Frederic Luddy - 2023 Horatio Alger Award Recipient

🎥 May 22, 2023 📺 Horatio Alger Association ⏱ 4m 👁 815 views

About Frederic Luddy

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."

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Frederic Luddy's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (6 segments)

Frederic Luddy0:00

It's okay to not know everything. I had to be an expert in everything, and 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 born in Hammond, Indiana, but in 1961 we moved to Indianapolis. There were three kids at the time; I was the oldest. Dad was a little rough on the kids, especially his number one. He was physically abusive. He was somebody who was happy to knock the snot out of you anywhere near out of line, and I was told I was not going to amount to anything. So I made the decision to just leave, and I seriously had no money. I worked a number of different jobs: picking strawberries, car wash, I worked in a factory in a machine shop.

One day 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.

After I did this job, I went briefly to school at Indiana University, and I got a job working, of all things, for the Dean of Economics writing Fortran programs. I worked every waking hour; I forgot to go to class. So I think I got a mathematically unachievable 0.6 GPA for that semester. But Dean Whalen made me feel important. He was the first person that made me believe in myself. I should probably tell about leaking oil, huh? When you tell somebody they're worthwhile, that they have value... that Indiana University experience was the thing that kind of put me on solid footing for the rest of my life.

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. I thought if I can get a job with that organization, that would just be the ultimate. They gave me a job. There were 300 people in the company at the time, and I was easily the least knowledgeable. All these very smart, very knowledgeable people that I worked with helped. They knew that to be successful, everybody had to be successful. That was the first time I felt any sort of real pride in what we had done.

I've experienced incredible adversity. When I was employed by a company called Peregrine Systems, 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. Turned out that the company perpetrated great fraud; they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the stock was delisted, so we were at zero. My brother looked at me and said, 'Well, what are we going to do?' because he also worked at the company. I said, '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. It is an absolute privilege to know Greg and to know Dennis. When they approached me, I was moved to tears; I didn't know what to say. It's an honor that they've chosen me as a role model for other people to overcome adversity and to become all that they can be.