Balaji Parimi, Founder and CEO of CloudKnox, shares his experiences building the company from inception to its recent exciting acquisition by Microsoft. CloudKnox is a cybersecurity startup which has essentially defined its tech category, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), which involves refining how enterprises protect critical cloud resources from insider threats, whether malicious or accidental. In this conversation with Biplab, Balaji talks through his journey of initially identifying the problem and validating its significance, to then finding the right team as well as investors needed to build and scale a company solving this problem. Throughout the conversation, he shares his thought process and rationale for making key decisions, recruiting a team, and finding investors.“Being fairly technical, I spent a couple of months writing all kinds of scripts… to get answers to my questions, but when I looked at the answers…there was no easy way to address that risk because there are literally thousands and thousands of actions that are possible within these cloud infrastructures” - Balaji describing his research to validate the existence of the market need for a CIEM solution Key Takeaways:  Balaji’s experiences at VMware and other SaaS startups led him to identify the security issues that can arise in hybrid cloud environments. He validated the existence of the issue among his peers at other companies and searched the market for an existing solution but found nothing. He knew these issues would only grow larger as time passed, which gave him the confidence to found CloudKnox.    In the early days of CloudKnox, having knowledgeable, experienced investors and mentors helped alleviate many of the initial uncertainties they faced. These investors were able to guide on key milestones the company should hit, and how to approach as well as think about different phases of building the business. Balaji and his team didn’t set out to build a new category (CIEM). They were patient in their expectations around educating the market, customers and even investors. They knew they initially didn’t have the resources or creditability to tell the world about this new problem, but they were confident high-profile issues would arise and help bring their solution into the spotlight. Founders should figure out the value-add they are looking for in investors. Particularly now, when it’s easy to raise money, founders should be thoughtful about what purpose an investor can serve both immediately and as the company matures. For CloudKnox, early investors were helpful in educating the market, while later investors were helpful in go-to-market and acquiring customers. 

Enterprise Masters

Balaji Parimi of CloudKnox

Topics include Kannan’s background & motivation to start Yugabyte (2:40), his experiences at Facebook with database technology (4:00), how he and leadership team have retained some of the culture from his previous companies (7:00), how entrepreneurs should think about and approach challenges when building their businesses (12:05), what it’s like to develop open source software as a startup and build a profitable business (15:05), and the thought process around bringing in a professional CEO to run the organization (18:01).

Kannan Muthukkaruppan of YugabyteDB

In this episode, we sit down with Kumar Ramachandran, Founder and CEO at CloudGenix, to discuss his experiences as an entrepreneur and advice to founders. Topics include Kumar’s experience founding CloudGenix (0:51); How he created and fostered a successful founding team (4:03); The importance of leveraging early customer relationships to validate and refine products (6:30); Kumar’s advice for founders on achieving consistent growth (10:03); How CloudGenix created a non-linear growth trajectory (15:07); and the key factors to achieving success from startup inception to exit (21:07).

Kumar Ramachandran of CloudGenix / Palo Alto Networks

In this episode, we sit down with Rei Carvalho, Co-founder and former CEO at Emailage, to discuss his entrepreneurial experiences, achieving predictable growth and managing competition. Topics include Rei’s background (1:10); His experience founding Emailage (1:35); The importance of building a successful team (3:06); What he looks for when hiring and how to know when to let someone go (5:25); Rei’s advice for CEOs on predicting growth and profitability (10:48); How to minimize internal, partner and competitor conflict (18:47); and Rei’s career plans post-Emailage (27:56).

Rei Carvalho of Emailage

In our eighth episode, we sit down with Matthew Halliday, Co-founder and SVP of Product Strategy at Incorta, to discuss product management, decision-making and advice for founders during this unprecedented time. Topics include Matthew’s experience founding Incorta (1:35); How to acquire a strong customer base via product-market fit (4:07); How to build a product for a variety of use cases and Matthew’s advice to product managers (8:56); The importance of knowing when to say yes and when to say no (14:55); How to make sense of the crowded BI and Analytics landscape (17:19); and the opportunities Matthew sees for a post-COVID-19 world (24:19).

Matthew Halliday of Incorta

In our seventh episode, we sit down with Manish Lachwani, CEO and co-founder of HeadSpin to discuss the enterprise SaaS market, managing profitable growth and navigating the uncharted waters we find ourselves in today. Topics include Manish’s experience founding HeadSpin (1:35); How to find a product-market sales fit (5:45); The benefits of maintaining profitable growth (8:49); The biggest challenges of scaling a global SaaS company and Manish’s advice to founders (13:35); HeadSpin’s journey to a billion-dollar valuation (18:54); and how Manish and HeadSpin are approaching the new normal of a post-COVID-19 world (22:30).

Manish Lachwani of HeadSpin

In our sixth episode, we sit down with T.M. Ravi, Managing Director and Founder of The Hive to discuss developments in the Artificial Intelligence landscape and his experiences successfully co-creating over 25 startups. Topics include The Hive’s mission (1:09); The philosophy behind their co-creation model (3:50); How they’ve remained competitive against Silicon Valley’s traditional venture firms (6:10); The motivation behind T.M.’s focus on AI (7:00); Recent trends in AI development (10:17); How enterprises are integrating AI operations (11:20); The movement from AI frameworks to full optimization (13:56); T.M.’s perspective on the ‘black box’ risks of AI decision making (14:44); The importance of AI explainability (17:15); Changes in the fundraising landscape (18:53); The consequences of VC consolidation (21:08); The value of culture-building in startups (22:45); and T.M.’s advice for founders (24:39).

T.M. Ravi of The Hive

In our fifth episode, we’re joined by Kathi Rawnsley, Managing Partner of Lowenstein Sandler to discuss the legal framework of fundraising and her successes partnering with startups in Silicon Valley. Topics include Kathi’s background as a lawyer in Silicon Valley (1:28); her role at Lowenstein Sandler (1:48); legal trends in venture capital (3:45); the challenges of an excess of stakeholders (6:10); why unpriced rounds have gained popularity (10:03); the importance of investor mentorship (12:36); Kathi’s term sheet advice (13:54); how to best approach investment terms (15:34); leveraging strong investor relationships (16:50); the difference between corporate vs. traditional VCs (18:30); and Kathi’s advice for startups considering Mergers & Acquisition and/or Liquidity (24:02).

Kathi Rawnsley of Lowenstein Sandler

Venu is joined by Jay Leek of ClearSky to discuss his successes as a cybersecurity investor in companies including Demisto, Verodin and BigID. Topics include Jay's background (0:23); how his experiences running security at big corporations prepared him for his role as a VC (1:03); how the life of a CISO has changed in recent years (2:43); what CISO's can do to keep track of the growing security market (4:28); what Jay looks for when making a new investment (8:07); the difference between best-of-breed and all-in-one from a customer adoption and product vendor perspective (9:20); the movement towards DevOps in data security (14:00); ClearSky's investment thesis (18:45); Jay's view on the role people will play in future cybersecurity delivery models (23:30); his anti-portfolio and investments he's passed on and regretted (25:53); and Jay's advice to founders in the cybersecurity space (27:55).

Jay Leek of ClearSky

A podcast from Wipro Ventures about enterprise software start-ups and how to scale in the world of SaaS.

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Enterprise Masters

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