From Dev Favorite to Enterprise Icon: Rowan Trollope’s Playbook for Redis

When Rowan Trollope took over as Redis CEO in February 2023, the hype around Generative AI was at a fever pitch. In the few months since the launch of ChatGPT, the technology had progressed at a startling clip, and its eventual impact on modern society was already being compared to the Internet.

Naturally, there was intense pressure on IT providers to move quickly to take an early lead in the still nascent industry. And with AI accelerating an already intense demand for real-time information, Redis, the world’s fastest data platform, appeared to be a natural winner. But as seemingly every vendor rushed out with new “AI-driven” capabilities, Rowan took his time. He spent the first six months on the job studying the company, getting actual hands-on experience with the product, and analyzing the broader opportunity for Redis in a market that was constantly shifting amid AI’s rapid progression. This slow, but deliberate approach let the company craft a more precise AI product roadmap, and also became      a hallmark of his leadership style at Redis.

“I have to get everything into my brain, from how the technology itself works, all the way up to our go-to-market motion. That takes a while,” he said in a recent interview. “At a time when people would have liked me to be making decisions, I needed to ingest information. It’s like the machine learning model is my brain. After enough training, it can go into inferencing mode and execute.”

Despite the self-described unhurried start, Rowan’s made remarkable progress in just nearly two years. He staffed out the executive team, bringing in leaders like Chief Technology Officer Benjamin Renaud, Chief Revenue Officer Spencer Tuttle, and Chief Marketing Officer Keith Messick who would be critical to Redis’ next phase of growth. The company transitioned to a new open-source license, a decision vital to its ability to compete against the cloud hyperscalers, but one that drew backlash from some in the community. Meanwhile, Redis continues to expand its product suite, with enhanced features designed to help enterprises more quickly and cost-effectively deploy new AI use cases, as well as more efficiently manage their data.

“There are lots of private companies that are hoping to break through. There are very few that do, especially on the infrastructure side. Redis has established such a strong brand, it’s clear we’re poised for a podium spot,” Rowan said.

With over 30 years of experience in technology–spanning consumer products, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and corporate collaboration software–Rowan shared with us more about his leadership style and how it’s helping propel Redis to enterprise IT stardom.

An A-Team for Act Two

By the time Rowan took over as CEO, Redis was already known as a beloved open-source tool. In fact, a developer himself, it was using the database that actually convinced Rowan to take the role. Now, he’s looking to elevate Redis from cult status to one of the few elite enterprise IT vendors, a delicate evolution that means convincing customers, many that were using the product for free, to pay for more enhanced capabilities.

“Before I got hired, I went and used Redis. And that was an eye-opener for me. I immediately understood why it was the most loved and downloaded database,” said Rowan. “Novel concept for a CEO to use the product, but that’s what I did.”

This transition meant revamping the C-Suite with individuals that could take the 15-year-old company from private startup to a (potentially public) juggernaut. Alongside Renaud, Tuttle, and Messick, he hired Chief Customer Officer Tom Rabaut, Chief Financial Officer Tony Tiscornia and Chief Administrative Officer Diane Honda. Rowan also had to convince employees, many of whom were committed to the culture and team built by outgoing CEO and co-founder Ofer Bengal, of his vision for the future.

“It’s about getting people to look forward, not backwards. It’s about painting a compelling vision, having it be very passionate and personal so that people believe you,” said Rowan.

True to style, Rowan didn’t rush this transition. When it came time to finally appoint the executives that would help shepherd the company through its next stage of growth, he moved      deliberately. To win over the caliber of talent he needed, Rowan first had to create a compelling pitch. Then, he needed to identify the individuals that could help make it happen, including seeking out existing high performers that might have gone unnoticed.

“Recruiting is selling. It’s not just about identifying people, you have to sell them on the opportunity, and have a narrative about why it can be successful,” Rowan said.

Hiring Philosophy

When looking to build out his executive team, Rowan once again took his time with the process. Through many years of experience hiring, he’s learned that his first instincts haven’t always led to making the best hires. There are those who you want to sit and have a coffee with because they’re plugged into interesting things but the objective assessment should always be is this person going to be an add to the business.

Instead of spending mental energy on convincing himself to hire a more likable candidate, he revisits ones who were intriguing but with whom he might not have fully gelled.

“Don’t hire people that look and operate like you,” he said. “I tend to instinctively like people that have the  same clock speed and have a background similar to mine. I think that’s human nature but doesn’t usually work out in the long run. So now, I have the maturity to have a process and to take in other views. The people who I had the biggest questions on at the onset have been the best hires.”

He suggests that cultural alignment instead of likability should be a key factor in hiring leaders. In building out the team at Redis, Rowan sought out candidates with a unique, perhaps traditionally undesirable, set of attributes.

“I look for those people who are slightly rebellious, don't listen or necessarily respect authority, follow the scientific method and question everything, and are somewhat disruptive and sometimes hard to work with.”

In Rowan’s view, pursuing anything that’s truly innovative requires being unreasonable. And instead of bragging about their accomplishments, his ideal hires are those never satisfied with what they’ve done and aren’t held back by conventional wisdom.

“When you are trying to do something new, if it’s worth doing there's probably a lot of good reasons why it hasn't been done before. Lots of people tried it and failed, and will tell you reasons not to do it,” he said. “You have to have the arrogance to say: ‘Thanks for your opinions. I disagree.’”

Big Decisions

With the right executive team in place, Rowan could finally execute on a pivotal action put in motion by his predecessors: the move to a more restrictive open-source license.

Rowan knew the switch would elicit criticism from a small, but vocal part of the open-source community. But he also knew it was necessary in order to level the playing field with hyperscalers that can monetize open-source technology like Redis’ on their platforms. It took 18 months before Rowan officially pivoted to the dual source-available licenses for all future versions of Redis, a move that will continue to allow innovators unfettered access to the product, while preventing rivals from using it for free.

“There weren't any questions in my mind that this was the right call,” said Rowan.

The licensing shift was also an important move to prepare the company for an AI boom that shows no signs of slowing down. Before ChatGPT launched, enterprises were already looking to take advantage of real-time data to optimize processes and unlock new ways to drive business value. But the explosion of LLMs on the market added new urgency to the goal.

And while it may have taken Rowan six months to figure out the strategy, the company has quickly established itself as a leading data platform for AI. For example, it recently rolled out Redis Copilot, an AI-backed tool designed to give users advice on how to best use the database. And the company is giving customers the choice to run caches on flash drives or in-memory, and is pioneering semantic caching to make LLM calls more efficient.

“With things developing so quickly, I didn’t immediately know where Redis would fit into this new ecosystem. It may have been obvious to others, but it wasn’t so obvious to me,” Rowan said. “But with all the reinvention of applications that’s going to happen in this GenAI era, the fastest data platform is going to play an important role, so Redis is well-positioned, thanks to all the very intentional work the team has done over the years.”

Taking the helm of Redis at the precipice of the data and AI generation was incredibly fortuitous timing. But if Rowan’s right in his vision, it will turn out to be a very lucky accident not only for him, but for customers, employees and investors.

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