This episode features a conversation with Thoma Bravo Managing Partner Holden Spaht and Coupa CEO Leagh Turner.
AIR DATE:
March 6, 2025
LENGTH:
16:33
DISCLAIMER:
This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an advertisement. Views expressed are those of the individuals and not necessarily the views of Thoma Bravo or its affiliates. Thoma Bravo funds generally hold interest in the companies discussed. This podcast should not be construed as an offer to solicit the purchase of any interest of any Thoma Bravo fund.
Transcript
[MUSIC OUT]
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Hi, I'm Holden Spaht, Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo, and this is Beyond the Deal, our bonus episode of Thoma Bravo's Behind the Deal. And I'm here with Coupa CEO, Leagh Turner.
[MUSIC IN]
Leagh, maybe start by just giving us a quick description of Coupa for listeners who may not have heard last week's Behind the Deal episode yet.
LEAGH TURNER:
Yeah, sure. I’m super happy to. Coupa is an enterprise software company. We have about 3,500 customers globally.
[MUSIC OUT]
And we are building the network that builds the future of global trade. We're transforming the way that buyers and suppliers come together and connect and transact. We're increasing the autonomousness of that process. And as a result, taking out cost and latency, increasing fairness and safety, and freeing up people to do higher-order work. We're basically changing the world over here, Holden. That's what we're doing.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
I love that. I love that. Well, maybe transitioning. Let's talk a little bit more about you.
LEAGH TURNER:
Okay.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
I've heard you describe your long career and technology as the Forrest Gump of careers.
LEAGH TURNER:
It is.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Which is very descriptive. And as a Southerner, I can really appreciate that metaphor analogy. You've worked at Xerox, Oracle, SAP, and Dayforce. Can you talk about how you know, what you, I mean, at a high level, kind of transitioning from one environment to the other, main things that you've learned, any important lessons? And what that has kind of brought you to today, and how that evolution has worked for you?
LEAGH TURNER:
Yeah, maybe I'll just say, I was thinking about this before we got on. Basically, all of my jobs have been exactly the same. And you get better at them over time, a little. My job every single day is to show up and try and make business better. Meaning our business at Coupa and our customers' business. That's what I do, and that's what the team does, and that's what I've always done.
And, you know, the way that you do that is these are like old lessons, right? I can't tell you the number of times that my father said to me, “You know, you've got two ears and one mouth, Leagh, use them in that ratio.” So that's the that's the job, right? To listen a lot all the time and not just respond, but challenge.
And the only way that you can challenge is to like learn. Spend all your time trying to be a student of how to make a better business for the people that you serve, whether that's your customers or your people. If you're learning all the time and you're listening all the time, you'll generally show up with some help. And that's pretty much what I've done since I sold photocopiers and fax machines.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Well, from my observation, that is interesting because that's how I would describe you. That comes across. And so I'm going to ask my next question anyway, which you kind of talked about already, but it's to describe your leadership style and maybe the importance of mentorship. And did you have anybody that you emulated that you particularly thought this was exceptional, or is it just you being you?
LEAGH TURNER:
When you get asked that question, your inclination is to try and think about like one person. Was there ever any one person? The answer is no, there's thousands of people. Are you kidding, Holden? Like every board meeting, I sit there and I'm watching you folks and learning and thinking about what you said and how you used a phrase or why it is you're pushing on something. So there's mentorship every day all around you. And if you're a big sponge, you can just soak it in. And over time, you get to be like the amalgam of the lessons that you've learned. And I try to do that. It relates to leadership style.
You've heard me talk about this lots of times. I love being part of a team that's like really high humility, really low ego, high curiosity, super high curiosity, really high grit. And like this unbelievable will to win. And I don't mean win at all cost, you know, people pushed aside. I mean, everybody gets to win. You want to win together. And if you can get a team to operate that way and you can be part of it, it's like the most magical thing. You get to do it. It's a privilege, and it doesn't feel like work, and you get to show up and be part of it every single day, so that's what we're trying to create.
I mean, you know this, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell a story to the team that makes it feel really big and bigger maybe than the amalgam of everybody's thoughts so that it feels aspirational. I try and create a forum where everybody can share their ideas and no ideas are bad, all ideas are good. It's my job to try and help pluck the best and knit them together and then show them off to people so that they say, “Yeah, those are my ideas. I see myself in that."
And that's really important. And I try really hard to stop often, not often enough. I think that's almost every day and say thank you to people for the effort that they give. I believe that if you can get people to give you all they've got, it'll generally all work out. And many of this has been what I would call a pretty significant culture shift at Coupa.
Neither good nor bad, just different. This was a company with really strong leaders, very strong product vision, who had worked together for a really long time and there were a lot of people in this company who followed their direction. I almost have the inverse belief, which is if you can get 3,000 people that all want to offer their thinking, you're the beneficiary of 3,000 ideas and the intersection of those ideas, and if you can harvest the best ones, well, you're gonna light the world on fire. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get all 3,000 people really activated and thinking and talking and feeling like this is they have real agency.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
You know, speaking of company culture, I mean, you, I think, said yourself that you thought the pandemic was an accelerant for diversity. But at a minimum, I mean, and I agree that it certainly accelerated conversations around that. There's obviously—was a lot of conversation around work-life balance and remote work and all kinds of things, right? And I'm just wondering, and it's been a debate, our companies all view it a little differently, but I don't know if the company relationship with the employees has changed at all. But how do you view that? What do you look for in your employees? And has that relationship changed as a result of, you know, the last four or five years?
LEAGH TURNER:
That's a very interesting question. Let me start with a couple of things. First of all, if you ask my children or anybody that I work with, they would tell you that I'm not sure I really believe in this concept of what would be traditionally called work-life balance. I think that if you can get your life integrated with your work such that it all feels like it generally works together, then that's a major win. And like work is part of life. It's not a separate thing that you kind of house off. It's like, if you love your job and you love the people you work with, you get to wake up every day and do it. And it's part of the joy that you find. How do you get everything else working in and around that?
With respect to the pandemic, here's the big thing that I think we learned. Like on Friday night, you know, we all went home, we woke up on Monday morning, and nobody went to an office. And we all had to figure out how to make that work. And in the early days of the pandemic, I think people wondered, would people work? And the answer is they all did. Like everybody gave it their all, and I think that the balance of trust, like the way that we used to trust our people, was by watching them come in to work and work. And then all of a sudden they didn't come in to work and they could be trusted to give it everything. And so I think that that's the thing that we can't forget.
And that's the way that we run things at Coupa. It's like, I trust you. I trust you to do what you feel is right. I trust you to create a life that integrates your work. I trust you that if I'm going to pay you, you're going to show up and give it everything that you have. I trust that if I give you all the information about how to operate, you'll use your creativity and ingenuity. And if you want to work at two o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the afternoon, I'm not going to be the governor of that. I trust you.
And so that trust, I think, unlocks people in a way that is beneficial. I think that it means lots of different people can come to work. I think that it means that people who had been selected out of the workforce can now find a way to work. I think it means that organizations need to be more flexible, and I think that that's really important. I think we owe it to people to treat them like people.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Amazing. By the way, the first part of your answer, I have to just say thank you for those comments because that is how I view it as well. I mean, I actually love my job. I have for many—always. And I've integrated into my lifestyle and my kids, I think, and my wife, you know, they get as much of me as they probably want or need.
LEAGH TURNER:
That's right.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
So, I love those comments. You know, AI. Next quick topic, you've talked a lot about it at Coupa as it relates to data and the importance of the data layer over time relative to the application or the workflow even just how and Coupa’s got this community that people have bought into that they contribute their data and they get more out of it and you keep it anonymized and secure. So, there's a very clear AI play for Coupa that's super interesting, which you highlighted right from the beginning. But are there any things you
you worry about? And maybe it's a broader question than just Coupa, but around, you know, AI and its future and what it means for all of us?
LEAGH TURNER:
Yeah, yeah. So I'll say, I think, two things. The first thing I'm going to say is, you know this, I live in Toronto, and the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, ran effectively, the founding principles of AI out of the University of Toronto and then went on to win a Nobel Prize. And he has spent a lot of time recently talking about something that I think we all care about, which is security and regulation around AI to be able to protect us all as we increasingly train computers to do work that can be done by human beings. And that we need to be judicious about that, and that the focus on continuing to grow AI without equal focus around security and regulation is concerning, and those two things need to work in balance.
I think that's really important for, like, your life, my life, our kids' lives, etc. At Coupa, we have a really unique situation, which is, we use AI models that are ethically sourced, that are privately held, that are secure, that are customer permissioned, and that are completely insulated from all public data. And anything that we surface to that community of buyers and sellers is the amalgam of their knowledge based on the transactions that happen in our technology, period. So it is a very safe, regulated, secure place to be able to leverage AI for the benefit of, let's call it, autonomousness and efficiency.
And the minute we fall down there, we cease to exist. We recognize that, like, it is absolutely imperative that we are the custodians of our customers' data and that we do that safely and securely.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Amazing. Last question for me is, how about something you wish you'd known at the beginning of your career?
LEAGH TURNER:
Wow. I'm going to ask you this question, too. So you have to get your answer ready. Because probably everybody's hanging on that one from you. I'll give you my answer. I wish I knew everything that I knew now. I wish I was like Benjamin Button and I could live my life in reverse because I would do a few things—I'd calm down. I'd try and enjoy the journey a little bit more. I'd know that it all works out. And I don't know, then. That's all.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Well, it did work out.
LEAGH TURNER:
It does work out. It does. Yeah.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
I mean, that is the punchline. I mean, think for me. If you're finished, don’t want to interrupt you.
LEAGH TURNER:
I could go on on this one for a long time, but I'm gonna let you answer.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Well, I think for me, as I reflected on this one, for me, it's the value of people, you know? And I've always been a people person. So that's not like new, but I think early in my career and probably true of a lot of people, you know, you're focused very much on the brand, right? Where am I going to go next? What's the best, you know, bank or company or whatever, you know, you're focused on that. But ultimately, if you work with the right people, a lot of good things happen, right? And those people have to be smart, and they have to be all those things, but if, ultimately, they become your references later in your career.
And if it doesn't work, if you're not working for very good people, even if the company is amazing, I think that's detrimental, especially at a young age when you're in your formative years and you're coming. And I remember coming here, finally decided after some bigger names at the time, Morgan Stanley and Thomas Lee and all these to kind of cash in my Pedigree and try something a little more entrepreneurial. And I joined Orlando Bravo at the time, Thoma Cressey equity partners, it was tiny. He was cashing in his sort of Pedigree as well. But it was just, it was the right call on the right person, you know, at the right time. And then, you know, even though our aspirations were not to, to be, you know, the kind of firm that we are today, but it just was a good call on a person. And I think that's just something that really—people should reflect on and investigate more early in their careers.
[MUSIC IN]
LEAGH TURNER:
Yeah, it's a great call out, and if you wake up every day caring about the people around you and doing right by them and a little less care about your own self, it generally all works out.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
There you go. Thank you so much.
LEAGH TURNER:
Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure spending time with you. Thank you for making time for me.
HOLDEN SPAHT:
Fun catching up. You got it.
[MUSIC OUT]
DISCLAIMER:
Certain statements about Thoma Bravo made by portfolio company executives are intended to illustrate Thoma Bravo's business relationship with such persons rather than Thoma Bravo's capabilities or expertise with respect to investment advisory services. Portfolio company executives were not compensated in connection with their podcast participation, although they generally receive compensation and investment opportunities in connection with their portfolio company roles and in certain cases are also owners of portfolio companies, securities and or investors in Thoma Bravo Funds. Such compensation and investments subject podcast participants to potential conflicts of interest.
