2. Mike Rosenbaum, Guidewire Software CEO: The Power of a Passion for Platforms

In this episode, Mike Rosenbaum shares his experience and key learnings on what it really takes to build a powerful platform, drawing on his time leading product management and go-to-market strategy for core CRM products at Salesforce and as EVP of the Salesforce Platform team, to his current role leading Guidewire. 

• The early innings of platform building at Salesforce (3:30)
• What you should be considering as you chart the platform course for your company (6:07)
• Getting crystal clear on what you mean by “platform” (8:28)
• What really made Salesforce unique (12:13)
• Mike’s cardinal rules for platform building (14:26)
• A realistic approach to failure (17:38)
• Always considering your customer’s perspective (23:18)
• What the highest level of platform looks like (27:40)

Guest: Mike Rosenbaum

Mike Rosenbaum is CEO of Guidewire Software, where he has overall responsibility for global strategy, organization, culture, and operations. He is passionate about building great teams and innovative products and platforms that deliver value for customers, partners, and shareholders. Prior to Guidewire, Mike led product management and go-to-market strategy for core CRM products at Salesforce and was also EVP of the Salesforce Platform team. He also served in the US Navy as a submarine officer. Mike’s unique leadership and cloud experience give him the capability to accelerate Guidewire’s role in the P&C industry.

Host: Avanish Sahai

Avanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow. From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase. Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.

Links

• Follow our guest, Mike Rosenbaum
• Follow our host, Avanish Sahai
• Learn more about Tidemark

You can find the full transcript here.