Nuno is the Co-founder and CEO of YLD Group. Previously he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Nodejitsu, where he was responsible for the world’s largest Node.js cloud, providing extensive contributions to the success of Node.js. Nuno’s formative work years were spent in the USA at IBM Research and MarkLogic. He is also a proud Stanford alumni.
Biography
Nuno is the Co-founder and CEO of YLD Group. Previously he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Nodejitsu, where he was responsible for the world’s largest Node.js cloud, providing extensive contributions to the success of Node.js. Nuno’s formative work years were spent in the USA at IBM Research and MarkLogic. He is also a proud Stanford alumni.
Q&A
What defines a successful leader?
For me, success is the growth of my team and my company. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the people I work with every day be challenged and grow, consistently. As an organisation, the faster you can learn the more successful you become. I try to provide my teams with autonomy, challenges, and the circumstances and stability they need to do their work. It’s in YLD’s DNA to push when we see potential, and it’s our way to operate, create and innovate by doing things differently. As long as we’re pushing ourselves and really being ambitious and bold, I consider every leader a successful one. In the end, we have to optimise for flow in the workplace.
Culture and talent are important to any company’s success. How do you engage and inspire your workforce?
Culture is just our everyday behaviour; what we find good, bad, acceptable or unacceptable. It reflects our world view in a way that is aligned with the company mission. It’s where we meet what the company needs. The stronger the culture, the less you need management. This translates into higher autonomy for our teams in terms of alignment, which is amazing. The most important thing is that everyone understands what winning together is.
Innovation and disruption are reshaping industries every day. What do you see as the number one game-changer facing businesses today?
The fundamentals are the same, so businesses that do the basics well will outperform those that don’t. In terms of leadership, I think having truly ambidextrous leaders is important, as cycles of exploring revenues are now smaller than ever. That said, you can only react as fast as you’re presented with data so business insights are incredibly important these days. On the innovation side, it’s important to be competitive, and to optimise for the outlook that you think will be true in 10 years, whatever that means in your business. For some, that means machine learning or other exciting technological advances, for others not so much. I hope the trend of green tech continues and grows, as I think that’s one of the biggest challenges we face.
Challenges abound in today’s fast-changing business environment. What keeps you up at night?
Only two things keep me up at night; my kids, or my personal struggles. Business is an outcome of happiness for me. Yes, sometimes stress creeps in, but it’s very rare – less than twice a year or so.
Why did you join Bloomberg Breakaway?
Bloomberg has been key to my previous businesses and I feel deep gratitude to them for that. Being in their CEO group is an absolute pleasure.
Even CEOs need downtime. How do you recharge?
I do sports, pilates, meditation… My partner and I go on frequent date nights and I love spending time with my kids. I try to take weekends out just with my partner whenever possible, and we always have a big family get together. Having a good work-life balance and routine is critical for me. I’m quite disciplined when it comes to my calendar.
About Bloomberg Breakaway
Membership in Bloomberg Breakaway combines exclusive, one-of-a-kind peer networking with insight from industry experts, innovators and global leaders.
Download the membership brochure