Paul Stovell
CEO and Founder at Octopus Deploy
I'm the founder and CEO of Octopus Deploy. I started Octopus in my spare time in 2011, and today it helps thousands of companies to automate their deployments, and employs 200+ wonderful people. My background is in software development, but the best part of running Octopus is all the different things I need to learn as the business grows.
Prior to Octopus Deploy, I worked for an investment bank building .NET applications, and before that I worked for Readify, an Australian .NET specialist consulting firm. I also worked on a number of open source projects and was an active user group presenter. I was a Microsoft MVP for Client Applications for about 5 years from 2006.
In their own words
From How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules · Perspective XEvery customer we have is our investor, because that's how we built the business. If we disappoint our customers, we should be out of business.
Career
- Now CEO and Founder · Octopus Deploy
- Earlier WPF Developer · Investment bank (London, unnamed)
- Earlier · Startup Developer/Consultant · Readify
Sources: paulstovell.com
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules you want.
- 2:20 Building Octopus Deploy: From Brisbane library to $100M ARR
- 5:00 Bootstrapping and turning down a $400K early acquisition offer
- 8:30 Co-founding with your spouse: Paul and Sonya’s partnership story
- 12:10 Creating a contrarian culture: Remote-first before it was trendy
- 15:45 How Australia’s startup ecosystem evolved from 2012 to today
- 20:30 Becoming profitable from day one: The mindset behind sustainable growth
- 26:00 Facing down Microsoft: Pivoting to survive industry giants
- 31:10 Why transparency and building publicly were key growth levers
- 36:50 Scaling to 100 employees without losing the original vision
- 43:00 Raising $172M from Insight Partners (without needing the money)
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
Want a show of your own?
W2D1 Media — the team behind the Day One Network, which helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts — builds and produces podcasts for funds, founders and operators. If you want a show built around your brand, let's talk.