Ahead of the Curve - Bill Magnuson, Co-Founder and CEO of Braze [S4.E1]

Welcome back for another series of Scaling Up. Season 4
will again explore some of the great growth stories from around
the world.


To kick off Series 4 is the the CEO and co-founder of Braze, Bill
Magnuson – one of the world’s hottest technology companies. Based
in New York, Braze is a customer engagement platform that works
with some some huge brands and businesses like Gap, Deliveroo,
The NBA and Canva to deliver real time and personalised messaging
across platforms


From a serendipitous meeting on a NYC street crossing, Bill and
his co-founders set out to build an enduring company based on the
premise that mobile technology was going to fundamentally change
the world. With vision and purpose, Braze has grown into the gold
standard, tool of choice for innovative marketers. While customer
love has driven success, building great product requires building
and supporting great teams, and this is where Braze has excelled.


Bill is a rare type of software CEO – deeply humble, highly
technically proficient and possesses  the softer people
skills required to execute on the visionary strategy and inspire
the rapidly growing team. If this is the first time you have
heard of Braze, rest assured it won’t be the last. This business
is a next generational category leader in the making. I hope you
enjoy this episode with Bill Magnuson.


You can follow TDM (
linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan
(linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across
social channels.


Show notes - 


Bill’s background (0:02:27);

Braze’s founding story (0:04:26);

The rise of mobile (0:08:05);

How Braze has been used by brands to drive engagement
(0:10:23)

What the future of customer engagement is going to look like
(0:18:52)

The technology behind Braze (0:22:21)

Including the difference between batch processing and string
processing (22:29)

The transition from CTO to CEO (0:27:58)

How Braze has scaled its culture (0:32:03)

The advantages of having headquarters in New York
(0:35:42)

The value of having operators on the board (0:37:47)

Bill’s experience of sitting on a board (0:40:32)

The role that venture has played in Braze (0:43:41)

The importance of balance in Bill’s life (0:48:08)