#38: Matthew Scullion, Cofounder and CEO of Matillion — Creating the right company culture, how to know your pivot is working, micro confidence vs. macro confidence, and the biggest obstacle in building a company

Matthew is the Cofounder and CEO of Matillion. He cofounded his first startup at age 18. Before starting Matillion in 2011, Matthew worked in commercial IT and software development for 15 years at a number of British and European systems integrators. A native of Altrincham, England, near Manchester, Matthew now spends half his time in the United States – primarily in Denver (Matillion’s U.S. headquarters), Seattle, New York, and in the Bay Area, at the beating heart of the enterprise software industry.

I am a big advocate for developing healthier company culture, and we dive right into this conversation with a framework on just that from Matthew! We also talk about how there’s no one right answer about which culture to create that leads to building a company with staying power, how to determine when your company pivot is working, micro confidence vs. macro confidence, the personal growth you make as a leader, and the biggest obstacle people have in building their companies.

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Key highlights in the episode

A quick bio of our guest, Matthew Scullion (00:25)
Matthew’s company; Matillion (02:04)
How to know your company pivot is working (08:02)
His framework for thinking about culture (10:50)
How they came up with key company values that were going to make people happy and the company successful (16:27)
How they hire for their company’s values (17:41)
A scenario where Matthew exhibited a commitment to the company’s values in a difficult situation (23:00)
What he meant by “I didn’t know I was building a billion-dollar business when I started out I was too modest; that’s the difference between the UK and Silicon Valley.” (27:06)
What Matthew wishes he had known earlier on his journey and what he would have done differently (29:59)
The biggest obstacle people have in building their companies (32:31)
How to learn and succeed as a rookie CEO (36:06)
The personal growth you make as a leader (37:19)
Matthew’s advice for other founders as they embark on their journey to grow into leaders (41:37)