First, get the right people on the bus

June 6th, 2008 javier

Normally, I try to avoid reading business books. I especially avoid those promoting the secret sauce to building great companies. I figure the folks who actually do the building often tend to be too busy working, or otherwise enjoying the fruits of their labors instead of writing books. Plus, there are no shortcuts into building enduring companies, regardless of what we might see occasionally in the tech sector.

A few months ago I found myself at a bookstore and ended up buying a book called Good to Great. It’s actually a decent book, particularly because it is based on actual research.

One of the central elements of the book deals with the task of making sure you have the right team in place (”Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus”). We’ve followed that advice already and built a stellar team here at Hyperic, and this week I’m happy to announce that we’ve been lucky to add another superstar to our team. Mike Olson, former CEO of Sleepycat Software (makers of BerkleyDB, later sold to Oracle) will be working with Hyperic helping us develop the next generation of killer products. He’s still officially retired, but we were blown away by his passion for what we’re doing and have convinced him to spend time with us as we continue to build a great company. Unfortunately, I don’t have a cool picture of Mike next to the Hyperic logo like we had for Barry, but I’m sure he doesn’t mind.

Mike will also be blogging occasionally here at Hyperic, so watch this space for his musings on everything except databases (which he swears he’s done with).

Entry Filed under: HQ