President at Databricks, Andy Kofoid: Reinvention at Any Stage

Guest: Andy Kofoid, President at Databricks In this episode, we cover: Andy’s first job, his family, and his favorite baseball team: The Chicago Cubs (04:56); Transitioning among different types of roles within a company (10:11); The physical office as a representation of your company’s culture, and the difference between Chicago and San Francisco’s post-COVID tech scenes (13:07); Why Andy left Salesforce for Databricks, and how he knew he had another run in him (19:40); Becoming a better leader and accepting “A huge dose of humility” (23:41); How leaders are perceived by the people underneath them on the org chart, vs. how they perceive themselves (30:51); The interview process at Databricks and overcoming the “industry domain hurdle,” to speak AI and data fluently (40:10); How Andy creates balance in his life, and the correlation between pressure and responsibility (44:05); The most difficult, sleepless nights in Andy’s career and how he recovers when things aren’t going his way (01:02:01); What Grit means to him, and the sort of person who should apply for open roles at Databricks (01:10:54)