The Exchanges

Q You made another acquisition of a company called Streamlet that I, I think we're also both familiar with. Can you talk about, um, the rationale for that?

A Streamlit is, is a company that does visualization animation, um, you know, for, for Python applications, but specifically in the world of machine learning. The problem with machine learning is, um, if you're not a programmer, it's pretty damn hard to consume, you know, what, what it is and how it works. Um, but Streamlit is almost reflexively reached for by Python programmers to basically make a machine learning model Consumable by a general business, uh, user, you know, you can manipulate the variables and it just redraws everything. Visualization animation. Uh, and, and that's, we, the reason that we acquired Streamlit is a, you know, that's certainly, we have to have visualization and animation. And by the way, this also touches the world of BI because a lot of people use Streamlit, you know, for the same reason that they would use BI type of products, but this is just much more Um, you know, specific to all kinds of reporting and use cases and, and, and, and dashboarding. Um, so what we wanted to do with Streamlit is to bring it inside Snowflake. We call it Streamlit in Snowflake. And the reason is you need to have that hardcore, trusted, sanctioned governance perimeter, um, because otherwise people, people will not allow the business to use these kinds of applications. Governance is a really big deal because the data needs to be sanctioned and trusted. And the business sh…

AI assessment note: “the reason that we acquired Streamlit is a, you know, that's certainly, we have”

Q You mentioned some very large scale evolutions in terms of just the data world there. Uh, what are some of the other future directions that you're most excited about or the big thrusts that you see coming in terms of data?

A Data is going to redefine whole industries. Okay. And that, that, that's what I find the most interesting. And the reason I say that is, uh, first of all, you know, nine out of 10 conversations I have with customers are not technology and architecture and all that and migrations. It's about industry use cases. It's about call centers. It's about, you know, making medicine predictive, you know, for example, because everybody knows, you know, healthcare is, is economically, you know, not viable, uh, at the scale that we need to deliver it. And so data can make us, you know, predictive and prescriptive, right? We can, if we have enough data, you know, we can tell who is at risk for what disease, when, And what they need to do. All data driven. This is not, well, we, this is not somebody's opinion. The data just, data doesn't have opinions, ok? It just, that's what it is. And it gives you the accuracy to go with it. So the more depth and breadth of data that you have, the more that certain that stuff becomes. But this is, this is how, uh, healthcare will become, uh, much more effective, obviously, because you don't, you're no longer reacting to disease and symptoms. But you're getting ahead of it. And every, every healthcare institution, you know, that we talk to and they're a customer of ours, this is where they want to go. This is where they need to go. They don't want to treat d…

AI assessment note: “Data is going to redefine whole industries. Okay. And that, that, that's what I find the most interesting.”

Q how to manage differently through this, you know, economic downturn or the shift in spend or the shift in the macro environment. You obviously are known as a CEO who is very good at making tough choices and, you know, prioritizing in both good times and bad times. How should people think through managing differently in this, in this changing economic environment? What are the first things people should do?

A You know, I mean, I see all these layoffs, you know, with Amazon and Meta and Google and all this kind of stuff. And, and, Um, we, we don't do layoffs because we don't wait until there is a, you know, huge headwind. Um, we're always pruning the tree, so to speak, right? So we don't have to do it as some massive event that is super unsettling. Um, you know, Management of resources is something that should be happening on a daily basis, not just performance, but also, you know, bringing supply and demand in sync with each other. Alignment that should be happening constantly. But the culture is sort of evolved over the years where it's just, it's just unfathomable. That's a word where you just, they can't conceive of being so confrontational that we're going to take somebody out of a job. So we just look the other way until we get a crisis. And then we started ripping out, you know, tens of thousands of people. I just don't think that's, that's, uh, fair as, as well as effective, right? I mean, so you're, this is the reason my world doesn't change all that much because I was already doing it. So, uh, these are just more, uh, sort of management practices and, and, and, and ways of thinking about, you know, how you run things, um, you know, rather than, oh gosh, we have economics halfway now. We need to change everything we're doing. No, you don't. You just need to run things, you k…

AI assessment note: “Management of resources is something that should be happening on a daily basis”

Q about Snowflake and, and then what's going on in AI. Um, can you just give our listeners a sort of Snowflake one-on-one, you know, what is the sort of scale and core innovation and use case of Snowflake today? Um, and we can talk about, uh, how the, how the, um, company has been evolving from warehousing to cloud, uh, the data cloud and application platform and AI after that.

A Yeah. Our founders probably would argue immediately with you that they were never a warehousing place. So they sort of want to forgive me. Yeah, you're forgiven. Um, but, and there's a reason for it because, you know, they were dealing with semi-structured data right from the get go and sort of the workload types were, were more than just sort of batch, uh, analytical, you know, type of stuff, which is mostly associated with, with data warehouse. And that's also purely structured data. Um, so there was, there was always a broader, Uh, scope and focus, but our founders were two French guys, long time, you know, Oracle, uh, CTOs, technologists, uh, architects. They were really responsible for making Oracle from the departmental level. You probably can't remember that far back, but Oracle at one point in time was a departmental platform to the enterprise platform that it became. So things like parallel SQL, you know, we're all things that came, you know, from them. So they, they left and You know, they wanted to reimagine database management, you know, for lack of a better word, for cloud computing. In other words, they didn't want to carry technology forward or as little as they could. They wanted to reimagine. So, you know, building a data base or a data platform, whatever you want to call it for cloud computing was very different than just sort of taking the Postgres SQL kernel…

AI assessment note: “most notably that most people know is the separation of storage and compute”

Q So one of the core messages in Amp It Up is about, um, the importance of urgency. Um, and you talk a lot about how to create it. I guess maybe a more difficult question is, why do you think a bunch of CEOs and leaders don't push for more urgency or higher standards?

A Well, I know you guys have been to a California DMV before. You want to see a lack of urgency? You know, um, this is what naturally happens to human beings. It's, it's just, it's innate. We slow down to a glacial pace unless there are People who are going to drive tempo and pace and intensity and urgency. That's what leaders need to do because people naturally slow down. They're like, well, I need to be here anyways. And, you know, and they're sort of, their mind is wandering off on their next vacation or what they're going to do on the weekend. And it's like, you know, you, you need to set, you know, high focus, high intensity, uh, high preoccupation, you know, with, with what we're doing. I mean, the people sometimes ask me, what's the message of your book? And I'm like, read the title. Okay. That is the message. Look, there is a, there is an X factor. There's an enormous amount of room in the margin that is right under your notes. Okay. And you have the opportunity to take it up in the next meeting, in the next podcast, in the next email, in the next Slack message, you can take it up. You know, you can push the urgency. You can push the standards, right? You can push the alignment, right? You have all these opportunities. Are you taking them? It's an easy message, but it's really hard to have the mental energy To bring that to every single instance of the day, right? And tha…

AI assessment note: “it's really hard to have the mental energy To bring that to every single instance”

Q Alad and I talk to a lot of people joining entrepreneurial ventures, and they're always trying to figure out where to go. Um, that is often where their friends go, and sometimes it's where investor friends will direct them. What advice would you have for people choosing that company in terms of the things you can't change?

A You know, it's, it's a great question. I, I, I get asked a couple of times a year to speak to graduating classes at really prominent business schools and all that sort of thing. And they always ask me, is there, is there one message that you have for the graduating class? I'm like, well, you know, don't, don't go working for some consulting firm, you know, out of school, right? Try to get a real job in the real economy, building real products, selling real products. He says, you really need to feel what it's like, you know, to sort of be in the drive train of the economy, as opposed to I'm just eating out of somebody else's trough. And I start, I kind of sit on the vessel and glide along and I'm feeling good about myself, but you haven't really touched a real economy yet. And I, I really wish that for, for people early on in their careers to sort of feel the heat of competition and, and, and also the cold winds of threat of markets that are, you know, disappearing because that's the real world. And a lot of people choose jobs that are very removed from the real world. I don't think that's helpful for, for people's development in their careers.

AI assessment note: “don't go working for some consulting firm, you know, out of school”