Johan Moonen Team Interview (PART 1): Meet iExec’s New COO
ℹ️*PART 2 OF THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN PUBLISHED. WE TALK FURTHER ABOUT THE POTENTIAL OF THE IEXEC MARKETPLACE, READ PART 2 HERE.
Johan Moonen is a busy man. Besides having the best last name in crypto (one which wasn’t the determining factor of why he was hired, but it didn’t hurt), he’s busy building out with the team the new comprehensive strategy for iExec. We sat down with the new COO to hear his vision for iExec.
Q: Congrats again, Johan, on being named COO.
A: Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Q: Let’s get right into it. Our community is excited about your prior experience (at Amazon & Groupon). How are you using this in your new role?
A: I’m drawing upon my retail experience to get our marketplace off the ground. I’ve spent the last few months taking a diagnostic of the company: what’s going on, what are the gaps, what do we need for iExec to take off even better, and how do we bring iExec’s technology faster to commercialization. We’ve made this great discovery, and our next adventure is turning it into an operational reality. We have a fabulous tech stack, that is incredibly powerful, and deserves to be commercialized. We’ve started bringing out products, built on top of the tech stack (like the iExec Oracle Factory), but we haven’t started commercializing yet.
Q: We’ve heard you mention “commercialization” a few times in internal meetings. What are some common questions we’re trying to answer around commercialization?
A: **Laughter** I mean, there are a lot of questions.
We have this really cool marketplace. It started off as a decentralized cloud. Then we found that we could build out a decentralized marketplace. Now, we’re looking at taking it further and building a Web3 marketplace. But that means looking at what we actually offer. Whom are we offering that to? How do we offer that? How do we make it easy to consume and easy to digest for our users? Acquiring people who consume is costly, so we need to drive loyalty. How do we do that? Why would anyone come to our marketplace vs another one?
Q: Those are extremely loaded questions.
A: :Laughter:: It’s a good problem to have.
Q: From your diagnostic, what does iExec need to do to successfully commercialize its marketplace?
A: We need to be cognizant of how we structure ourselves. I’ve been focused on three areas: strengthening our base, professionalizing how we work, and running our business in an even more regular, and even more predictable way — this is key to accelerating iExec. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s a progressive effort.
Q: Can you share any more information about how you see us strengthening our base?
A: Of course. To me, it starts with “cleaning up our backyard.” This means looking at iExec’s corporate projects and figuring out the best way to deliver our two business units, the Marketplace, and the enterprise division. Hiring is a big part: what is the right number of people to work on these projects, and how can we hire the right people… basically, how can we raise the bar, which is an Amazon cornerstone. iExec is a startup known for engineering and innovation, which is wonderful, and as the team is growing, I like us to keep prioritizing resources for optimal commercial impact. How do we develop products so that products roll off the production line? It’s about getting the product over the line, about anticipating dependencies. I’m looking at how our teams work together to reduce the time to market.
Q: That sounds like a big lift.
A: It is. As the team grows rapidly, we are mapping out the new corporate roadmap and identifying the gaps. We have a deadline towards the end of the year to lay down our roadmaps for the next 3–4 years, on the commercial, product, and tech sides.
Q: What about professionalizing how iExec works and how we can be more predictable?
A: The second initiative is “steering the boat.” This revolves around operational projects like adoption and business development. We’re doing biz dev projects like H7 (with the Web3 Program we are running together). These need to be as structured as possible so we get maximum output with minimal resources. I’d like to be able to look ahead to the next quarter/year and anticipate our strategy with more clarity than ever before. Currently, we have 30–40 people working at iExec. With an ambitious target of growing towards a 300–400 person organisation, we need to get the right infrastructure in place.
And finally, operate with a cadence. I’d like to better understand how we drive the company from an operational perspective. Let’s identify the metrics and data, to allow the team to start thinking differently about business. It’s not about cost nor our spend at the moment. I’m more interested in input metrics, not output metrics. Input metrics are what we have control over and what we can do to drive the business forward. This is a way of operating which again draws on my experience at Amazon.
Q: We know adoption is a huge discussion point in the community, so we are glad you brought that up. How important is adoption in your vision?
A: When we talk about adoption, I want to make sure we get the semantics right. Adoption is an output metric, like turnover and margin. To me, adoption means RLC being exchanged. It’s the number of RLC changing hands because there’s a need for our marketplace. This is top priority, the exchange of RLC. If we want to get to a point where RLC exchange happens, we need to understand requesters. These are the consumers of the services in the marketplace. This is commercialization.
That’s the end of Part I. We hope you’ve enjoyed this interview. Stay tuned for Part II of this interview in the coming weeks, in which Johan discusses the RLC marketplace, his definition of it, and his approach to building it out.
Thanks for reading!
ℹ️READ PART 2 HERE:
Johan discusses the Decentralized Marketplace further and identifies some of the questions he’s keeping in mind as he builds iExec out:
