Happy Sunday everyone.
It has been a while since I had a long technology conversation with my friend Michael Porat. The last time was in 2017…I was actually at Chamath’s Social Capital Office for a meeting and met Michael for lunch (Chamath and I finally taped a conversation this week and I will post it here this week). Michael was still at Cisco on the corporate development team (focused on data centers) and was reminding us to buy and hold Amazon.
Last week I caught up with Michael, now an executive at fast growing Cohesity (which he had invested in for Cisco while at Cisco), on the podcast and went deep and wide on technology trends. Michael makes understanding the big trends easy so have a listen to the episode on your next work out.
You can catch it on Apple or Spotify.
Read on for the show description before listening.
Guest: Michael Porat
Profile: VP of Strategy and Business Development at Cohesity
Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter
Fun Fact: Before Michael was crushing it in the tech scene, he was crushing it as a member of Yale’s national leading NCAA Rowing team.
What’s the Panic About:
There wasn’t any panic this episode, but more so a restrained enthusiasm from our guest Michael Porat. Michael is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Cohesity, an innovative and modern data management company. Like a lot of my guests, I met Michael on/through Twitter, and he has now become a good friend. Michael has been in the tech and data game for awhile, spending over six years at Cisco before moving to Cohesity. What’s great about having someone like Michael on is that he brings this extensive knowledge of tech and data, but explains it in a way that can be understood by everyone. I had a great conversation with Michael about his career path, his love of sports and gambling (shout out to DraftKings), the power of data, cybersecurity, the cloud, QQQ, the investor ecosystem and the future of data.
The Takeaway:
Data is going to continue to grow more and more powerful in the tech industry and beyond. Technology continues to be an area where you have to keep spending in order to innovate and become more efficient.
Favorite Quotes:
“Data is the new oil, and now it is about what we make of it and with it.”
“That’s the nature of investing — you don’t have to get them all right, you just got to get a couple right.”
“One of the key things for entrepreneurs is to be daring, to not accept reality for what it is.”
“Human capital is the secret sauce.”
Food for Thought:
One thing Michael and I talked about was the value of human capital. Michael argued that “there’s value to human contact that you cannot achieve through Zoom.”
PS – I am now doing two ‘Panic With Friends’ podcasts per week. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple.