Podcast

Rebooting Intercom: Eoghan McCabe on Defying Silicon Valley Orthodoxy | Co-founder & CEO

Eoghan McCabe is the CEO and cofounder at Intercom, an AI customer service platform. Intercom has raised over $240M, and was last valued at $1.3B in 2023. After spending 13 years building the company, Eoghan left Intercom in 2020, but he’s since returned, reshaping Intercom and pioneering its

Rebooting Intercom: Eoghan McCabe on Defying Silicon Valley Orthodoxy | Co-founder & CEO

Eoghan McCabe is the CEO and cofounder at Intercom, an AI customer service platform. Intercom has raised over $240M, and was last valued at $1.3B in 2023. After spending 13 years building the company, Eoghan left Intercom in 2020, but he’s since returned, reshaping Intercom and pioneering its pivot to an AI-first service. This episode highlights his unabashed takes on leaning into your intuition as a founder, and his perspectives on the critical junctures in company building.

In today’s episode, we also discuss:

  • Eoghan's reflections since leaving Intercom
  • The value of intuition and first-principles thinking
  • The changes Eoghan made upon returning to Intercom
  • How Eoghan increased Intercom's productivity by 41%
  • Tactical advice on hiring top talent
  • Why you can't make small improvements in big categories
  • Crafting a culture of ruthless honesty and transparency
  • Why software branding is in crisis

Referenced:

Where to find Eoghan:

Where to find Brett Berson:

Where to find First Round Capital:

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:15) Following your intuition as a founder

(09:34) Why Silicon Valley is wrong

(14:20) Taking a first principles approach to business

(17:46) Why Eoghan hates HR

(24:18) The essence of learning

(28:13) Looking for intuition in Intercom’s leaders

(34:46 ) How Eoghan boosted productivity by 41%

(42:02) Building a culture of ruthless honesty and transparency

(44:37) The key to happiness

(47:03) Inside the strategic changes that shaped Intercom’s fortunes

(54:22) Going all-in on customer service

(59:16) How great founders can rediscover their motivation

(63:16) The most overlooked feature when building software

(68:09) Disseminating taste across the org

(70:40) People who have inspired Eoghan

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