Nucci co-founded Guru, a 150-employee Philadelphia-based enterprise software startup, in 2013.
He'd launched a startup before — a cloud software startup called Boomi, which was acquired by Dell in 2010 and then sold for $4 billion in 2021 — but he'd never been a CEO.
He quickly realized that his words "carried a certain weight" as everyone's boss, he says.
In a sense, Nucci discouraged a specific kind of toxic atmosphere, where rampant aggressive criticism results in downtrodden employees.
By doing so, he put Guru on a path to a different type of toxic workplace, he says — where a lack of honest and clear communication could lead to languishing projects and frustrations boiling over.
Persons:
Rick Nucci, Nucci, He'd, he'd, Guru
Organizations:
Dell, CNBC, Workers
Locations:
Philadelphia