Frame.io CEO on Selling to Adobe for $1.3B, Working with SNL and High Pain Tolerance
EP 114 of The Logan Bartlett Show: Untold stories from tech's inner circle
Emery Wells is the co-founder and CEO of Frame.io, which he sold to Adobe in 2021 for nearly $1.3 billion. In our conversation, Emery shares his journey from NYC bartender to startup founder, including his agency work with Saturday Night Live that highlighted the pain points that led to Frame.io. We dive deep into his rejection of the lean startup concept, how he gets his team to obsess over design details, and the cultural reset at Frame.io that set the stage for its success.
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✉️ Episode Memo
→ How to Get Your Team to Obsess Over Details
In the early days, teams often presented unfinished work in demos, filled with caveats and incomplete elements. To address this, Emery introduced two types of weekly meetings: stakeholder reviews and build reviews. Stakeholder reviews allowed teams to present work in progress and gather feedback. Build reviews, on the other hand, required 100% finished, pixel-perfect work. Leadership pre-inspected presentations to ensure they met strict criteria, and if they didn’t, the meetings got canceled. While this process initially resulted in a lot of canceled meetings and friction, it ultimately established a culture of meticulousness, drastically improving product quality and polished demos.
→ Why Enterprise Software Sucks
Enterprise software often lacks emphasis on brand, design, and quality of execution, traditionally leading to poor user experiences. However, with the consumerization of enterprise software, user expectations have shifted towards high-quality, intuitive experiences akin to consumer apps like Instagram. Today, end users within organizations can often influence purchasing decisions, making it more important for enterprise software to prioritize strong branding and user-friendly design. At Frame.io, building a strong user experience has greatly improved the brand and contributed to the company's success.
→ How to Get Your Team to 11/10
The hardest part about achieving 11/10 outcomes is pushing people beyond the point where they think they've done enough. The key is motivating the team to realize their full potential and surpass their perceived limits, but you must balance emotional boundaries and discomfort without causing burnout. If you do it right, the team will ultimately see they can achieve more than they initially thought possible.
→ How Emery Learned Culture Was Actually Important
When 3 directors left and the VP of Engineering was replaced, Emery realized there was a cultural crisis at Frame. Previously, many different ideologies led to unhealthy internal debate, and they had no unified belief system. Emery then realized that culture is about shared decision-making approaches and a cohesive set of values, not just social norms. When Emery brought in new directors, they sat down to reset the culture and think hard about Frame’s cultural values, and it worked wonders.
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