Esri is the most amazing company you've never heard of

World of DaaS interview with Esri CEO, Jack Dangermond

So I started a podcast. Yeah, I know… I’m like seven years late to the party. Very fashionably late. The podcast is called World of DaaS and it is available everywhere (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.). Please subscribe, follow, and review.

My first guest is Jack Dangermond, CEO of Esri. Esri is the most amazing company that you’ve never heard of.

Esri does about $1.3 billion in revenue and is the biggest GIS (geographical information systems) software company. SafeGraph (where I work) partners with Esri (and Esri is also a customer of ours).

I am a huge fan of Esri and thought it would be fun to share a few amazing facts about Esri — from my interview with Jack Dangermond…

Esri was founded in 1969

Esri is one of the oldest software companies. It is older than Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and even SAP. It is 52 years old. Even crazier, it has had the same CEO (Jack Dangermond) for the entire time.

Esri is 100% owned by Jack and Laura Dangermond

Esri is a private company and the only two shareholders are the two founders — Jack and Laura Dangermond (husband and wife). They started the company 52 years ago. Unlike most software companies, there are no outside investors, no liquidity events, no going public, no stock options.

Esri does not pay sales commissions

Almost all companies incentivize their salespeople with commissions. The more they sell, the more they make. Jack feels this is not good for the customer because it might cause employees to sell things to customers that they don’t really need. So Esri pays salespeople the same way it pays all its employees — no sales commissions.

Esri pays by the hour to most employees

Most employees at most software companies get an annual salary (and sometimes a bonus). Esri pays its employees by the hour. The more hours you work, the more you make. If you need to cut back hours for a few months, you can do that. If you need to pull an all-nighter, you see the bonus in your next paycheck. In addition, Esri has a profit sharing pool that all its employees benefit from. It is super interesting!

Esri doesn’t publish the management team

There is no listing of the “executives” at Esri. (You can search the entire Internet and you will not find it). And there are non-obvious titles for the leaders -- like a “Director” at Esri is equivalent to an EVP at most companies. In addition, the company board is filled just with operators that work at Esri.

Esri is an extremely flat organization

Even though there are thousands of employees, the CEO is SUPER accessible. My anecdote is that the first time I visited the Esri campus (in 2017 when we were just starting SafeGraph) I had a good meeting with a mid-level Esri BD person. He was very excited about what we were doing and asked me if I wanted to meet “Jack.” I already revered Jack and said “of course — I’d love to one day” (thinking I’d meet him years in the future). At which point the BD person grabbed me and we walked out of the conference room and through a building and right into the office of the CEO. I found it amazing that the BD person knew he was empowered to just walk in on the CEO. That rarely happens at a 100-person company, let alone one that has over a $1 billion in revenue.

Esri franchises in other countries

Outside of U.S., Esri has set up franchises (or, more technically, joint-ventures) in other countries. Esri France is a separate company with different ownership. That has lead Esri to have all these super-smart entrepreneurs involved in the global success of their company.

Esri is a truly special company

The more you learn about the company, the more interested you will be in Esri.

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I really enjoyed talking with Jack Dangermond. He’s one of my personal heroes. He’s built a truly remarkable company that invented “GIS.” And he is still just as passionate about company building 52-years after the initial founding.

Hope you enjoy this first episode of World of DaaS — would really appreciate if you subscribe and review (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.).