How to Build a Successful Company in an Era of Disruption

The a16z Show

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when a startup becomes a giant—and then has to reinvent itself all over again? In this episode, Martin Casado sits down with Raghu Raghuram (former CEO of VMware) and Jeetu Patel (President and CPO at Cisco) for a deep, tactical conversation on scaling, disruption, and navigating transformation from the inside. They share hard-won lessons from leading two of the most iconic infrastructure companies in tech—through waves like virtualization, cloud, containers, and now AI. They cover: -How to keep innovation alive inside large companies -Why the best companies operate with a founder’s mindset, even without founders -The difference between selling to buyers vs. practitioners -Why the story is the strategy, and how to tell it at scale -How Cisco is rebuilding its startup DNA in the age of AI If you're building or leading through a major tech wave, this episode is a playbook.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you look at VMware's roughly 20-year history, the first decade was us disrupting and growing,
0:06.7	and the second decade was others coming after us to disrupt it.
0:10.4	I think large companies are very good with running many experiments.
0:13.5	What they're bad at is doubling down on an experiment works.
0:16.4	The story is the strategy.
0:18.3	Don't delegate the storytelling to anyone in the company. You go do it
0:22.3	yourself because you need one voice. SaaS broke it, but AI breaks it even further. You have to
0:28.7	use binary language. We're failing in this area. These are the three things we need to do to succeed.
0:34.7	And if we don't succeed, there's an existential threat.
0:42.9	What does it take to lead and transform a large company during a technological wave?
0:47.6	In this episode, A16Z's Martin Casado sits down with two of the most experienced operators in enterprise infrastructure. Ragu Ragaram, CEO of VMware and G2 Patel, president and chief product officer at Cisco.
0:56.6	They reflect on leading view market disruptions from VMware's early dominance in visualization
1:00.6	to the rise of cloud, containers, and now AI. You'll hear lessons on how large companies can
1:05.7	avoid losing touch with the front lines, why real transformation requires founder-like urgency,
1:10.7	and how to structure
1:11.4	for speed even at scale.
1:13.2	Plus, we get tactical.
1:14.8	How to ring fence innovation, win internal adoption, and navigate the new infrastructure
1:18.9	demands of the AI era, from GPUs to bandwidth to secure scalable networks.
1:24.3	Whether you're a founder, operator, or builder, this is a masterclass in driving change
1:28.5	from the inside out. Let's get into it. As a reminder, the content here is for informational
1:34.4	purposes only. Should not be taken as legal business, tax, or investment advice, or be used to
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from a16z, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of a16z and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.