The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan 466: Reshape Free Products into Revenue-Generators with Ali Ghosdi of Databricks
Ali Ghosdi was a reluctant founder. He planned to become an academic researcher and professor, not lead a successful tech startup. In 2013, alongside six other co-founders, Ghosdi helped build an open-source data product called Apache Spark, a best-of-breed future predicting code. The research project eventually became a business called Databricks. In 2016, he was picked as CEO and helped transform the open-source startup into a technology enterprise with a $38 billion valuation. Databricks boasts investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Nathan and Ali discuss:
- Being a reluctant startup co-founder
- Partnering with Andreessen Horowitz as their first investor
- The pros and cons of having co-founders
- The pressure of living up to early success
- Transforming an open-source startup into a revenue enterprise
- The difference between professional and founder CEOs
- How startups and small businesses can use AI tools right now.
- Why product market fit is an art
- How to work backward in your business
- Why you shouldn’t listen to the consensus
- And much more data, AI, and product advice…
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