Fmr SpaceX CIO Ken Venner on Elon, Gwynne, & SpaceX Playbook
About this episode
Ken Venner discusses his experiences at SpaceX and Broadcom, focusing on scaling companies and engineering practices.
"Elon Musk was really good about keeping the mission as a forefront focus for what we were doing, & just energized everyone to get it done." Now Chief Tech & Product Officer, Senra Systems Ken Venner spent 11 years at Broadcom, joining at 1,000 people and $400 million in revenue and leaving at 10,000 employees and $8.6 billion, across 52 acquisitions. Then he became CIO of SpaceX, where Elon hired him to build the digital nervous system for a 21st century rocket company. The result was Warp Drive, the custom operating system that helped scale SpaceX from about 1 booster a year and 1,000 employees to 40 boosters and 9,000 employees. He recently joined Senra Systems as Chief Technology and Product Officer, this is a sit-down on how he scales companies.. wish we had more time." Scaling up & scaling out are my core skills." We cover the Broadcom years & why process kills growth if you add it too early, the tour of the Hawthorne factory that got him to leave, working for Elon & Gwynne, why he spent two years thinking Warp Drive was a terrible idea.. & what changed in year three. Ken also breaks down Elon's playbook: first principles…
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