I assume that seems to be necessary at this point institution than having dipped my toes in multiple things of more middling success. So yeah, thirty years is just a pretty high level to give a sense of the commitment. I could be dead by year thirty. Who knows? So, yeah, I hope I can continue contributing. I think it's more likely that I would... I probably not want to be here if I felt I'm not the best person for the job or someone I trust felt that way. But as long as I'm needed I'm unlikely to not be there for the company and my colleagues. Mean you never know health, there are so many unknowns in life but... [01:08:11] S0: Cool. Well, that's been really amazing to kind of hear the insights of, you know, how you think about operating and how you think about strategy. Would you be up for some final rapid fire questions? Can try not. Okay, let's start with number one. Which company would you secretly love to acquire?
01:08:11 · Roman Kirsch, Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli
[01:08:11] S0: Cool. Well, that's been really amazing to kind of hear the insights of, you know, how you think about operating and how you think about strategy. Would you be up for some final rapid fire questions? Can try not. Okay, let's start with number one. Which company would you secretly love to acquire? [01:08:34] S2: Google? Yeah, I've said it before. I mean, who knows? We'll see. [01:08:41] S1: So if I told you any [01:08:43] S2: I greatly admire Google. It's not a I mean, that's why I'd love to have a chance to make an impact. But it's not reasonable in the next few years, [01:08:53] S0: of course. [01:08:54] S1: I'm pretty sure that if I mention any for profit company there would be kind of rumors that we're after it. I mean Google perhaps is a little too far away still for now. [01:09:02] S0: Year '25 maybe. [01:09:04] S1: Year '25. Who knows? But I mean [01:09:09] S2: people thought at some point Yahoo was too big to be acquired to even be in a discussion. And then it [01:09:16] S0: got acquired a bunch of times. So never say never.
01:09:16 · Roman Kirsch, Matteo Danieli, Luca Ferrari
[01:09:16] S0: got acquired a bunch of times. So never say never. [01:09:19] S1: Yeah. Never say never. But I'll tell you like a nonprofit one. So I actually admire the work of Wikipedia. I think it's one of those companies that had a massive impact and is not really recognized so much, acknowledged. It's taken for granted. But the design has been the same for, I don't know, twenty years now. And I think there's so much more that you could be doing by rethinking the product, perhaps bringing it into the social media age, making it easier to share things in a format that's more absorbable and entertaining, stuff like that. Think if you own such a product, there's like sky's the limit for how you could transform it. [01:09:58] S2: It's a great product. I've been a donor actually for as long as I can remember. I love Wikipedia. [01:10:03] S1: Yeah. Maybe And Very important. Maybe that's the other part, right? A company You like that to thrive. And right now they depend massively on donations. It would be nice to think about a play whereby some of that is paid for, just like to help the business thrive and be more sustainable in the future. So that could also be [01:10:24] S2: It could stay pro bono, no profit. But I agree that there could be an upside in having a premium product in there. [01:10:33] S0: 100%. What's the most underrated founder skill these days?
01:10:33 · Roman Kirsch, Matteo Danieli
[01:10:33] S0: 100%. What's the most underrated founder skill these days? [01:10:40] S1: Like Do want go first? For me, I think it's humility. I think that has to do with the fact that if you're a founder, you believe that your work is convincing people, persuading people, influencing people. So you try to study the art. You try to improve your charisma to make that possible. And that often comes with forgetting to be humble and remembering that no matter how strong you feel about something, you might be wrong about it. So I think humility is underrated because if you show yourself to be humble, if you show yourself that you have an opinion but you're very willing to rediscuss it if new information comes along, that opens up the door for people, for smart people, for knowledgeable people to provide feedback that they know will be processed. And those ideas will become better. So again, it's not the trait that you associate with the archetypal founder, but I think it's a very important one.