What do you think?
Rate this book
Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
The secret to leading growth is your mindset
Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is one of the tech world's most accomplished executives in enterprise growth, having led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever after leading ServiceNow and Data Domain to exponential growth and the public market before that. In Amp It Up Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity, he shares his leadership approach for the first time.
Amp It Up delivers an authoritative look at what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and scale. Slootman shows that most leaders have significant room to improve their organization's performance without making expensive changes to their talent, structure, or fundamental business model--and they don't need to bring in an army of consultants to do it. What they do need is to align people around what matters and execute with urgency and intensity every day.
Leading for unprecedented growth means declaring war on mediocrity, breaking the status quo, and making conflicted choices daily, all with a relentless focus on the mission. Amp It Up provides the first principles to guide that change, and the tactical advice for organizing a company around them.
Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and leaders of all kinds, Amp It Up is a must-read resource for anyone who seeks to unleash the growth potential of a company and scale it to heights they never thought possible.
The secret to leading growth is your mindset
Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is one of the tech world's most accomplished executives in enterprise growth, having led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever after leading ServiceNow and Data Domain to exponential growth and the public market before that. In Amp It Up Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity, he shares his leadership approach for the first time.
Amp It Up delivers an authoritative look at what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and scale. Slootman shows that most leaders have significant room to improve their organization's performance without making expensive changes to their talent, structure, or fundamental business model--and they don't need to bring in an army of consultants to do it. What they do need is to align people around what matters and execute with urgency and intensity every day.
Leading for unprecedented growth means declaring war on mediocrity, breaking the status quo, and making conflicted choices daily, all with a relentless focus on the mission. Amp It Up provides the first principles to guide that change, and the tactical advice for organizing a company around them.
Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and leaders of all kinds, Amp It Up is a must-read resource for anyone who seeks to unleash the growth potential of a company and scale it to heights they never thought possible.
208 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2022
891 people are currently reading
4,752 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
February 4, 2022
Great book - I totally loved the initial 75% (until Slootman revisits all his companies to cover the strategic approach - frankly, that felt a bit repetitive).
Anyway, it's a short and very "to-the-point" book by the current CEO of Snowflake (and ex-CEO of ServiceNow and DomainSomething - sorry I've forgotten the name). What's so good about it?
1. the author is very straightforward, he doesn't try to cover anything with sugar
2. this is not a book created by a product visionary or startup hippie-guru - he's a cold-blooded executive who doesn't bootstrap companies - he runs them, operates them and reaps as much of their potential, without any sentiment
3. Snowflake itself (its story and success) it's interesting enough to reach out for this book, but - this is NOT a book about Snowflake history and origins
What are the flaws (apart from the strategic chapter)? Well, there was some minor inconsistency when he started about underpromising and overdelivering and then moved to the growth chapter and praised setting up ambitious targets. There was either some logical conflict there or I was too wasted at that moment (I was listening to the audiobook while running) ;D
In general - highly recommended. Especially if you're interested in learning about various company cultures, and like to validate how do they correspond to the achieved successes.
Anyway, it's a short and very "to-the-point" book by the current CEO of Snowflake (and ex-CEO of ServiceNow and DomainSomething - sorry I've forgotten the name). What's so good about it?
1. the author is very straightforward, he doesn't try to cover anything with sugar
2. this is not a book created by a product visionary or startup hippie-guru - he's a cold-blooded executive who doesn't bootstrap companies - he runs them, operates them and reaps as much of their potential, without any sentiment
3. Snowflake itself (its story and success) it's interesting enough to reach out for this book, but - this is NOT a book about Snowflake history and origins
What are the flaws (apart from the strategic chapter)? Well, there was some minor inconsistency when he started about underpromising and overdelivering and then moved to the growth chapter and praised setting up ambitious targets. There was either some logical conflict there or I was too wasted at that moment (I was listening to the audiobook while running) ;D
In general - highly recommended. Especially if you're interested in learning about various company cultures, and like to validate how do they correspond to the achieved successes.
November 4, 2022
Интересная книга от СЕО Servicenow и Snowflake. Особенно любопытно что возглавляя одни из самых успешных IT команий он был не программистом и визионером из Долины, а голландцем экономистом. Осторожно стоит относится к его категоричности - все таки он успешный СЕО и не столь успешный VC
March 18, 2022
This book details business lessons from Snowflake's CEO, Frank Slootman. I picked it up after reading about it on Tom Tungusz' blog. The book is about transforming an organization for maximum growth and scale. It can be finished in a single sitting, especially when you pick and choose parts.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
Don't set up a Customer Success organization. Rather, have technical support own customer issues, sales the relationship, and product the long-term solution.
Set up incentives to enforce cultural values, such as firing people who violate the cultural values or publicly celebrating or promoting people who do. Without an enforcement mechanism, values don't mean anything.
Instruct your team to "Go direct. If you have a problem that cuts across departments, figure out who in those other departments can most directly help you address the issue, and reach out without hesitation."
Focus on execution, not strategy. "It's hard to beat a well‐executing organization, even if the strategy isn't perfect."
Focus on defining the problem before jumping to solutions. In business, we spend most of our time discussing solutions rather than diagnosing problems. We race to conclusions about what's wrong and what to do about it. Act more like doctors: slow down and critically examine situations and problems before settling down on an explanation, let alone a solution.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
Don't set up a Customer Success organization. Rather, have technical support own customer issues, sales the relationship, and product the long-term solution.
Set up incentives to enforce cultural values, such as firing people who violate the cultural values or publicly celebrating or promoting people who do. Without an enforcement mechanism, values don't mean anything.
Instruct your team to "Go direct. If you have a problem that cuts across departments, figure out who in those other departments can most directly help you address the issue, and reach out without hesitation."
Focus on execution, not strategy. "It's hard to beat a well‐executing organization, even if the strategy isn't perfect."
Focus on defining the problem before jumping to solutions. In business, we spend most of our time discussing solutions rather than diagnosing problems. We race to conclusions about what's wrong and what to do about it. Act more like doctors: slow down and critically examine situations and problems before settling down on an explanation, let alone a solution.
January 27, 2022
Good book about leading the company from the operator point of view. It is consistent - no repeated examples how "John" overcome its problems with detailed explanation on the "process".
It is short, it provides an opinionated view on how companies should be run for a growth based on author experience. Most valuable to people who want to build a business / operate it - even if not at the scale of author's experience.
Last few chapters are highlights from the book but also relevant for people who do not want to run the company - especially the one with career/growth approach. I Amp It up 100% based on my own career experience approach.
A book from operator for operators.
It is short, it provides an opinionated view on how companies should be run for a growth based on author experience. Most valuable to people who want to build a business / operate it - even if not at the scale of author's experience.
Last few chapters are highlights from the book but also relevant for people who do not want to run the company - especially the one with career/growth approach. I Amp It up 100% based on my own career experience approach.
A book from operator for operators.
August 4, 2022
What a BOSS of a book. This 3-time super successful CEO shares very tactical ways to increase the pace of the company and raise the expectations. I'm a fan!
August 13, 2022
Absolutely worth a read to get a contemporary view on tech executives. But god please do not mimic his management style. He has spent 30 years defining his Ricky Bobby “if you ain’t first yer last” style of management and to try and mimic all of the lessons at once will lead to a pressure cooker, low recognition and low gratitude culture without the absolute slam dunk product market fits his companies have had. Fantastic lessons on execution from Slootman but good god what a potential disaster in the hands of the wrong founder.
Read
February 14, 2022Frank Slootman is a remarkable man. While the book has a few unsurprising ideas and notions, there were enough moments that were pleasantly surprising…like the stress on architecture vs sales, battling entitlement and managing boards. Always interesting to hear war stories from operators vs generic advice - the book scores on that front.
October 17, 2024
Great book. Main takeaway was there are passive people who go for the ride and people who take action and drive outcomes and reap the rewards. Look at yourself honestly and think about moments you’ve had when the combination of resolve, persistence, mission focus and clarity have all combined. It’s hard to beat and you’ll have to find your own path. In the long run success trumps popularity.
Hold onto your long term goals.
Said his style of speaking evolved into a conversational mode. I liked this idea, as if he was chatting and telling stories to people in his office. Start with messages you want to convey, fold into stores to illustrate, they are easier to digest, fun to tell and are what the audience remember. Start a running list of useful anecdotes.
Good breakdown of his time at Data domain, ServiceNow and Snowflake and expanding into adjacent areas of opportunity and tapping into other markets.
Some good notes on how to interact with a board. You have to be mentally be prepared to walk away to preserve your scope of authority as CEO. If you are subservient there will be no shortage of board members who will gladly jump in and start bossing you around. They’ll overreach into management territory if you don’t lead and show you have control. Prepare, lead the direction of the conversation fill the vacuum. It’s all in the preparation, you spend the most time thinking about the challenges the businesses faces and should anticipate the questions that will arise.
Hold onto your long term goals.
Said his style of speaking evolved into a conversational mode. I liked this idea, as if he was chatting and telling stories to people in his office. Start with messages you want to convey, fold into stores to illustrate, they are easier to digest, fun to tell and are what the audience remember. Start a running list of useful anecdotes.
Good breakdown of his time at Data domain, ServiceNow and Snowflake and expanding into adjacent areas of opportunity and tapping into other markets.
Some good notes on how to interact with a board. You have to be mentally be prepared to walk away to preserve your scope of authority as CEO. If you are subservient there will be no shortage of board members who will gladly jump in and start bossing you around. They’ll overreach into management territory if you don’t lead and show you have control. Prepare, lead the direction of the conversation fill the vacuum. It’s all in the preparation, you spend the most time thinking about the challenges the businesses faces and should anticipate the questions that will arise.
August 15, 2024
A must read for tech executives
"Amp It Up" is my third 10/10 read of the year. If you're an executive, particularly in the tech sector, this is one of the most impactful books you can read. What sets it apart is that the author, Frank Slootman, is not a founder CEO but an employee CEO with a perspective that resonates deeply with me.
In just around 180 pages, the book offers a masterclass in relentless execution, presented in a highly accessible manner. Slootman emphasizes crucial concepts like setting the pace as a leader, the importance of focusing on singular priorities, and hiring individuals who are ahead of their curve. He argues that incrementalism is simply a lack of boldness and stresses the need for a healthy sense of paranoia about competitors.
The book also underscores the futility of strategizing without a capable team and the necessity of maintaining high standards to avoid mediocrity. It advocates for behavior driven by clear expectations, growth through challenges, and a focus on delivering genuine value to customers. Slootman’s advice includes thinking ahead of market dynamics and valuing traits like strong task ownership and urgency.
In summary, “Amp It Up” is about: raising your standards, aligning your team, sharpening your focus, picking up the pace, and transforming your strategy. It offers valuable insights for anyone serious about advancing their career or enhancing their company's performance. As the book succinctly puts it: “As professional people, we are products, so try to product-manage yourself.” Read it already.
"Amp It Up" is my third 10/10 read of the year. If you're an executive, particularly in the tech sector, this is one of the most impactful books you can read. What sets it apart is that the author, Frank Slootman, is not a founder CEO but an employee CEO with a perspective that resonates deeply with me.
In just around 180 pages, the book offers a masterclass in relentless execution, presented in a highly accessible manner. Slootman emphasizes crucial concepts like setting the pace as a leader, the importance of focusing on singular priorities, and hiring individuals who are ahead of their curve. He argues that incrementalism is simply a lack of boldness and stresses the need for a healthy sense of paranoia about competitors.
The book also underscores the futility of strategizing without a capable team and the necessity of maintaining high standards to avoid mediocrity. It advocates for behavior driven by clear expectations, growth through challenges, and a focus on delivering genuine value to customers. Slootman’s advice includes thinking ahead of market dynamics and valuing traits like strong task ownership and urgency.
In summary, “Amp It Up” is about: raising your standards, aligning your team, sharpening your focus, picking up the pace, and transforming your strategy. It offers valuable insights for anyone serious about advancing their career or enhancing their company's performance. As the book succinctly puts it: “As professional people, we are products, so try to product-manage yourself.” Read it already.
April 10, 2022
Slootman has an operational track record that makes his thoughts about running tech companies worth knowing. Written from the front lines of company building.
November 14, 2022
Above average for its type.
February 25, 2025
Great recommendation, Josh.
Notes:
Raise your standards: nothing mediocre, shoot for “insanely great.”
Align your people and culture: make sure everyone is driving in the same direction.
Sharpen your focus: think about execution more sequentially than in parallel. Work on fewer things at the same time and prioritize hard. To prioritize, ask yourself “if you can only do one thing for the rest of the year, what would it be and why?” Priority is best used as a singular word.
Pick up the pace: leaders set the pace. Ask yourself and others “why not tomorrow or the next day?” Start compressing cycle times. Use every encounter, meeting, and opportunity to increase the pace.
Transform your strategy: while everyone else has their head down, keep your head up like a quarterback. Connect seemingly unrelated things.
Lack of size compared to competition can be an advantage. “Babies grow up to become soldiers.”
Acts as an owner of the products. Project managers especially.
Early in your career, be mindful of which elevators you step into; some elevators will take you up, others down, and others won’t move.
Hire people ahead of their own curve, so they feel like they have the opportunity of a lifetime to advance their careers with you. This will motivate the right people more than a higher salary offered by other competitors trying to poach them. Hire for aptitude more so than experience.
Avoid pattern matching between a successful startup and any other startup. No two companies are the same.
Good architecture underlies all successful SAAS companies.
Figure out if you have the temperament of an operator or of an investor/advisor.
“When there is doubt, there is no doubt.” Don’t hesitate to pull the plug or make changes. Waiting to see if these things can fix themselves will just waste everyone’s time.
Have a clear and strong mission and stay on task, avoiding distractions and mission creep. Four keys of following a mission are applying focus, urgency, execution, and strategy.
Business is war. Only the government can print money, you have to take other peoples’ money. There is no such thing as friendly competitors. Don’t try to be polite about this; make it clear to your team.
To counter a competitor that offers “free” products bundled in with other products, say “what’s the real cost of something free that doesn’t do the job properly? How would you like a free elephant, if you have to feed, house, and clean up after it?”
Sell to the users within a potential customer organization who prefer your product. They will then do the sales for you to convince their management and executives.
Taking your competitor’s talent is the best evidence that a competitor is losing the fight to you.
Avoid lackluster incrementalism and expressing growth only as a delta to the current state. Shoot for the stars. Figure out where you want to be and work backwards from there. Ask yourself how fast you can really grow, and what limits your growth. Why didn’t ____ invent/become ____? Because of incrementalism. Use a “clean sheet of paper” approach whenever possible. Attack markets that have weak, unpopular incumbents.
“No strategy is better than its execution.”
“Good judgment comes from bad judgment.” = experience.
Strategy = figure out all the alternative approaches and make decisions about why some make more sense than others. Maintain a culture of brutal honesty. Avoid groupthink and confirmation bias. Don’t let yourself become too emotionally attached to any one strategy.
A strong product will reach product-market fit even with a mediocre sales team. Usually the shortfall is in the product.
“Consultants are people who borrow your watch, tell you what time it is, and then keep the watch.” You don’t need them to help you with strategy.
Hire drivers, not passengers, who will take accountability and agency on issues.
Use consistent day-to-day consequences to drive the culture you want, not posters hung around the office. Everyone in the organization should want to defend these values and call out inconsistencies. Find variances between stated values and the actual culture and fix them.
If you have a cross-department issue, go direct to the person that can resolve it, don’t go through department heads. Go horizontal rather than vertical. Position should never win arguments; only the merits of the argument matter.
Trust is the most important element of a functional team/organization. As a leader, you must build this trust by staying true to your word; do as you say.
Put analysis and diagnosis before solutions, just like a doctor would do.
Don’t use a Customer Success department. Each department should have a stronger sense of ownership and responsibility for product/customer success. Customer support should deal with customer issues and sales should deal with the customer relationships.
Before you add more sales headcount, think about: How you can increase sales productivity? How can you improve your lead generation pipeline? Are you being realistic with your sales timelines? Are you being aggressive enough to outpace your competition? Is your sales team committed to your timelines and goals? Establish a good product-market fit before going from early adopters to the mainstream market (read “Crossing the Chasm”).
Early stage business development is case by case. Selling is a systemic, highly standardized process that can be taught to ensure compelling sales pitches are used consistently.
Invest heavily in lead generation/pipeline. (This would be a master RTA list using NTD. Maybe look at HubSpot to track these?)
There’s not a definitive answer of when to pull the trigger and start a full sales focus, but just make sure that all the pieces are in place first.
Never outsource sales recruiting. If there is one skill a manager must have it’s recruiting.
Paradoxical, but in a low growth company, when sales productivity per rep is super high that’s good, but in a high growth company, that’s bad and means you should hire more sales reps, which in turn will lower productivity per rep; it’s a balancing act.
Growth drives valuation increase of startups more than any other metric. Super growers also get rich valuation multiples.
If a startup prematurely shows profitability, this means that it doesn’t know how to invest in more growth, or that it has run out of growth opportunities.
Figure out a growth model that’s hyper-specific to your startup. What will your limitations be? What factors will enhance your growth?
Goals are powerful: they change behavior. Set high goals.
Scale is about maximizing growth by building repeatable, efficient processes and models of execution.
As you think about your strategy, think not only of your TAM now, but consider your TAM in a few years.
Notes:
Raise your standards: nothing mediocre, shoot for “insanely great.”
Align your people and culture: make sure everyone is driving in the same direction.
Sharpen your focus: think about execution more sequentially than in parallel. Work on fewer things at the same time and prioritize hard. To prioritize, ask yourself “if you can only do one thing for the rest of the year, what would it be and why?” Priority is best used as a singular word.
Pick up the pace: leaders set the pace. Ask yourself and others “why not tomorrow or the next day?” Start compressing cycle times. Use every encounter, meeting, and opportunity to increase the pace.
Transform your strategy: while everyone else has their head down, keep your head up like a quarterback. Connect seemingly unrelated things.
Lack of size compared to competition can be an advantage. “Babies grow up to become soldiers.”
Acts as an owner of the products. Project managers especially.
Early in your career, be mindful of which elevators you step into; some elevators will take you up, others down, and others won’t move.
Hire people ahead of their own curve, so they feel like they have the opportunity of a lifetime to advance their careers with you. This will motivate the right people more than a higher salary offered by other competitors trying to poach them. Hire for aptitude more so than experience.
Avoid pattern matching between a successful startup and any other startup. No two companies are the same.
Good architecture underlies all successful SAAS companies.
Figure out if you have the temperament of an operator or of an investor/advisor.
“When there is doubt, there is no doubt.” Don’t hesitate to pull the plug or make changes. Waiting to see if these things can fix themselves will just waste everyone’s time.
Have a clear and strong mission and stay on task, avoiding distractions and mission creep. Four keys of following a mission are applying focus, urgency, execution, and strategy.
Business is war. Only the government can print money, you have to take other peoples’ money. There is no such thing as friendly competitors. Don’t try to be polite about this; make it clear to your team.
To counter a competitor that offers “free” products bundled in with other products, say “what’s the real cost of something free that doesn’t do the job properly? How would you like a free elephant, if you have to feed, house, and clean up after it?”
Sell to the users within a potential customer organization who prefer your product. They will then do the sales for you to convince their management and executives.
Taking your competitor’s talent is the best evidence that a competitor is losing the fight to you.
Avoid lackluster incrementalism and expressing growth only as a delta to the current state. Shoot for the stars. Figure out where you want to be and work backwards from there. Ask yourself how fast you can really grow, and what limits your growth. Why didn’t ____ invent/become ____? Because of incrementalism. Use a “clean sheet of paper” approach whenever possible. Attack markets that have weak, unpopular incumbents.
“No strategy is better than its execution.”
“Good judgment comes from bad judgment.” = experience.
Strategy = figure out all the alternative approaches and make decisions about why some make more sense than others. Maintain a culture of brutal honesty. Avoid groupthink and confirmation bias. Don’t let yourself become too emotionally attached to any one strategy.
A strong product will reach product-market fit even with a mediocre sales team. Usually the shortfall is in the product.
“Consultants are people who borrow your watch, tell you what time it is, and then keep the watch.” You don’t need them to help you with strategy.
Hire drivers, not passengers, who will take accountability and agency on issues.
Use consistent day-to-day consequences to drive the culture you want, not posters hung around the office. Everyone in the organization should want to defend these values and call out inconsistencies. Find variances between stated values and the actual culture and fix them.
If you have a cross-department issue, go direct to the person that can resolve it, don’t go through department heads. Go horizontal rather than vertical. Position should never win arguments; only the merits of the argument matter.
Trust is the most important element of a functional team/organization. As a leader, you must build this trust by staying true to your word; do as you say.
Put analysis and diagnosis before solutions, just like a doctor would do.
Don’t use a Customer Success department. Each department should have a stronger sense of ownership and responsibility for product/customer success. Customer support should deal with customer issues and sales should deal with the customer relationships.
Before you add more sales headcount, think about: How you can increase sales productivity? How can you improve your lead generation pipeline? Are you being realistic with your sales timelines? Are you being aggressive enough to outpace your competition? Is your sales team committed to your timelines and goals? Establish a good product-market fit before going from early adopters to the mainstream market (read “Crossing the Chasm”).
Early stage business development is case by case. Selling is a systemic, highly standardized process that can be taught to ensure compelling sales pitches are used consistently.
Invest heavily in lead generation/pipeline. (This would be a master RTA list using NTD. Maybe look at HubSpot to track these?)
There’s not a definitive answer of when to pull the trigger and start a full sales focus, but just make sure that all the pieces are in place first.
Never outsource sales recruiting. If there is one skill a manager must have it’s recruiting.
Paradoxical, but in a low growth company, when sales productivity per rep is super high that’s good, but in a high growth company, that’s bad and means you should hire more sales reps, which in turn will lower productivity per rep; it’s a balancing act.
Growth drives valuation increase of startups more than any other metric. Super growers also get rich valuation multiples.
If a startup prematurely shows profitability, this means that it doesn’t know how to invest in more growth, or that it has run out of growth opportunities.
Figure out a growth model that’s hyper-specific to your startup. What will your limitations be? What factors will enhance your growth?
Goals are powerful: they change behavior. Set high goals.
Scale is about maximizing growth by building repeatable, efficient processes and models of execution.
As you think about your strategy, think not only of your TAM now, but consider your TAM in a few years.
January 30, 2022
pretty good
Parts of it are trite, but the book is short and straightforward - work your ass off and make sure you surround yourself with the A-team.
I will say the last chapter on board management is quite interesting.
Parts of it are trite, but the book is short and straightforward - work your ass off and make sure you surround yourself with the A-team.
I will say the last chapter on board management is quite interesting.
Read
April 21, 2023
Never put your personal decisions to a vote.
I love that quote.
I’m not in the target audience for this book, but I was given a copy and figured I’d read it. Some bits of Slootman’s leadership advice I found interesting:
- Maximizing a company’s growth is so important to him that he doesn’t think trying to dominate the market is enough. He thinks you need to be planning how you’ll expand into a broader market long before you saturate the one you’re in.
- But he warns that you should do this by evolving your already-successful product into something relevant to a larger market, not by “investing heavily in a second major product or service”. He likens the latter to “trying to strike gold a second time”.
- “Worrying about your organization’s strategy before your team is good at executing is pointless.”
- Surprisingly for someone who promotes (to quote the book’s cover) “Increasing Urgency” and “Elevating Intensity”, he argues that businesses often “race to conclusions about what’s wrong and what to do about it” when spending more energy understanding the problem first would be better. “I am generally not a fan of just trying things, throwing ideas against the wall to see if they stick.”
One piece of advice I find a little odd is the emphasis on only having “drivers”, as opposed to “passengers”, as employees. The benefits of highly motivated, self-starter types of folks are obvious, but aren’t they also more prone to butting heads with each other or pulling in different directions? I would think that once an organization gets to a certain size there would be a benefit to having some people who are content to just go with the flow.
This book is riddled with battle metaphors; one chapter begins: “It’s no exaggeration to say that business is war.” (It’s literally an exaggeration, unless Slootman’s been organizing sorties to go murder rival companies’ employees…) He’s aware that “many [employees] will resist the metaphor of war” but he thinks it’s just reality: “At a minimum, noses will get bloodied. At worst, in a few months or years, some firms in our industry will still be in business and others won’t.”
I’d point out that the consequences of a business failing are rather less severe than the war metaphor implies. Employees may have to go find new jobs (maybe not, if it’s an acquisition) and adjust to life in a new company; execs may not get as generous of an exit as they were hoping for; nobody gets to get rich off stock options. Do those outcomes justify the levels of intense day-to-day anxiety and fear that are suggested by a comparison to war? (Founders, admittedly, have more at stake—the company’s failure is likely to be a serious emotional blow and in some cases could put them in dire financial straits personally.)
Slootman is focused on startups, and in that context the advice to be constantly vigilant about the competition makes sense. Interestingly, though, he traces his mentality back to his childhood:
My father was a veteran of two wars, and although he retired from active duty in the 1950s, there was a measure of discipline in our household. Walk straight, shoulders back, don’t slouch. … Don’t let them catch you doing nothing, or they would find a chore for you to do. ...
… My dad didn’t say I needed to get better grades, merely that I had to work up to my potential. … That may appear to be a liberating way to have your parents think about failing grades. In reality, you become haunted by never doing enough, that you are failing to do as much as you are actually capable of.
… I also cleaned factory toilets one summer in the plant where my dad worked. There were at least a thousand people working there, and I cycled through every bathroom facility between 9:00 and 5:00. I had a supervisor, who inspected my work, but he often got to bathrooms I had cleaned first thing in the morning many hours later, after hundreds of people had used them. When he criticized my work, I complained about it to my dad. His answer was stark: “Well, those are the kinds of people you will be working for if you don’t get better grades.” I was 16.
This mentality of living up to your potential has kept up with me ever since. … This is a hard model: you never feel you are doing enough, and a sense of malcontent hovers over you. You need like-minded people around you for this to work.
It’s tragic that we live in a world where it’s sometimes necessary—although much more necessary for some people than for the more privileged among us—to carry such anxiety about what will happen to us if we don’t push ourselves to our limits. I realize it’s important to acknowledge harsh realities so we can be adequately prepared to deal with them, but I also worry that promoting this mentality of life as constant battle contributes to making the world be harsher than it has to be.
(crosspost)
February 12, 2025
Audiobook. Very easy listen that is direct like a manual. Goes into depth about his experience and mentality towards career and business success. Very relevant to my job now and industry within the SaaS world.
1. Raise your standards
2. Align your people
3. Sharpen your focus
4. Pick up the pace
5. Transform your strategy
Very impressive CV. Immigrant from the Netherlands and I relate to some of the struggles he mentioned. Wish he dived into that more.
Jumps into a brief overview of his career journey. Describes overhauling teams when brought in as CEO.
Have a well defined mission.
Time kills. Urgency is a skill that can be learnt. Lethargy can spread and ruin culture.
Declare war on your competitors. Would love a win-win deal, but business is most likely a zero-sum game. Drive ambitious goals - do not encourage “safe”.
Strategy is sexy but execution is where tangible progress is made. You want operators who are also in charge of strategy. Have skin in the game - otherwise strategists will blame poor execution and operators will blame poor strategy.
At the end of the day, good execution can make up for poor strategy, but good strategy cannot make up for poor execution. Execution is king.
Create a list of vetted candidates who you periodically check in with. Pounce on the opportunity to hire top class talent. If you wait until you have a need you limit yourself to the then available pool.
Pursue excellence. Reject mediocrity. Customers are king.
Don’t let silos and corporate disagreements get in the way. Create a culture where employees can go directly across teams to address issues and provide feedback.
Quotes and explains the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” framework. Book mentioned by my CEO as a must read. Will need to read that ASAP.
At his first all hands at Snowflake, he claimed they would 10x the company’s valuation. They ended up 13x on the day of IPO and then 2x’ed in the first day of trading.
Got rid of customer success at both ServiceNow and Snowflake. The small CS team at Kaiko was also let go. Customer success is everyone’s priority.
For a period of time, DataDomain has a 3-1 lead gen to sales ratio. Very shocking to hear, but makes sense given the stage of the company at that time. Never outsource sales recruitment.
Salespeople are either gunslingers or flatliners. I need to be a gunslinger.
Grow fast or die slow. Study done by McKinsey that I should read.
Breaks down the five stages of scaling a company, from its infancy to maturity. The operational differences are massive. Some CEOs fail as they hold on to previous habits.
Reaching the right scale - when Snowflake onboarded enough data vendors and buyers, it created incentives for other vendors to integrate Snowflake.
Are you happy with your career? Could you progress faster? Probably. We are products, market and polish ourselves.
MBAs from a good school look good on the resume but there is a huge opportunity cost. What is your experience? Build your record accomplishments thoughtfully. Personality can tip the scales. Use this to your advantage and understand if your personality suits the company.
Embrace the struggle. The hard times will be the best stories to tell in the future.
Founders deserve a pedestal - when coming in as CEO, you need to manage this balance. The opinions of your founders matter.
Success trumps popularity. When you win, you will gain popularity everywhere.
Concludes with a section directed to CEOs.
1. Raise your standards
2. Align your people
3. Sharpen your focus
4. Pick up the pace
5. Transform your strategy
Very impressive CV. Immigrant from the Netherlands and I relate to some of the struggles he mentioned. Wish he dived into that more.
Jumps into a brief overview of his career journey. Describes overhauling teams when brought in as CEO.
Have a well defined mission.
Time kills. Urgency is a skill that can be learnt. Lethargy can spread and ruin culture.
Declare war on your competitors. Would love a win-win deal, but business is most likely a zero-sum game. Drive ambitious goals - do not encourage “safe”.
Strategy is sexy but execution is where tangible progress is made. You want operators who are also in charge of strategy. Have skin in the game - otherwise strategists will blame poor execution and operators will blame poor strategy.
At the end of the day, good execution can make up for poor strategy, but good strategy cannot make up for poor execution. Execution is king.
Create a list of vetted candidates who you periodically check in with. Pounce on the opportunity to hire top class talent. If you wait until you have a need you limit yourself to the then available pool.
Pursue excellence. Reject mediocrity. Customers are king.
Don’t let silos and corporate disagreements get in the way. Create a culture where employees can go directly across teams to address issues and provide feedback.
Quotes and explains the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” framework. Book mentioned by my CEO as a must read. Will need to read that ASAP.
At his first all hands at Snowflake, he claimed they would 10x the company’s valuation. They ended up 13x on the day of IPO and then 2x’ed in the first day of trading.
Got rid of customer success at both ServiceNow and Snowflake. The small CS team at Kaiko was also let go. Customer success is everyone’s priority.
For a period of time, DataDomain has a 3-1 lead gen to sales ratio. Very shocking to hear, but makes sense given the stage of the company at that time. Never outsource sales recruitment.
Salespeople are either gunslingers or flatliners. I need to be a gunslinger.
Grow fast or die slow. Study done by McKinsey that I should read.
Breaks down the five stages of scaling a company, from its infancy to maturity. The operational differences are massive. Some CEOs fail as they hold on to previous habits.
Reaching the right scale - when Snowflake onboarded enough data vendors and buyers, it created incentives for other vendors to integrate Snowflake.
Are you happy with your career? Could you progress faster? Probably. We are products, market and polish ourselves.
MBAs from a good school look good on the resume but there is a huge opportunity cost. What is your experience? Build your record accomplishments thoughtfully. Personality can tip the scales. Use this to your advantage and understand if your personality suits the company.
Embrace the struggle. The hard times will be the best stories to tell in the future.
Founders deserve a pedestal - when coming in as CEO, you need to manage this balance. The opinions of your founders matter.
Success trumps popularity. When you win, you will gain popularity everywhere.
Concludes with a section directed to CEOs.
August 6, 2022
Marc Andreseen once said "The good big companies are overstaffed by 2x. The bad big companies are overstaffed by 4x or more." Frank Slootman seems to share his view - his book is about what to do so that by betting on the right people and creating an environment where they give their maximum every day, a company will be able to grow very quickly.
The author knows what he is talking about, because in 1.5 the value of Snowflake, of which he is CEO, has increased.... 10 times. The growth started from a level of billions of dollars.
His approach is based on this:
"in a company we want to achieve above-average goals, so we expect above-average efforts. We don't want to improve the company gradually. We want to improve it above average quickly. The work may not be comfortable for you, but you'll get above-average progression in your career and up the social ladder."
Some people might flatten this tactic to management simply by telling people "work better," "XYZ could look better." Some companies will probably decide to implement this tactic, but will underestimate one thing. In exchange for above-average efforts and contributions to the company's above-average growth, people expect above-average benefits - not incremental ones. Only a small fraction of people will be willing to work above-average hard in exchange for at most mid-market benefits - and wait several years for the prospect of above-average benefits.
The book will be useful to you if:
- you manage a company/people,
- your company is not so much growing as simply functioning,
- there is marasm in your company,
- the company needs serious and difficult changes...,
- the more of the above hyphens you reacted to with "it's like that at my place". - the more you will find it useful.
This book is a mix: "Hard stuff about the hard stuff," "High Output Management" and "Extreme Ownership." The author writes a lot about culture, and passes on a lot of management tips. You have to give him credit for writing about culture in an interesting way - I enjoyed it even though I avoid reading about culture. I 100% agree with him that:
right people + right culture = machine to do great things.
The author knows what he is talking about, because in 1.5 the value of Snowflake, of which he is CEO, has increased.... 10 times. The growth started from a level of billions of dollars.
His approach is based on this:
"in a company we want to achieve above-average goals, so we expect above-average efforts. We don't want to improve the company gradually. We want to improve it above average quickly. The work may not be comfortable for you, but you'll get above-average progression in your career and up the social ladder."
Some people might flatten this tactic to management simply by telling people "work better," "XYZ could look better." Some companies will probably decide to implement this tactic, but will underestimate one thing. In exchange for above-average efforts and contributions to the company's above-average growth, people expect above-average benefits - not incremental ones. Only a small fraction of people will be willing to work above-average hard in exchange for at most mid-market benefits - and wait several years for the prospect of above-average benefits.
The book will be useful to you if:
- you manage a company/people,
- your company is not so much growing as simply functioning,
- there is marasm in your company,
- the company needs serious and difficult changes...,
- the more of the above hyphens you reacted to with "it's like that at my place". - the more you will find it useful.
This book is a mix: "Hard stuff about the hard stuff," "High Output Management" and "Extreme Ownership." The author writes a lot about culture, and passes on a lot of management tips. You have to give him credit for writing about culture in an interesting way - I enjoyed it even though I avoid reading about culture. I 100% agree with him that:
right people + right culture = machine to do great things.
October 19, 2023
Straightforward - work your ass off and surround yourself with an A-team. It is short; it provides an opinionated view on how companies should be run for growth.
Takeaways:
- Navigating the corporate world often feels like an intricate maze. But what if the path to excellence wasn't about reinventing the wheel? What if you could supercharge what already exists instead?
- By elevating intensity, execution, and ambition, companies can bridge the gap between their current state of mediocrity and the success they desire.
- Here’s your takeaway: forget the pricey consultants. As you finesse your execution, you'll find that you will become the best strategist for your venture.
Fav analogy:
- Imagine you’ve just bought a high-performance sports car. It’s sleek, shiny, and on paper, it promises blistering speeds. But there’s a catch: you never learned to drive stick. No matter how advanced or top-of-the-line your car is, without the skills to execute its potential, it’s just a flashy object in your driveway.
- Consider this: companies pour resources into honing sales techniques, but when was the last time you heard about training in execution? Yet, execution, like sales, is a teachable craft, one that’s refined with experience and guidance from seasoned mentors.
Fav quotes:
- “You will have numerous jobs, titles, and pay grades over your career, not just between companies but within companies. At each step, be thoughtful and purposeful rather than opportunistic. Sometimes it might be best to take a step backward in title or pay to set up a better path forward. Your peer group will try to influence your career decisions, but be your own person. Steer your own ship. Never put your personal decisions to a vote.”
- “If you don't know how to execute, every strategy will fail, even the most promising ones. As one of my former bosses observed: “No strategy is better than its execution.”
- “Priority” should ideally only be used as a singular word. The moment you have many priorities, you actually have none.”
Takeaways:
- Navigating the corporate world often feels like an intricate maze. But what if the path to excellence wasn't about reinventing the wheel? What if you could supercharge what already exists instead?
- By elevating intensity, execution, and ambition, companies can bridge the gap between their current state of mediocrity and the success they desire.
- Here’s your takeaway: forget the pricey consultants. As you finesse your execution, you'll find that you will become the best strategist for your venture.
Fav analogy:
- Imagine you’ve just bought a high-performance sports car. It’s sleek, shiny, and on paper, it promises blistering speeds. But there’s a catch: you never learned to drive stick. No matter how advanced or top-of-the-line your car is, without the skills to execute its potential, it’s just a flashy object in your driveway.
- Consider this: companies pour resources into honing sales techniques, but when was the last time you heard about training in execution? Yet, execution, like sales, is a teachable craft, one that’s refined with experience and guidance from seasoned mentors.
Fav quotes:
- “You will have numerous jobs, titles, and pay grades over your career, not just between companies but within companies. At each step, be thoughtful and purposeful rather than opportunistic. Sometimes it might be best to take a step backward in title or pay to set up a better path forward. Your peer group will try to influence your career decisions, but be your own person. Steer your own ship. Never put your personal decisions to a vote.”
- “If you don't know how to execute, every strategy will fail, even the most promising ones. As one of my former bosses observed: “No strategy is better than its execution.”
- “Priority” should ideally only be used as a singular word. The moment you have many priorities, you actually have none.”
December 15, 2023
When I started reading this book, my initial thought was that I would read it for a few minutes and put it on the abandoned list. I initially thought that if someone goes this extra mile, they will burn out, and this guy seems un-truthful. But he did admit that he was burnt out ("I didn't know it at the time, but by 2017 I was burnt out").
Another thought was, why would he continuously push someone, and why would people be willing so much? Then I read lines that said, "Even modest equity allocations can lead to life‐changing gains for employees, which they can apply to buying homes, educating their children, taking care of their loved ones, and securing their retirements", and everything made sense. Towards the end, the book made much more sense than where it started.
Overall, this book is for people leading at a much higher level than most people I even report to. Hearing the story from the CEO was very interesting.
Another thought was, why would he continuously push someone, and why would people be willing so much? Then I read lines that said, "Even modest equity allocations can lead to life‐changing gains for employees, which they can apply to buying homes, educating their children, taking care of their loved ones, and securing their retirements", and everything made sense. Towards the end, the book made much more sense than where it started.
Overall, this book is for people leading at a much higher level than most people I even report to. Hearing the story from the CEO was very interesting.
July 15, 2022
Slootman is the real deal, amazing track record, flawless business acumen. Amp It Up provides terrific insight into precisely how he succeeded.
My favorite quote:
“Our people were counting on me [as CEO] because our company’s fate could have a profound effect on their futures. I would sometimes say in all hands meetings that I was personally committed to help each of our employees reach a different station in life as a function of the company’s fortunes. In exchange I was asking for the best they had to offer. That was the deal: we’d do the best we can for each other.”
My only point of critique: Slootman is 100% dedicated to his work, his world as outlined in the book has no room for personal health or dedication to family, hobbies, friends, etc. Maybe that’s the point? Either succeed before or after experiencing life, or make success your goal in experiencing life.
My favorite quote:
“Our people were counting on me [as CEO] because our company’s fate could have a profound effect on their futures. I would sometimes say in all hands meetings that I was personally committed to help each of our employees reach a different station in life as a function of the company’s fortunes. In exchange I was asking for the best they had to offer. That was the deal: we’d do the best we can for each other.”
My only point of critique: Slootman is 100% dedicated to his work, his world as outlined in the book has no room for personal health or dedication to family, hobbies, friends, etc. Maybe that’s the point? Either succeed before or after experiencing life, or make success your goal in experiencing life.
October 19, 2023
"Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity" by Frank Slootman is a comprehensive and insightful guide that delves into the nuances of maximizing an organization's potential. Slootman introduces the concept of "amping it up," which involves a strategic approach to amplify an organization's energy, drive, and cohesiveness to achieve unprecedented success in the corporate landscape.
The book emphasizes the significance of execution, highlighting its pivotal role in steering an organization towards success. While strategy is essential, the book underlines that it must be firmly rooted in the realities of the market, and execution is what ultimately propels a company forward. It emphasizes the need for fostering a strong team, nurturing a robust company culture, and promoting collaboration across different departments to ensure smooth sailing in the competitive business environment.
Moreover, the book emphasizes the importance of conducting thorough analyses and maintaining genuine customer focus. It encourages leaders to approach business challenges with a fresh perspective, avoiding shortcuts and delving deep into the roots of issues to find effective solutions. Additionally, it advocates for maintaining a balanced pace and carefully seizing opportunities to ensure sustainable growth and success.
Furthermore, the book sheds light on the significance of dreaming audaciously and seizing opportunities to push the boundaries of what an organization can achieve. It emphasizes the importance of strategic decision-making and the ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. Slootman emphasizes the importance of crafting leadership as a continual journey of growth, highlighting the significance of resilience, commitment, and self-awareness in becoming an effective and inspiring leader.
Overall, "Amp It Up" provides valuable insights and practical strategies that can help any organization transcend mediocrity and achieve unparalleled success in today's dynamic and competitive business landscape. The book serves as a comprehensive roadmap for leaders and executives looking to elevate their organizations to new heights of success and influence.
The book emphasizes the significance of execution, highlighting its pivotal role in steering an organization towards success. While strategy is essential, the book underlines that it must be firmly rooted in the realities of the market, and execution is what ultimately propels a company forward. It emphasizes the need for fostering a strong team, nurturing a robust company culture, and promoting collaboration across different departments to ensure smooth sailing in the competitive business environment.
Moreover, the book emphasizes the importance of conducting thorough analyses and maintaining genuine customer focus. It encourages leaders to approach business challenges with a fresh perspective, avoiding shortcuts and delving deep into the roots of issues to find effective solutions. Additionally, it advocates for maintaining a balanced pace and carefully seizing opportunities to ensure sustainable growth and success.
Furthermore, the book sheds light on the significance of dreaming audaciously and seizing opportunities to push the boundaries of what an organization can achieve. It emphasizes the importance of strategic decision-making and the ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. Slootman emphasizes the importance of crafting leadership as a continual journey of growth, highlighting the significance of resilience, commitment, and self-awareness in becoming an effective and inspiring leader.
Overall, "Amp It Up" provides valuable insights and practical strategies that can help any organization transcend mediocrity and achieve unparalleled success in today's dynamic and competitive business landscape. The book serves as a comprehensive roadmap for leaders and executives looking to elevate their organizations to new heights of success and influence.
December 10, 2023
A good down-to-earth guide for how to do anything in your day-to-day business life.
Frank is quite different from other inspirational leaders, and reminded me more of Ben Horowitz with his “Hard thing about hard things”. He stresses hard work, execution and relentlessness over bright ideas, and advices to constantly push.
I could recommend this book to anyone who questions if they’re good enough to succeed despite lacking certain qualities, as it helps to build confidence and provides lots of practical recommendations.
Frank is quite different from other inspirational leaders, and reminded me more of Ben Horowitz with his “Hard thing about hard things”. He stresses hard work, execution and relentlessness over bright ideas, and advices to constantly push.
I could recommend this book to anyone who questions if they’re good enough to succeed despite lacking certain qualities, as it helps to build confidence and provides lots of practical recommendations.
March 21, 2025
Not an operator nor an executive but it's a pretty short read and has immediate takeaways on driving a high performing culture and team. Idk if i'd go out of my way to recommend it to anyone but if the opportunity presented itself amongst discussion i'd probably give it a rec
April 23, 2025
I’d give it 4 stars if you’re a career CEO taking over an extremely promising scale up, but otherwise the back half is mostly unrelatable. I don’t think anything in here is wrong, it’s actually pretty insightful.
Can’t evaluate strategy if you have bad execution is the main new takeaway I got.
Can’t evaluate strategy if you have bad execution is the main new takeaway I got.
March 4, 2022
One of the better books of this genre. Execution is better than any strategy.
August 4, 2022
Classic case of a blog post extended and puffed up into a book. Loved the key content but it is too long and written poorly.
January 2, 2023
First read of 2023 is a business book. Kind of read it for work, don’t judge me!!! Pretty good if not a little broad in tone and ‘recommendations'.
January 16, 2024
Read it for work. Didn’t like his egotistical tone but learned a few interesting things about hiring, performance culture, and leadership qualities.
March 7, 2022
Short, relatively simple, and to the point. Enough useful viewpoints in there for a top rating!
May 20, 2022
I’ve always been at least decent at strategy, but Slootman focuses on execution and the tactical ways managers can drive high performance cultures. I’d give this book 10 stars if I could.
April 12, 2025
Short (about 200 pages long) book about to lead company - not from the vision point, but how to execute things correctly. as the writer scaled 3 companies, he definitely knows what the talks about.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews