He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI
Description
Soham co-founded Rubrik by taking what he learned from building Google's data center tech to enterprises desperate for cloud migration. Two quarters later, he hit $1M ARR. And a few years later, a $16B IPO.
Soham breaks down why paid pilots beat free trials, how to sell enterprise hardware before it works, and why early customers become your biggest champions when you solve real pain.
Now building WisdomAI after watching the ChatGPT moment unfold, he shares what's different about competing in AI's gold rush versus owning an ignored category.
Why You Should Listen:
- Why early customers endure broken products
- How he hit $1M ARR in 2 quarters selling enterprise hardware
- Why you should always charge for pilots
- Customer feedback is the only PMF signal that matters
Keywords:
Rubrik, Soham Mazumdar, enterprise sales, data backup, IPO, product market fit, B2B SaaS, cloud migration, WisdomAI, data centers
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:26 Leaving Google to start a company
00:11:00 Building the founding team
00:14:27 Landing the first customer in Australia
00:22:30 Hitting $1M ARR in two quarters
00:25:42 Go-to-market strategy and the DeLorean stunt
00:30:30 When Arvind left to start Glean
00:34:10 Starting WisdomAI after the ChatGPT moment
00:51:22 Advice for early stage founders
Retry