Guest: Evan Goldberg, founder and EVP of Oracle Netsuite
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Evan Goldberg working at Oracle, helping to bring its database software to the Mac. He left in 1995 because “I always wanted to do my own thing” and — with Larry Ellison’s support — launched his first startup, Embed. When it failed, he told Larry that he wanted another bite of the apple. “It’s the most exciting, it’s the most satisfying,” Evan said of startups. “It’s the highest risk, but ... even though I did just get married and we were going to have a kid, I still had this real appetite for risk.” The gamble paid off: In 2016, Oracle bought Netsuite for $9.3 billion, and he’s been back “home” ever since.
In this episode, Evan and Joubin discuss overestimating and underestimating, rose-colored glasses, collaborative partnerships, Marc Benioff, Larry Ellison’s superpowers, AI skepticism, Rise of the Resistance, energy vs. focus, supportive partners, Zach Nelson and Jim McGeever, and building the cloud.
In this episode, we cover:
- Eighteen years to $9.3 billion (00:47)
- Startups and failure (03:36)
- CEO vs. CTO vs. technical founder (06:38)
- Growing up and moving to California (10:08)
- Eight years at Oracle (12:30)
- Introversion (16:12)
- AI is the new internet (17:38)
- The incumbents’ advantage in AI (23:30)
- Inspiration to start something new (25:30)
- Leaving Oracle in 1995 & starting Embed (28:17)
- When to cut and run (32:16)
- Evan’s wife, Cindy (36:05)
- Starting NetSuite (40:18)
- Going public and the stock rollercoaster (43:46)
- OneWorld and fighter jets (47:17)
- Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite (50:48)
- Co-founder and family cohesion (56:58)
- Do-overs (59:25)
- What would Evan do if not Netsuite? (01:02:29)
- Who Netsuite is hiring and what “grit” means to him (01:03:41)
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