>> Announcer: From, Menlo Park, California,
in the heart of Silicon Valley,
it's theCUBE,
covering CloudNOW awards, 2020,
brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media.
Now, here's Sonia Tagare.
>> Hi, and welcome to theCUBE.
I'm your host, Sonia Tagare,
and we're on the ground at Facebook headquarters
in Menlo Park, California,
covering CloudNOW's
Top Women Entrepreneurs in Cloud Innovation awards.
Joining us today is Christine Heckart,
CEO of Scalyr.
Christine, welcome to theCUBE.
>> Thank you.
>> So you're receiving an award today
for being one of the top women in cloud.
How do you feel about that?
>> Oh, it's always terrible to get an award, I mean--
(laughing)
It's awesome.
I'm very honored to be here.
>> Awesome.
So give us a little brief overview of your background.
>> Oh, 30 years in tech.
Let's see, now I'm CEO of Scalyr.
So we're a log analytics company.
We scale to over 100 terabytes a day in the cloud
at ridiculously affordable prices,
and we serve some of the best tech companies in the world.
We sell into engineers and developers.
>> And so you've been CEO for over a year now.
What has that experience been like?
What challenges have you faced along the way?
>> Exhilarating experience.
If you've never been at a startup,
it's a great place to be.
It's a phenomenal team.
Challenges are all about how you grow
and how you serve customers well
on a limited set of resource
with unlimited choice sets and opportunities,
and that's hard thing to do.
>> So you've been an executive for quite a while now.
What's the best part about being a CEO?
>> The people are the best part,
both the employees, we have some incredible employees,
very energized about the mission, very dedicated,
and then, absolutely amazing customers that we serve.
We serve engineers.
We're a company by engineers for engineers.
And engineers innovate to change the world.
And our job is to help them innovate with more confidence,
so they can change the world more quickly.
And so, you're feeding into all these incredible missions
around the world, with these incredible people,
and you're helping them do their job better,
and it's just, everyday is different,
and everyday is fun.
>> So what are some of the things that have influenced you
along the way or some of the people who have influenced you?
>> Geez, I guess I'm influenced mostly by the people who
I've worked with and who have worked for me,
even more so maybe than the people I've worked for,
although they've also been fabulous.
I just think you learn from all the talent around you
and the way people think differently about problems
and how that synergy often creates just magical outcomes.
>> So as a CEO,
what kind of workplace culture are you striving to achieve?
>> We have picked just one value,
and there are other companies
that I think are doing the same.
And the value we picked is care.
So we really strive to have a culture
that encourages people to care about each other
and care about the company's mission,
care about serving customers well,
and building a very high quality product
with great experience,
but also care about the environment
and care about the community
and care about people's lives outside
of the day-to-day work job.
So we try to take a really holistic view
but on one key attribute, which is care.
>> Well, that's awesome.
I think everyone wants to go to work
and just feel like they're not bogged down by long hours
or that they're not-- >> Oh we still have long hours.
There's no doubt about that.
But it's caring long hours.
>> Right, right.
They're appreciated.
So what advice would you give to women
who are considering a career in tech?
>> I love tech.
I've been 30 years in tech.
I go out of my way to get people into the industry.
I do believe in all of its facets,
it's the greatest industry in the history of history.
I really do believe that.
It's also a hard place to work.
It's a demanding place to work.
It's still a hard place to work for women
and any, I think, kind of minority.
It's not as welcoming yet as it could be.
But relative to 10 or 20 or 30 years ago,
we've made enormous progress.
I still believe we are making enormous progress.
And there's work to go,
but it's very encouraging.
>> That's great.
So, after being in the industry for a while,
have you figured out a work-life balance?
Is there a secret?
Is it a myth?
>> I am not the person to ask about
work-life balance, for sure.
Most people would probably say I don't have it.
I don't look it as balance so much as maybe juggling.
You just prioritize what's important in the moment.
I do believe one of the great things about tech is
usually you can do your job anytime from anywhere.
You know, that has good and bad,
so I tend to do my job all times everywhere.
But you can do your job all times everywhere,
and sometimes that's from home,
and sometimes that's from other places,
anywhere around the world.
>> And I'm sure, especially as moms and stuff.
It's great to have that flexibility.
>> Right.
>> So as a CEO, what do you think makes you a great leader?
>> I think any great leader is a leader who cares
about their mission and their employees
as people
and not just as workers,
and their customers as people and their holistic careers
and their lives, not just as a source of revenue.
So that's one of the reasons why we picked that value care.
It's super important for any leader at any level.
>> What do you think leaders can do
to make it more welcoming for women in tech
to be part of this industry?
>> This is not a question about women
or anybody in particular.
What people value is being appreciated and being included
and being heard.
That's it.
Like if you can create an environment that is inclusive,
where people can be heard and can be valued
for what they contribute and their ideas,
then I think it's a great place to work.
And that's a hard thing to do.
It's easy to say.
It's very hard to do culturally.
But I really think it's that simple.
>> Thank you so much Christine for being on theCUBE.
It's always great to have you here.
>> Thank you.
Thanks for having me again.
>> I'm Sonia Tagare.
Thanks for watching theCUBE.
Stay tuned for more.
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