Grit

Guest: Dennis Lyandres, Founding CRO at Procore

In this episode, we cover: The Procore campus and employee experience (01:03); How Dennis prepped for this podcast and lifelong learning (05:00); “Have I plateaued? Is this it?” (11:31); Channeling energy into your work, and knowing what you can change (18:40); Dennis’ parents and how he thought about work for most of his career (23:29); His first jobs and why he left Cloudera for Procore (28:09); The first “oh shit” moment and the 10-year success story (35:47); The winning culture and what Dennis would do with a second chance (41:51); Scaling to nine-figure revenue and personal growth through failure (45:23); Great vs. terrible leadership and finding the right mentors (50:28); Procore CEO Tooey Courtemanche and relationships built on trust (57:34); Fixing the technology in construction (01:00:42); Powerful advice about ethics and interpersonal relationships (01:05:14); Thoughtful gifts and making space for another person in your life (01:11:23)

Show Notes

All of Dennis Lyandres’ mentors — and even his parents — thought he was making a mistake when he joined Procore in 2014. At the time, he was working at the “it” company in Silicon Valley, Cloudera, and the startup was more than 10 years old without any major wins under its belt. But he knew someone “was gonna build a massive company” in construction software, and he found out that Procore’s team was uniquely obsessive about making its customers successful: “It felt like a culture that wouldn’t lose,” he says. 

In this episode, Dennis and Joubin discuss the power of food, being a “prep maniac,” finding satisfaction, the potential for greatness, the tickle of urgency, imposter syndrome, construction software, magical CEOs, internal pep talks, learning from failure, the wisdom of others, strong relationships, the Procore IPO, and life partners.

In this episode, we cover:
  • The Procore campus and employee experience (01:03) 
  • How Dennis prepped for this podcast and lifelong learning (05:00)
  • “Have I plateaued? Is this it?” (11:31)
  • Channeling energy into your work, and knowing what you can change (17:42)
  • Dennis’ parents and how he thought about work for most of his career (22:30)
  • His first jobs and why he left Cloudera for Procore (27:11)
  • The first “oh shit” moment and the 10-year success story (34:25)
  • The winning culture and what Dennis would do with a second chance (39:47)
  • Scaling to nine-figure revenue and personal growth through failure (43:20)
  • Great vs. terrible leadership and finding the right mentors (48:21)
  • Procore CEO Tooey Courtemanche and relationships built on trust (55:08)
  • Fixing the technology in construction (58:19)
  • Powerful advice about ethics and interpersonal relationships (01:02:49)
  • Thoughtful gifts and making space for another person in your life (01:08:58)
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What is Grit?

Grit explores what it takes to create, build, and scale world-class organizations. It features weekly episodes highlighting the leaders who are pushing their companies to make a difference. This series is hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, go to market operating partner at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm investing in history-making founders.