NGC Experience: Hersh Tapadia
Hersh Tapadia, Allstacks Co-Founder and CEO
Hersh Tapadia likes to predict risk. More to the point, his company Allstacks helps software development teams instrument their tools so they can model out potential pitfalls. Then they provide data and guidance to recover and get back on track.
It’s not dissimilar to the work of NextGen Center. The Foundation for Effective Leadership program, in particular, helps founders, directors and other first time managers get out in front of the pitfalls that come with poor communication, unclear expectations, and a lack of alignment around culture and operating frameworks.
Tapadia was introduced to NextGen Center as a sponsee of NC IDEA, an independent private foundation committed to empowering North Carolinians to achieve their entrepreneurial potential. But he’d already had an experience with leadership development, and it hadn’t been something he was looking to repeat.
“It was during the Techstars program,” he recalled. “We had an executive coach for three months while we were in the program. I appreciated the concept of it, and I enjoyed talking to this person. But it was a bit of mismatch in the end.”
Of course, Allstacks was then a company of two people, so developing leadership skills was theoretical at that point. “It's just me and my co-founder Jeremy, and we’ve worked together for 12 years. Our challenge is not being so entrenched in our patterns that other people wonder what’s going on.”
Then Tapadia began the NextGen Center Foundation for Effective Leadership program at a very key stage in the company’s development.
“We had just started fundraising when I joined,” he said. “And we were making plans to double the size of the company and building out our team. And it was clear Brian understood how to coach people at my stage. I could tell right away from the first interaction that we are going to work effectively together.
“I felt like I was getting value because of the quality of the questions that were being asked. Brian was able to get me to explore the direction we were taking the company. We were starting to institute processes inside of the organization. And I was able to use the frameworks and practices from the class and the coaching immediately.”
Not only did the program provide tools for Tapadia to communicate with a small but growing team, it empowered him to have more effective interactions with another important segment: Investors.
“Fundraising is one endless conversation,” he shared. “Sometimes you can’t tell if you’re getting momentum. But I found that when I was able to implement the frameworks from the program in certain ways, I was able to significantly expedite my conversations. I was able to make sure I shaped the interaction with investors by starting with a goal right off the bat, asking ‘Where do we want to be at the end of this conversation?’ It was really effective.”
The CEO perspective was certainly the one that Tapadia was most tuned into. But he didn’t expect to get so much value from the other levels represented in his cohort.
“There’s a stratification of participation in the program. There are people just starting out. There are people leading teams, and there are CEOs like myself. We had a bunch of really interesting, middle to upper-middle management layers of folks. And folks who were from larger companies than mine.
“So it was really awesome to listen to them and learn about the types of things they were challenged by, and what they were working on, and realizing that it was similar to the things that might happen with my people. That provided insight into challenges my teams might face, and to plan how we will have to reconcile that -- how we will all manage up and manage down on both sides. And you don't get that insight in a strictly “peer group” situation, like groups of just CEOs.”
Since he had a less than ideal coaching experience, to begin with, Tapadia was keenly aware of the difference the second time around when he worked one-on-one with NextGen Center founder, Brian Alvo.
He felt that having an effective coach is really like finding a place solely dedicated to exploring your own thoughts. “You get to bounce them off those somebody who is exceedingly neutral,” he said, “and whose sole purpose is to prompt you to keep going down a line of thought that maybe otherwise you might not take the time to fully explore. And he gives you the time and space to do that work.”
The program is structured in a way that, if you commit to it, it is designed to be effective for a range of people. But only if you're open to it. Because you are committing to being present and being intentional. And that’s when it becomes successful.”
Having met such a variety of professionals at various levels of their career, Tapadia notes that he has held onto those relationships and values the opportunities that NextGen Center has to reconnect and network with alumni of the program.
“I had lunch with Brian and one other person from the program just last Friday,” he said. “And we were speaking on this topic because it’s challenging to orchestrate and everyone is so busy. But people who have done the program understand the level of vulnerability it creates and allows for. Which is why it’s even more important to maintain that community.
We have a lot of pretense in our daily interactions. There is a lot of small talk and a real challenge in opening up. So, when we can get this community together, it's really great to dive right in and be super transparent with everyone right off the bat.”