Startup Interview with Andrew Lau, Co-founder and CEO of Jellyfish

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I was trained and started my career as an engineer, and over time grew into running a large engineering team. I saw many challenges in leading those teams, the influence of which is how I came to co-found a company like Jellyfish.

I’m also a startup guy. I’ve been at or helped to start half a dozen startups, including as VP of Engineering at Endeca, Founder at Loopit, and Chief Strategy Officer at Nanigans before starting Jellyfish. It’s been super fun to see the team grow and make a difference for our customers.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Our startup is called Jellyfish - it’s a platform that gives engineering leaders visibility into what their teams are working on, how they’re operating, and how they can improve.

I’ve been in the trenches as an engineer and leader, so I understand how difficult it is to lead technical teams without the right analytics. Our goal is to make the lives of engineering leaders easier and help them make better business decisions by providing them with access to insightful data about their organization.

What is the origin story?

Dave, Phil, and I met 21 years ago when we were all working together at Endeca. In 2016 we got the band back together and found that we had all faced a common challenge in growing our careers, and we realized that we could make a difference for a lot of folks out there. At the time, there was all this software that helped sales, marketing, and other leaders make data-driven decisions, but that didn’t really exist for engineering leaders. We thought that was a large part of the problem we had individually faced, so in 2017 we founded Jellyfish to build that tool and really help engineering leaders like ourselves evolve, help drive product strategy and company direction, and just make informed business decisions.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

What I love most about this team is that they teach me something new every day. We (Dave, Phil, and I) are inspired to wake up every day learning new things from them. And frankly, they are all just good people who we like spending time with. We all know that startups can be a challenge, so I think it’s important to have people you want to spend time with on those challenging days.

This problem that we’re solving is near and dear to our hearts, and I think we’re the team to solve it because we’ve been through the challenges of leading engineering teams of 10 people, 50 people, 100 people, thousands of people. All of these are different challenges, but the tools today are not sufficient for solving any of them.

More recently, we’ve sat on the other side of the proverbial table and have seen what engineering teams can do to help the business grow more. More than just code, it’s about understanding how the team, the code, and the business fit together - the trifecta of successful businesses.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I’d have to say, barbecue chef or oyster farmer. As a hobby, I’m a KCBS certified judge and a bbq enthusiast, and harvesting oysters in the summer is one of my favorite things to do.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

There are all the SaaS metrics that you all know already from hundreds or thousands of blogs and books. I could list them all here, but I don’t think that defines success for me. To me, success is really about this: are we making a dent in the way that companies make engineering decisions, and are we changing the way that engineering leaders do their work? For our customers, I think the answer is yes, and so I’m excited to see that success.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We’ve been super lucky in this challenging time to find resonance and acceleration despite all the tough things going on in the world. We’ve seen some really exciting growth over the past few years, and it’s only continued to accelerate. In January, we announced our Series B funding along with 5X growth in revenue. Things haven’t really slowed down since then. It’s been a crazy time for our business, but for me, the most exciting part is that it’s a testament to the fact that we’re solving a real problem out there.

What technologies are you currently most excited about and most worried about? And why?

This may seem tired, but it’s been amazing to watch the confluence of cloud and AI come to fruition. Yes, we’ve all been reading about these things for over a decade, but it’s finally here and actually happening now. I used to joke all the time that every company, even air conditioning companies, is becoming a software company. It was awesome when a few weeks ago, a literal air conditioning company came to us for help!

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

The community! HackerNoon is an amazing community of smart, boundary-pushing hackers. There are some world changers here, and that’s why we’re always stoked to be featured.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Get out and do something, build something. Don’t spend your life reading blogs and interviews (except this one, of course!), but instead get going on something. Even if you aren’t working on your own startup, get out there and join one. You’ll learn a ton about the industry, companies, and yourself. You’ve got 40+ years to create the perfect startup - stop studying and worrying if the perfect idea isn’t coming to you right now.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Pre-2020, I think we were all constantly on the go. As it turns out, I’m finding that having to sit on a pair of flights every week isn’t an experience I particularly miss! I love spending time with my family. My kids are young enough that they love spending time with us too. It’s a real blessing to be able to have dinner with them every night. So I’d say I’ve learned how important it is to me to take a step back to appreciate this time I get to spend with my family.