Success is more than headcount with Alex Plugaru, CTO at Gorgias

Alex Plugaru is co-founder and CTO at Gorgias, a platform that helps ecommerce businesses provide top-tier customer support.

In this episode, Alex talks about the challenges of building a business in an unfamiliar realm, learning from low-risk experiments, and how headcount isn’t an indicator of success.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/alex-plugaru-gorgias-success-is-more-than-headcount

Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (02:04) Origins of Gorgias (03:49) Chrome extension as MVP (06:25) Staying lean when it comes to engineering headcount (10:01) Deciding on growth during COVID (14:25) Mistakes made along the way (18:10) Alex’s role today (22:58) Skip-level meetings (24:11) Alex’s approach to discovering business opportunities

Where to find Alex • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/313373/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/humanfromearth

Where to find Rebecca • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions • Gorgias: https://www.gorgias.com/ • Scaling Agile at Spotify: https://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SpotifyScaling.pdf • Team Topologies: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Topologies-Organizing-Business-Technology/dp/1942788819

Om Podcasten

Keeping software engineers in flow and unblocked is one of the key responsibilities of software development leaders. In each episode of the Engineering Unblocked podcast, Rebecca Murphey interviews leaders who have navigated challenges of scale, complexity, and growth. You’ll hear from people with lived experience across the software development ecosystem, from CTOs and VPEs to directors and line managers to product managers, program managers, tech leads, and more.