The Founder Formula

George Kurtz is the President, Founder, & CEO of CrowdStrike, but his journey to the CEO of a $20B+ company isn’t one that a lot of people would expect. On this episode of The Founder Formula, we sit down with George to discuss what nearly got him fired from PricewaterhouseCoopers, why his lack of collegiate tech background makes him a more effective tech CEO, how CrowdStrike had a remote work...

After growing up in Ann Arbor and attending the University of Michigan, Jon Oberheide and his partner Dug Song started their career as offensive security researchers. They soon found that it’s really easy to break things in the security space but it's a lot harder to build something resilient. Jon joins us on this episode of The Founder Formula to share the story of their journey, and some of...

"The only reason to launch a start-up is because you have to!" In this episode, we talk to cloud entrepreneur and innovator Craig McLuckie. He talks about the time to launch a startup when you see 2 things: a total addressable market, and a moment of disruption. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform or Trace3.com .

Cindy is unique in that she founded her own tech company that was purchased by Oracle. She then found her second company, one that funds entrepreneurs. Her advice? Focus on the things that matter - then go off and build a great business! Cindy believes she has founder genes in her DNA - always thought like a founder. She launched her first company Vivant because, as she put it, she had no more exc...

“Software is a weapon.” And the thing about weapons is, they can be used to attack, or they can be used to defend. And if you know how they can be used to attack, it only makes them all the easier to defend when the time comes. In this episode of The Founder Formula, we sat down with Lior Div, who traded his life in the Israeli army, for a life as a CEO & Co-Founder of a cybersecurity company....

This is a terrible time to be trying to start a company. Right? Maybe not. While it might seem like the worst possible time to be throwing your energy, time, and money into starting a company, what if this were the best possible time to embark on this crazy journey? Gaurav Manglik thinks this might just be your time. And it’s not just about starting a company. If you are starting, what do you need...

After graduating from Cornell University, Tim’s first gig was executing the ideas of others. He soon realized the Data Science and Insight work he was doing wasn’t solving the pain point that was creating usable data. The solution didn’t exist. It needed to be created – and he knew how to do it. Thus, the launch of a new start-up and a founder's journey. Tim Delisle started his company at jus...

What happens when you get the chance to sit down with someone who was the co-founder of Oculus VR, and was one of the chief IP leads for the famed Activision franchise Guitar Hero? Someone who has made a career out of innovation and knows what it takes to succeed in the startup world? You drop everything and have that conversation. We sat down with Jack McCauley to talk about the story of the deve...

Today’s guest is Jake Knapp, Designer, Advisor, & New York Times Best Selling Author, and someone who cut his teeth on Microsoft Encarta. Who remembers Microsoft Encarta? For those of you under the age of 30, it was essentially Wikipedia on a CD-ROM. You’d buy it, and then at the end of the year, it would get updated and you’d have to buy it again.  Stick around to hear what he took away from...

Today’s guest is Elik Eizenberg, Founder & CTO at BigPanda. On this episode, he speaks with us about his enduring love for data algorithms. The more you think about founding a company, the more you don’t want to do it. At some point, you’ll have to stop analyzing all the reasons not to and get started. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platfor...

Today’s guest is Nir Polak, Cofounder and CEO at Exabeam.  Join us as we discuss design partners and how they’re superior to beta testers, benefits of refining your product market fit early in your to market process, creating a heat map of scaling communications, and finding investors. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform or Trace3.com .

Today’s guest is Elik Eizenberg, Founder & CTO at BigPanda. On this episode, he speaks with us about his enduring love for data algorithms. The more you think about founding a company, the more you don’t want to do it. At some point, you’ll have to stop analyzing all the reasons not to and get started. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platfor...

Today's guest is Jyoti Bansal, serial entrepreneur, tech visionary, and co-founder of Harness. As an entrepreneur, the hardest part about taking a chance on an idea often isn’t when the idea doesn’t work out. It’s when it does work out. Jyoti was kind enough to fill us in on what it takes to prove your startup plan is worth a billion dollars. In this episode, we cover being a first-time found...

Today’s guest is Hayes Drumwright, founder or co-founder of multiple startups ranging from tech to the nonprofit space, including a few passion projects. He sits down to discuss with us his formula for being a serial entrepreneur. Hayes has a new wine company as a passion project called Memento Mori, which is Latin for “remember you will die.” It is a great metaphor for how he views life and entre...

Today’s guest is Raja Mukerji, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer at ExtraHop Networks. There is only one purpose of any company: to provide VALUE to its users. In order to do that, you need a maniacal focus on the customer right from the outset of founding a company. In this episode, Raja shares his thoughts on the 2 most important characteristics you need to start a company, the biggest myth...

Today’s guest is Mohit Aron, who was employee #600 at Google. When he left, four years later, Google had 30,000 employees. He joined Google in early 2003 and it was an amazing ride. Now Mohit is CEO and Founder of Cohesity. Listen in as he gives us insight into how Google prepared him for entrepreneurship. why 80% of data lies beneath the surface, how Cohesity is becoming the “smartphone” of enter...

Today’s guest is Guru Chahal, a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (and former co-founder of Avi Networks). In this episode, he told us he looks for three key things in founding teams: entrepreneurs who have a background in the market they want to take on,  the ability to execute, and the ability to monetize the technology. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your fa...

Today’s guest is Kumar Ramachandran, CEO and Founder of CloudGenix.  In this episode, he talks about the balance between pivoting and persistence, why Silicon Valley is a special place for startups, the joy of making your customer the hero, and how to maintain your company culture as you scale and hire. Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform o...

Today’s guest is Phil Tee, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Moogsoft. In this one, Phil tells the story of Moogsoft’s name, why he intentionally tries to make the company’s culture different than other tech startups around San Francisco, and how he’s managed to keep the ethos of the company intact after several years.  “There’s a fantastic line from a Cat Stevens song: you may be still be here tom...

Today’s guest is Mario Ciabarra, CEO and Founder of Quantum Metric. Mario tells his story about working nights and weekends to make his entrepreneurial dream a reality. He also gives advice on how to hone your pitch messaging for VCs, why the messaging for pitching CIOs is different, and the three most important attributes the core members of your team need to possess. Listen to this and all of Th...

The Founder Formula brings you in—behind the curtains and inside the minds of executives at Start-ups that have traditionally only been found in Silicon Valley—and the Venture Capital Firms that fund them. Each interview will feature a transformative leader who’s behind the wheel at a fast-paced & innovative tech firm. They’ll bring you an insider's look at what it takes to create a techn...