So uh there was a situation where I actually now um in my most recent company we decided to merge with another company to accelerate our road map. I was with a company called risk lens which does exactly what I I said earlier uh helps quantify a cyber security risk but um we were highly manual still in our approach and customer was asking us to automate you know u the detection of cyber security issues and the remediation and we didn't have all the skills to get there.
So we decided to merge with another company that had complimentary skills and engineers that had talents that we didn't have. And in the last two years we had to basically join with another culture and see are we compatible? Are we also from the philosophical point of view from the ethical point of view and um and there was a test a few weeks ago where one of the salespeople that reported to an organization into sales came to me and says Nick I need to be open to you.
I have an addiction problem and I need to take a leave of absence and if you want to dismiss us today, I'm fine. Sorry I'm letting you down and um but I think I need to be honest with you. And so I went to HR and I told him of the situation and um interesting to me, you know, HR came from the the HR manager from the acquiring company. They acquired the company I was a CEO of.
And we basically brainstormed and we came to the conclusion even upon their suggestion to do what we felt was right to this person and which was to keep him on the payroll for another 90 days so he can get treatment so he can get basically healthc care coverage and get all the coverage he needed and reassess the situation in 90 days with no obligations of him coming back and so that in 90 days he can come back and say listen I'm fine now or I'm not and no obligation, no question asked.
What happened in the end? He he felt like he needed more time for treatment, but he was incredibly grateful because he didn't expect our reaction. He didn't ask for it. He basically just want felt like he was letting us down. And he was amazingly surprised by our offer to be supporting him uh with full salary, full uh benefits so he could start treatment and um don't have to change anything in his life. you know, while he was doing that and uh and at the end we basically parted away with a hug.
I think friends forever and for me was a big test in seeing is my new partner are we can I say living for the same principles and know and uh we basically came to conclusions like yeah we want to treat him like we would like to be treated like in a family and so for me there was a major test you know uh uh that uh the bet I made in partnering with them was the right one not just from the business and technical perspective but also from the human uh dealing perspective.
