VMware Cofounder Diane Greene with Jessica Livingston at the Female Founders Conference | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Diane Greene shares her experiences in co-founding VMware, her time on boards of Google and Intuit, and her current venture with Bebop in the cloud computing industry.

Key Insights

• 👩 Silicon Valley and the late 90s: The speaker co-founded VMware in the late 90s and mentions the dot-com era, where companies were raising large amounts of money and going public.
• 👦 Balancing work and family: The speaker shares how she managed to start a company while being pregnant and even brought her baby to work. She emphasizes the importance of family support in entrepreneurial endeavors.
• 🌐 The revolution of cloud computing: The speaker mentions the importance of cloud computing in the enterprise world and its potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate, especially with the combination of AI and machine learning.
• 🚀 The importance of a supportive board of directors: The speaker advises first-time founders to carefully select members of their board of directors, choosing individuals who have unique expertise and can provide valuable guidance and support.
• 💡 Recognizing market need and opportunity: The speaker saw a need for improved enterprise software and believed in the potential of building applications for the enterprise. She encourages founders to identify gaps in the market and pursue ambitious ideas.
• 💼 Fundraising challenges: The speaker describes her experience raising funds for VMware, including a friends-and-family round and eventually bringing in outside investors who deeply understood the technology.
• 🌎 The power of partnerships: The speaker highlights the importance of establishing partnerships with other companies, especially large organizations, to drive growth and success in the enterprise space.
• 📈 The growth potential of cloud computing: The speaker mentions the rapid growth and adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise world, predicting that most companies will eventually move to the cloud due to its scalability, security, and advanced technologies like machine learning.

Transcript

let's I'm going to stay here oh okay right there come over alright well we'll just get into this because I have a whole list of questions and how many we'll get through so I'm going to selfishly ask a question because I'm very interested when you started VMware was in late late 90s little irritating time how many were any of you in Silicon Valley i... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Diane Greene get started with VMware?

Diane Greene got involved in VMware through her husband, a professor at Stanford University, who initially sent her an email about a valuable research paper that prompted her to suggest commercializing the technology.

Q: What challenges did Diane face when trying to get business-side professionals to join VMware?

Diane Greene found it difficult to recruit business-side professionals to join VMware during the dot-com era due to the obsession with thinking big and the uncertainty surrounding new technology companies.

Q: How did Diane fundraise for VMware?

Diane initially raised funds through a friends-and-family round, followed by an outside funding round with investors like Andy Bechtolsheim and John Hennessy, who understood the technology and its potential.

Q: What led Diane to sell Bebop to Google?

Diane saw the potential in combining Google's technology, including AI and machine learning, with Bebop's vision of revolutionizing enterprise software. Building on her friendship with Urs Hölzle, she decided to sell Bebop to Google and join their board.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Diane Greene co-founded VMware with her husband while working as an advisor at Stanford University during the dot-com era.

• She faced challenges in getting business-side professionals to join the company due to the focus on thinking big in the dot-com bubble.

• Diane talks about her experiences with fundraising for VMware, her decision to leave the company, and her journey as a tech pioneer, including her current role at Bebop and joining the board of Google.