Uncrating the Oxide Rack | Bryan Cantrill, Steve Tuck (Oxide)

False summits before shipping the first server, actionable bad news , and the "Third VP of Sales" Problem

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Oxide co-founders Bryan and Steve are back on the show to give an impromptu peek at the Oxide server rack and to chat about writing their own manufacturing software, overcoming false summits before shipping the first rack, the #1 reason startups fail and more. Don't miss the full-circle moment on their "meet cute" story from last time, shared at the end of the conversation :)

Ronak & Guang’s Picks

#1 Make bad news actionable

When asked about how transparent one should be when delivering bad news to the team or investors,

Bryan: “So, you've got to love the bad news.

I've got good news and bad news. Everyone should want the bad news first. Like, give me the bad news. And we need to be in an organization, which includes our potential investors, on board with the idea that I want the bad news.

I want to know the bad news first. And you want to be able to give me enough context so that you don't induce panic in everybody all the time. But it's essential that we have the bad news and that you're transparent about it.”

Steve: “You've got to be transparent, but bring the bad news with one of two things: either a concrete ask of who you're bringing the bad news to, with some action you want them to take, or having already thought through mitigation options for the bad news. So, either come with a plan, like ‘here's the path we're going to be on, you don't need to take action,’ or ‘I need you to take action, and here's the action I need you to take.’ The worst possible thing you can do is just drop bad news on the table and say, ‘I don't know, we've got to figure it out.’”

#2 Put Me in Front of a Prospective Customer That We Have 0% Chance of Closing

Being curious is an essential skill, regardless of whether you're an engineer or in any other role. According to Steve, one practical way to develop this skill is to engage with customers directly.

Guang, who had attempted to do something similar early in his career while working at an enterprise SaaS company, recalled the pushback he received from management: "Don't put an engineer in front of the customer."

Steve: “If you find yourself in that same situation, there's an easy answer. Don't put me in front of a customer. Put me in front of a prospective customer that you think we have 0% chance of closing. Put me in front of someone that you think is a dead lead.

“I mean, if the person is non-responsive, it's kind of hard to get a conversation going. But who is someone we talked to that went with somebody else? I will tell you that an engineer has a much higher probability of getting a next conversation with that person than anyone in the sales organization.

“You've got credibility as an engineer. You can say, ‘Hey, I built the product. I'm reaching out because I would be deeply grateful if I could get any feedback about how you think about the problem space. We know that we're not going to be a fit for you, but it would be helpful to understand this.’

“You may have to reach out to four or five of these dead prospects to get one to agree to take a meeting, but oh man, you walk back with the information learned in that meeting and the CEO is like, ‘Where is he? We need him in the room right now so we can figure out what we did wrong in this case.’ You're going to get the other side of it. You're going to get why the customer didn't buy. And it may be product-related, or it may have nothing to do with the product. It may be something like, ‘Honestly, the rep didn't get back to me for seven days, and by the time they did, I was already down the path with this other person.’

“So, I would say that's an easy one because the sales organization thinks that lead is a 0% chance. So, why not? What's the harm? Nothing.”

Segments:

(00:00:00) The Oxide rack uncrating experience

(00:02:40) The office tour

(00:04:03) Challenges of shipping and unboxing hardware

(00:11:04) Hybrid hardware company?

(00:13:38) Custom designing a crate for the rack

(00:18:12) Optimizing for time to value

(00:20:43) Writing custom manufacturing software

(00:23:25) Taking ownership of the customer experience

(00:25:29) Buy vs build

(00:27:46) The false summits before shipping the first rack

(00:30:05) “Missing just enough context to be optimistic”

(00:33:07) The #1 reason startups fail

(00:38:49) Hiring the first sales role

(00:44:53) The dangers of “happy ears”

(00:47:18) The pitfalls of rushing to market

(00:51:03) The “third VP of sales” problem

(00:56:06) The value of a good sales leader

(01:00:07) Curiosity and empathy in sales

(01:03:41) Grooming sales skills as an engineer

(01:07:33) Learning from current customers

(01:09:13) Talk to prospective customers “that we have 0% chance of closing”

(01:11:25) Actionable bad news

(01:14:11) The role of GPUs in data centers

(01:18:50) Cloud repatriation

(01:24:23) Full circle to the “meet cute”

Show Notes:

• Our previous convo: https://softwaremisadventures.com/p/oxide-ditching-the-rules

• Bryan on Twitter: https://x.com/bcantrill

• Steve on Twitter: https://x.com/sdtuck

Stay in touch:

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Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en