We make hundreds of decisions every day, mostly small ones, that are just part of life’s ebb and flow. And then there are the big decisions that don’t merely create ripples in the flow of your life – they redirect it entirely. The massive, life-defining decisions like marriage and children; the career-defining decisions like choosing your first job after college. I’ve had my share of career-defining decisions – leaving a physics graduate program to chase after the dot com craze, leaving consulting for sales engineering, etc. The thing about this latest decision is that it combines both. I am joining Sumo Logic, leaving behind a safe job in marketing, and moving to Silicon Valley – away from my friends, family, and community. So, why did I do it?
Now is the time for Start-Ups in Enterprise Software.
Consumer start-ups get all the press, but the enterprise startups are where the real action is. The rash of consolidations in the last five years or so has created an innovation gap that companies like Sumo Logic are primed to exploit. The perfect storm of cloud computing, SaaS, Big Data, and DevOps/Agile is forcing customers to start looking outside of their comfort zones to find the solutions they need. Sumo Logic brings together all of that innovation in a way that is too good to not be a part of it.
The Enterprise SaaS Revolution is Inevitable.
The SaaS business model, combined with Agile development practices, is completely changing the ways companies buy enterprise software. Gartner sees companies replacing legacy software with SaaS more than ever. The antiquated term-licenses of on-premise software with its massive up-front costs, double digit maintenance charges, and “true-ups” seem positively barbaric by comparison to the flexibility of SaaS. And crucially for me, Sumo Logic is also one of the few true SaaS companies that is delving into the final frontier of the previously untouchable data center.
Big Data is the “Killer App” for the Cloud.
“Big Data” analytics, using highly parallel-ized architectures like Hadoop or Cassandra, is one of the first innovations in enterprise IT to truly be “born in the cloud”. These new approaches were built to solve problems that just didn’t exist ten, or even five, years ago. The Big Data aspect of Sumo Logic is exciting to me. I am convinced that we are only scratching the surface of what is possible with Sumo Logic’s technology, and I want to be there on the bleeding edge with them.
Management Teams Matter.
When it really comes down to it, I joined Sumo Logic because I have first-hand knowledge of the skills that Sumo Logic’s management team brings to the table. I have complete confidence in Vance Loiselle’s leadership as CEO, and Sumo Logic has an unbeatable combination of know-how and get-it-done people . And clearly some of the top venture capital firms in the world agree with me. This is a winning team, and I like to win!
Silicon Valley is still Nirvana for Geeks and the best place for Start-Ups.
Other cities are catching up, but Silicon Valley is still the best place to start a tech company. The combination of brainpower, money, and critical mass is just hard to beat. On a personal level I have resisted the siren call of San Francisco Bay Area for too long. I am strangely excited to be in a place where I can wear my glasses as a badge of honor, and discuss my love for gadgets and science fiction without shame. Luckily for me, I am blessed with a wife that has embraced my geek needs, and supports me whole heartedly (and a 21-month-old who doesn’t care either way).
So, here’s to a great adventure with the Sumo Logic team, to a new life in Silicon Valley, and to living on the edge of innovation.
P.S. If you want to see what I am so excited about, get a Sumo Logic Free account and check it out.
