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>> Narrator: From the heart of Silicon Valley,
its theCUBE.
Covering CloudNOW 7th Annual Top Women Entrepreneurs
in Cloud Innovation Awards.
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>> Hi, Lisa Martin with theCube, on the ground at Facebook
Headquarters.
We're here for the seventh annual CloudNOW Top Women
Entrepreneurs in Cloud innovation.
Welcoming back to theCube, Idit Levine,
who was a winner of one of the awards tonight.
Idit, welcome back to theCube.
>> Thank you so much, it's great to be here.
>> You are the co-founder and CEO of solo.io.
>> Idit Levine: Right.
>> So, Solo, I think Han Solo, StarWars,
I know there's a different impetus for the name there.
>> Idit Levine: Yeah.
>> I want to talk about, you've been on theCube before
talking about the technology,
but I'd love for our audience tonight,
you are here receiving an award for one, of being
one of the innovators, top women in Cloud.
Tell us a little bit about the founding of the company,
what was the inspiration from a technology perspective,
but also as a female technologist, not easy to get funding,
tell us a little bit about your backstory.
>> Yeah, so I work in the start up most of my life.
So I was in Foundry, in a companies,
not, I wasn't founding them.
And so, you know, working in one company who got acquired,
then I moved to another one who got acquired,
then I was the CTO of Cloud Management Division in EMC.
Much easier to be in a big company,
but what drive me to actually start Solo was,
because I really saw the need.
And did end up actually solving a
real problem in the industry.
But as you said, it's not easy.
So at the beginning I was very naive,
I thought, well I already did a lot of open source project,
already have a really good kind of like, you know
a bitrun of doing and innovative, and so on,
I should just get the money, right.
So yeah right, no.
(laughs)
It's not working like this.
It's harder to get the money.
And also working, I'm specifically in the East coast,
which make it even harder.
And I'm the only founder.
Which mean that it even make it much, much harder.
(laughs)
So when I started actually, I raised money in the beginning.
You know there was a lot of question, like for instance,
why don't you have a partner?
And so on, I was insisting on not taking one because
I felt that I can enter the product myself, right now.
And there's nothing to say yet, so there's no point of
bringing the business, and I'm a smart dude, I will learn.
And that worked really, really well.
So, I took the money eventually from,
actually in the West coast, actually from a true venture
and an amazind pundit, which is amazing, amazing investors,
which was just like clear to me that that was the guy
who need to go with me.
And, we started a company a year and a half ago.
But, part of the reason that I call the company Solo is
kind of like in a way to explain that I can do it, right?
We can do it, even that I'm a woman,
and even that I'm tech, I can do these things by myself,
so that's part of it.
>> I hope you have stickers and pens for when people walk
into your offices that says, I can do it, we can do it.
That's a great name, and I love the history behind that.
But you've fought some pretty big up hill battles,
but in a short period of time, getting funding.
What's your advice to your peers, either in this generation
now or women in the next five years who have a great idea,
they have the technical expertise like you do to move
forward and just absorb that friction that's going to come
your way, how did you do that?
>> So actually my motto is really simple, just be the best.
So like, I had a great mentor before, we said it right.
People will try to stress you in your way and try to
explain why you're not doing a good job and try to
explain why they're doing a better job.
But in the end of the day, people cannot, at least for me
I'm a big data driven person, data is the most important
thing, so what I did is just, instead of talking,
I just was doing.
And you know, it was hard in a point of conflict,
ignore that, because we're doing really well.
Our idea is really good.
And again, and again.
And persistently, we're doing well.
That eventually it was just, you can ignore that.
So it wasn't an easy way though.
>> No definitely not.
You make it sound easy, but your persistence and
your determination clearly are essential.
Tell us about the culture that you want to,
as your company as solo.io continues to grow,
what are some of the parts of wisdom that you're going
to insist that your leadership team has,
like someone that maybe has software skills that are
eseential, not just the technical expertise,
in order for this fast culture of, we can do this,
to flourish?
>> Yeah, so I mean, I have an amazing team.
And I have to say, what I'm trying to do,
my motive is that, I know what I'm good at,
but there's stuff that I'm less good at.
And my job is to basically surround myself with an
amazing A plus team and just let them go.
So that's exactly what we're doing.
I mean, I'm in charge, I'm the CEO.
And I overlook of all the company,
doing a lot of the work of with the, managing the
engineering, but I have amazing leaders who is going out
to this job.
I have, I'm doing a lot of the product but I did want
a strong, strong people next to me.
So if its my VP of Sales,
and my field CTO,
so I think that the most important thing in the company
right now, and this is what we're working on,
is the openness.
You know, we're not making any decision,
we're just sharing it with the amazing energy,
and I think this is the key.
It wasn't simple, I mean there were people who didn't fit
and there was people that we needed to let them go,
because, I'm very precise about that,
we should be the best.
And in order to be the best,
you need to have the best people.
>> And you want more of the best, because you're hiring.
Where can people go to find more information?
The website?
>> Yeah they can totally go to the website,
and just we're everywhere, like Twitter and LinkedIn,
so you can just find us.
And yeah just come and work for, it's really cool.
It's going really well.
>> Well, Idit you have such a great energy, thank you so much
for joining us on the program.
And also congratulations on the award that you won tonight.
>> Thank you so much.
>> I want to thank you for watching theCube, Lisa Martin
for theCube on the ground at Facebook headquarters.
Thanks for watching.
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