VMware Cofounder Diane Greene with Jessica Livingston at the Female Founders Conference

Let's, I'm going to stay here. Oh, okay, right there. Come over. Alright, well, we'll just get into this because I have a whole list of questions and how many we'll get through. So I'm going to selfishly ask a question because I'm very interested. When you started VMware, it was in the late, late '90s. Little irritating time. How many... were any of you in Silicon Valley in '98? Raise your hand.

Okay, we got some hands, we got some hands. I want to hear more about it. I want to hear what Silicon Valley was like and sort of how did you get started with VMware?

Yeah, well, the way it was interesting, the way I got started: I co-founded VMware with my husband, as a professor at Stanford. He was doing research and he had sent me an email. It was actually that one startup I didn't mention I was working on at the time. He sent me this mail because I was sort of an adviser to that, so I never counted. But, um, it actually went public. But, anyhow, he got this email from all these people up at Microsoft about a paper that was supposedly under blind review.

And I’m like, “Oh man, you really got to get a patent filed here.” And then I’m like, “You know, this is just so valuable, your research. We should take it to market.” And then we kind of did it with our grad students and we were... you know, it turned out it was just... we did this thing and it was right at the beginning of the dot-com era, and there was pets.com and web.com and these companies that were raising huge amounts of money.

I can remember I went to some party and I'm talking to this guy and he's like, “What do you do?” And I'm like, “Well, we're building this software that you can put on your machine, like you run multiple, you know, it'll multiplex all the resources.” And he just looked at me and he goes, “This is hopeless.” You know? And like, you really got a dubious idea.

In fact, I couldn't even get a PR firm to come and work with us because it was all about thinking big and this whole dot-com thing. It wasn't that hard to get engineers because we were such deep technology; they understood what we did. But getting business-side people was pretty much impossible. And so companies were just sort of getting slapped together and going public. Well, I don't know if they were slapped together, but they were going public right and left, that's for sure.

Yeah, in fact, the company that I advised went public. I was stunned. Do you have any equity? I did, I bought this Bazaar. So then did your husband... how did... tell me how you got started specifically with VMware. Did he say, “Okay, come on board now. It's like we're making...”

Well, with me, I was like, “I think you should do a company,” and I said, “I'll help you.” And... and famous last words. And then I found out I was pregnant and I said, “Look, I really I'll get it going, but then like, you know, I'm about to have our second kid, and I was like, can't do a startup.”

And then we had his two grad students that were going to join us. And so I said, “I better tell him I'm going to have a baby.” And I did, and they were like, “So?” And so I'm like, “Okay, so we did it.” And then six months into it, I had my baby and it was kind of cool because we didn't have any customers and we were in this little building that you could open the windows. And so I just brought my baby to work and hung out with her like a little bassinet.

Oh yeah, where was I? It was office in June. Oh, it's funny. It was, you know, near town and country, there's a carwash. Yeah, so it's right behind there. And healthy! I had been there before, and they moved out and they called it the crack house because people were doing drug deals right next to your baby. But it's the building is not there any longer.

So did you then... what did you fundraise for VMware, Leonor? How did that work? Because I'm interested in what fundraising was like back in...

Well, you know, so I'd made money from the extreme, the video, the streaming video company from Microsoft, and I always delighted in telling Steve Ballmer and whatnot that they paid for the extreme because they didn't... it wasn't really a great company for them because we got in between Intel and Microsoft in the stack, so we disintermediated them a little bit.

But, anyhow, so we had money. So what we did was we did a friends-and-family, and we only allowed friends and immediate family to do a seed fund. Okay? And then I held back on how much I put in to kind of be fair to, you know, all the founders. And then we said, “Okay, let's do an outside, just to get some credibility.”

And this is sort of advice I've always given people: You want to find investors that really deeply understand what you're doing. And so, and you want to get rich people that deeply understand what you're doing. And so that's what we did. We got Andy Bechtolsheim and a few other people, people done... Hennessey.

So how did you get... did you know Andy?

Like, we kind of knew him. We were a bunch of, you know, pretty deep engineers and, you know, we kind of knew the new engineers. And Andy's a bit really a phenomenal engineer, and David, his partner, David Cheriton was a professor at Stanford that I go...

Answer fool, yeah, a certificate. It was by winter being buddy. And so we just called them up and we told them what we were doing. And, yeah, they were seed investors in Google too. Yeah, and it took an hour only because they got it. They're like, “Whoa!”

Yeah, so they're kind of like that famous Google three were and he wrote the hundred thousand dollar check and said, “Here you go.”

Yeah, we got three hundred thousand. Oh, better story. That is so great!

Yeah, he said, “You know, I gotta check books at my house.” And he's like, “I'm gonna leave it, you know, like, in my driveway, you know.” And I got his address and I'm like, “Is this his house?” And it was like newspapers all over the driveway like he hadn't even been there. I'm like, “Is this really the right...”

And there was the envelope.

Oh my God, a month in it! Sorry, I live for this stuff. All these random little details make things so colorful.

So then you stayed on after the birth?

Well, so... thinner, yeah, it was working so well, and I was having fun. I convinced my mother to come live with me, part of the village to help with my daughter. And I brought her with me. In fact, she was raised... she's like the same age as the EM.

We're really interesting. And so I can always remember how old VMware is. And I just brought her everywhere. Like, when we got more advanced and I started having customers and partners all over the wing, all over the world, she went all over the world with me. And then I would just stay at a really high-end hotel and have them hire a really high-end nanny to take her and, you know, take care of her and take her around. And she just loved it!

Oh, I can imagine! A really high-end hotel!

Okay, so things are going. Looking back on VMware, what were there any mistakes that you made there that you said, “Gosh, for my next startup, I'm going to be sure not to do this”?

I'm always interested in... I think the biggest mistake I made was getting, you know, feeling like it was selfish of me to not sell. You know, because everybody else wanted to. And I was like thought it... we're co-founders or fellow founders wanted to sell, and I thought it would be selfish not to. Although they would have thanked me had I not. But, in hindsight, I'm actually really glad that I ended up leaving VMware because I probably wouldn't have left, and I had several years with my kids, just home with them that I really valued, which I might not have...

A catchier headline.

It was a fire afterwards.

Yeah, did your investors want you to sell? Were you the only one that...

Well, I didn't have any C's, so no, we didn't have these C's. So I took money after we took the money from Andy and David and John. We raised money from Dell and from Dell and a few banks that were wanting to take us public.

Okay, so you were really in control of things.

Yeah, we were totally in total control, which is obviously the kind of place without having to do the ten to one.

So then, been to one voting rights, you had some time with your kids and then you joined the board of Google.

Yeah, right after I left the MRI during the board of Intuit and then a few years later I joined the board of Google.

Yeah, okay, so I'm curious, being on these boards of these super successful companies in addition to running your own super successful company, what kind of things did they have in common or not in common that make...

I wouldn’t say too many companies have much in common with Google.

Yeah, that's true. Well, what it was it about... anyhow, things about... yeah, I’ve had people... it’s about the people, that's what I mean. Certainly in Silicon Valley, everybody focuses on the people.

And so maybe it's just across all of Silicon Valley, and... but those are, you know, Intuit and Google, you know, it's funny. They had Bill Campbell in common, kind of, but they were so different, the board meetings and everything. And really the only female board member... Google I, when I joined, had and still does Shirley Tilghman, who was president, not anymore, but she was president of Princeton. And then Mather, who was, who still is chair of the Audit Committee, phenomenal board member.

And so I’m a third woman to join that board, which is... it makes a huge difference to have three instead of two. We actually, you know, have conversations in the bathroom. Probably very rare.

Okay, so in 2012, you started Bebop and you're very much in stealth mode, right, if I remember?

I singer what do you...

Yeah, well, because it was such a big ambitious... open, you know, sort of investigation, I saw no reason and there was too much interest.

Yeah, everyone wanted to know what Diane Greene was working on. So what made you... how'd you come up with the idea? What made you want to work on this? And sort of how did that one...

Well, I had actually been trying to convince anybody that would listen that they should go start a company to do it because it's very familiar.

My husband is like that.

Yeah, I just like... I really thought, you know, this layer of the stack where you build the applications for the enterprise, you know, because it's so much more complicated where you have multiple users and access controls, and it's really hard to do it well, and I like... it really needs some attention. And I kept... that was sort of the vision.

So you were bugging other people?

I had this great... you really should focus on this, there’s the need.

So you saw this need and did you finally say, “Well, as well then, the co-founder...”

I found a professor at Stanford, he was like, “Yeah, let's just do it!” And I'm like, “Well, okay, if you'll do it, I guess I'll do it!” And then he said he bailed, and then I just like, “Thanks a lot!”

Wasn't your husband?

Well, no, he didn't. He came in after I'd been kind of working on it for a while as a solo founder. Well, then I convinced some of my friends from VMware to come in and I said, “Oh, why not, we'll just call you a founder!”

Okay, so what was it about... and they were great people and they're still there, and you worked with them before?

Yeah, it's just the... mama had that really... she is.

So what was it that you that made you think this is an important thing that needs to be working? What was missing currently? Why? What was...

There weren't good solutions out there.

Well, like, have you ever used some of them?

No, no, have been... already ever used enterprise software, you know? So it over... it's layers and layers of clicking through these screens, you know, really like maybe you just talked to Slack. I mean, do you really have to... you know, it's just so convoluted and complex.

And for power users, you have to have all this rich functionality, but it doesn't have to be, you know, this layer of screens that, you know, like you can use machine learning and things and know what the person is trying to do and help them do it.

And you can automatically fill in everything and, you know, you can just make it like when you're using it, you're just going, “How did it know that's what I was about to do?” And it just makes it there for you, and that's what you... you know, it's just incredible what you can do today that is radically different from what, you know, back when we... certainly when we founded that.

I think people are doing that now. I even think Google G Suite is doing it, but I, you know, everybody's doing it more and more now and especially the phone drove a lot of it because you... if you didn't do it on the phone, nobody was going to use it.

But back then, it was a lot worse.

Yeah, so then what made you decide... you're working on this super ambitious plan that you know is broken and you're gonna do this? What made you sell to Google?

Well, so one thing was there were a few things going on. One was that in terms of being on the alphabet board, by then it was still Google. It had just become... no, it was still the Google board.

Anyhow, as part of my work on the Google board, I got involved in Google efforts just because, “Hey, can we ask your questions?” And so I really made very good friends with... or Huzzle, who is the guy that really... he's employee number eight at Google. He'd built all their employees, amazing person, and really enjoy... I mean, I tell this, he lives near me. We started walking our dogs every Saturday; we became very good friends and talked about... I was just fascinated, so that was good.

And then I was getting to learn all about Google's technology and the... AI and the machine learning and, you know, just everything that Google has, the Maps and knowledge graphs and so forth. And I realized that if you combine that with what Bebop was doing, it would be pretty special.

So they were... so and I was busy kind of helping them find someone to come in and run Google Cloud.

Mm-hmm, and we worked really hard on that.

And sounds like it.

No, I gave them so many names, I'd be like, “This is the person,” you know? And because I really wasn't interested at all. And they convinced you that...

And then I just started... what was a combination of Bebop? It both things kind of... but anyhow, the last person I thought they were going to hire, I thought the person was great, they decided not to there. I thought maybe they weren't googly enough or something, and it was... in Heinz. Anyhow, so at that point, I just said, “Okay, if we can make this work for Bebop.”

And I talked to everybody at Bebop, you know, to make sure they would be okay with it, and yeah, we had just raised a lot of money from a16z and Mark could join my board, and...

God, yeah, were they supportive?

Yeah, I mean, they weren't that thrilled, but they weren't going to, right, problem. They certainly respected what we wanted to do. And it's... and it has worked out super well, and I have to say I'm glad I did it.

The cloud is like... it's really interesting!

Yeah, tell me about what it's like running... running this... the cloud.

So, I mean, for me, being in the enterprise for so long and seeing what's happening in the cloud is... is just... I mean, I am where with like a big sort of mini revolution. This is like a giant revolution in everything.

And the enterprise is just moving so fast, and you know, everything's going to be in just a few, maybe four clouds or so, you know, there's not going to be that many of them because like we spend about ten billion a year in infrastructure.

And so it's not going to get disrupted by a startup unless they invent quantum computing or something. But, I mean, it's been invented, but they make it work!

But we have a process; we have a project to make it work too. But... but the... or make it... it works actually now, but it's hard to use. It's hard to program!

Yeah, it's almost impossible.

And, but it will get there. Sorry, did I grass?

But, okay, so anyhow, it's just, you know, because you know, with mobile and being able to bring all the data together and have the security of the cloud! Like, like, our world? You know, you look at these ransomware attacks.

I mean, we need more security and you're going to get it in the cloud! And you know, you look at something like... you know, you want your OS in the cloud updated constantly and tiny and monitored, you know?

And, you know, it's like Gmail. You know, we have over 1.2 billion users, so we can see everything going on and respond immediately. And we can be constantly vigilant, and you just... you know, that kind of security you can get in the cloud isn't available to a company.

And then, you know, the advanced technologies are there. So every, you know, everybody's going to move to the cloud. And then once you have that scale, what you can build because of what you're seeing is kind of revolutionary.

So it's fascinating!

Wow! We're running... we have now one... say, I have to ask one last question, even though we've just run out of time. If you could warn first-time founders about a mistake that they're going to make, what might it be?

You might not make anyone a... takes!

Oh, everyone makes mistakes! What a lie! Like, I would say you're going to make it a little hard way.

What's something they might learn all that way that if you tell them about maybe they'll try to avoid that?

Well, one thing, I was listening to all these incredible answers that people were giving to this question. So one thing I didn't... and they were all great. The one thing I didn't hear people talk about was sort of board... your board of directors, which I think is... I mean, it can be something you manage or it can be something that helps you.

And you really want to try and have a board that you don't have to manage, but that helps you! Like at VMware, I was able to select my board. I keep... we don't have time to go into the story of how I did it, how I pulled it together, but I picked the people that really had the unique kind of expertise I wanted.

And then my board meetings, I never wrote slides. I just wrote a document, and it had a few metrics about how we were doing, if you know we were doing well, but the whole rest of it was things I was worried about or trying to figure out.

And so I had a board that I could trust so much that I could just say, “Look, here's the things I'm wrestling with. Let's talk about it.” And I don't have to impress you! At first was... I never tried to impress any of them!

Yeah, okay, so the board. And how you... did you... are there any... is there any advice on selecting those people?

It's just people... like, I'll give an example of what I did. You know, I decided... so because we sat between the Intel hardware and the Microsoft operating system, they were both monopolies.

And so it's a little bit sobering. And so I'm like, “Wow, we got to do all these deals, and we got to struggle with Intel and Microsoft.” And I wanted to do all these partnerships with the hardware vendor, big companies like IBM.

So I thought I need someone that's really seen a lot of deals and knows how to structure a deal. And at the time, you know, Larry Son Seanie was a managing partner at Wilson Sonsini. He was, I remember, on the cover of American Lawyer or something as the ultimate power broker and everything.

And I decided that was who I needed on my board, and we don't have time where I'd go into it, it was a really, you know, fun little vignette when I got him to join my board.

But, you know, that was the example. So when I went in to him, I just explained to him why I needed him and what I was doing and why you were specific. Because when I walked into his office and said I wanted him on my board, he said, “Well, I'm pretty busy getting off boards.”

And I know... and there's a lot, but then I showed him how what he knew how to do was unique and he had no idea who I was and how what I knew what he knew was a unique fit to what I was trying to do.

And you got him to say yes and close the deal!

He's like... it was really funny because he's like, “Okay, well, think about it,” you know, kind of thing. It was a Friday night, and I came in Monday morning and I got in at 7:00 a.m. and my son was already... and I’d been in on Sunday so my phone was lit up, you know, back then before Shell funds.

And I listened, he goes, “Hello Diane.” Or I can't mimic him, but anyhow he said, “I'm inclined to join your board.”

And I'm like, “What does inclined to me?” He goes, “I'll join!”

Oh my gosh, that's Korea!

Oh wow! When I got that happy note, yeah!

Thank you.

[Applause]