“They are transparent, care deeply about the team as much as they do about the business, and have a bias for action that drives us all forward.” – review from Marketing
Snyk is a 200-employee developer-first security firm with an open-source software approach. The cyber security start-up recently raised an extra $70 million and has major plans to scale the team.
With offices in Boston, London, Ottawa, and Tel Aviv, CEO Peter McKay thinks the time is right for the company’s central ideology to hit the mainstream: “In the world of today, so many companies are transitioning to digital and becoming more like tech companies. The shift is driving more and more companies to behave more like software development organizations,” McKay says as he makes the case to encourage transparent, agile work environments.
SOMETHING BIG
McKay’s perspective comes from 20 years of experience in organizational leadership. “Having gone through 14 different companies over my career, I’ve learned a lot,” he says. “My success as a leader has been supported by my desire just to learn from every person I work with and opportunities that have been presented to me.”
McKay began his career as an accountant with a voracity to grow his career. “And pretty soon after I started, I realized that this was not the road I wanted to go down,” McKay says. “So I convinced someone to hire me as a salesman, and I learned a ton. As soon as I started sales, I realized I had this ability to ask thoughtful questions that unlocked people’s needs.” The combination of his desire to learn how people think and his dedication to developing his peers put McKay on the fast track for success in organizational leadership.
As he began taking on leadership roles, McKay remained guided by his fundamental principles: learning from every opportunity and growing his skillset by taking big risks. “Everything I’ve achieved has been because I’ve carried the lessons learned from my past experiences. I just get better at what I do by always seeking to see and learn things that I have never done before.” McKay’s instinctive learning habits have drawn him to companies that offer challenges beyond his comfort zone. He says he’s always on the hunt for “something big.” He adds, “I look for a pivotal opportunity, irresistible market potential and a disruptive product.”
McKay’s experience at Snyk has proved to be his greatest challenge yet. The security company is “not like any of the others that I’ve been at, which is great. And yet, you use a lot of the things that you’ve learned along the way. You kind of have this toolkit you’ve collected over the years, and you pull things out when you need them at different phases of growth.”
“The rate of growth means everything moves fast, but upper level management is always willing to listen and attend to matters brought to their attention. Everyday I look forward to what we will accomplish. Quality of life is important overall and the company really cares.” – review from Marketing Dept
A SNYK PEAK
“I believe in the One Team that Snyk has created and feel part of the group even when my direct team members aren’t around. The ability to self-form in favor of initiatives is what does the trick for me. It makes us super effective as a company, and as individuals gives us a reason to come to work!” – review from Product Dept
Based on a foundation of remote workers, McKay says, “Snyk’s greatest asset is the dedicated group of people who are empowered by autonomy yet eager to collaborate with each other. We hire the best people wherever we can find them. Our focus is on the talent a candidate brings to the table and their desire to contribute to a team.” McKay makes the case for investing in people and ensuring everyone is set up to succeed.
McKay says Snyk’s culture coheres well despite the remote working element thanks to its practice of video conferencing. “We’re always face to face and we’re always trying to be close regardless of where you are,” he says. “We have to see your face in-person on the call. That may seem like a little thing, but that’s huge for me because everybody has to pay attention, everybody has to know each other and it’s almost like we’re in the same room.”
Other practices that contribute to Snyk’s vibrant culture are:
- “Twice a year, we do an all hands where we all get together as a group, the whole company. And we have some work and we have some fun. We mix it up. Everybody gets to know everybody. We do it for four days where we’re all together.”
- “We do a Snyker of the Month, where we give awards to people that follow our core values, and it’s nominated by the people here. We call them out in the all company meetings that we have. We do cash and different things depending on the group and the initiative for hitting milestones.”
- “We just had a green initiative where for every new customer that we added, we planted a tree in the Amazon. We planted 4,500 trees. I thought that was really good.”
- “I always say ‘learn on my dime,’right? I’m running this thing. Someday you may go run your own company, so learn on my dime. What we need is people who can come in and do their job but want to do more.” McKay rewards those who demonstrate Snyk’s values.
PRACTICAL ADVICE
“Everyone is rowing in the same direction regardless of the team they are on. Our values are always the guiding light.” – review from Sales Dept
As Snyk pursues exponential growth, McKay admits that scaling a team comes with the risk of compromising culture. From his aforementioned “toolkit”, McKay offers the following as examples of best practices he’s leveraged to nurture/cultivate a dynamic team during a hyper growth phase:
- “Hire people that are hungry, humble and smart,” McKay advises, adding that street smarts are the kind he looks for first: “You can read people. You can empathize with people. It’s just that way. So that’s kind of my rule of thumb when I look for people.”
- It goes without saying but can stand repetition:“Don’t hire jerks,” he says. “Make sure you have the right kind of people.”
- It’s important to “build a culture around trust and empowerment,” McKay adds. “Let them do their job. They’ll come to me if they need some help.”
- “When making a decision, I implore my employees to consider what’s best for the customer, what’s best for the company and what’s best for them as the individual in that order. The worst thing you could ever do is make a mistake because you did what you thought was right for yourself. Always do what’s right for the customer.”
- “It’s far more important what your peers think of you than what I think of you,” McKay says.“Worry less about what I think of you because if your team doesn’t like you, then it doesn’t matter if you’re my best friend or you’re my cousin or whatever. That doesn’t matter if you can’t work well with your peers in your team.”
“I appreciate the autonomy to do my job well and the trust in my experience and expertise.” – review from Marketing Dept.
COMMON PITFALLS
McKay has also seen his share of mistakes during his time leading companies through hypergrowth periods:“These are all things that I’ve learned over the years from bad managers and bad leaders that I’ve worked with.”
Among McKay’s hard-won advice:
- It’s not “just a job.” “You get the mercenary hires, right? The sales rep that moves every two years because they want to get the next wave. Some people look at their job as, you know, ‘It’s just a job, I’m coming in, I’m getting a paycheck,’ but I think there’s got to be a broader purpose.”
- “Don’t micromanage. That centers around either any insecurity of a leader or any ego, which kind of sometimes go hand in hand. Ego means I need to be the one who makes all the decisions. The problem is, it doesn’t scale. People don’t want to work for someone who doesn’t let them feel empowered.”
- “The last one would be people just thinking way too short term, right? You know, even when it comes to Snyk, I was an investor and I saw the early days. I was one of the first ambassadors, then I was an adviser, and then I became a board member. And I’ve been with the founder since the prior company.”
THE EPIPHANY
Peter McKay recalls a moment not too long ago when he found himself pining for his days coaching kids in sports. “I like the impact you can have on the kids. Because they come back and say ‘Hey, coach! Good to see you, coach!’ I love that.”
During a meeting with a notable business leader, McKay brought up his desire to return to that world of coaching kids, so that he could feel his impact on others.
“He said, ‘I get it,” McKay says. “But why wouldn’t you think you could do the same thing and get this experience you love on a grander scale by being the leader of a company?”
“So, that’s been my quest. ‘How can I help others?’ And this is the lesson learned. I tell other people about it as often as I can: ‘The more I focused on making other people successful, the more it actually benefitted me.’”
“It became the epiphany,” McKay says, the one that he has held as his guiding compass. Guided by values that empower him and principles that keep him grounded, McKay continues to demonstrate leadership that is leaving a substantial legacy even beyond the walls of Snyk.
“Again, it is this: One Team.” – review from Product Dept
