#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 BobTwitter
LinkedIn
Buy “The Datapreneurs”
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
Datapreneurs - How Todays Business Leaders Are Using Data To Define The Future
Summary
Data has been one of the most substantial drivers of business and economic value for the past few decades. Bob Muglia has had a front-row seat to many of the major shifts driven by technology over his career. In his recent book "Datapreneurs" he reflects on the people and businesses that he has known and worked with and how they relied on data to deliver valuable services and drive meaningful change.
Announcements
Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
Introducing RudderStack Profiles. RudderStack Profiles takes the SaaS guesswork and SQL grunt work out of building complete customer profiles so you can quickly ship actionable, enriched data to every downstream team. You specify the customer traits, then Profiles runs the joins and computations for you to create complete customer profiles. Get all of the details and try the new product today at dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudderstack
Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Bob Muglia about his recent book about the idea of "Datapreneurs" and the role of data in the modern economy
Interview
Introduction
How did you get involved in the area of data management?
Can you describe what your concept of a "Datapreneur" is?
How is this distinct from the common idea of an entreprenur?
What do you see as the key inflection points in data technologies and their impacts on business capabilities over the past ~30 years?
In your role as the CEO of Snowflake you had a first-row seat for the rise of the "modern data stack". What do you see as the main positive and negative impacts of that paradigm?
What are the key issues that are yet to be solved in that ecosmnjjystem?
For technologists who are thinking about launching new ventures, what are the key pieces of advice that you would like to share?
What do you see as the short/medium/long-term impact of AI on the technical, business, and societal arenas?
What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen business leaders use data to drive their vision?
What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on the Datapreneurs book?
What are your key predictions for the future impact of data on the technical/economic/business landscapes?
Contact Info
LinkedIn
Parting Question
From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?
Closing Announcements
Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.__init__ covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.
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Links
Datapreneurs Book
SQL Server
Snowflake
Z80 Processor
Navigational Database
System R
Redshift
Microsoft Fabric
Databricks
Looker
Fivetran
Podcast Episode
Databricks Unity Catalog
RelationalAI
6th Normal Form
Pinecone Vector DB
Podcast Episode
Perplexity AI
The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
Sponsored By:
Rudderstack: 
Introducing RudderStack Profiles. RudderStack Profiles takes the SaaS guesswork and SQL grunt work out of building complete customer profiles so you can quickly ship actionable, enriched data to every downstream team. You specify the customer traits, then Profiles runs the joins and computations for you to create complete customer profiles. Get all of the details and try the new product today at [dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudderstack](https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudderstack)
Support Data Engineering Podcast
Will AI Save The World + Azure's Origins — With Bob Muglia
Bob Muglia is the former CEO of Snowflake, author of THE DATAPRENEURS: The Promise of AI and the Creators Building Our Future, and ex-head of Server and Tools at Microsoft. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the latest in artificial intelligence, including Marc Andreessen's essay — Why AI Will Save The World — and the lessons in his book. We also go deep into the emergence of Azure at Microsoft, which he was present for, and how Satya Nadella was able to push it forward despite the cultural challenges.
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The Great Data Debate
Over a decade after the idea of “big data'' was first born, data has become the central nervous system for decision-making in organizations of all sizes. But the modern data stack is evolving and which infrastructure trends and technologies will ultimately win out remains to be decided.
In this podcast, originally recorded as part of Fivetran's Modern Data Stack conference, five leaders in data infrastructure debate that question: a16z general partner and pioneer of software defined networking Martin Casado, former CEO of Snowflake Bob Muglia; Michelle Ufford, founder and CEO of Noteable; Tristan Handy, founder of Fishtown Analytics and leader of the open source project dbt; and Fivetran founder George Fraser.
The conversation covers the future of data lakes, the new use cases for the modern data stack, data mesh and whether decentralization of teams and tools is the future, and how low we actually need to go with latency. And while the topic of debate is the modern data stack, the themes and differing perspectives strike at the heart of an even bigger: how does technology evolve in complex enterprise environments?
We're re-running this episode as part of a special report on Future.com, the Data50: the World's Top Data Startups, which covers the bellwether private companies across the most exciting categories in data, from AI/ML to observability and more.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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The Great Data Debate
Lakes v. warehouses, analytics v. AI/ML, SQL v. everything else... As the technical capabilities of data lakes and data warehouses converge, are the separate tools and teams that run AI/ML and analytics converging as well?
In this podcast, originally recorded as part of Fivetran's Modern Data Stack conference, five leaders in data infrastructure debate that question: a16z general partner and pioneer of software defined networking Martin Casado, former CEO of Snowflake Bob Muglia; Michelle Ufford, founder and CEO of Noteable; Tristan Handy, founder of Fishtown Analytics and leader of the open source project dbt; and Fivetran founder George Fraser.
The conversation covers the future of data lakes, the new use cases for the modern data stack, data mesh and whether decentralization of teams and tools is the future, and how low we actually need to go with latency. And while the topic of debate is the modern data stack, the themes and differing perspectives strike at the heart of an even bigger: how does technology evolve in complex enterprise environments?
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
