Building Against the Grain: Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan on $3.5B Valuations, In-Office Culture, and Why Sometimes Founders Don't Scale

When most companies embraced remote work and austerity measures, Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan doubled down on office culture and growth, building a $3.5 billion physical security platform that proves contrarian thinking can create billion-dollar outcomes.

Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan shares how building against Silicon Valley trends—from maintaining in-office culture to hiring full-time welders—helped create a $3.5 billion physical security company serving 20,000 customers worldwide.

Key Takeaways

• Verkada raised $3.5 billion in October 2023, demonstrating that contrarian approaches can achieve massive valuations even during market downturns
• The company deliberately maintained in-office culture during COVID, growing from 200 to 2,000 employees while competitors went remote
• Filip acknowledges that founder scaling challenges are inevitable: "I can be only as good as the rate at which I fix my mistakes"
• Physical security represents a massive, underserved market where software-enabled hardware can create significant competitive advantages
• The company's "first 10 people" philosophy emphasizes that early hires set the tone for entire teams and determine long-term success
• Verkada operates more like a traditional manufacturing company than a typical SaaS business, with significant go-to-market investment
• Customer feedback serves as "therapy" during difficult periods, providing clarity and motivation when internal challenges arise
• Platform shifts like AI and VR create pressure for narrative positioning, but sustainable value requires genuine product integration

Timeline Overview

• 00:00–05:33 — Office Energy and Culture Design: The intentional creation of buzzing workspace atmosphere, comparison to LinkedIn's golden era, and the magnetic quality of shared mission environments
• 05:33–09:22 — Community and Remote Work Trade-offs: Discussion of lost communities in modern life, work as identity source, and the energy derived from shared goals and casual colleague relationships
• 09:22–13:19 — In-Office Strategy During COVID: Verkada's decision to maintain physical presence while scaling from 200 to 2,000 employees, avoiding distributed team pitfalls through intentional tactics
• 13:19–22:28 — Verkada's Business Model Explanation: Physical security platform overview, $3.5B valuation timing, COVID's neutral impact on business momentum, and international expansion challenges
• 22:28–27:26 — Contrarian Thinking and Bay Area Bubbles: Discussion of Silicon Valley groupthink, examples of successful outlier companies, and the importance of context-dependent decision making
• 27:26–34:09 — Founder Advisory Networks: Selecting advisors wisely, learning from Palo Alto Networks' journey, and the courage required for first-principles thinking in startup decisions
• 34:09–40:32 — CEO Succession and Scaling: Self-awareness about founder limitations, board evaluation responsibilities, and admiration for mission-driven leadership transitions at successful companies
• 40:32–45:44 — Engineering Background vs CEO Role: Balancing technical tinkering with people management, structuring time for deep work, and finding energy through challenging problem-solving
• 45:44–50:57 — Time Management and Leadership Style: Avoiding large meetings, blocking flexible calendar time, evening flow state work sessions, and the importance of uninterrupted focus periods
• 50:57–57:21 — Founder Scaling Failures: Major mistakes around employee communication, handling misconduct incidents, and the compounding effects of poor leadership decisions at scale
• 57:21–61:19 — Hiring Philosophy and Capital Allocation: The "first 10 people" principle, transitioning from doing everything personally to strategic delegation, and sequencing executive hires effectively
• 61:19–67:18 — Operational Excellence and Growth: Hiring unexpected roles like welders and interior designers, geographic expansion strategy, and maintaining company culture across 17 global offices
• 67:18–END — Technology Trends and Vision: Apple Vision Pro analysis, AI integration philosophy, platform shift pressures, and learning from Mark Zuckerberg's persistence in hardware competition

The Power of Intentional Office Culture

Filip Kaliszan designed Verkada's office environment to create a specific feeling—an electric buzz that visitors immediately notice. This wasn't accidental; it emerged from early startup necessity when limited funding forced everyone into close proximity, but the team discovered they loved the energy and deliberately preserved it through rapid growth.

The office serves as more than workspace; it functions as community anchor in an era when traditional social structures are weakening. As Filip observes, people are becoming "less religious, less neighborhoody," making workplace community increasingly vital for personal fulfillment and professional energy.

The intentional design extends beyond open floors to include commercial kitchens, full-time hairdressers during COVID, and even welders on staff. These seemingly extravagant investments reflect a philosophy that concentrates spending on meaningful employee experiences rather than spreading resources thin across multiple mediocre initiatives.

• Visitors consistently describe feeling "electricity" and "buzzing energy" when touring Verkada's offices
• The company maintained in-office culture while growing from 200 to 2,000 employees during COVID
• Physical proximity enables casual conversations that fuel creativity and strengthen collaborative relationships
• Workplace community fills gaps left by declining traditional social institutions and family structures

This approach directly contradicts Silicon Valley's remote work trend, but Filip argues that colocation creates irreplaceable collaborative advantages. The strategy requires significant real estate investment but generates recruitment advantages and cultural cohesion that remote competitors struggle to replicate.

Building Against Silicon Valley Orthodoxy

While most tech companies embraced remote work and cost-cutting during COVID, Verkada consciously chose the opposite path. The company was growing rapidly—doubling annually from 200 to 800 to 2,000 employees—and leadership recognized that onboarding new hires remotely would be "tremendously difficult" at that scale.

The decision reflected deeper concerns about accidentally building a distributed team. Filip questioned why they would "suddenly want to have people all over the world" when they had previously prioritized San Mateo colocation. This first-principles thinking led to tactics specifically designed to prevent workforce distribution.

The contrarian approach extended to spending philosophy during broader industry austerity. While competitors cut perks and embraced "lean" operations, Verkada invested in employee experiences—from commercial kitchens to full-time support staff. The strategy reflects cash efficiency principles: concentrate spending on fewer, higher-impact initiatives rather than spreading resources across many mediocre offerings.

• COVID provided natural experiment opportunity to test distributed versus collocated team effectiveness
• Rapid hiring pace (600+ new employees annually) made remote onboarding particularly challenging
• The company implemented specific tactics to prevent accidental workforce distribution
• Spending concentration on meaningful experiences proved more effective than broad-based cost cutting

Filip acknowledges this approach carries valuation costs—investors prefer trendy narratives around remote work and AI integration. However, the October 2023 $3.5 billion valuation suggests that authentic value creation ultimately matters more than narrative positioning.

The Physics of Founder Scaling

Filip candidly discusses moments when his personal growth couldn't match company expansion pace. Around 200 employees, he made critical mistakes handling misconduct incidents and employee communication that created lasting organizational damage requiring months to repair.

The experience taught him that founders face inevitable scaling challenges: "I can be only as good as the rate at which I fix my mistakes." This honest assessment extends to considering potential CEO succession if business growth outpaces personal capabilities—a level of self-awareness that separates exceptional leaders from those who become organizational bottlenecks.

The scaling challenge involves transitioning from doing everything personally to strategic delegation through capital allocation. Early-stage founders obsess over every detail because "everything has to be right," leading to the natural conclusion that doing it yourself ensures quality. Breaking this pattern requires hiring people who've navigated similar scale before while avoiding those too far ahead.

• Company growth from 200 to 2,000 employees revealed specific leadership blind spots and communication failures
• Poor decision-making around employee misconduct created months of organizational uncertainty and damaged trust
• Founder scaling requires continuous self-assessment and willingness to consider succession when necessary
• The "first 10 people" principle applies to every team hire—early employees set cultural tone for entire organizations

Filip's approach to executive hiring involves promoting high-potential internal candidates while strategically adding external expertise. The key balance involves finding leaders experienced enough to navigate upcoming challenges without being so senior they can't execute hands-on work.

Physical Security's Software Transformation

Verkada targets the massive physical security market through a cloud-based software platform that integrates cameras, access control, air quality monitoring, and visitor management. The approach transforms traditionally fragmented security systems into unified management experiences.

The business model differs significantly from typical SaaS companies, with roughly 50% of employees in go-to-market roles versus the more common 20-30% distribution. This reflects the consultative selling required for enterprise security deployments and the relationship-intensive nature of physical security purchasing decisions.

Despite creating physical products, Filip emphasizes that "all the hard parts of invention are on the software side." The hardware serves as a "delivery vehicle" for software experiences rather than cutting-edge engineering like Apple's Vision Pro. This approach enables smaller hardware teams while concentrating innovation resources on software differentiation.

• The platform unifies traditionally fragmented security systems into single management interfaces
• Cloud-based architecture enables remote monitoring and management capabilities unavailable with legacy systems
• Customer base includes airports, hospitals, industrial facilities, and other high-security environments
• Hardware design focuses on smart component selection and packaging rather than fundamental technology invention

The COVID period provided natural market segmentation, with retail and office customers slowing while medical and industrial segments accelerated. This diversification demonstrates the platform's applicability across multiple verticals and economic conditions.

Managing Information Flow and Decision Making

As CEO, Filip deliberately structures his role around receiving the "hardest problems that naturally bubble up" from throughout the organization. This creates variety that energizes him—no two weeks feel identical because challenging issues span technical, operational, and strategic domains.

He maintains strict meeting discipline, avoiding gatherings with more than five people unless they're presentations or all-hands sessions. Small groups generate more direct participation and honest feedback, while large meetings often produce performative behavior and reduced genuine engagement.

Time management includes blocking flexible calendar hours every afternoon for "roaming"—informal conversations with random employees, project check-ins, and spontaneous deep dives. This unstructured time enables information gathering that formal meetings often miss while maintaining connection to operational realities.

• The CEO role naturally attracts complex problems that multiple people have unsuccessfully attempted to solve
• Small meeting sizes (under five people) encourage direct communication and reduce hierarchical performance dynamics
• Flexible afternoon time blocks enable informal information gathering and spontaneous problem-solving opportunities
• Evening work sessions (9:30 PM to midnight or later) provide uninterrupted flow state for technical deep dives

Filip's evening routine includes technical rabbit holes—recently spending hours researching water vapor transmissivity of materials for camera fogging solutions. These sessions combine personal enjoyment with practical problem-solving, often generating valuable insights for team discussions.

Customer Therapy and Validation

When internal challenges create stress, Filip relies on "customer therapy"—direct conversations with Verkada's 20,000+ customers who consistently express gratitude for security improvements and operational efficiency gains. These interactions provide clarity and motivation when fundraising or internal issues create uncertainty.

Customer feedback serves as a "North Star" that cuts through organizational noise and validates core value proposition. Unlike internal metrics that can be gamed or misinterpreted, customer satisfaction reflects genuine market reception and product-market fit strength.

The validation becomes particularly important during difficult periods when multiple organizational challenges compound. Customer enthusiasm provides emotional energy to navigate internal storms while maintaining confidence in long-term business trajectory.

• Direct customer conversations provide immediate validation of value proposition and market reception
• Customer gratitude for security improvements and efficiency gains offers emotional fuel during challenging periods
• External validation helps distinguish between temporary internal issues and fundamental business problems
• Regular customer interaction maintains connection to market reality and user experience quality

This approach requires dedicated time allocation despite competing CEO responsibilities, but Filip prioritizes customer conversation as both strategic intelligence gathering and personal energy management.

Platform Shifts and Narrative Pressure

Silicon Valley's enthusiasm for platform shifts—currently AI and VR—creates pressure for companies to articulate their positioning within emerging paradigms. Filip acknowledges this dynamic while maintaining focus on genuine long-term value creation rather than narrative positioning.

The company avoids adding trendy keywords to descriptions without substantive product integration. While this approach may cost valuation multiples in the short term, it prevents overcommitting to technologies that might not generate sustained competitive advantages.

Verkada's exposure to first-wave AI through computer vision and autonomous vehicle technologies provided natural Tailwinds that genuinely improved product capabilities. The current generative AI wave offers similar potential for scene understanding and data analysis, but integration requires thoughtful evaluation rather than reactive implementation.

• Platform shift enthusiasm creates pressure for immediate narrative positioning regardless of actual product integration
• Keyword attachment without substantive value creation can temporarily boost valuations but creates long-term execution risks
• Previous AI waves (computer vision, autonomous vehicles) provided genuine product improvement opportunities for physical security applications
• Current generative AI capabilities offer potential advantages in scene understanding and automated data analysis

Filip's measured approach reflects confidence in core business fundamentals rather than dependence on external validation through trendy positioning. The October 2023 valuation suggests that authentic value creation ultimately generates superior returns compared to narrative-driven approaches.

Common Questions

Q: What makes Verkada different from traditional security companies?
A: Verkada provides a unified cloud-based platform for all physical security needs, replacing fragmented legacy systems with modern software-enabled hardware and centralized management.

Q: Why did Verkada maintain in-office culture during COVID?
A: Rapid growth from 200 to 2,000 employees made remote onboarding extremely difficult, and the company wanted to preserve the collaborative energy that drove early success.

Q: How does Filip balance technical interests with CEO responsibilities?
A: He structures time for both roles, spending evenings on technical deep dives while dedicating daytime to leadership challenges that bubble up from the organization.

Q: What was Filip's biggest scaling mistake as CEO?
A: Poor handling of employee misconduct around 200 employees, combined with inadequate communication, created months of organizational uncertainty and required extensive trust rebuilding.

Q: How does Verkada approach hiring across 17 global offices?
A: The company breaks down large hiring goals into manageable targets per office and manager, while giving local leaders ownership that creates "co-founder" energy in remote locations.

Conclusion

Filip Kaliszan's leadership at Verkada demonstrates how contrarian thinking—from office culture to spending priorities—can create substantial value when grounded in genuine business fundamentals. His honest assessment of founder scaling challenges and commitment to learning from mistakes illustrates the self-awareness required for sustainable leadership at billion-dollar scale. The company's success suggests that authentic value creation ultimately matters more than following Silicon Valley trends or optimizing for narrative positioning.

The future of physical security lies in software-enabled platforms that unify traditionally fragmented systems, and Verkada's growth trajectory indicates strong market demand for modern approaches to building and facility management.