Doug Neumann
CO-Founder & CEO, Arpio
GET TO KNOW DOUG...
Hometown:
Houston, TX
Alma Mater:
BS, Physics – Davidson College; BS, Computer Science, Washington University in St. Louis
First Job:
I worked at a Belgian chocolate and coffee shop at the mall for about a month—until I spilled a hot cup of coffee on one of our patrons!
Q: Have you had a life experience that has been impactful to you?
A: I donated a kidney to a friend a few years ago. I saw a Facebook post about the spouse of my wife’s childhood friend, who was looking for a donor. I got tested to see if I was a match—and I was! Up until this point in my life, I had been so focused on myself, my career, and establishing my family—so I was ready to do something bigger than myself.
Q: How did you let this friend know that you were a match?
A: Well, they didn’t even know I was getting tested, so you can imagine their surprise when I sent them a note via Facebook that said, "Hey, I got this extra kidney, do you want it?". After I pressed send, I realized that my message was probably too nonchalant about such a serious topic, but we laugh about it now. Clearly, our friendship has escalated to a totally different level, and I’m so grateful I could do this for someone.
Q: What advice would you like to offer to first-time entrepreneurs that you wish you had known?
A: It's funny…if I give you guys my true insights, S3 may regret investing in Doug! With that said, I believe that entrepreneurship is a journey “of hindsight.” As an entrepreneur, you get so much advice; but you often don't know which is good or bad until you experience it for yourself. At Arpio, we’ve executed on advice that may have worked for others five or ten years ago but didn’t work for us today. In every situation, there are converging variables to consider. With that said, my real advice for first-time entrepreneurs is to plan to do this twice—because you will learn so much the first time that the next time around will be faster, smoother, and better.
Q: Who has been your biggest supporter or mentor in your business journey?
A: Hersh Tapadia, the founder of another S3 portfolio company, Allstacks. This guy is truly my “sage” and provides me with so much valuable insight and perspective because he's about two years ahead of me. Coincidentally, I was his first customer at Allstacks when I was with another company, but I didn’t know it at the time.
Q: How would you describe your leadership style?
A: Approachable. I strive to be an approachable leader. I have always struggled with the idea that I was the boss and not just another person collaborating and participating in the process of building something. I don’t want people to communicate or behave differently in front of me than they would in front of their peers.
Q: What is a non-negotiable characteristic in every employee you hire?
A: They must be focused on the success of the team, not just individual success. I tell people they have to be willing to come in every day and pick up a different shovel to dig with – not just the shovel and job description tied to their variable compensation. We want everyone that is “in it” for the bigger picture.
Q: What is your biggest professional challenge and how do you tackle it?
A: One of my overall challenges is the ongoing fear of dropping a ball, while juggling a constant stream of responsibilities. There are always competing priorities—product development, customer satisfaction, revenue recognition, variable comp, loan facilities—so it can be difficult to “go deep” into any one thing. I’m constantly learning to discern things that must be done incredibly well versus things that can be done good enough. Also, we are finally growing the team, so I can delegate more.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: Probably the speed of evolving technology and the cloud security landscape. Just when we reach a product milestone, there's another half-dozen services that we need to get under our belt to meet customer needs.
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I like to brew beer, and I like woodworking and making furniture. I've got all kinds of tools in my basement, including a 3D printer and a vinyl cutter. I love to make stuff. However, I don't like to clean up after making stuff—and that's another thing that my patient wife must deal with!
Q: What types of books do you like to read?
A: To be honest, I don't understand how startup founders have time to read! I’m more of an information snacker. I love to snack on the news I read the New York Times and do the Wordle every day; and every night, I read my Google newsfeed and Reddit.
Arpio is a fully automated disaster recovery solution for workloads that run in AWS. With a few clicks, Arpio can maximize availability by automating cross-region and cross-account failover of entire cloud applications. Arpio recovers data as well as infrastructure (network, servers, security, etc.) - everything that makes a cloud application tick. DR has never been easier.
More info: Arpio.io
“I’m constantly learning to discern things that must be done incredibly well versus things that can be done good enough. ”