ExecuTalks
ExecuTalks
Outreach CEO & Co-Founder: Manny Medina
Manny grew up in Ecuador, where his father is originally from, and where his mother immigrated to from Russia. From a young age, Manny has always had a desire to build something special that contributes to the society around him. After high school, he had interests in becoming an economist, but his father strongly recommended that he go to Eastern (communist) Germany to study engineering. Manny would end up moving to New Jersey to get his bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Soon after, he got his master’s in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Manny would eventually join Amazon as just the 3rd employee on what is now known as the Amazon Web Services (AWS) team and created the compensation system for Amazon associates. Two years later, he joined Microsoft as a business development manager and would work there for 6 years, eventually becoming the director of business development handling Canada and Latin America.
Then, he realized he was into his forties, and decided it was time to begin building something special, something he had always had a desire to do since he was a just a kid.
In 2011, Manny left his job at Microsoft without a plan, and just three years later in 2014...
Outreach, the #1 sales engagement platform, now valued at over $1 Billion, was born.
You have intrepreneurs are out to like get rich. Um, I was talking to another CEO. Who's been CEO several times and he's like, I got four years to make eight figures and now I do it again. I do it four times and then I retire. That's my plan. I'm like, okay, it's a good plan. You will get rich with that plan. I don't have that plan. I have the plan of like building something that is meaningful for a lot of people, ourselves, our customers, uh, the community. And then,
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome to the executive talks podcast. It's the show that gives you insight to the personal stories of today's top executives. In this episode, you will hear from Manny Medina, current CEO and co founder of outreach, the world's leading sales engagement platform valued at over$1 billion. You'll want to stick around to the end, to hear where many shares the basis of his decision to leave his job and eventually co-found outreach. Hey guys. So we initially had this conversation a little over a year ago, and at the time we recorded in an open space where there may have been some background noise. So we apologize in advance for the audio quality. So many grew up in Ecuador where his father is originally from and where his mother immigrated to from Russia from a young age, many has always had a desire to build something that is greater than himself to build something that would outlive him after high school. He had interest in becoming an economist, but his father strongly recommended that he'd go to Eastern Germany, the communist part of Germany to study engineering, a career that is deeply rooted in Manny's family. Many his interests had shifted to software engineering and he had dreams to move to the United States to pursue an education. But many his father had to be convinced that he was going to obtain at least a master's degree. You know, the desire to
Speaker 1:Build something greater than yourself has always been, um, in, in my, in neither my DNA or in my life experiences. So like, um, I come from, um, I am from my cohort to begin with. Um, but even in Ecuador, I'm a, I'm a, uh, uh, I was the child of a, of, of a, of an immigrant. My mom was Russian, so my mom immigrated to echo with my dad. Um, and my dad is an authority. And then, so I always felt a little bit out of place, had been a little bit with, uh, with a higher calling to, to do better for ended up for the sake of everybody else. So Russia and, uh, you know, at that time was, was deep, the communist country and, uh, in my, in my family was deeply socialist. Uh, so you always knew, I always knew that I was getting, you know, whatever I made, I didn't have to do it for myself. I needed to have to do it for like behalf of a larger group of people. Like the benefit was only half the group to me, but have to prove to everybody. So how do I rate people out of poverty? How do you educate the masses? How do you provide health care to a lot of people? So I always had to label those questions of like, how do you do what you do, but you do it for a lot of people. So, um, which is counterintuitive, if you think about like the entrepreneurial journey, like a lot of people think that you have entrepreneurs are out to like get rich. Um, I always dug into another CEO. Who's being CEO several times and he's like, I got four years to make eight figures and then I do it again. I do it four times and then I retire. That's my plan. I'm like, okay, it's a good plan. And you will get rich with that plan. I don't have that plan. I have the plan of like building something that is meaningful for a lot of people, ourselves, our customers, uh, the community. And they leave that behind us legacy. So that's my goal. So this is a, it's a different, it's a different kind of motivation and, and that's, that's how my childhood has ties into what I do right now. Interesting. Awesome. So, so you were in Ecuador and your parents wanted you to become engineer and you wanted to be an economist, right. So it's funny you remember that? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I, I read somewhere that your parents were not on board for you moving to the States. Correct. And specifically, you know, your dad, you know, what was it that they wanted you to do and what kind of, what's going through your head at that time? Um, so I went to, um, uh, high school in Nicola is six years like here, which is only three. So high school and glorious your entire kind of like from the age of 13, all the way to, um, or the age of 12 all the way to the age of 18. Um, so, uh, it, I went to a German school in Ecuador, um, and, and my parents were hoping that I will continue moving on to Germany and that I would, I would study in Eastern Germany cause that's the communist Germany and become an engineer. It was like, my dad was, um, and my aunt and, um, and I was going down that path and then the wall fell and he said, Jeremy stopped being as a germane. And so I've got like, he went into this turmoil and then we're like, all right, so where are you going to do? And I decided, and I started school in Ecuador and they were like, well, you finishing here. And then you go to Europe. I was like Aaron today. Right. And I'm like, you know, I don't know anything about Europe. Like I didn't even like, it wasn't my, it wasn't a place that I grew up. Well, they've always come from the U S all the technology started coming from the U S um, all the software, uh, technologies that I've, that I'm in love with, about buying at that point, like, you know, Microsoft and, um, and IBM, et cetera, are us companies. And I hated the prospect of, of, you know, when you graduate, uh, as a, as a software engineer in Ecuador, you end up maintaining somebody else's software, right. You end up working on like the support team in country at Oracle, at Oracle or whatever. And I'm like, that's the last thing I wanted it. I want to write the software that people maintain. So that's what, and I just, I, that shortens it it's very significantly to like the U S so that was my pitch. And my parents is like, I want to be in software and I want to be with software is mate. And all of the software at that point is made in the U S so when you, when you first told your dad that, or like when you first
Speaker 2:Brought up the idea of how, what was his reaction?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my dad at that time was living in Minnesota, so I was going back and forth to Minnesota. Um, so he started growing a little bit warmer at once. Uh, once he realized that April there wasn't on the cards anyway, and that I wanted to leave, um, and he started becoming warmer to the idea of, of, you know, as long as I started getting engineering, it's not a terrible place.[inaudible] like anything less than that was so, so the whole, so I had to like, send a train of what's. All right. So stop talking. I'm not a communist. I just put that aside and talk about engineering and just talk about how you do the occasion that you guys are going to be greater on the engineering side. And so he bought into that, and that's how we ended up, I ended up in the U S sales pitch. Yeah. It took a little bit to like to understand he's real motivation.
Speaker 2:So after Manny got the, okay. From his father to move to the United States, he went to New Jersey and earned a bachelor's in computer engineering from the Stevens Institute of technology and attended the university of Pennsylvania to get his master's in computer science, right after he graduated with a bachelor's. Now in Ecuador, many had gotten through English courses and thought he was proficient in English, but getting his social life up and going was an initial struggle. When he first moved to New Jersey, as there was a language barrier that he did not expect. What kind of struggles did you have to overcome when moving here? All alone? I know it was in New Jersey that you first, there was no working Jersey. Um, first of all, was English. Um, I
Speaker 1:Classes in, uh, English Academy and Nicola, and I dated all the way until the end and got the degree, as I said, I'm fluent in English. And then I came here and I thought that was really good at writing. And I was really good at reading, but my, my, my conversational English was pretty terrible for, like, it took me, I think it took me like a year to be able to hold a conversation on a street in New Jersey. Um, so I was very good technically, right. Like I go participate in classes, you know, math is a clever, but, you know, if I were to go out to a bar to a party and engaging like small talk with like loud noises, it was, it was not, it was not happening the first, that entire first year. So it was really hard, you know, to get acquaintances, to make friends, to get girlfriends like, Oh, that entire circle of like social life became really hard. Cause I couldn't communicate to the degree where there is a lot of like subtleties in the language that makes it more attractive. Right. Like I did war drop at the right time, or I thought thing, all of a sudden, you go from here to here, I could execute that step, the spoken word, wasn't it wasn't a, so, so that's, so that was, that kind of sucked at the very beginning. Right. And that keeps you kind of focused. Cause I wasn't really well school cause I had always the only distractions. Um, but you know, uh, eventually, eventually, um, it said something funny happened also that I'm sort of like a, I think Ricky Martin became popular like on my second year in the U S so all of a sudden having any Spanish, Hispanic or Spanish accident was hot. And that was my, that was my stepping to start[inaudible]. So the rescue, so that helped out quite a bit, uh, getting to the gate, having, like getting my social life up and going was hard. And, and, you know, especially when you're in engineering school, it's mostly is. And then, uh, and then I also come from a family that the second thing that I have the promise by my parents was that if I were to come here, the school will not be done until my graduate degree. Huh. So like for him on the graduate wasn't enough. Like you have to go and get your, your, your master's in something. So I had to enroll in a U Penn to get my master's in computer science so that I can like get my parents off my back. Like I was, that was, that was a move. Gotcha. So once I was done with that, then I was like released, like now you can go be your own person, do whatever you want. Right. So other than that, like I would have to hear it from my dad. I was like, Oh, you know, well, undergrad is fine, but it's not complete. So
Speaker 2:When I try to explain that to, you know, most of my friends are like, what your parents are telling you what to study.
Speaker 1:Right. And that, for me, it's hard being a parent here because I, you know, whenever I hear other people that tell me like, Oh, you need to let them go find themselves. Like, no, we don't want to do something useful. So like save a life and call my doctor, like be an engineer. Anything else? I don't know, maybe write something. I don't know. But, but, uh, I had the same emphasis and the same thing with my kids. I'm like, you know, like, go, go be an engineer.
Speaker 2:So many would eventually joined Amazon as just the third employee on what is now known as Amazon web services. And he created the compensation system for Amazon associates. Then two years later in 2005, he joined Microsoft as a business development manager and would work there for about six years. Eventually becoming the director of business development, handling Canada and Latin America and things were going great for Manny, but the desire to build something greater than himself that had been in him since he was a child, wouldn't go away and he would have to now face a difficult decision, leave Microsoft and build a business or remain on course at Microsoft. You attribute a lot of your success, um, to empathy. Right. And I read that sort of line. So what, what can you expand on that a little bit? What makes you feel like empathy really contributes to your, to your success? Um,
Speaker 1:I have, um, it's sometimes it's this, this holds me back, but I have a natural, like a natural curiosity to understand people's motivations. Like, and that is a backroom processing unit. That'll go away. It's always on for me. You know what I mean? So I always want to steer the conversation. So like, so why are you guys here? Like what one do they need to do whatever you do? And I do that all the time. Like I do it like almost unconsciously and because of that, you know, allows me to set up. Like it helps me get into like deeper conversations with pretty much anybody that I hate that I interact with. So it's really hard for me. Like not to get serious. It's really hard for me to just have small talk. I'm more interested in like, where are you coming? Where are you going? And why like the why of your, of your, everybody has a why for their existence. And I'm always interested in that. Why? Um, and, and that's, that's a rubric of empathy in my mind is that, um, I, I mean, pathetic by I'm empathetic because I'm naturally curious about what drives you so that I feel like I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a collector of motivations. That's what I do. Like I I'm, I'm very, my, and my memory is very good because I associate you with water motivates you and I create better memories because of that. Interesting. Cause you feel like that is a treat that help you, help you become successful in a way. I think that that, that trade has helped me make deeper, really deeper relationships that have helped me later in life. Interesting. So people who know me really know me. Yeah. There's going to be like, nobody will say Manny is people will always associate, you know, I said about treats to me, like nobody would say, yeah, I kind of know him, but I'm not really sure about him. Like people will be like, Oh yeah, it's Spanish and many has these things. So if you get into a conversation with me, we will walk out both with a bunch of stuff around each other that will allow you to identify me or me you, which is easier in memory. So that if I'm reaching out to you, like, I literally reached out to somebody who I haven't talked to him 10 years last, yesterday, and that person got back to me right away because he knew who I was. He knew the director that we had. Um, and because you were able to like put that, lock that into people's memories when you get down into the motivations was that's very interesting. That's very cool. Yeah. So getting to, you know, after, in your career, after graduating, you started, uh, Amazon, then you moved on to Microsoft. What made you feel like you just, cause I read that, you know, you had no plan leaving Microsoft, right? Like after leaving Microsoft, you had no plan for starting your own company. You just kind of did it. What was the kind of the, your thought process on that?
Speaker 3:Mmm. Okay.
Speaker 1:It was, you know, so I I'm I'm I make a lot of decisions based on principles, I suppose, to, you know, there is, there is a, you can take two angles, right? Or three angles in mind, you can be, you can pattern match, you can say, great people have done this things. If I do this things, I'll be like great people or great companies are great, anything. Right? So you, you match the pattern based on, based on where you want to go. That's one way of doing it. The other way of doing it is probabilistically. Meaning, you know, if I were like, if I were to start a company, I have 99% of failure, chances of failure, right? I'm not gonna start a company. Um, or you can do it based on principles. Um, I had a few principles for me that I fell that I was at that point at the point in my career in which I can contribute a lot more than I was learning my Microsoft. And I was not contributing as much because windows phone had incredible amounts of layers of management. And so in fighting politics and it was not a great PR, it was a great product, but in a really complex market. And I knew they didn't see a way out of that. And I felt like I wasn't contributing, I was appointed my career, which we can, I felt like I can contribute a lot. Yeah. And that's point number one, point number two, if I didn't contribute from a point of, um, where I can control the outcome, right. I wasn't going to capture value. And I think I did that, uh, you know, right around when I was turning 40, where I thought, look, if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it. Um, and so based on literally those two principles, I decided to quit and, and, and if I didn't quit, then I wouldn't have enough space to figure out what is that I wanted to do. Yeah. So, so yeah, so that was it. So you're, you're saying, I guess what I'm taking away from this and maybe it was, I'm kind of just venting a little bit, but what I'm taking away from this is don't be afraid to, you know, quit without a plan, but just no understanding of why you're doing something. Exactly. Exactly. You need to understand why you're doing it. And if that, of why is a strong enough that gate, that matches who you are and what you like, like that, one of the biggest forces in personality is to have agreement with yourself. Right? So if you're making something that sounds crazy, but need that grease with your, with your view of yourself, you're strong, you're smart, you're energetic, you're driven. You can, you can take something and make it happen. Then you're good. He's going in there. There is, of course there is risk. I have, I don't know, three degrees and like, I can find a job. So like, you're good. Right. But if you're not being your best self, you'll never forget forgive yourself from that try. Right. So you go ahead and do it. The regret of not trying is greater than the regret of failure, correct? Correct. And you would eventually develop with time, you fill enough times that you developed sort of like, um, a healthy, a healthy balance and a healthy sort of like relationship with failure or failure is a thing that you expect. You deal with that ahead of time. You're mentally prepared to like, take it and learn from it and just move on.
Speaker 2:We're just going to switch gears a little bit and we're going to try to rapid rapid fire, this five rapid fire questions, whatever comes up off the top of your head. You just say it. Okay. In your opinion, what is the most important life skill?
Speaker 1:Um, curiosity I really decided is your curiosity be curious?
Speaker 2:What was the most life changing advice you have ever gotten?
Speaker 1:Oh, when you start a company, make sure that you get one metric to go off into the right and face revenue, even better. Okay.
Speaker 2:What is your lifelong dream?
Speaker 1:I'm living in a big company.
Speaker 2:What advice you would give to 15 year old? Manny?
Speaker 1:Fuck. Wait earlier.
Speaker 2:Okay. Microsoft or Amazon.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning into this episode. If you enjoyed listening, please subscribe on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Please leave a review so that we can better serve you. Take care, dream big, and we'll see you next Monday.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].