Sunday Conversation #8: Asheem Chandna, Greylock Partners

Welcome to the eighth “Sunday Conversation,” this week featuring Asheem Chandna of Greylock Partners. For anyone interested in early-stage enterprise technology and company formation, Chandna is one of a very small handful of experts in the field, quietly amassing hit after hit after hit. Chandna was randomly one of the first people I met when I moved to Palo Alto, and we have stayed in touch over the years, so I was excited to have this discussion. Below are six videos where we touch on a range of topics covering all things cloud, how enterprise IT departments will make software purchasing decisions, what his investing style is like today (versus in the past), how Amazon and Google will compete to provide cloud services, and insights into his role as a big-time venture capitalist. If you’re a founder working in these areas, Chandna is one of the best people to learn from. ♦

Part I, Intersection of Enterprise, Cloud, and Mobile (4:36) — Chandna walks through how enterprise IT thinks about devices, cloud systems, and security, including BYOD policies, the assumption that any employee device is not secure, and big opportunity around device and application security. ♦

Part II, Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds (7:07) — Chandna explains how enterprise IT departments think about selecting and designing various cloud systems, discussing what will run on private versus public clouds. He also discusses how software purchasing is done centrally. ♦

Part III, Chandna’s Path As An Investor (4:22) — Chandna’s path from India to the U.S., how he became an investor over time, and what he looks for when writing a check. ♦

Part IV, Chandna’s Investing Patterns At Greylock (5:15) — Chandna goes into detail about the range of his work at Greylock, seeding small companies all the way to through growth capital, which includes the formation of Palo Alto Networks (which went public). ♦

Part V, Thoughts On Early-Stage Enterprise Formation (6:28) — Enterprise-grade products often takes a larger team of engineers working for over a year to put a product in the hands of a customer, which requires more money. Chandna breaks down what drives this side of the business. ♦

Part VI, Amazon vs Google in Cloud Services (5:42) — A more free-flowing discussion around how new cloud companies may want to think about new opportunities given the strength of Amazon and Google in this area. ♦

Audio Recording, Full Conversation via SoundCloud

A special thanks to the team at Scaffold Labs for sponsoring the Sunday Conversation series on Haywire. Scaffold Labs is a boutique technology advisory firm based in Silicon Valley which designs and builds scientific and predictable talent acquisition programs that helps technology startups hire great people. Scaffold Labs has previously partnered with companies such as Cloudera, Appirio, and Nimble Storage, among others. For more information, please visit www.scaffoldlabs.com