Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175

So, great leadership is about one thing, deliver extraordinary outcomes. That typically involves one decision about where to play. Successfully executing where to play involves hundreds of great decisions on execution.

Ready to go?

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Ara, I'm so excited for this, dude. I am probably one of the biggest nerds on your business that exists, uh, which is p- probably one of the many reasons I'm single. No offense (laughs) . Uh, but it's a pleasure to meet you, my friend, and I'm so excited for this.

Very grateful for the kind words, Harry. Uh, big fan of your show. You, you interview and speak with a lot of great companies, great founders, great CEO, so very much humbled to be i- included in such esteemed crew, so thank you.

That means a lot, my friend, but I, I think we're shaped often a lot by our childhoods. And, you know, I remember when my mother told me that she had MS, it was, it was a, a very impactful moment for me, uh, in terms of who I am. When you think back to your childhood, what was the most impactful moment to you in shaping who you are, do you think, Ara?

First of all, I'm very sorry to hear about, uh, your mom and, and her struggle. I do think a lot of people are often shaped by adversity. And so for me, you know, for some context, so, uh, I'm Armenian-American, uh, but I was actually born in Iran and I was born during the Iran-Iraq war. And so, you know, to this day, my mom still shares the stories of how, you know, while she was in the delivery room with me, you know, the sirens would go off in the city as the city was about to be bombed, and so they'd have to rush her down into the bunker, into the, you know, bomb shelter, uh, at the hospital, and then when the sirens were off and everything was clear, you know, they'd bring her back up. And I was actually born, uh, in that kind of environment. And of course, like, you know, many people at the time, we, we ultimately shortly thereafter, uh, immigrated to the United States to get to chase and live the, the American dream. And like most immigrants at the time, you had, you came here with no knowledge of the language, no jobs lined up. You really couldn't take any of your personal wealth. And so, you know, I, I think about what my parents went through bringing three very young kids, uh, over to a new country, and then having to learn a new language, find a job, make ends meet, uh, put food on the table, and ultimately do everything they can to, you know, give their kids the opportunity of pursuing and living the American dream, and, like, that weighs extremely heavily on me. I, uh, that's a incredible responsibility that I'm, I'm very grateful that they went through that journey so that I could have the opportunities that I have today. And so, you know, it weighs very heavily on me to do all I can to in some way be worthy of that kind of sacrifice and, and adversity.