Billion or Bust!

Billion or Bust!

As president and then CEO of cloud provider Rackspace, Lanham Napier grew the company from $5 million to over $1 billion in revenues and $5 billion in market value while creating thousands of jobs. Under his leadership, especially growing its trademarked, high-quality customer service, Fanatical Support, Rackspace gained thousands of customers and industry dominance. A lifelong Texan, Lanham grew the company in his home state, overseeing the development of phenomenal new headquarters (a converted mall) in San Antonio and leading the company's IPO. Further, he obsessed over how to increase employee engagement, and he exuberantly succeeded in his goal. But, when Microsoft, Amazon, and Google entered the industry in force, everything changed . . . including Lanham's relationship with Rackspace executives and the company's board of directors. Lanham believed he had three options for leading the Rackspace response to the intense competition. But in fact, the board showed him that there was a fourth option he had never even considered.

Lanham Napier is an entrepreneur, innovator, investor, and Texan. He and his team at his investment fund, BuildGroup, believe in providing smart capital to passionate entrepreneurs who want to build companies for the long haul. Lanham developed his ideas about risk capital as a boy seeing family members and others who found themselves unable to gain access to risk capital (or, in many cases) any capital. He then deepened those ideas through his work as CEO raising money for and leading the IPO of Rackspace. Lanham grew up a proud Texan, enamored with the state climate, history, diversity, friendliness, and traditions. Also in his adolescence, Lanham developed a driving desire to improve the world through creating jobs for people. In special sections of the book, Lanham discuss the benefits and drawbacks of growing the company outside Silicon Valley and major tech centers.