“MNTN basically Houdini’d one of the most complicated parts of advertising—getting great ads on TV—and made it incredibly simple,” Reynolds says. “Maximum Effort and I are not exactly coders, but we can help with creating emotional investment.”
“It led to not just creating a product, but creating a segment of the market,” Douglas tells Fortune, adding that a third of the company’s 500 team members now work in engineering—including, sometimes, himself. By the end of the year, it’ll be half.
“I consider myself more of a software engineer than I do a CEO,” Douglas says. And while he doesn’t spend much time coding anymore, his background in tech has made his job far easier, because it helps him understand the possibilities and limitations of his team. Today, 70% of his time is spent focused on product or engineering.
As CEO, Douglas tends not just to sit behind a door in a corner office. He’s mingling with his team everyday—even in the parking lot.
“I’m not necessarily, in the last two or three years, hands-on keyboard coding. But I’m in the ‘Daily Parking Lot’ every single day,” Douglas says, referring to a two-hour block of time dedicated to discussing architecture features, named after his team’s brainstorming walks. They always wound up thinking of great ideas in their office parking lot.
“It’s blocked out on my calendar two hours a day, indefinitely, every business day.”
Reynolds says this quirky practice is emblematic of Douglas’ persistence and hands-on leadership style:
