Grit #148 Former Snowflake CEO, Bob Muglia: The Datapreneurs
Guest: Bob Muglia, “The Datapreneurs” Co-Author and Former Snowflake CEO
Longtime Microsoft executive and former Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia was done with his book about using data to drive the digital economy — and then ChatGPT came out. “The timeline for artificial intelligence moved in by 50 years in my head,” he recalls. Bob then told his co-author Steve Hamm that they needed to update “The Datapreneurs” to focus more on AI. “For the first time, we have intelligence in a computer,” he says. “English has become the primary programming interface of 2023!”
In this episode, Bob and Joubin discuss weekly meetings, Amazon’s values, the tech industry’s Yoda, antitrust lawsuits, the media and Bill Gates, tangling with Andy Jassy, gold rush times, FoundationDB, executive coaches, firing people faster, leaders vs. managers, deepfakes, and the zeroth law of robotics.
In this episode, we cover:
- Bob’s post-Snowflake career (00:57)
- How he advises startup CEOs (04:12)
- Getting fired by Steve Ballmer, twice (09:36)
- Why didn’t he quit? (14:09)
- Satya Nadella (16:09)
- Immigrant families and early jobs (17:21)
- United States v. Microsoft Corp. (21:14)
- “It may be shit, but it’s compliant shit” (25:26)
- Antitrust is not about the law (29:18)
- Rose-colored memories (33:01)
- Competing with Microsoft and Amazon (34:41)
- Two years at Juniper (37:45)
- Transitioning into Snowflake (39:38)
- Earning credibility (42:32)
- Chris Degnan, Snowflake’s first sales rep (45:07)
- Near-death experiences (50:05)
- Finding traction & taking off (55:33)
- Surprising challenges (01:00:55)
- Fired, again (01:02:16)
- Tough feedback (01:07:01)
- “The Datapreneurs” and the AI acceleration (01:09:19)
- Optimism about the future (01:13:36)
- The Terminator and Isaac Asimov (01:17:48)
Links:
- Connect with Bob
- Connect with Joubin
- Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
- This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm