The guest for this week’s episode—the final one of Season 3—is Eric Boduch, who has had a storied career in product management and marketing in the Triangle and beyond.
Boduch, who previously founded a data management startup called Cerebellum alongside current Pendo CEO Todd Olson, reconnected with Olson to found Pendo in 2014 alongside co-founders Erik Troan and Rahul Jain. After working in many executive roles at Pendo, Boduch exited from the company in 2021 to found 24 and Up, a Raleigh-based startup developer studio. (We wrote about 24 and Up here.)
Valued at over $2.5 billion, Pendo is one of the Triangle’s biggest success stories, and Boduch played a huge role in the company’s growth story. Here are some show highlights:
- “Eat when served”: While many readers may know Eric from his days at Pendo, he and his co-founder (and current Pendo CEO) Todd Olson had another venture, Cerebellum. Like Pendo, this startup had a great idea and created great excitement among investors, but unlike Pendo, Cerebellum’s fates were tied up with the “Internet Bust.” Boduch and Olson passed up on an acquisition offer because investment bankers told them they could get more, and their mistake led to the pair going their separate ways before rejoining to found Pendo. Eric’s advice to founders to “Eat when served”—to not expect market conditions to stay as good as they are or to get a better offer than you already have—is especially poignant in today’s volatile economy. (15:00.)
- Encourage good work culture with even better hiring: Anyone who knows anything about Triangle startups is probably aware of Pendo’s awesome work culture (and its super-cool headquarters) but fewer people might know how Pendo got there. Especially after Pendo closed its first fundraising round, the founders made it a priority to preserve work culture even while hiring and scaling. Eric’s advice? Hire recruiters early, don’t skimp on checking references and hire within the networks of great people you already have. (37:00) He also advises scaling companies to hire people who will be able to fill their position in the future, not just today, and can scale into the job alongside the company. (40:00)
- How to keep generating quality leads as you scale: Have multiple channels working. Keep generating business through traditional channels like digital and organic but try more novel drivers like content and events as complements. “There’s a lot of ways to reach people, you need to make sure you’re doing as many as possible,” Boduch said. “And I always tell people to experiment.” 44:15
You can listen to this week’s full episode below. Thank you for tuning in throughout Season 3. Keep an eye out for more GrepBeat podcasts in 2023!