Behind the scenes: running a high-performing company on AOA principles
A deep dive with CEO Johannes Landgraf
Hi there,
Johannes Landgraf had everything most founders want.
His company had just raised $25M, big-name banks were using his product, and over 2 million developers were on his platform. From the outside, it looked like everything was amazing.
From the inside, he could see a different reality.
The product architecture that got them here couldn’t get them where they needed to go. It created friction for customers and slowed his own team down. Staying the course would keep things looking good for a while… then slowly kill the company.
Changing course meant something brutal: They would have to re-architect the product and lay off 30% of the company.
When Johannes sat down to write that email, he felt the draw to write what many leaders default to in those moments: Vague, distancing, and “nice” enough that nobody could really blame him.
…All the while feeling a deep sense of shame, guilt, and the weight of all those people who had trusted him with their livelihood.
The email he actually wrote was different.
I encouraged him to write it from the perspective of a fully empowered leader. Not a defensive leader or people-pleasing leader, but one who was willing to tell the truth, feel the impact, and still stand in the decision.
He wrote to the team about why the old architecture wouldn’t work. He owned the fear and the mistakes that led them there. He was honest about how painful the layoffs were going to be—and he was clear that this was the right move if they wanted to play to win.
A year later, the company has multiplied revenue by 3x, the business is growing rapidly, and his team trusts him more than they ever did before.
Open the Drawer + Principles that Make 80% of Decisions Automatic
That email didn’t just announce a layoff. It became the seed of a new operating principle that now runs through his company:
Today I’m excited to share this video I recorded with Johannes, exploring the operating principles that have made his company go from good to great.
And, how he built a company from a place of radical transparency, vulnerability, and emotional intelligence. It was an awesome conversation:
Big Love,
Joe
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