Founder & Director, Servicenow
Search every verified Frederic Luddy interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Frederic Luddy, founder and former chief product officer of ServiceNow, received the 2023 Horatio Alger Award, which he described as a "great honor" and a recognition of his role as a "role model for other people to overcome adversity." In his acceptance remarks, Luddy recounted a childhood marked by physical abuse and being told he "was not going to amount to anything," leading him to leave home at 16. He described discovering programming after encountering an advanced computer in a factory, later working for the dean of Economics at Indiana University writing Fortran programs, though he said he "forgot to go to class" and earned a 0.6 GPA. Luddy also discussed the collapse of his previous employer, Peregrine Systems, where he said he lost a net worth of $35 million due to fraud and bankruptcy, prompting him and his brother to start ServiceNow. He wrote the first lines of code on November 5, 2003, and noted the company had grown to about 20,000 employees. In various public appearances, Luddy has emphasized the importance of focusing on customer experience and problem-solving over technology itself. At TiEcon 2020, he advised entrepreneurs to "love the problem more than the solution" and said that "it's not how smart we are as entrepreneurs; it's how smart and how liberated we make our customers feel." He has described ServiceNow's evolution from an IT service management tool to a broader platform, stating that "systems of engagement are going to complement systems of record" and that the company aims to become "the single system of record" for large IT organizations. Luddy has also expressed skepticism about email as a workflow engine, citing an MIT study that he said shows people spend 36% of their workday in their inbox, and has advocated for real-time, mobile-friendly systems that are "easier than not using it."
“It's okay to not know everything... I think it's okay not to know and even more important it's okay to ask to have something explained to you.”
“I was told I was not going to amount to anything so I made the decision to just leave.”
“In this factory I was working in they bought a very, very advanced computer and I was drawn to it like a moth to the flame — that was when I found out that I was maybe born a programmer.”
“I got a job working for the dean of Economics writing Fortran programs... I worked every waking hour; I forgot to go to class, so I think I got them mathematically unachievable 0.6 GPA for that semester.”
“I really wanted to work for the father of supercomputing Dr. Gene Amdahl because he had left IBM to create the next generation of supercomputers, and if I could get a job with that organization that would just be the ultimate.”
“I had a lot of stock and was sitting on what I thought was a net worth of 35 million dollars; I woke up one morning and the stock was at zero — it turned out that the company perpetrated great fraud, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the stock was delisted.”
“We're going to start a new company — that company is called ServiceNow.”
“I wrote the first lines of code on November 5th, 2003.”
“We have about 20,000 employees.”
“Becoming part of the Horatio Alger Association is a great honor... they've chosen me as a role model for other people to overcome adversity and to become all that they can be.”
“Please love the problem more than the solution and more than the technology because... it's not how smart we are as entrepreneurs; it's how smart and how liberated we make our customers feel.”
“It's all about your attitude during these times of crisis; that really can help propel a company or squash it — there's always things the world will throw at you and it is how you react to that condition.”
“I went from having a net worth of 35 million dollars to zero instantly when Peregrine collapsed, and my brother and I looked at each other and said, 'what should we do now?' — we can start a new business; that was the genesis because there was nothing left to lose.”
“I wrote the first lines of code on November 5th, 2003 — I was two weeks from my 50th birthday and thought nobody's going to take a 50 year old seriously as an entrepreneur, so I had to start it when I was on the other side of 50.”
“Somebody offered me a personal check for over 100 million dollars and I was tempted, but Doug Leone on our board said that's a horrible deal — not taking that money turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
Full Video: https://youtu.be/LTVQb-4NFQY Fred Luddy, a serial entrepreneur, cofounded ServiceNow in 2004, a few weeks before ...
01. Fred Luddy, ServiceNow, Visits #theCUBE!. (01:23) 02. Could You Have Imagined This Event Being This Big. (01:41) 03. Why Did You Start This Company. (02:20) 04. It's Special That You Are Concerned About How The User Feels Using Your Product. (03:19) 05. Is The Real World Is How We Interact With The Devices. (05:29) 06. Were You Coding During The Day One Keynote. (07:44) 07. Did The Survey You Wrote Get Done In Record Time. (08:55) 08. Do You Spend Most Of Your Time Building Widgets. (10:45) 09. Is This The Same As The Automated Response Design. (12:40) 10. Talk About The Stack. (1…
Fred Luddy, Founder & CPO, ServiceNow, speaks with Cristina Alesci, CNN (brief)
Enhanced video at http://vinja.tv/ldxR0dRd 01. Fred Luddy, ServiceNow, Visits theCUBE!. (00:30) 02. What's the Next Vision for ...
Bud and Fred discuss the future of healthcare IT and the challenges that innovators will face. This is an excerpt from a one-on-one ...
https://siliconangle.com/2013/05/17/servicenow-founder-shares-his-journey-to-the-ultimate-itsm-platform/ Fred Luddy (day 2) at ...
Fred Luddy, Foounder, ServiceNow, at ServiceNow Knowledge13 with theCUBE's Dave Vellante and Jeff Frick ...
"Knowledge11" - unter diesem Titel lud die Firma ServiceNow Kunden und Geschäftspartner Anfang Dezember nach Frankfurt am ...
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