In today’s rapidly-evolving tech world, sticking to traditional business strategies could be holding you back. To thrive in an industry defined by constant change and frequent disruption, business leaders must embrace innovation, take strategic risks, and view failure as a stepping stone to success.
In a recent Breaking Changes episode, Postman’s Jean Yang sat down with Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp, to reflect on the company’s journey. HashiCorp has always done things its own way, often defying conventional wisdom. From nailing remote-first (before it was cool) to making bold strategy shifts in a matter of days, the company’s willingness to embrace and grow from failure has been its greatest asset.
A remote-first, chat-literate culture
While the whole world embraced remote work in 2020, HashiCorp was doing it in 2012—before Slack and Zoom. Hashimoto credits their success in this area to a strong culture of writing and chat literacy. The early HashiCorp team knew that details like punctuation and emojis can bring important nuance to written communication, which was especially important before the rise of the remote collaboration tools we take for granted today. At first, HashiCorp’s remote-first policy even extended to hiring no more than one employee per city, to prevent forming cliques based on location and offline decision making that excluded anyone not present.
Remote work has become increasingly popular with workers—according to Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2023, an impressive 98% of those surveyed want to have the option to work remotely, at least part time. Here are a few more remote working statistics:
- In 2023, 35% of all US workers of spent at least some of their time working remotely. This is an increase of over 10% since 2019 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
- Having the option to work from home can improve employee retention by as much as one third, without affecting performance (Bloom, Han, and Liang, 2024).
- Despite the rapid advances in remote working technology in the past few years, 53% of remote workers struggle to feel connected with their coworkers (Pew Research Center).
Advice for leadership: Building a resilient remote-first culture is about much more than mastering the technology—it’s about fostering real communication. Among your teams, cultivate an understanding of the nuances involved in written communication to strengthen your remote operations.
There is no “one size fits all”
Traditional advice isn’t always the best fit, and it takes a bold and self-assured leader to know when to set conventional wisdom aside and forge a different path. HashiCorp faced early pressure from investors to focus on one product, and while this is the right approach for many companies, Hashimoto and his fellow co-founder agreed on a “go big or go home” strategy that bundled a large enterprise suite of products instead.
This tactic had its pros and cons; some products performed better than others, and things didn’t play out exactly as expected. Hashimoto stands by this as the right move for HashiCorp at the time, emphasizing that there’s no universally correct approach.
Advice for leadership: For companies exploring a multi-product strategy, Hashimoto suggests carefully weighing the advantages against the potential challenges and moving forward with a strategic plan. Flexibility is key—be ready to pivot based on market insights and how each product performs.
Quick pivots and self-aware leaders
When HashiCorp’s multi-product enterprise suite turned out to be a market failure, the co-founders returned to the office and began whiteboarding new ideas, making sure to steer clear of the trap of sunk cost fallacy. They pivoted to focus on individual enterprise products, and within days, the transition was complete—agility only a startup can achieve. Products like Terraform and Vault were somewhat controversial when they launched, but today, they’ve become de facto standard infrastructure tools.
Being self-aware about what he wanted to do as co-founder was also a key to Hashimoto’s success in leading HashiCorp. Hashimoto brought in an external CEO somewhat early on, recognizing that it was neither his area of interest or expertise. He points out that anyone can learn a new task or skill they enjoy, even if they’re an amateur. But if you don’t enjoy something, and you don’t really know how to do it, you’re going to be mediocre at best.
Advice for leadership: Embrace agility by being open to quick changes when strategies or products aren’t working, and don’t hesitate to let go of unproductive efforts. Cultivate an understanding of your own leadership strengths and preferences, and don’t shy away from delegating responsibilities to more qualified individuals.
A blueprint for thriving in disruption
The journey of HashiCorp from a remote-first pioneer to an essential DevOps and infrastructure tooling enterprise was made possible with bold moves and self-aware leadership. In an era where AI is transforming operations and remote work is the new normal, the ability to adapt and pivot as HashiCorp did is more important than ever.
By embracing change, prioritizing culture, and being willing to fail big, businesses can thrive in an industry defined by rapid change and disruptions. As you lead your teams through the ever-changing tech landscape, ask yourself: What bold moves am I willing to make? How can I foster a culture of innovation and agility? In embracing these principles, you might just unlock the next level of growth and success for your organization.
For more of Mitchell Hashimoto’s insights, be sure to check out the full episode, “The Journey of HashiCorp and Why I Stepped Away.” Learn more wisdom from industry experts by subscribing to Breaking Changes on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.