89: Cloudbeds CEO Adam Harris - designing systems of people

By serving as his father’s road buddy, Adam Harris got significant exposure to the value of travel from an early age. Through traveling to over 60 countries, Adam found that some of the best hotel properties were smaller and off the beaten path. Many of these hotels were ill-equipped to compete with the larger hotel chains in the area, a big reason being that there was a large technological gap between the big players and the independent hotels.    In short, the incumbents did not have much interest in sharing their proprietary software with boutique hotels and decided to use this as a competitive moat. Realizing this, Adam Harris decided to found Cloudbeds, which is a company that provides independent lodging businesses everything they need to run their business more effectively. Today, Cloudbeds powers 2.5 million beds across over 150 countries and is now considered to be one of the biggest players in the hospitality technology space.    Adam joins Scott Britton and Andrei Newman on the Built By Humans podcast as they discuss how to create highly effective teams, the importance of communication, making acquisitions, and the future of travel. Here are some key takeaways from the conversation: A strong team usually has the following 3 people: an operator, a strategist, and a visionary.  Having the most senior person on a team be the first round of the interview process is an effective way to drive alignment from the start and show the candidate that you are serious about them.  Hire people who are driven by passion and interest rather than financial incentives.  It’s okay to be wrong. Just be sure to make a strong bet on your new hypothesis rather than trying to hold onto something that you know is flawed (strong convictions, loosely held).