Enterprise VC-engineer-company builder. Early investor in @databricks, @tubi and 6 other unicorns - @cohesity, @eightfold, @turing, @anyscale, @alation, @amperity, | GP@Foundation Capital
Something that stuck with me during my interview with Naveen Rao, VP of Generative AI at Databricks: "I take the hard path." He built an AI-focused chip company Nervana in 2014 when machine learning was still academic theory and the chip industry was deeply out of favor. Naveen saw computing architecture would need to fundamentally change for ML workloads. And then in 2019, observing the power of LLMs like BERT, Naveen foresaw the need for enterprise-grade services to manage their training, deployment, and customization. That vision led to a $1.3B acquisition by Databricks in 2023. What I love about Naveen's approach is his willingness to build for markets that don't exist yet. "There isn't a market, employees don't even know about it. So how the hell do you build a company?" You educate. You convince. You get people to see what you see. It's brutal work, but it's important work. You're reshaping how people think about problems.
Mark Donnigan
1mo
This reminds me of the early days of companies like Apple, where visionaries saw a future for personal computing long before it was a staple in every home. Building belief in unseen markets requires not just technical innovation but also the art of storytelling to inspire and bring others along on the journey. The challenge lies in creating value through foresight, pushing boundaries until others recognize what you already knew.
Sneha Rudra
1mo
👏Building for markets that don’t yet exist; getting people to see what you see is one of the most remarkable qualities!
Supratim Biswas
1mo
People who change the world take the hard path 🙏🏽Respect
Wow .. inspiring.. thanks for sharing Ashu Garg
Anant Misra
1mo
That’s inspiring! 👏 Would love to learn more from Naveen.
Niraj R.
1mo
😎
This resonates so well Naveen Rao 👏👏
CMO | Scaling High-Growth GTM Teams | Category Leadership | Stanford GSB Guest Lecturer
1moThis is particularly hard and very few can do successfully. When you pitch to VCs to fund such an idea - the reaction is "I'm not hearing about such a problem or pain point - it's just not on the radar let alone top of mind with enterprise buyers". You need some very special VCs to go along with these special founders to go build for markets that don't exist. Evangelism alone is not enough - you need people that can see your vision and look around the bend. Thanks for sharing and supporting these mavericks Ashu Garg