Why Snowflake acquired Observe

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy joins Sourcery to discuss Snowflake’s long-term path toward iconic scale, drawing on his firsthand experience scaling Google Ads from ~$1.6B to ~$100B+ in revenue — including the moment Eric Schmidt challenged his team to write a $100B revenue plan as a thought experiment in compounding growth.

Rather than declaring a Snowflake revenue target, Sridhar explains how sustained ~30–35% compound growth, discipline, and execution can transform a company over time — and how Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) is positioning itself in the AI data platform arms race to build toward that level of impact.

We cover:

• Snowflake’s role in the AI supercycle

• Competing with Databricks, hyperscalers, and frontier AI platforms

• Scaling ambitions inspired by Eric Schmidt

• Lessons from Frank Slootman’s leadership and Sutter Hill’s influence

• The strategic logic behind the Observe acquisition

• IPO lessons from one of the largest software debuts in history

• And Sridhar’s personal “monk mode” operating style — optimizing for focus, discipline, and long-term execution

This episode is about compounding growth, enterprise AI, and what it takes to build a truly iconic company over decades.

Sridhar Ramaswamy: https://x.com/RamaswmySridhar 

Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 

Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

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YT: https://youtu.be/1ahhYmSFShQ

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