In IVP's Hypergrowth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies to understand the ins and outs of company building in the hypergrowth environment.
CircleCI is celebrating its nine-year anniversary today and CEO Jim Rose is on a mission to shorten the time from idea to value delivery. In this hypergrowth podcast episode, IVP's Cack Wilhelm talks with Jim about the rise of software delivery as a competitive differentiator and what it is like achieving hypergrowth and adjusting the organization. Few businesses are immune from the need for quality software development and deployment. Building quality software and shipping quickly has become a core engine of value creation in companies across all industries.
CircleCI allows teams to rapidly release code they trust by automating the build, test, and delivery process for both mobile and web apps, either in the cloud or on their own private server. Thousands of leading companies, including BuzzFeed, Coinbase, Facebook, Ford Motor Company, Lyft, PagerDuty, Samsung, Spotify, and Stitch Fix rely on CircleCI to accelerate delivery and improve quality.
IVP led the Series E for CircleCI in April 2020, with IVP's Cack Wilhelm currently serving on the company's board.
Some key takeaways from Jim:
FROM FOUNDER TO CEO THROUGH PRODUCT PIVOT The challenge when you are a seed series or series A company is typically one around product and technology. But eventually, as you grow through that phase, the challenge starts to move from building the technology to building the company.
CircleCI's founders built new and efficient products to solve software delivery needs beginning in the early 2010s. As the decade progressed, so too did the desires of consumers and companies. Thus, CircleCi's in-house engineers had to iterate to consumer's shifting wants by building and deploying products through increasingly organized and expedited software delivery. This allowed the company to innovate its own product simultaneously from the inside out - benefitting the whole ecosystem. Through CircleCI's nine years in business, they've continuously found ways to ship. As any startup grows, the realities of evolving product market fit come into play and with that leadership decisions for long-term hypergrowth.
SOFTWARE DELIVERY AS A COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTIATOR The market has definitely woken up to the competitive differentiator that software provides and being a well-oiled software delivery machine, what that creates for a company is really important.
So, in the same way that companies, if you're in retail, have really thought about store design and have thought about experience and brand, you have to apply that same rigor to how you think about building software.
Over the past decade, the world of technology has significantly iterated, especially in the way that startups must ship product and thus deliver software to their customers. With the pace and precedent set by the big tech companies in 2011 and 2012, the process of software delivery, led by companies like CircleCI, has helped keep pace with the industry and consumer demand. What's more is in the last year, the effects of the pandemic have accelerated how software delivery needs to be done given the world's newly remote nature - affecting processes in the ecosystem as a whole.
AVOID PITFALLS BY ADJUSTING THE ORGANIZATION TO ACHIEVE HYPERGROWTH When you get to this phase of growth, what you're doing is you're building the organization that hires the people, that creates the context and the tooling so that other people can do the job.
There's a window where you have an opportunity to make those changes and do so in a way that's expensive and difficult, but not incredibly expensive.
There's a moment in time when all the mundane becomes strategic . In many companies moving from seed rounds to A or B rounds, processes like hiring explode and become part of the growth and strategy versus just a natural requirement to grow. Each role - from marketing to engineering to sales - all become hiring engines with a vested interest in the company, allowing startups to grow exponentially, and sometimes inexpensively, if the employees act as brand ambassadors. The same philosophy of adjusting to the organizational need rings true for automating processes from the beginning to save time later. If done correctly in the beginning - when the world shifts significantly or quickly companies can adapt.
More from the full conversation in the transcript is below.
To hear more, listen on iTunes or SoundCloud.
TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Welcome to IVP's Hypergrowth Podcast. In this series, we talk with CEOs of the fastest-growing companies and discuss the ins-and-outs of company building in the hypergrowth environment. If you like what you hear, consider following us on SoundCloud or subscribing to our podcast on iTunes. Thanks, and enjoy the show.
Cack Wilhelm: Today my guest is Jim Rose, the CEO of CircleCI. We're catching up after the recent hundred-million-dollar series E funding round that IVP is very proud to have led, and a company where I'm also on the board of directors. CircleCI is a powerful software delivery platform that automates the complexity of building, testing, and deploying software, allowing teams to deliver value quickly and at scale. This might sound niche when software is eating the world the way that it is today. CircleCI really brings automation, consistency, speed, and reliability to the craft of software creation and their customers, illustrious names like Facebook, Ford, Spotify, Lyft and PagerDuty all have a huge competitive advantage because of this best in class continuous integration and delivery service that CircleCI provides. In this episode, we'll discuss why devops is t
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
04/03/2026
Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the governing body for Italy's premier basketball...
04/03/2026
Wrexham AFC co-chairmen Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds will host a first-of-its-kind ...
04/03/2026
The countdown is underway and with just 100 days to go until the world's greatest sporting event begins on Thurs., June 11, FOX Sports, America's Englis...
04/03/2026
No matter where they are in the world, service members and veterans can stream N...
04/03/2026
Telemundo officially releases Somos M s, the anthem for the network's cove...
04/03/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives, and execut...
04/03/2026
Smith Entertainment Group transformed how local sports are consumed by creating ...
04/03/2026
The production method, which spans a distance of 36.2 miles, was designed and im...
04/03/2026
Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and...
04/03/2026
When Hugues Meyrath came out of retirement to take the helm as CEO of Quantum, i...
04/03/2026
Last week's launch of Banana Ball Championship League has spurred a significant upgrade of production facilities
The Savannah Bananas, arguably the hottest...
04/03/2026
sldkfjsdlfkjsldkfjsldkjfslkdjfslkdjfsl
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus...
04/03/2026
For many fans, a song's backstory can be just as compelling as the final pro...
04/03/2026
In 2006, Spotify was founded on the belief that technology could bring artists a...
04/03/2026
Spotify is back on the ground for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and we&#...
04/03/2026
Spotify had an energizing week in Sydney, Australia, filled with powerful conver...
04/03/2026
Earlier this year, we launched Directed By, a documentary-style series that pull...
04/03/2026
100 Days to Go: SBS Unveils World Class Team for The Greatest Show on Earth -The...
04/03/2026
KT and Rohde & Schwarz to showcase AI-enhanced radio transmission performance In a joint 6G AI proof-of-concept demonstration, the CMX500 one-box tester from ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, 3 March 2026 - SES S.A. has today published its 2025 Annual Report, following the announcement of the company's full year financial results for ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, March 3, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, along with I...
04/03/2026
04 Mar 2026
VEON Partners with GSMA Innovation Fund to Accelerate Digital Innov...
04/03/2026
04 Mar 2026
VEON's Beeline Uzbekistan and Rakuten Symphony Partner for Open...
04/03/2026
Wednesday 4 March 2026
Sky Sports unveils plans for 2026 Formula 1 coverage
Sky Sports is preparing for one of the most highly anticipated F1 seasons in recen...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Bloodhounds' Season 2 Gears Up for April 3 Premiere with ...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Ads Suite Expands Capabilities
Business
04 March 2026
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
After launching the Netflix Ad...
04/03/2026
Scripps Research welcomes healthcare innovator Joe Kiani to the Board of Directors Kiani brings decades of experience in patient safety and public service.
Mar...
04/03/2026
Nanoparticle vaccine approach takes on a new target: Hepatitis C virus Scripps Research scientists reengineer critical proteins on the surface of HCV, paving th...
03/03/2026
Beyond Sports, a Sony group company, and LIV Golf, the world's golf league, ...
03/03/2026
Ilitch Sports + Entertainment announces the launch of Detroit SportsNet (DSN), a year-round broadcast home for two of Detroit's franchises. With flexible op...
03/03/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media ...
03/03/2026
The PGA of America, NBC Sports and USA Sports extend their media rights agreemen...
03/03/2026
AI device ecosystem company HONOR enters into a strategic technical collaboratio...
03/03/2026
Cleveland's Telos Alliance, pioneers in broadcast technology for 30 years, l...
03/03/2026
The MD 9235 microphone head for wireless handhelds has been a firm favorite with many engineers and artists for its ability to cut through high on-stage levels ...
03/03/2026
Haivision Systems Inc. (Haivision), a global provider of mission-critical, real-...
03/03/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) announces the expansion of its 62,000-square-fo...
03/03/2026
Maroon 5's musical tour in 2025 marked a leap forward in live audio as Monitor Engineer Dave Rupsch utilized Sennheiser's all-digital Spectera wireless ...
03/03/2026
Designed specifically for pro basketball, the renovated space at Gainbridge Fiel...
03/03/2026
As part of the move, former CEO Phillipp Lawo joins the broadcast-tech provider's Supervisory Board
Lawo has announced appointment of Jamie Dunn as chief e...
03/03/2026
A team of legendary announcers and analysts and a classic graphics look will bring the past to life
NBC Sports and Peacock will return to yesteryear for tonigh...
In IVP's Hypergrowth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies to understand the ins and outs of company building in the hypergrowth environment.
