76: Dialpad Founder and CEO Craig Walker- building and scaling a platform business
Scaling is often a major problem for rapidly growing startups; rarely does a company adapt to and fill out its product as well as Dialpad has over the past 10 years. Today, Dialpad can claim to be a standalone solution to communication in the modern workplace. Dialpad Founder and CEO Craig Walker joins Scott Britton and Andrei Newman on the Built by Humans Podcast to discuss how to start building an “all-in-one” company, why to prioritize workspace culture, and how to adapt to the modern SaaS world. Here are some quick takeaways: The modern workplace has radically changed in how it views employee productivity. Don’t force employees to sit in an office while they work; instead, prioritize giving good software and cloud access so they can be mobile and more active throughout the day. Building an “all-in-one” company that has filled out the scope of its market takes an extremely solid foundation -- make sure you’re confident in your product market, then take the time to build something scalable. Aligned culture and tightly-knit teams are vital for a startup. Agreement on values and the ability to make decisions quickly are the only advantages a small team can leverage over massive corporations. In today’s market, you don’t need to artificially limit yourself to one strata of the SaaS market, small teams have become just as interested in and capable of buying software as large enterprises. Learn what differently-sized markets want out of your software, and market accordingly. The SaaS market is shifting to meet the needs of end-users - if you create a product end-users don’t need, it will not be used. Always approach new ideas from the consumer side. Mobility and availability will only become more important in the future of video calls. Expect future innovations such as AR calls or advanced ai popups during calls.