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Davis Bell

CEO @ Canopy

Davis Bell is the CEO of Canopy, a software company based in Draper, Utah that provides practice management software for accounting firms and CPA firms.15 He joined Canopy as CEO in late 2019, taking over leadership of the company after a challenging period that saw significant layoffs.13

Background and Leadership

Davis Bell came to Canopy with experience as a technology executive in Silicon Slopes, Utah's tech hub.5 He took on the CEO role at a critical time for the company:

  • Canopy was founded in 2014 and had experienced rapid growth initially
  • In 2019, the company faced difficulties, resulting in laying off about two-thirds of its workforce
  • Bell joined as CEO shortly after this downsizing, when the company had reduced from around 300 employees to about 1001

Approach as CEO

Since taking the helm at Canopy, Bell has focused on:

  • Rebuilding the company culture and team after a challenging period
  • Emphasizing clarity and transparency with employees and customers1
  • Securing additional funding to support the company's growth (a $13 million funding round was announced alongside his appointment as CEO)35

Views on Remote Work and Employment

Bell has gained attention for his stance on "overemployment" in the tech industry:

  • He publicly criticized the practice of tech workers holding multiple full-time jobs simultaneously
  • Bell views this as "time theft" and a form of deception, particularly harmful to small and medium-sized businesses
  • His comments on this issue, shared on LinkedIn, sparked debate and some controversy2

Davis Bell is active on social media platforms like LinkedIn, where his username is davistbell. He uses these platforms to share insights on leadership, company updates, and occasionally participate in industry discussions.4

Highlights

Aug 28 · linkedin

If there are things that literally can't be talked about at your company, it's NGMI.

Jul 30 · linkedin

If you care a lot about your job, you spend most of your time thinking about things that aren't going well: A valued employee just quit! This team isn't hitting quota! That feature is going to ship late! Competitors are breathing down our neck! A big customer just churned! And on and on.

This is as it should be. A simple but good definition of what a leader does is solve critical problems that are endangering the success of the team.

However, there's a downside to this. A constant focus on problems and challenges and weaknesses can lead you to feel that things aren't going well, generally and overall, which in turn can lead you to feel discouraged and overwhelmed and burnt out.

It can lead you to feel that if the company were going to succeed that there wouldn't be so many problems and issues.

Here's the reality, though: every successful company I've been a part of usually felt like it was about 6-12 months away from falling apart. I emphasize "felt" because it's an emotion, borne of constant engagement with serious problems and much less time thinking about what's going well.

Rational, objective analysis in any of these cases would have pointed towards success. But the feeling was always one of more problems to solve than time or money or headcount allowed for, combined with the worry that if left unchecked these problems could ultimately kill the company.

I definitely felt like this about Instructure when I left in 2016. Yes, the same Instructure that just sold for $5B, the second largest software transaction in Utah history. I now see I was far too wrapped up in the problems I was tasked with solving and wasn't thinking rationally about all the incredible advantages and assets the company had at that time and has built on since.

So - keep thinking about and solving the big, hard problems your company is facing. But try periodically to spend a little time thinking about the wins and the assets and all the things that are going right. It will give you a needed shot in the arm. And then get back to solving problems.

Related Questions

What are Davis Bell's main goals for Canopy?
How did Davis Bell's background prepare him for his role at Canopy?
What challenges has Davis Bell faced since becoming CEO of Canopy?
How has Davis Bell's leadership style impacted Canopy's culture?
What innovations has Davis Bell introduced at Canopy?
Davis Bell
Davis Bell, photo 1
Davis Bell, photo 2
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Location

Salt Lake City, Utah, United States