ServiceNow ft. Frank Slootman and Fred Luddy - From Starting Over at 50 to Dodging a $150B Mistake

In 2004, bankrupt after the company where he’d previously worked had imploded, Fred Luddy decided to start over as a first-time founder at age 50. His vision was to reinvent the nascent IT software field for the cloud era. What started as simple help desk replacement software would eventually become a ~$150B market cap company powering digital workflows across the enterprise—but success didn’t come easy. Initially bootstrapped and ultra-lean, the company’s infrastructure began buckling under its own success as customer demand spiked. When the legendary Frank Slootman joined as CEO to help scale the company, he describes being terrified to check his email every morning. Hear how Frank, Fred and the team stabilized the business, expanded their product offerings, and nearly made a $150B+ mistake by selling too early.  

Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital

Featuring: Fred Luddy, Frank Slootman, Doug Leone, Pat Grady, Carl Eschenbach

Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-servicenow/

00:00 - Cold open

00:22 - Introduction

02:09 - Fred Luddy’s journey to coding

03:33 - Founding ServiceNow after financial ruin

07:11 - Finding product-market fit

15:16 - Finding a new CEO in Frank Slootman 

22:19 - Overcoming scaling challenges 

29:54 - Contemplating an acquisition offer

32:07 - Blocking the sale

38:17 - Lessons learned