He quit Google, launched Rubrik—then grew to $1B ARR & a $16B market cap. | Soham Mazumdar, Co-Founder Rubrik & Wisdom AI

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

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