Introducing Ryan Fuller, Co-founder and CEO of Round
Sara Lindquist:
I'm Sara Lindquist from FUSE. We're an early-stage venture firm based right here in the Pacific Northwest. And just like the founders in our portfolio, we are just getting started. We believe that founders deserve more: more urgency, more community, more expertise, more reliability - more of everything. And we aim to deliver. Join me as I introduce each of our portfolio companies in the FUSE family to date.
Today you'll hear from Ryan Fuller, Co-founder and CEO of Round. Join us as we discuss Ryan's entrepreneurship journey and leadership perspectives, and how Round is creating a community that will shape the tech world and its leaders for the better.
Let's get started!
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Sara:
Ryan, as always, it's so great to be with you!
Ryan:
Great to be here!
Sara:
I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me and share a bit about your story and Round's story. So to kick things off, it would be awesome if you could start by sharing a quick overview of what Round is and how it's serving customers today.
Ryan:
Round - the simplest way of describing - is a professional network for technology leaders who are interested in becoming better leaders and accelerating their careers. And probably the thing that bonds the community together more than anything, is a strong sense of values and the desire to have technology be making the world better. And also, a pretty common shared feeling of a little bit of frustration that technology is not making the world better as fast as it could be - and in fact, in some cases, is maybe creating some of the problems that we are facing in the world.
What Round does is it creates a space where leaders that feel those ways can come together and have a safe space where they can talk about it, they can develop together, they can kind of chart a new course forward for themselves in their careers.
But also given the incredible impact that technology has on society and the kind of influence that technology leaders have, as a result of that - they can also chart a course for the world together around "what should technology be doing?" "What should technology not be
doing?" "How should they think about that?" Many times that answer can be very aligned with their current role and the incentives of their current company, but sometimes it's maybe not. And there's a lot of ambiguous situations that could benefit from a little bit more discussion with other people that understand.
Sara:
Yeah. And so explain a little bit about the membership journey. You've curated this really cool environment for people to engage. So can you share a little bit more about the tenants and the components of Round?
Ryan:
Sure! When you apply to Round, we vet candidates pretty carefully around values and around that sort of shared sense of mission around technology creating a better future. And quality of members - our average member has been in career for 20 years, although there's a fairly wide range. There's a very strong emphasis on diversity in every sense of the word, certainly gender and racial and all those types of things, but also type of companies, startups, big
companies, maybe adjacent IT organizations inside non-traditional tech companies, B2B, B2C, different countries, et cetera.
And what that does - that curation process with that emphasis on quality and diversity - creates this really unique community where people come in and they meet others that they immediately respect as people that have been through some really impressive things in their career, but also people that come from very different parts of the world or of the technology industry that they can learn from and get a whole different set of thinking and ideas from.
So we think about what we do as curation as the primary thing, and then what we do is create a lot of different ways for members to engage with one another in ways that are sometimes designed to be optimized for fun and social needs, sometimes it's for building deeper relationships, sometimes it's for exchanging ideas and tactics around work type situations, like how do you onboard people that you've never met in person before? And that's a lot of stuff around working in a remote world nowadays.
Ryan:
But it's knowledge mining the collective knowledge of the community, that's something a lot of members are excited about. We bring in great speakers - we had an Oxford professor last week who focuses on trust and is really interesting to hear about trust - trust in institutions, trust in platforms, trust in self, trust in others - as a more deep research concept and how relevant that is to people in tech and thinking about how they relate with the users and how their products build trust or not with their users.
We've done a lot on bias and algorithms with an expert on that. We've done things on diversity, equity, inclusion. Next week we have Dan Pink as a speaker on the power of regret.
Sara:
I'm excited for that one, by the way. I know it's going to be so good.
Ryan:
Yeah, it should be good. It should be good, but the idea is to give people an opportunity to get exposed to topics that are relevant to them as influential leaders shaping the world, whether they think about themselves that way or not. But maybe we should all be a little bit more up to speed on some of these topics as we make these decisions in our daily lives.
Sara:
Yes, certainly. That's really cool. And Ryan, so I kind of want to talk about you a little bit. So you've clearly had an amazing set of experiences from the VoloMetrix days to Microsoft days. And certainly it's all coalesced into bringing you to starting Round. So I'd love for you to share a little bit about that journey. What was that key "aha moment" for you where you were like, "Hey, I got to do something about this and create an environment like Round"?
Ryan:
Yeah. Well, I won't go all the way back, but I will say I like-
Sara:
Go as far back as you want! Take us on a journey way back when.
Ryan:
Yeah, I kind of grew up when computers were becoming a thing that you had, like Apple IIcs or whatever at school and it was like the very beginning of computers being an accessible thing, like in the home or at the school or whatever. And I just immediate latched on to the idea of technology and the potential that it had, like just unlimited potential. And I think as
more and more people joined Round, it's like a very common origin story for people in tech and why they got into is because they just saw the potential of what tech could do for the world, and how it could make the world better.
So I've always had that deep belief, that technology has incredible potential. My last company got acquired in 2015 by Microsoft. It was a fascinating ride. It was a time at Microsoft in which shortly after, Satya Nadella came on as CEO. And then the company added just trillions of dollars of market cap over a five-year period. And to watch a company that had been kind
of stagnant almost for quite a while, suddenly really transform like that was fascinating. But also, when you have like a two and a half trillion dollar company, I mean, you start to just think about the magnitude of the unlimited resources that a company like that has - like infinite money, infinite reach, infinite people - it can do kind of anything!
And it's just one of many companies that are part of an industry that is growing like crazy and shaping the world faster and faster every day. I was sitting there thinking about that, and thinking about my role in it - like I'm a senior executive at a company with infinite resources - what am I doing with that power? I didn't have a good answer for it. And it was kind of easy to put it off and then pandemic happened and my kids who are six and eight now, were four and six then, were suddenly doing remote school. I was suddenly in charge of-
Sara:
Oh my gosh. Yes, major kudos to you on that, by the way. Major
kudos, dad. Working a full-time gig and doing the COVID homeschool thing.
Ryan:
And part of it was fascinating. I mean, that was hard not just for me, but for everybody. But it was also they became very rapidly, very tech literate, which was really interesting because they were now going to school on laptops and watching how addictive parts of it were to them and how they craved it and positive impacts, but also like, "Wow, this is a little scary."
And then also they started asking questions about, "Why am I not able to go to school?" And then you started to see news clips or whatever about politics or misinformation or climate change, or pick your issue.
And, you know there's not a lot of good answers as a parent to kids nowadays about what their future looks like - it is what it certainly felt like - and for me it still feels like - but I started thinking more and more like, "I need to do something to try to make a difference." Like back to that notion that technology should be making the world better and this frustration that maybe it's not, at least not as much as I'd like it to be.
Ryan:
So I looked for "how can I do something?" And I looked at nonprofits, I looked at different narrow areas that I maybe I had expertise in like data privacy from my background, I thought maybe I could build something out of that. But then I just sort of encountered something that was a side part of my life, the idea of peer groups and networks, and ways to engage with peers that are coming from more diverse places. And I saw some other models that had been able to do that at scale with some really compelling underlying economics to the business - and that got me excited.
It's some things clicked, just the idea of - you don't have to pick which issue in the world you want to go after, if you can pull together a huge army of highly influential people that have a similar feeling about the world and know where to put their energy. That's just how I had felt. I want to make the world better. I don't know how. I don't know where to go. I don't know
who to talk to. Well, what if we could bring together all the people that think that - that have a shared set of values and give them a bunch of ways to engage with one another to talk about that? And to figure out how they could work together in ways that, again, go beyond their role or go beyond their company.
And it just sort of clicked. You look at a group like YPO, which is for CEOs or EO, which is for CEOs that tend to be smaller companies. Or CHIEF, which is for women executives where they've brought together tens of thousands of really influential people from a professional sense and put them into environments where they're not just their professional-self, they're also their human-self and they grow as leaders, but they also grow as people.
Ryan:
And when you can do that, I think today we're at a moment in the technology industry where we need to put more humanity into it. And it felt like, "Okay, that's a way to pull people together and a way to do it." Not in a nonprofit way that might not be able to get to the kind of scale that you'd want to have impact. But in a way that you could build a really, really large scale community and have tremendous impact on the world in a way that's incredibly satisfying for all of the members and the participants of it and valuable to them every step of the way. Things clicked when I saw those other models and it connected to this problem that I was thinking about. And it's like, "This is a way to go after all the problems, all at
once."
Sara:
It's so true and we never stop learning. And it is so cool, the target stage of career you're going after too, it's obviously leaders, but even like mid-stage career leaders, right? Where they're shifting into this position of being the mentors, but none of us should ever stop being mentored or learning or having diverse perspective.
And so, I think there's totally been a gap in that. And people would be like, "Okay, from here and out, I just need to kind of create and learn on my own I guess!" But being able to really have an authentic network and be led by so many different types of people is so important.
Ryan:
Totally. Especially now. I mean, people are lonely. Everybody's mostly working at home still. It's been a while since people have had a lot of outside influences and new ideas that come their way. So there's a deep need for that.
Sara:
Absolutely. It's so cool you and the team are working on. And that was my next question for you is - talk to me a little bit about the Round team. So you've assembled a great group around you, I would just love to hear your thoughts on why you think you are all uniquely positioned to be the ones to create this?
Ryan:
It's a phenomenal team, as of today, 12 people. But it comes down to, I think, diversity of experiences across the tech landscape. I mean, we've worked in startups and big tech and medium tech and outside of tech, and all these different ways. So we've kind of experienced what it's like to be in the shoes of our members. And we've been in the shoes of our members and we've worked alongside a number of them. So we get the issue. And I think the values alignment, I think that's what...Well, first of all, the mission alignment is extremely strong. People want to work at Round because they really believe that this should exist and the world needs it. We have a little bit of a problem that we keep hiring our members because they want to get more and more involved. And actually it's sort of an amazing recruiting lead source engine.
Sara:
I was going to say that's kind of a nice side benefit from all this!
Ryan:
Less revenue, but more people that are awesome!
Sara:
Oh, that's so great.
Ryan:
But simultaneously, we don't actually have to hire our members to have their help because our members are some of the most brilliant people at building new things in the world that exist anywhere. And they're joining Round because they want it to be great and they know it's early, but it's a thing that they want. And they're good at building new things. They're not just our customers, I mean, they're all part of the team and this thing that we're building together that we're just really co-creating with everyone in the community.
And then I guess the last thing I'd say is the values that I alluded to earlier. It's like literally the first thing that my co-founders and I did when we ... I don't even know that we were incorporated yet - we wrote out the values for the company and for the community. And we really are very intentional about that. To some extent, it might have been an overcorrection
from some of our past more toxic experiences. We're going to work in an awesome environment. And we want everyone to work in an awesome environment! And that's part of the thing of Round is that a lot of people in tech don't. A lot of people in tech work in toxic environments because of poor leadership, cultures and things like that. And that really diminishes the potential that tech can have in the world. And it makes a lot of people's lives pretty unpleasant on a day-to-day basis. We have a lot of strong values. One of them though that we couldn't come up with a good name for because it was like a combo. We just call
it like-
Sara:
A good combo word, everyone loves a good combo word.
Ryan:
The value is like "being Round" ultimately. And it's a combination of humility, curiosity, empathy, and humor is how we think about it. And we really do look for that in people. We actually do look for that in members as well. Humble...you can really be any one of those things, but the combination is particularly potent is how we think about it, where it's like
you're humble enough to always be curious and want to learn from other people. And that is what allows you to build more empathy with people other than yourself of like, "How do others see the world, not just me?" And that humility again helps you just continue to reexamine past assumptions. I just feel like those three just really work in an incredible way that makes you the kind of person that is just fun to be around and always learning and always growing.
Sara:
Yeah. And dare I say, well-rounded? Not to overuse that, and throw a terrible pun in there, but I just couldn't resist...
Ryan:
Yeah! That's kind of how we got to the name Round, which was not a straight line process, but-
Sara:
Yeah, I figured.
Ryan:
But yeah. And then humor just makes everything more fun. I think that describes everybody on our team to a "T" and it's just like such a magical opportunity to be able to work with people like that. Like no one is ever trying to prove that they're smarter than anyone. Everyone's just trying to figure out how do we-
Sara:
Gosh, that's so refreshing. Yeah.
Ryan:
It's wonderful. It's inspiring to work with a group like that.
Sara:
And I love it. It's so true. I really love the humor piece, because I think it's so important because it gives you good perspective on what's actually stressful. Like what's a cool opportunity and things to have energy towards - but it's important to also still take challenges with joy and a sense of lightness, like an attitude of "we can figure this out" and have the humility and curiosity to do it. So I really love that you added that in there too. That's super cool!
Sara:
Well, Ryan, it's awesome. And certainly if there's a leader at the helm to do this and to create this type of culture, it's you. So the next question I have for you is about the startup journey at large - and this is certainly not your first rodeo. Obviously the journey comes with lots of highs and lows and all sorts of challenges and all sorts of rewards... so, I'm curious what keeps you going, even at moments where you run up against a hardship or whatever it is - and moments where others might throw in the towel?
Ryan:
Well, a lot of things really. I mean, the people - that's probably the first answer, like just being part of the team of amazing people that support one another through, "Okay, you're having a rough day today. Let me take the load or whatever." And just being part of a culture like that.
But I think also for this, I think this is why I'm so passionate about Round. I have not really been part of a purpose-driven company before. And it's been cool to build a company and like intellectually interesting to build a product that targets a budget in an enterprise and creates - whatever the thing is - like create something new, that is cool. But that sometimes was a little hard to get up in the morning for, you know what I mean? It was like, "Yeah, well it's worth doing, and we've got this company that we need to keep going. We've come this far." But this is like, I just couldn't be more passionate about. We're trying to create a better future for everybody, And I look at my kids and sometimes I spend less time with my kids because I'm doing this, but feel like I can look at them with a straight face and say, "I'm doing it for you." For anybody that hasn't been part of a mission-driven organization that's a mission that really personally resonates with them, I would highly recommend finding a way to have that be how you spend your time.
Sara:
Yeah. Improve that go to work factor in the morning, right?
Ryan:
That's right. That's right.
Sara:
Yeah. That's poetry, Ryan. I love it. I appreciate you sharing that. My last question for you in closing, what right now do you need more of? How can anyone tuning in and listening today, how can they help or get involved?
Ryan:
We're looking for great members! So tech leaders really at any stage in their career that care about this kind of mission or want to be part of a community that is working towards it - please apply on our website or reach out to us! We're hiring in every field more or less. So come check us out.
Actually, I think one of the things that we're saying a lot to the team lately is, we're meeting all kinds of amazing people that this mission resonates with. And we always get this question of, "How can I help?" And that's actually the thing that we're working probably the most on right now is having better answers to that question.
Sara:
Yes, I was going to say - that's a great problem to have, people wanting to help! That's great.
Ryan:
So anybody that has any great ideas for how to answer that question in a productive way for you - when you say that to somebody, what could they say back to you that would be like something that you said, "Oh, that's something I can really do and be excited about doing"? So always looking for good ideas of how to better harness people that want to help and no one's quite sure how to do it.
Sara:
Hey, that is like so true in the spirit of Round, right?
Ryan:
Yeah!
Sara:
Bringing in what's the best way that we can even deliver that. So that's cool, Ryan.
Sara:
Awesome. Well, Ryan, you rock. Thank you so much for are taking the time to chat with me. So excited for this mission that your team's going after, and couldn't be more behind you and grateful to be a part of it.
Ryan:
Thanks so much!
Sara:
Like Ryan said, if you are a current or former tech leader and Round sounds interesting to you, please join as a member. You can apply right on Round's website or reach out directly to Ryan. Round is focused on thoughtfully growing the community and is also prioritizing referrals. So if there's anyone you know who would be a great fit, also feel free to send their
way.
Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.