The Kickstart Podcast · 2026-03-26 · 1h 9m
Ben Dilts , Karl Sun , and Dave Grow are the founding team behind Lucid Software , one of the most successful SaaS companies to emerge from Utah. From a scrappy student-built prototype to a global platform with tens of millions of users, Lucid redefined how teams collaborate visually in the cloud. Ben built the first version of Lucidchart while still at BYU. Karl, an early Google product leader, saw the future of collaborative software and joined as an early advisor and executive. Dave left Bain for what was supposed to be a six-month stint that turned into a decade-plus journey leading the company as CEO. In this episode, they break down the Lucid journey from early product insight to scaling a generational company and shaping the Utah tech ecosystem. - 00:00 The broken tools that sparked Lucid. 05:20 Building the prototype on nights and weekends. 10:30 Thousands of users in weeks. 22:10 The round that got away. 28:00 Betting the firm on Lucid’s Series A. 34:30 The $100M decision that almost didn’t happen. 42:00 Hiring only “great,” never “good enough.” 58:30 Core values that scaled to 1,000+ employees. 01:06:20 Staying in the weeds as a CEO.
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