#101 CEO Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian: Competitor-Aware and Customer-Obsessed
Grit29 Aug 2022

#101 CEO Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian: Competitor-Aware and Customer-Obsessed

“When I grew up in Bangalore, I’d never seen a computer,” says Thomas Kurian. The former president of Oracle, now the CEO of Google Cloud, remembers learning how to write while sitting outside his childhood home, and doing homework by candlelight during power blackouts. He credits his “trailblazer” mother, who instilled curiosity and discipline in all her children, with helping them understand the value of education beyond doing well on the next test. Something must have stuck, because Thomas is not the only Kurian in a major leadership position in Silicon Valley; his twin brother, George, is the CEO of NetApp.

In this episode, Thomas and Joubin discuss how he accidentally got into computer programming, giving children the freedom to be curious, how to order a sandwich, leading 60 software acquisitions, knowing your own value-add, innovation through experimentation, investing in the future, and being competitor-aware and customer-obsessed.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Thomas’ childhood in India (03:45)
  • His twin brother George — the CEO of NetApp — and their trailblazing mother (07:40)
  • Nostalgia for simpler times without responsibilities (14:03)
  • Working up the ranks at Oracle, from product manager to president (21:40)
  • The Google Cloud opportunity (30:12)
  • How to succeed inside a huge organization (32:38)
  • The big difference between Oracle and Google Cloud in 2019 (39:35)
  • The “mother of God” opportunity of the cloud (42:35)
  • The advice Thomas gives to other CEOs (48:25)

Links:

Episoder(279)

She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea

She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea

Screens have pulled families apart. Brynn Putnam set out to bring them back together with Board, the world’s ‘first face-to-face game console.’On Grit, she tells Joubin Mirzadegan how every venture sh...

24 Nov 20251h 12min

Synthetic Data and the Future of AI | Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez

Synthetic Data and the Future of AI | Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez

How do companies like Salesforce and Dell scale intelligence across every cloud?Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, explains how they’re building AI that works across all enterprise systems and...

17 Nov 20251h 11min

From Yext to Roam: Howard Lerman’s Second Act

From Yext to Roam: Howard Lerman’s Second Act

The hardest company to build is the one you start after you’ve already succeeded.After scaling Yext into a platform powering millions of businesses, Howard Lerman chose to start over with Roam, the “O...

10 Nov 20251h 25min

Rebuilding Front for the AI Era | CEO Dan O’Connell

Rebuilding Front for the AI Era | CEO Dan O’Connell

The hardest part of transformation is knowing what to let go of.Dan O’Connell, now leading Front as CEO and formerly on the board at Dialpad, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to explore the delicate balance be...

3 Nov 202559min

ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski

ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski

Before AI became a buzzword, a few true believers were already building.Since early 2022, Mati Staniszewski and his team at ElevenLabs have been among them, working to create voices that “actually rep...

27 Okt 20251h 4min

95% Faster Video Production with Synthesia | Victor Riparbelli

95% Faster Video Production with Synthesia | Victor Riparbelli

What’s product-market fit like when you give people the power to do what they never thought was possible?On this rerun of Grit from April 2024, Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, shar...

20 Okt 20251h 8min

From Idea To Impact: How Gamma Is Redefining Presentations | Grant Lee

From Idea To Impact: How Gamma Is Redefining Presentations | Grant Lee

Make your product irresistible, and everything else will follow.That’s the philosophy of Grant Lee, co-founder and CEO of Gamma, an AI design platform with an 'anti-PowerPoint approach', used by over ...

13 Okt 20251h 10min

Leadership Lessons From Snowflake’s Sales & Marketing Duo | Chris Degnan and Denise Persson

Leadership Lessons From Snowflake’s Sales & Marketing Duo | Chris Degnan and Denise Persson

Scaling a business globally comes down to leaders who align teams and drive them forward together.Snowflake serves over 12,000 customers, and early executives Chris Degnan and Denise Persson share how...

6 Okt 20251h 23min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
pengepodden-2
utbytte
finansredaksjonen
pengesnakk
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
okonomiamatorene
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
rss-sunn-okonomi
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
lederpodden
rss-fa-makro
rss-markedspuls-2
boligbobla