The next 11 years at Mural

Mural turned 11 last month 🎉🥳💨🎈🙌🎆🍾. We celebrated by launching a new brand and new version of the product last week. We have been working on these for a while, so I’m happy to see them live and looking forward to more updates coming soon.

That’s our brand promise and what we stand for as a company. Being intentional about collaboration doesn’t only apply to how you design a meeting or a workshop. Intentionality also means being deliberate about role design. A team needs the right players to collaborate well. If there is a gap, someone on the team has to develop the necessary skills or move to another role. 

(The best teams are thoughtful about these dynamics — and we call this “Relational Intelligence,” a chapter in our upcoming book Collaborative Intelligence. More here soon!).

Adapting to thrive

I’ve had the privilege to lead Mural to where it is today. You may have heard me joke that Mural  is like a cockroach with wings. We have not only survived so much, we’ve thrived in the face of difficulty. That was true before 2020. It was true when Mural first became a unicorn. And it’s true now. This last year, I’ve seen the company exceed $100M in ARR (which is now a “Centaur” based on Silicon Valley slang). Millions of people per month enjoy Mural.

All these achievements and more took a lot of effort from many amazing people in our company and our community. 

Thank you very much for driving forward what we do.

Surround yourself with great people

I feel proud about what we’ve accomplished, and I have been reflecting on our future needs. I’ve thought thoroughly about the role of the CEO and what capabilities are needed to take Mural forward at the scale we need in the next decade. 

Most of my career I’ve been focused on the early stages of startups. It’s exciting to find and validate customer needs and build solutions for early adopters. I’ve always loved this kind of work, and I became good at it. While reflecting on how I was spending my time in the last couple of years, I realized it was mostly spent on scaling the business. Even though I adapted and did this work with dedication and effort, I learned that this phase of growing a company didn’t fit me well.

At first, I tried changing my role, but it was not the best solution for what Mural needed. That’s when I decided to fire myself and find someone amazing to lead this company. After a few months and help from great board members, I found someone who meets the needs of Mural today and for the future.

I’m pleased to welcome David Baga as the new CEO at Mural. Thank you, David, and I wish you the best.

This is why we chose David

We had the opportunity to select from many stellar people, all of who would have been great for the job, and David stood above them all. Here are some of his standout qualities:

1. David’s an entrepreneurial builder. David built the B2B business at Lyft with determination while learning about great product design. He has done this work well in both enterprise and consumer businesses. 
2. David’s mission aligned and a coach at heart. David was a hockey player turned coach for a time. Through the years, he grew stronger, more insightful, and more self-aware through each role. Besides his awareness of deliberate team building, David has also lived and believes in the power of methodologies for collaboration. For example, at Rocket Lawyer, David was early in design sprints via Google Ventures. 
3. David’s the leader Mural needs. Probably most importantly, I found a great person with a good sense of humor, high integrity, and humility, someone I’d love to work with and support. David believes in Mural’s mission and brings deep operating expertise to our team. I am confident and excited as he takes the lead at Mural.

David just started as CEO. It’s official. And he’s already hard at work. Welcome, David! 

As for me, I'm now the Executive Chairman of the board. My mission is to make David successful, and I’ll also help with product, culture, and spreading the word about how extraordinary work isn’t left to chance.