People and Culture Mini Series (part 1): Reimagining the Face of Corporate America w/ Elias Torres (Co-Founder) and Dena Upton (CPO), Drift [S5.E5]

This episode is the start of a Scaling Up mini series hoping to
illuminate some amazing growth stories in regards to people and
culture. We go deep on the scaling challenges that all companies
face when it comes to people and culture and highlight what best
in class can look like - from the role of a great, strategic CPO,
to operationalising the values of the business, we are hoping
this mini series really illuminates some amazing growth stories
in regards to scaling a business' most important asset and
competitive advantage, its people. 


To kick things off Elias Torres, the co-founder of Drift with his
CPO, Dena Upton. This was a bit of a treat. Drift, aside from
being one of the fastest growing B2B SaaS companies in America,
is the beacon of what corporate America could look like - the new
American dream if you will, focused on diversity and equal
opportunity. This has been deeply baked into the Drift mission
from day one – Elias immigrated to the USA as a 17 year old from
Nicarangua. From the humblest of beginnings, he has had an
immense career, initially at IBM and Hubspot to now as the
co-founder of Drift, where he has become a voice for latin and
immigrant founders. 


Dena has seen what scale looks like, having been on the LogMeIn
journey for over 6 years and gives wonderful insight into her
role and how it supports the visionary founders of drift. 


We are committed here at TDM to helping founders, management
teams and investors understand why people and culture is so
critical to the enduring success of businesses. We have a few
things in the works in this space, so keep across our website and
social channels for more people and culture related
content. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host
Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. 





Show notes:





Drift’s vision for a people-&-culture-first company
(3:17) 


Role of founders in driving the cultural vision (6:05) 


Role of the CPO in enacting the cultural vision (7:55) 


What makes a great CPO (12:35) 


Hiring a great CPO (14:36) 


Maintaining culture in a hyper-growth company (16:17) 


Tools to measure engagement, performance and culture and acting
on insights from these tools (18:42) 


Hiring at scale and recognizing when you’ve made hiring mistakes
(20:18) 


Managing the tension between diversity and cultural fit
(24:38) 


Creating a positive exit process (26:02) 


Enacting and scaling diversity and inclusion (27:33) 


Measuring progress on DEI goals (32:33) 


How being a digital first business advances DEI and equity goals
(33:37) 


Role of the board in achieving DEI goals (35:12) 


What does cultural success look like for Drift (38:30)