How Veeva Became the First Public Company to Convert to a Public Benefit Corporation | Peter Gassner

Peter Gassner (0:00)

I definitely told the first set of employees, you know, it's probably not going to work, because that's the odds of startups. You have to take such a risk. You have to be trying something that most likely won't work. I saw profitability in one year. I thought, we're going to be there. I surprised myself. I thought, wow, it's going to work. It did work.

Eric Ries (0:19)

My guest today is Peter Gassner, founder and CEO of Veeva Systems.

Peter began his career as a software engineer, working deep in database internals at IBM, spent nearly a decade at PeopleSoft, and joined Salesforce when it had fewer than 200 employees. Then at 42, he founded Veeva and grew it into an 8,000 person public company powering critical work across the life sciences. He also led Veeva to become the first public company ever to convert to a public benefit corporation.

In this conversation, we explore why 90 percent of Veeva shareholders agreed to the conversion, elevating Veeva's mission to a formal seat at the table alongside shareholder value. And how that decision unlocked new innovations, including free software for clinical research sites and so much more. We break down Veeva's unusual practice of auditing its leaders for integrity and energy, not just financial performance. Peter shares why the best response to market volatility and AI disruption is to focus relentlessly on customers' values and execution. Please enjoy this conversation with Peter Gassner.

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Peter, I can't tell you how much it means to me that you agreed to do this. Thanks for coming on.

Peter Gassner (2:37)

Thank you for having me.

Eric Ries (2:38)

So I want to take you back to a very specific moment, and I want you to give the audience the context for how you got to this moment, like record scratch, here's how we got there, and what you were thinking, how it felt to you in that moment. I want you to talk to me about the incorporation of Veeva, like when you actually signed the papers and did the act. I remember you telling me this story about like something struck you as interesting or odd, that I think a lot of other founders overlook. So can you kind of give us the story, how did you come to be in that moment? What was the backstory of founding Veeva, and what did you notice in that moment?

Peter Gassner (3:14)

I decided, okay, I'm gonna start this company.

And then, you have to, you can't just say, I started a company. You know, you have to sign some papers that says you are starting the company, you know? What's the name of the company? Things like that. And so of course, lawyers draft that, and it's a form letter, and you get ready to sign it. And somehow I just thought, I'll read this thing. So I read it, and I still remember, it had a bunch of complicated words, but what it said was very simple. You're starting a company. Its job is to make money for the shareholders and don't do anything illegal.

And I thought, God, that's not what I want to do. That's, you know, I want to have a company, like a company that takes care of its customers and employees and make some money and does the right thing. But I remember feeling yuck. That's kind of sick, but oh well, it's just a form.

Eric Ries (4:08)

Right.

So because so many of us, okay, and I think a lot of founders listening to this are going to relate to this. And I've done this exercise with a lot of founders and as I'm speaking on tour with the new book and stuff. And I asked people like, have you actually read those documents? And people kind of like half put up their hand and like, not really. Okay. So, but I think for those that have read it, a lot of us have been in that room and the lawyer says, look, this is the standard. This is what it means to be a for-profit company. And I'm sure there's some people who are listening to us right now who are like, what's the problem? Like, isn't the goal of a venture back for a private company to make money for shareholders? Say a little bit about what exactly it was about that that didn't sit right with you.