B2BaCEO (with Ashu Garg)
Episodes
The case for context graphs | Aaron Levie (Co-founder & CEO, Box)
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Aaron Levie has been on the podcast twice before. After we published our context graphs thesis, he wrote a response - so we invited him on to continue...
Why context graphs are the missing layer for AI
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
My guests today are Animesh Koratana and Jamin Ball. Animesh is the founder and CEO of our portfolio company PlayerZero, which is building AI product...
How to Build Artificial Superintelligence | Jonathan Siddharth, Founder & CEO of Turing
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Jonathan Siddharth, co-founder and CEO of Turing.Jonathan incubated Turing in Foundation Capital’s Palo Alto office in 2018. Since...
How to Turn Research Into Real Companies | Ion Stoica, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Databricks
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Ion Stoica, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley and the co-founder of Conviva, Databricks, and Anyscale. Over the last two ...
How to Lead with Empathy and Resilience (Ramesh Srinivasan, Senior Partner, McKinsey)
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Ramesh Srinivasan, a senior partner at McKinsey and trusted advisor to some of the world’s top CEOs. Over his career, Ramesh has w...
How to Solve AI-Powered Search (Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean)
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Arvind Jain, the founder and CEO of Glean. Before Glean, Arvind spent over a decade building Google's search infrastructure. He then...
How to Rewrite the Rules of 'Founder Mode' (Frank Slootman, Chairman, Board of Directors, Snowflake)
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Frank Slootman turns the 'founder mode vs. manager mode’ debate on its head. Frank’s track record in B2B land is iconic: He took Data Domain from...
How to Adapt and Win in Enterprise Software (Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box)
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, has guided the cloud content management platform from a dorm room project into a publicly traded company with ...
How to Build a Company Around Cutting-Edge AI (Srinath Sridhar, Founder of Regie.ai)
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I talk with Srinath Sridhar, CEO & Cofounder of Regie.ai, who has always been ahead of the AI curve. Sri and his co-founder Matt Mi...
How to Build a Multi-Billion-Dollar Software Business (Mohit Aron, Founder of Cohesity)
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I'm excited to welcome Mohit Aron back to B2BaCEO for the second time. As the founder of Cohesity and co-founder of Nutanix, Mohit is...
How to Grow from Ph.D. to Two-Time Startup CEO (Sanjit Biswas, Co-Founder & CEO of Samsara)
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Sanjit Biswas, the co-founder and CEO of Samsara, a platform that helps companies digitize their physical operations. In 2023, Samsa...
How to Win Your First Enterprise Customer (Doug Winter, Founder and CEO at Seismic)
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today is Doug Winter, the founder and CEO of Seismic, a leading enterprise sales enablement platform. Today, Seismic has a team of 1,500 peop...
How to Shape the Future of AI (Naveen Rao, VP of Generative AI at Databricks)
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My guest this month is Naveen Rao, the co-founder of MosaicML and current head of Generative AI at Databricks. Naveen's journey is unique, as it echo...
How to Power the AI Boom (Robert Nishihara, Co-Founder & CEO of Anyscale)
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of B2BaCEO, I speak with Robert Nishihara, co-founder and CEO of Anyscale. Anyscale’s aspiration is to build the fastest, most cost-...
How to Build, Scale, and Sell a Startup (Tracy Young, Co-Founder of TigerEye & PlanGrid)
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My guest this month is Tracy Young, the co-founder and former CEO of PlanGrid, a productivity tool for construction companies. From going through YC a...
How to Deploy AI in Your Company (Matei Zaharia, CTO & Co-Founder of Databricks)
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re not hardcore about AI, then stop the podcast now — because this episode for real technology nerds. Ashu’s guest is Matei Zaharia, CTO ...
How to Capture the AI Moment (Bobby Yerramilli-Rao, Chief Strategy Officer at Microsoft)
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As everyone listening to this podcast knows, the release of ChatGPT last November ushered in a new age of AI and catalyzed a wave of AI startups. For ...
How to Grow in a Bear Market (Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder & CEO of Gupshup)
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Beerud Sheth is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gupshup, a leading platform for cloud messaging. Prior to that he was the cofounder of what is now Upwork, a...
How to Build a Hundred Billion Dollar Company (Jonathan Siddharth, Co-Founder & CEO of Turing)
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Siddharth is cofounder and CEO of Turing, the platform that helps companies source, vet, match, and manage the world's best software develope...
How to Build an Organization (Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder & CEO of Deel)
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Bouaziz is the guest for this edition of the show. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Deel, a global payroll solution that helps businesses hire any...
How to Be a SaaS Wunderkind (Christian Owens, Founder & CEO of Paddle)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Ashu is coming to you from London, where he’s spending the summer. His guest is Christian Owens, founder and CEO of Paddle, a B2B p...
How to Hire People Better Than Yourself (Ashutosh Garg, Founder & CEO of Eightfold)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, it’s Ashu Garg vs. Ashu Garg. Our guest is his good friend Ashu Garg, who also goes by Ashutosh. Ashutosh is the founder and CEO of...
How to Sell Software (Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot)
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Ashu’s guest is Yamini Rangan, the CEO of HubSpot. The tagline of the B2BaCEO podcast is “from engineer to CEO,” and that’s e...
How to Be a One-Man C-Suite (Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks)
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nikesh Arora began his career at Fidelity Technologies, where he served as VP Finance. He then went onto T-Mobile, where he was CMO and then in 2004 j...
How to Lead With Gusto (Josh Reeves, Co-Founder & CEO of Gusto)
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Ashu interviews Josh Reeves, founder and CEO of Gusto, which is reimagining payroll, benefits, and HR for modern companies. Josh join...
How to Build a Decacorn (Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder & CEO of Databricks)
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
DataBricks CEO and cofounder, Ali Ghodsi, is back on the podcast for a third time, making him the most frequent guest we’ve had on the show. On this...
How to Amp It Up (Frank Slootman, Chairman & CEO, Snowflake)
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How to Win (Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign)
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Springer is a three-time Silicon Valley CEO. He’s currently the CEO of DocuSign, which he took public and subsequently scaled to more than $2 bi...
How to Scale Product-Market Fit (Rob Bernshteyn, CEO & Chairman, Coupa Software)
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Bernshteyn’s definition of product-market-fit is having “the least lines of code with the maximum amount of value and the highest willingness ...
BONUS: How to Architect the Future (Max Simkoff, Founder & CEO of Doma)
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a special bonus episode of B2BaCEO featuring one of Foundation Capital’s own CEOs, Max Simkoff. In 2016, Max founded Doma, a real estate tra...
How to Do OKRs Right (Deidre Paknad, CEO & Co-Founder of WorkBoard)
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode goes deep on a topic that many founders, especially first-time founders, obsess over but usually get wrong: OKRs, objectives and key resu...
How to Protect Your Perimeter (Doug Merritt and Mike DeCesare)
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Doug Merritt and Mike DeCesare both hold leadership roles at prominent cybersecurity companies. But before they made their way into the CEO seat, both...
How to Go From Idea to IPO (George Kurtz & Michelle Zatlyn)
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this session from our FC BUILD conference, Ashu interviews two billion-dollar founders. When it comes to scaling management, engineering culture, a...
How to Grow as a CEO (Tien Tzuo and Edith Harbaugh)
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment of our FC BUILD series, my partner Steve Vassallo talks with Edith Harbaugh, co-founder and CEO of LaunchDarkly, and Tien Tzuo, co...
How to Commercialize Open Source (Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder & CEO of Databricks)
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this discussion from our recent enterprise conference FC BUILD, Ashu interviews Databricks founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi. A rather unconventional comp...
How to Manage on the Edge of Chaos (Reed Hastings, CEO & Co-Founder of Netflix)
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a special episode of B2B a CEO. Last month, Foundation Capital held a special event for all of our CEOs. We hosted a conversation with Foundat...
How to Build a Snowflake (Frank Slootman, Chairman & CEO of Snowflake)
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From FC BUILD, our recent enterprise conference, Foundation Capital General Partner Joanne Chen interviews Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman. On the heels ...
How to Sell Yourself, Your Startup, and Your Product (Edith Harbaugh, CEO & CoFounder of LaunchDarkly)
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Ashu interviews Edith Harbaugh, co-founder and CEO of feature management platform LaunchDarkly. They discuss what it takes to leap fr...
How to Be an Anti-Racist CEO (Ralph Clark, President & CEO of ShotSpotter)
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode’s guest is Ralph Clark, the president and CEO of ShotSpotter. Ralph has more than 30 years of experience in corporate finance and organ...
How to Hate Losing (George Kurtz, Founder & CEO of Crowdstrike)
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
George Kurtz, the founder and CEO of Crowdstrike, the most successful cybersecurity company of the past decade, is the very special guest for this epi...
How to Go to Market (Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder & CEO of Databricks)
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, we have Ali Ghodsi, cofounder and CEO of Databricks, a cloud platform for massive scale data engineering and collaborative data scien...
How to Make Your CEO Dreams Come True (Mark Leslie, Managing General Partner at Leslie Ventures)
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In part 2 of my interview with Mark Leslie, we dive deeper into his experience founding Veritas and leading it to become a Fortune 100 software compan...
How to Get Through the Covid-19 Crisis (Various)
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This special episode of the podcast is part oral history of when the plague came to Silicon Valley and part anthology of advice for startups dealing w...
How to Manage Your Board & Everything Else (Mark Leslie, Managing General Partner at Leslie Ventures)
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Leslie is the founder & CEO of Veritas Technology, a company he grew from an idea to a Fortune 100 powerhouse worth over $1B in revenue. My inter...
How to Be Your Best CEO Self (Dane Holewinski, Startup Founder & CEO Coach at Decode)
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the first episode of the new year and new decade, a startup-founder-turned-CEO coach offers some guidance on being your best CEO self.
How to Be a VC Jr. (Adi Garg & Ashu Garg)
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This one is for you really, really early-stage founders. Fifth-grader Adi Garg interviews his dad about startups and venture capital and chocolate.
How to Change the World (Ion Stoica, Executive Chairman & Former CEO of Databricks; & Co-Founder of Conviva)
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Two-time founder/CEO, and Berkeley computer science professor, Ion Stoica chats with Ashu about what it means to have an impact and how to go from aca...
How to Scale Sales (Sudheesh Nair and Ajeet Singh of ThoughtSpot)
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sudheesh Nair and Ajeet Singh discuss the tricky process of handing off the CEO baton. They also go deep on how to build a world-class sales organizat...
How to Create a Mission-Driven Culture (Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty)
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, puts people and relationships at the forefront of her business strategy. In this episode of the podcast, she tells ...
How to Manage Through Influence (Kevin Johnson, CEO of Udemy)
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Johnson led two companies in very different stages of growth. Here’s how he did it and what he looks for in new hires.___Ratuken buys Ebatesht...
How to Plan for Success (Mohit Aron, Founder/CEO of Cohesity)
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Two-time founder Mohit Aron tells me how blueprints and checklists can guide your startup in its earliest stages.___Mohit goes into more detail about ...
How to Hire and Fire (Burton Goldfield, CEO of TriNet)
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Burton Goldfield tells me his CEO strategy: know the results you want and build your company towards achieving them.___TriNet goes publichttps://www.m...
How to Scale Company Culture (Aaron Levie, CEO & Co-Founder of Box, Part 2/2)
10 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Aaron tells me how to scale your company while maintaining its culture and the benefits of going public.___More about Andy Grove’s 10X theoryhttps:/...
How to Pivot (Aaron Levie, CEO & Co-Founder of Box, Part 1/2)
15 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dorm room startup co-founder Aaron Levie tells me how he made the decision to pivot Box from a consumer product to an enterprise solution.___Getting M...
How to Scale Happiness (Eric Yuan, Founder/CEO of Zoom)
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan tells me why and how happiness is an essential part of his multi-billion-dollar company.___Glassdoor names Zoom the bes...
How to B2B a VC (Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital)
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The man, the maniac.
How to Tell Your Company’s Story (Tien Tzuo, Co-Founder/CEO of Zuora)
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tien Tzuo, Co-Founder and CEO of Zuora, tells me how he tells his company’s story when he pitches to customers and investors and how to scale up to ...
How to Turn Failure into Success (Frederic Laluyaux, President/CEO of Aera Technology)
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Frederic Laluyaux’s first startup flopped but he has taken that experience with him to his current position as president and CEO of Aera Technology....
How to Nurture Executive Talent (Doug Knopper, Co-Founder/Co-CEO of FreeWheel)
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FreeWheel Doug Knopper tells me how he uses his considerable Silicon Valley experience to train the next generation of talent...
How to Succeed at Customer Success (Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight)
12 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Super-networker and Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta tells me how listening to people and creating a good company culture has turned the customer success soft...
How to Go from Underdog to Top Dog (Dheeraj Pandey, Co-Founder/CEO of Nutanix)
24 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Co-Founder and CEO of Nutanix Dheeraj Pandey took his company from an idea to a unicorn in just five years. He tells me how he still feels like an und...
How to Go from Engineer to CEO (Jyoti Bansal, Founder/CEO of AppDynamics)
08 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jyoti Bansal’s AppDynamics recently sold to Cisco for $3.8 billion. As a first-time sole founder and CEO from a tech background, Jyoti tells me what...