Building to $20B: The CEO Behind One of The Fastest Growing Startups Ever
EP 98 of The Logan Bartlett Show: Untold stories from tech's inner circle
In under 8 years, Sanjit Biswas took Samsara from 0 to over $1B in ARR. In our latest conversation, Sanjit shares insights on managing rapid growth, including everything he learned from selling Meraki to Cisco for $1.2B and subsequently scaling Samsara to $20B. A great listen for anyone looking to adapt and continuously reinvent themselves within a fast-changing work environment.
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✉️ Episode Memo
The 70-20-10 Rule
Samsara uses a simple framework to balance doubling down on things that are already working and going after new opportunities that will build the future. Here’s how Samsara allocates capital and time…
70% toward making the core products and platform better
20% toward key upgrades in the immediate horizon - projects you’re pretty confident will work and make a big difference for your customers
10% toward ambitious, long-term bets
Many of the moonshot ideas may fail, but the goal is to plant many seeds so some eventually graduate into the 20% bucket and deliver durable value for decades to come.
How to build a company to endure
In addition to dedicating 10% of their efforts to speculative, long-term projects, Samsara adopts several strategies for sustained growth. Unlike with Meraki, Sanjit hasn't pinpointed a single dominant competitor foreshadowing any potential acquisition of Samsara, and the market is large enough to build and build and build.
With no defined end-goal, the team considers more long-term ramifications of their decisions, whether it’s related to technology, hiring, or shaping company culture. This mindset has led to a more deliberate approach to major decisions, complete with lots of experiments before committing to something.
Rehiring yourself every year
When you’re in a rapid growth environment, it’s important to keep hitting refresh on what is most important. Once a year, Sanjit does a 360 degree review on himself and asks himself “what does the company need most from me next?” He also does an audit of his time allocation by color coding his calendar (now automated). It’s easy to get whisked away and over/under allocate your time to certain tasks, so having a record of your plan vs what you’re actually up to can help course correct any misallocation.
More stories from Meraki and Samsara in the full episode.
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