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>> From our studios in the heart
of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California.
This is a CUBE Conversation.
>> Hi, everyone.
Welcome to this CUBE Conversation here
in Palo Alto, theCUBE Studios.
I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE.
We're here with two great guests, Carl Eschenbach,
partner at Sequoia Capital on the board of Cohesity
as well with the CMO Lynn Lucas.
Lynn, great to see you.
Carl, thanks for coming back on.
>> Great to be here. >> Appreciate it.
So Lynn, you know we've been following you guys
for many many years, watching the rapid growth of Cohesity.
Funding round after funding round, Unicorn.
From a start up, to going through the atmosphere
heading into orbit, nice growth.
>> Mid-size company I would say now.
>> Yeah >> Yeah
>> No longer a startup. >> Growing like crazy.
>> No longer a startup, yeah.
>> Good round, good financing track.
Thanks to Sequoia.
>> Well, we're proud and happy investors and partners
with them, that's for sure.
>> Yeah, one of the things we're super excited about
right now, Lynn I want to get your thoughts on this
is that, how do you maintain the growth
because cloud is an ever changing landscape,
data management's really hot and changing.
What's been the success formula for you guys, staying ahead?
Both in terms of continuing to push the brand, push
the message and success.
What's been the formula?
>> Well, I think it starts with our founder,
Mohit Aron, and his vision and strategy
which, if you go back, he's been extraordinarily
consistent on and he saw this massive opportunity
to take hyper conversions, which of course
he's really the father of from Nitanix
and bring it to this whole other
area of data, the vast majority of data
that enterprises have.
That is in all of these different silos and so
really I think that Cohesity has this opportunity
to be a once in a generation platform company
much like VMware
and really change the way
enterprises, protect, manage, store
and ultimately do more with their data.
So, I'm going to say it's less about the brand.
I'm proud about the brand.
But, it's really about...
>> You did a great job the brand, but I think the
execution is.
I think one thing I love about this market cloud
in the next ten years ahead of us is that
you can come into the market with a feature
or a specific thing, like backup and turn it into
a broad ranging high-growth, billions dollars of value.
I think that's what you guys are on.
But I, while we have Carl here, I want to put him
on the spot because, you know, of his experience
at VMware and now at Sequoia.
What's he bringing to the table for Cohesity?
What's his operational knowledge?
What is some of the things Carl's brought to Cohesity?
>> Oh, my gosh.
>> What hasn't he brought.
>> Well, Carl is obviously incredibly experienced
and brings a wealth of go to market knowledge
and connections and advice for us.
I think instrumental in helping us see how to scale.
As well as, change and shift the business model
over to software and subscription.
Which is what Cohesity did last year and is right in line
with the move towards the cloud.
>> Carl, your thoughts?
>> I have to say one of the things just to echo,
so thank you for those kind words.
But quite frankly its all about execution
and these folks at Cohesity know how to execute.
If you just look at their scale over the last
three years and their ability to execute.
It's pretty impressive, not on the technology side only.
But, if you think about their go to market motion
and what they've not both here in the U.S., internationally,
over into, you know, Asia and in Japan
with the joint venture they have with SoftBank
and some of the others.
It's been amazing to watch them scale and to go market
and also the eco-system that they started to build
around them and leveraging partners like HPE and Cisco
as Cohesity has transitioned from being an appliance
solution to being a software and data management platform
and moving the hardware to other partners.
It's been amazing to watch that transformation happen.
So, it's technology, yes.
But, it's also every other component and piece
of the business that's been able to scale
through good execution.
>> Let's talk about the eco-system, cause I think
it's a super important, ever changing conversation.
Especially as the bigger players get bigger
and then the mid-size folks like
you guys get bigger as well.
The relationships change.
You've certainly seen your share, Carl, at VMware.
At VMworld every year, the eco-system has its growth.
It changes over, new value propositions are coming in.
You have a constant rotation
through the eco-system dynamic.
>> Yeah, no.
>> What are some of the going on now that Cohesity's
taken advantage of?
>> What are they...
>> Yeah, so because Cohesity is actually building a true
platform as Lynn was articulating.
If you're a platform in a data center it means two things.
You have to partner with people on the south-bound side
of that platform and the north-bound side of the platform
because everything's going to go through a platform
and because of that you form a very rich eco-system
but you also form sometimes competitors.
In this world everyone I think describes it
as friends and enemies.
They're frenemies and they've done a very good job
at that but at the same time they've really
focused on key partners like an HPE or a Cisco
or many others that can really differentiate themselves
and allow them to focus on what they truly are
and that's a data management software company.
So, I think they've done a really good job navigating
the eco-system and building off of it
and aligning with the right people.
For example you sit here at VMWworld today.
Look at the partnership they have with VMware
they have V-ready, you know, certification
across vsan, their infrastructure platform.
Vcloud Director, AWS, you name it.
So, I think they've done a great job
and that's thanks to people like Lynn.
>> Lynn, talk about the eco-system dynamic.
Because you guys are actively market a big booth
every year at VMworld as well
as Amazon re:invent and other shows.
You have to be out there.
What are you hearing?
What are some of the dynamics that your working through?
>> Well speaking of VMworld and VMware they really
were the original eco-system partner
and I think we believe that north of 70 percent
of our customers are VMware customers
and they're getting better value out of that.
But, we haven't talked a lot about the cloud
and that's obviously a massive eco-system
that's continuing to develop and bringing
those two things together is something
that Cohesity specializes in.
With our native capabilities, with Amazon, Azure, Google
but the other third piece of the eco-system
that we're now developing is the applications
and that's unique to Cohesisty
really redefining data management.
Just announced Cohesity CyberScan based on Tenable
running on the Cohesity platform.
Prior to the, Splunk, running on the platform.
So we're developing these eco-system partnerships
in new ways with application providers.
>> So when are we going to see Cohesity world.
(laughing)
>> I am just so happy to be at Vmworld
it's a great place for us to meet a lot of customers
and partners.
So we'll stay with that.
>> Carl you were talking about, before we came on camera,
about your first VMworld.
You know, oh my god, it's huge, now it's even bigger.
This is the opportunity for firms like Cohesity,
if they continue the momentum.
Building out applications which if you think about it
that's an enabling technology.
You can enable developers to be successful.
That truly is a testament to what a true platform is.
>> Yeah, again, I think, she said they don't have a
big user conference yet.
I don't think it will be long before we such momentum
in the market that we will have a user conference
at some point.
Where you will see a large turnout of people
using the technology.
People from the eco-system there
and then developers as well
and lastly you'll start to see application vendors
like a Splunk or a Tenable who are actually now running
their applications on top of this.
This isn't just data management
but it's also supporting applications
and when you pull those three different you know
constituents together you have a pretty big
opportunity to pull off some type of platform show.
>> Lynn, I got to put you on the spot here for a minute
you got Carl, he's also a partner
with Sequoia Venture Capital.
What are the pros and cons with working with a big time
tier one renowned VC like Sequoia is?
Sequoia's Don Valentine is a well documented story.
Moritz goes on, the young guns in there now.
Get the operating experience from like the Carl's.
Pretty established, they got a great business model,
you know that.
What's the pros and cons of working for
the big time Sequoia.
>> Not seen any cons.
Pros are as you said the operating experience
and I think also the experience in guiding a company
through this hyper growth.
Cohesity is now well over 1200 employees.
Last year, when you and I sat here
much less than that, right?
And they've seen it and done it before with other partners
or with other portfolio companies
that I think is one of the best pieces of advice
that Carl has given us coming into our company
is how to maintain that culture and that focus
on the mission as we move through this tremendous
growth phase.
>> That's interesting, Sequoia loves you when your growing
but then, but they've seen success.
The cons haven't come yet.
But, if you continue to grow there will be no cons.
Everyone's happy and growing.
But, I want to get your thoughts because
Sequoia also builds world-class companies
and they also, Apple the names are legendary.
Your founder on theCUBE told me that he doesn't just
want to get an exit.
He wants to build world class company.
>> That's right
>> Well, exit is not as important as like EMEA.
But in like public that happens.
He's not in it for the cash.
He wants build a durable world class company.
>> That's exactly right, right Mohit has
had a number of successes, Google, Nutanix.
So he's not in this for the short return
and we really are focused on building a culture
and a set of values and a long term sustainable business
and he really means what he says about.
He's here to change the world and data is
the foundation of what most businesses are going
to compete on and he believes he can really empower
organizations to do that and we can build a great
culture and a great company while were helping.
>> Carl when you hear that..
>> I want to piggyback off what Lynn just said
and its exactly what Lynn articulated about Mohit
to want to build a big enduring company that stands
the test of time.
If you look at our ethos at Sequoia
we want to partner with founders from idea
to IPO and beyond.
We're not looking for a quit hit, a quick win.
We want to be with them through IPO and beyond
and build big legendary companies that stand the test
of time and in the form of Cohesity we have
that opportunity and we're well on that path
to build a legendary platform company that will service
both the enterprise in the cloud companies
into the future.
That's our mission, so I think our missions are aligned.
>> Well you just answered the question I was
going to ask you.
That is music to your ears
this is the kind of model you guys want
and certainly you guys do a good job of exiting
out on EMEA and doing, making your LPs a lot of money.
You got to make money.
>> Right, but, you know a lot of people think
when our companies go public this is an exit for us.
It's just an event.
If we believe in the companies were going to hold
long into the public market from that idea
and that seed investment, like we did here
at Cohesity, well beyond the IPO.
>> There's a renaissance going on , I love it because
two things are happening in this next 10 years.
You seen a systems platform mindset come back
versus the quick hits
and also people want to build big companies
they don't want to do the quick flips anymore.
So at lot of young entrepreneurs are, they are in it
for a mission.
This is a new vibe.
What kind of advice do you give entrepreneurs that
are looking to bring that Cohesity model
and get the attention of Sequoia?
What are some of the things that you see as success
for the young entrepreneurs out there?
>> Yeah, so it is around the word mission.
Like we want to partner with people that are mission driven
that are going to have a huge impact on business
and society as a whole and even you know
the social efforts in our world.
So were looking for people that want to change
the trajectory of whatever it is they are addressing
and we think for example with Cohesity
there's a radical transformation taking place
in the infrastructure
and someone's got to innovate because a lot of innovators
today are not coming from the incumbent
it's coming from the next generation
of founders like Mohit
and he's very mission driven.
Build a big company, service a community of people
change the way people store and think about data
and manage it and that mission-centric founder
is one we love to partner with.
>> Final question I'd love to get both your take
on this question, Lynn and Carl is.
When you meet someone that may not be inside the ropes
of technology like the enterprise tech like we are
the few and others and they ask you the question
"Why is Cohesity so successful?"
How do you describe the dynamics of the marketplace
and Cohesity's role in it on it's success?
What is the answer to that question?
>> I think it's really two things.
So one is I think that there is this generational shift
in the architecture that underpins data
and we've got a perfect storm with data doing
exponential growth and as Carl's been saying
there really hasn't been a lot of innovation
in the infrastructure in more than a decade.
Mohit saw that, but then that's combined with
a mission, a passion for customers
and sticking to that execution of serving the customer
and that's making us successful.
>> Carl your thoughts after that.
>> Listen, it starts with technology
and to have great technology you have to
have a great technical founder and we have that in Mohit,
time and time again.
I can go, we've all talked about Mohit
and how special he is.
At the same time you need to build a company
that has a special culture, that can stand the test of time,
that is resilient, that has grit and has passion
and perseverance for the work their doing
around their mission and I think we have all of
that in Cohesity and that's a lot of it's because
of Mohit and people like Lynn that he's brought in
around his executive team.
You can just see that permeate through
the entire organization.
>> That's awesome.
Thanks for sharing the insight.
Carl, great to have you comment here with Lynn on Cohesity,
I know your on the board.
Lot of great things happening, looking to
see what's happening at the VMware parties.
Thanks for hosting some awesome events for
the community.
>> Can't wait to be back.
Bring some of our customers on.
>> Thanks for spending the time.
This is theCUBE Conversation here at Palo Alto.
I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching.
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