Lessons from Sanjit Biswas, CEO of Samsara

On Entrepreneurship and Getting Started

On taking the leap: "People get very intimidated by the entrepreneurial process. But if you return to your roots as an engineer and say, 'Hey, I just like to build things,' whether it's products or companies, you can just give it a shot and experiment. The downside risk is not that big and the upside is pretty enormous because products are super scalable." [1]
On learning by doing: "Jump in and get your hands dirty, even if it's uncomfortable at first. Many aspiring entrepreneurs get stuck in analysis paralysis, endlessly planning and strategizing without ever taking concrete steps forward." [1]
On the origins of Meraki: "We originally didn't think of it as a startup we thought of a little more as a project which is hey this would just be cool if we could see this research have impact." [2]
On the power of a project mindset: "I ended up just kind of putting them all [management books] down at at the beginning. and saying look this is actually just a big project right so let me do what I know how to do which is lead a project. and kind of get it to the next stage." [3]
On early-stage bootstrapping: At Meraki, "we bootstrapped the company the first year... we didn't actually have Venture money we we managed to sell enough product to get off the ground." [3]
On embracing the "uncomfortable": Biswas and his co-founder, John Bicket, tackled inside sales themselves at Meraki. "He literally put on a suit. He was like a method actor... we both got call lists, and we picked up the phone and called." [1]
On the founder's advantage in sales: As a technical founder, "You can talk in a deep way about the product and you can get ideas about what to build next from talking to customers." [1]
On the importance of commitment: "My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs emphasizes wholehearted commitment to the entrepreneurial journey, embracing risks, and building a positive working environment to navigate uncertainties successfully." [2]
On avoiding "easy mode": "If you try to do a startup in easy mode, you're probably not going to succeed. Don't let the Meraki win kind of taint the way that you approach the second one. And if anything, Use it for pattern matching recognition." [4]
On the motivation to start Samsara: "We started with the customer in mind, the market in mind and said, we want to help and be useful in the world of physical operations. We didn't know the first thing about it." [4]

On Customer Focus and Product Development

On the core of product development: "To build the best products, create a tight feedback loop with your customers." [1]
On the "allergy test" for product ideas: "With allergy tests, the way we think about it is that the customers will just jump out of their seat when they see something that's really compelling. They'll say, 'Yes! I could totally use that' or 'Can I buy that now?' When you hear that, it's a super strong signal that we should build it." [1]
On listening for the "wow" moment: "Get out there with customers with beta testers. and listen for the wow." [5]
On being a "missionary" for customers: "I kind of view it as you can be this missionary kind of spreading the word of how powerful this technology can be." [3]
On the "Big Eyes, Big Ears" mindset: "If you want to build smarter solutions and truly serve your customers, you've got to get closer to what they're struggling with... People won't always tell you what they need. But if you're really watching and listening, you'll spot it. In fact, that's where the best ideas usually start." [6][7]
On starting with the customer, not the technology: With Samsara, "we started with the customer or market. First we had come across the world of operations basically think all the infrastructure of our planet." [2]
On the danger of hype cycles: "I think the danger with any hype cycle is feeling like you've got this hammer and you're just going to go around looking for a nail. We've always tried to take the opposite approach: to look at what's going on in the customer's world and how might this be useful to them." [1]
On the power of integration: "It's not just about internet connected sensors. it's really about data and making sure that data can connect and have impact in lots of different ways." [8]
On making it simple for the customer: "Make it simple for the customer, even if it's hard for you." [6]
On solving real-world problems: "Companies pay to have their problem solved and so when we talk about things like revenue and revenue growth for me it's actually impact and problem solving growth." [5]

On Leadership and Scaling

On evolving as a leader: "One of my learnings from running startups. over so many years has been you kind of have to rehire yourself every year." [9]
On self-reflection: "Every year I basically go through this kind of self-eval reflection process of where did my time go did it need to go there and what should be different about the next year." [10]
On the importance of company culture: "As we scaled up both organizations. we realized we couldn't be everywhere at once... we actually had to come up with a shared language and kind of like a shared program or DNA or whatever analogy you want to use of how we work." [11]
On building a scalable organization: "Now as we're thousands of people it's about building a scalable organization that we can use to take our products out to the whole world. An important and never- ending journey." [12]
On the leader's role in resource allocation: "The current job description in my opinion is to be building the company not for today's scale but actually for scale 3 to 5 years from now." [3]
On maintaining focus: "I think the most important thing for us is staying focused on our customer. understanding what other problems we can solve for them." [13]
On communicating the 'why': "I've always felt that it's important to explain to people why we do certain things not just what are we trying to do but why are we trying to do it." [9]
On building trust: "For us teams are built on trust you go through a lot of hard times together you go through a lot of victories too but that trust comes together and it's built over time." [9]
On hiring: "We're looking for people who are builders... They're not just going to do the job that's on the job description, but they're going to help us build the company." [10]

On Strategy and Vision

On a long-term perspective: "We need to be building for the long term which means you're allocating capital for the long term if we do this right we will scale 10x. and then 10x. again." [5]
On the 70/20/10 resource allocation framework: "70% goes to core platform improvements, 20% to near-term feature enhancements, and 10% to riskier, 'big bet' ideas." [1]
On treating failures as experiments: "Treat failures as cheap experiments. A single major success can more than make up for dozens of small failures." [1]
On the power of data: "We believe it's possible to use technology and data to make smarter decisions about how the world runs." [12]
On the future of IoT: "I think there's still a long way to go... I think what's really going to be transformative is when all of this data can come together and find insights for customers and and help do things they didn't even were possible." [8]
On the shift from reactive to proactive: "Going from a sort of reactive tool that you can use to collect data to more of a proactive tool that you can use to change your outcomes." [12]
On the importance of an open platform: "The idea of having an open platform where you can take this data and plumb it into a bunch of other systems to get more value from it... is a very powerful force." [4]
On the convergence of IT and OT: "We're just trying to solve business problems we're going to use technology to do it but it has to work and it has to work for tens of thousands of frontline. workers." [11]
On sustainable growth: "It's important when you're getting off the ground to have some venture investment... but eventually you want to be a business that can run on its own and so we've really thought hard about how do we make this a healthy business that can last not just for 5 or 10 years but for 20 or 30 years or longer." [12]

On Lessons Learned and Personal Growth

On the lessons from Meraki's pivot: The 2008 financial crisis forced a pivot to the enterprise. "As a startup. we kind of experienced a shock wave of wow our sales pipeline is going to be in Jeopardy and we're not going to be able to make our numbers unless we pivot the business." [14]
On underpricing products: "I think at first, especially in our first company, we underpriced the product massively because we didn't understand how much it would cost to fund the rest of the business." [15]
On the value of tough experiences: "I'm just super thankful for those formative. experiences... the tough feedback that people give you... early on when it really might be the hard thing for them to do... in the long term you're actually very very grateful for." [11]
On confronting imposter syndrome: "You kind of get used to this idea of being uncomfortable." [3]
On the transition from engineer to leader: "I was an engineer that would love to stay up late... but then a lot of our meetings would be happening at 8 AM. So eventually you start burning the candle at both ends, you're like, I have to pick one." [1]
On the importance of curiosity: "Our childhood curiosity doesn't disappear. We just stop making room for it. Give your mind space to wander, and you'll be surprised what you find." [6]
On the power of authenticity: "Authenticity comes from knowing your strengths." [6]
On the advantage of iteration: "Iteration is a competitive advantage." [6]
On avoiding shortcuts: "Shortcuts today create problems tomorrow." [6]
On the collective effort of success: "It is absolutely true that a lot of people have to come together and believe in you, and it's absolutely important to acknowledge that." [16]

Learn more:

Lessons from Sanjit Biswas, CEO of Samsara

On Entrepreneurship and Getting Started

On Customer Focus and Product Development

On Leadership and Scaling

On Strategy and Vision

On Lessons Learned and Personal Growth

Written by Antoine Buteau

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