Hi everyone, welcome to a brand new episode of the Outlier Podcast. I've got Mohit with me. Hi Mohit, how are you doing?
Hey. Hey. I'm doing well. Thank you for having me here.
Pleasure. So I think this is one of the very special episodes. It's one of the very special episodes in the journey of the Outlier Podcast. One was the CEO of GitHub joining us, I think a year back, and I would say this is the second episode after a year back that's as special, to be very honest. We got Mohit with us. Quick introduction of Mohit. I don't think the world needs an introduction of Mohit, but still for my audience, since it's a diversified audience, he is a founder of Nutanix followed by Cohesity, and now on to something very secretive, I would say stealth, which he'll talk about. So Mohit, I won't steal the thunder. If you want to spend a couple of minutes maybe talking about your background, that will be fantastic.
Yeah, I think you covered it, but if you want me to talk about it briefly, you know, I grew up in India in the state of Punjab. Spent bulk of my teenage years in a place called Chandigarh. Then studied computer science from IIT Delhi. Then came to the US in 1995 and then did my PhD at Rice University in Houston. And then I began my professional life by joining a number of companies. Some notable ones are Google, so I spent five years working at Google helping build what is called the Google File System. At the time, any data the world stored on Google used to sit on the Google File System. Maybe some of that code is still alive, who knows? And eventually, I started my first company, Nutanix, which brought to the world this concept called hyperconvergence. And then I moved on to my second company, Cohesity, and there it was all about data management: enterprise backups, ransomware protection, AI, that sort of stuff. And now I'm doing a company in the area of, you can call it go-to-market technology. And so that's the company that was referring to that's in stealth. So that's roughly my big-picture trajectory. So happy to chat more.
Absolutely. I think when me and Mohit spoke last time, we were talking about that a bunch of GTM companies are built by people who have never done GTM in their life, right? That is the basic problem. I think that's what Mohit is trying to bridge the gap of, actually building a GTM company, for the lack of better words, because he has actually done GTM and sold companies. So that's much required. Mohit, so if you want to talk more about that, feel free.
Yeah, I'll just say the following. As I ran my previous company as the CEO, I was very underwhelmed with the go-to-market technology and in general how the go-to-market organization was run. And I realized the go-to-market technology is underwhelming because people who know how to build enterprise products, great products, web-scale products, products that delight customers, don't know much about go-to-market or sales. And people who do know stuff about sales typically don't know enough about building products that delight customers. And so that's why most companies in the go-to-market space that get built are the way they are. They're usually built by people who may be familiar with go-to-market processes, but they're not into building great companies; they're not builders. And so my intention here is to bring the confluence of those two where, at least with my last experience as the CEO of my last company, I have plenty of experience in go-to-market organizations and I'm a builder from pretty much day one. I'm a technologist. So me, along with the rest of my team, we kind of bring that confluence, and hopefully we can bring a company to the world that will actually delight customers as opposed to just another point product adding to the mess that already exists.
So pretty much possibly I'm talking to the founder of the third decacorn that will come up in the next few years. So we are glad to cover your story even before you're launching your third company. So firstly, thank you. Thank you, Mohit, for coming to the podcast. We appreciate it.
Sure. So for the audience who don't know, a decacorn is a company that's worth at least $10 billion in market cap. So arguably my last two companies are there already, but past successes are not necessarily an indicator of future success. So let's keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully we can also make this one a great success, but right now it's early to say that.
I think that's what successful people undersell themselves. That's good to hear. Moving on to your background, Mohit. So you're one of the very, very few first employees at Google, right? And that's for real. Do you think Google as an organization transformed the way how you think, or rather to put it this way, what is that something unique that you learned at Google that you feel was really important that stayed with you forever?
So 100%. I will tell you that I was in a small company before Google. That was the first company I joined after I graduated with a PhD. And the mindset of the people in that company, while they were decent people, they could never think at the scale Google was thinking at. And so that really transformed my own thinking. So you don't just think what the world needs a few days or a few months from today, but you think about really long-term stuff. And Google was architected—one thing I really liked and of course changed my thinking was the kind of people to surround myself with. You surround yourself with some of the best people, then great things happen, and Google was definitely doing that. And just these great people were thinking far ahead and they were building things that made Google what it is. And that's the real reason why at the time all the companies like Yahoo who were trying to compete with Google could not compete, because Google had such a great talent and forward thinking that even if the likes of Yahoo tried to copy what Google had, Google would in no time get ahead and continuously have such a big lead between itself and Yahoo. So eventually Yahoo gave up and they were sold for less than $4 billion eventually, and they had a chance to buy Google at some point for, I believe, a million dollars.
Right. So that's what it takes to build a great company, and that's what happens when you surround yourself with great talent. So those things absolutely changed me. Absolutely.
I think we talk a lot about PayPal mafias. I think we should start talking about Google mafias nowadays for sure. So there are a bunch of people like you, ex-Googlers, who built enormous value in the ecosystem, right? And again, with all selfishness, we coming from the same country, I feel so proud of what you've done, Mohit. I mean, it's not just flattering, but on air I'm talking about this. I feel so proud, and I'm a very upfront person, right? So thank you for what you've done for the ecosystem.
Thank you. I think we should all support and encourage more people who want to grow up and do stuff. Why should they learn things the hard way? So anyone who can be taught the stuff that we have learned the hard way, we should. And so the world is not just limited by the intellect of a few people. We need to have more young people, budding entrepreneurs, do great stuff. And I learned a few things at places like Google, and hopefully my companies are teaching more things to people, and eventually they will go on to do great things. So this is how we spread our knowledge and wisdom.
Absolutely. Moving on to the next section. Anyone who has an inch of entrepreneurship in their entire body dreams about one single day, and that's IPO, right? I haven't even started my company, but still I dream about my IPO because I can almost look at NASDAQ probably, right? So Nutanix going public, I think, was a special moment. It's your kid going public; I think it's all what a person can dream of, right? So how was that day for you?
So I would just like to say that an IPO is another milestone in the life of the company. Let me start by bringing Google up again. I joined Google, I think it was early 2003 when I joined them, and they went IPO in 2004. I think their valuation around when they went public was perhaps around $25 billion, and we were all proud of Google, and I'm sure the founders were super proud, but today Google is like a multi-trillion-dollar company. So what I'm trying to say is that an IPO is just a milestone along the way, and it's just a funding round in the big scheme of things. Just like your kid goes to college or gets a good grade in college, you celebrate that. So you should always celebrate these milestones. And so, yeah, there was some exhilaration when that happened, but then there is life after the IPO, and I'm glad to see that Nutanix is still doing well. And that's what makes me more proud, that the technology that I built is benefiting millions and millions of people and is helping change the world. That is more something to be proud of, and not just that one event that was the IPO that happened in 2016.
100% sure. That's the reason I think you moved on from Nutanix to build Cohesity at the peak of it, right? So why did you do that?
Yeah, look, I'm a builder. And if you roughly map the world of data into an iceberg, Nutanix addressed the tip of the iceberg, and I was excited to address the rest of the iceberg, which is what Cohesity did. So Nutanix is in the area of primary data, so this is all your production data and stuff—think of it as the first touch of data. And Cohesity is into the second touch of data; you can call it secondary data, right? These are backups and archival, test and development, analytics, and more. And so there was a lot more data in the secondary space—80% of the data actually sits in the secondary space. And so to build something there, that was even more fulfilling.
So now I look back between my two companies, I feel proud that I've covered the whole of the iceberg, right, the tip of the iceberg as well as the lower part. And that to me is more of a satisfaction. Then, I'm even out of Cohesity now, I'm doing my third company. But I look back and I see every day how people are thriving because of that product, and hopefully they will also go IPO one day, and that'll be a milestone to celebrate. But there'll be goodness beyond that milestone, right, just like we had with Google and with Nutanix. And so we will continue to celebrate those milestones, but we made a difference to the world. Cohesity today is north of a billion dollars in ARR, and it's not just being used by some of the biggest companies in the world for protecting their data, but also for protection against ransomware attacks, and using AI to uncover information, searching for information that they might be looking for. So a bunch of stuff that Cohesity brought to the world. And now on to my third one. Let's see if we can change the world yet again.
So I think you've taken all the responsibility of changing the world every single time: once, twice, now the third time, right? So the world is ready for you to come out and change again.
I say that, but I say that with a lot of humility. This was never possible without a great team. If there's one thing I like to do, it's surround myself with great people, and then together we change the world. So it's never done in a silo. I sometimes get undue credit, too much credit, just because I happen to be the first guy. But there are others without whom this would never be possible. And I remember very fondly, like at Cohesity, for instance, there were amazing people without whom that would not be possible. And so I do want to recognize those people who made it all possible. And same was the case at Nutanix. And very frankly, that's the kind of people I have here. I look at them, and sometimes I feel unworthy that, man, such good people are working with me; I must be doing something right.
That's funny. Another thing that reminds me: when I was 21 after engineering, I used to stay in Bangalore, so literally I used to stay, if I remember correctly, just bang opposite to the office of Nutanix. Now the world seems like it's a full circle, and after almost nine years, I'm talking to this gentleman who has actually founded the company, right? So the world is certainly round, right? And this feels amazing. And you talked about amazing people. Yeah, I'm sure without those people, you cannot build anything, because you're building something; it's not a one-man show, for sure. And all of us are thankful for people who surround us and let us do amazing things every day.
