The $9B Startup Going After Snowflake and Databricks | Renen Hallak from VAST Data
Description
In this episode, we sat down with Renen Hallak, founder and CEO of VAST Data, a $9 billion company that's shaking the foundations of data storage, databases and compute functionality.
Through the conversation, we explore VAST's perspective on AI infrastructure, the process of selling over a billion dollars worth of software, and the technical innovations behind disaggregated, shared-everything architecture.
VAST Data
Website - https://www.vastdata.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/VAST_Data
Renen Hallak
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/renenh/
FIRSTMARK
Website - https://firstmark.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap
Matt Turck (Managing Director)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturck
(00:00 ) Intro
(01:40 ) What is VAST Data?
(02:56 ) The company was started in stealth mode. Why?
(03:42 ) Did VAST get lucky with the gen AI explosion?
(04:27 ) VAST Data founding story
(05:57 ) How does the company work across 2 continents?
(06:48 ) What made you think that you can disrupt the market?
(09:23 ) VAST architecture explained
(23:08 ) Moving from data storage to databases
(25:01 ) What was the hardest thing to build?
(26:32 ) How does VAST work with open source
(26:54 ) A glimpse into the future products
(28:22 ) The world without VAST: how it would've looked like
(29:45 ) Who were VAST's first customers?
(30:56 ) How do hedge funds use VAST?
(32:08 ) VAST's sales strategy
(34:04 ) Renen's transition from technical founder to CEO
(36:01 ) How do you hire great people?
(37:07 ) What was the hardest thing on your journey as a CEO?
(38:43 ) $9B CEO daily routine
(40:17 ) Difference between offices in NY and Israel
(42:07 ) Renen's learnings from sales
United States
