Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO

Guest: Frederic Kerrest, COO and co-founder of Okta and author of “Zero to IPO” In this episode, we cover: Why Frederic wrote “Zero to IPO,” and why he leads it with a story about failure (08:23); Entrepreneurship is a pie-eating contest (13:07); Frederic’s direct communication style and the dichotomy between time and money (15:19); His passion for hockey, and why he used to park his car around the corner (24:35); Getting thrown out of two Okta board meetings in a row (29:03); Surviving awful quarters and service outages (36:10); How Frederic’s arrogance lost him a huge early deal (42:20); Would he build a company from scratch all over again? (45:39); Why Frederic doesn’t take phone calls on the weekends and the “oxygen mask rule” (54:06); “Nothing happens until somebody sells something” (57:20); Is Frederic personally affected by Okta’s stock price? (01:02:09); The key players who receive a “ball bearing award” at Okta (01:07:22); How taking on additional projects and working with a professional coach has extended Frederic’s time at Okta (01:11:48)