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He Built $100B at Google, Then Failed. Now He Runs an $80B+ Company | Snowflake, Sridhar Ramaswamy

EO17:03Added Aug 31, 2026

Sridhar Ramaswamy has seen both sides of building.At Google, he helped scale one of the most important businesses in the history of the internet. Then he lef...

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  1. You Are More Than Your Failures

  2. 00:00First of all, failure is hard. It's a
  3. 00:03little bit like deep gash or [music]
  4. 00:04scratch that you get. You can deal with
  5. 00:06it. It is still hard. I'll tell you
  6. 00:09something. Every startup is an act of
  7. 00:12believing. It's also an act of madness
  8. 00:14because you think you can do something
  9. 00:17that other people have never done
  10. 00:19before. [music] You need to have that
  11. 00:20kind of a belief. It's a little bit of a
  12. 00:22religious feeling. [music] When we
  13. 00:25started Neva, we wanted to build a
  14. 00:27product that was 10x better than Google.
  15. 00:29is just that that is a very very high
  16. 00:31bar. The product that we built was a
  17. 00:34little bit better than Google but not
  18. 00:36really 10x better. And so my biggest
  19. 00:38message to founders is all of you need
  20. 00:41to believe that you can do something
  21. 00:43better. Every failure has important
  22. 00:45lessons but it is important to accept
  23. 00:47failures. Accept that you're human but
  24. 00:50also accept and internalize that you're
  25. 00:53more than your failures. I tell people,
  26. 00:55I tell my my children, I tell myself
  27. 00:57that we are more than our successes and
  28. 01:00we simultaneously are also more than our
  29. 01:04failures. Having that strong conviction
  30. 01:06in who you are as a person, I think just
  31. 01:09makes you [music] believe in life and
  32. 01:11makes you act with purpose as you get
  33. 01:13things done. And honestly, you cherish
  34. 01:16your successes even more because you
  35. 01:18understand that it is something amazing
  36. 01:21and unusual.
  37. 01:25Hi there, my name is Sridar Ramas Swami.
  38. 01:27I am the CEO of Snowflake, the AI data
  39. 01:31cloud. I'm also a proud husband and
  40. 01:34father of two sons that are both uh
  41. 01:36computer scientists. So, uh data and
  42. 01:39computing runs in the family.

  43. Find Work That Makes Time Stand Still

  44. 01:51I have worked in technology and
  45. 01:54computing all of my career. I grew up in
  46. 01:58India [music] primarily South India.
  47. 02:00Sometimes people ask me about what my
  48. 02:03career arc was like, you know, how I
  49. 02:05navigated my early times. To be honest,
  50. 02:08when I first came to the US, I didn't
  51. 02:10even think about working in the [music]
  52. 02:12industry or what kind of job I would
  53. 02:14get. I uh came to get a PhD and for
  54. 02:17somebody that grew up in India, a very
  55. 02:20technically [music] focused, hyper
  56. 02:23competitive but very structured
  57. 02:26environment, doing a PhD [music] is very
  58. 02:28strange because most of the time when
  59. 02:31you go ask a professor what you should
  60. 02:33work on, they will typically tell you
  61. 02:35you should work on something
  62. 02:36interesting, which is terrifying for a
  63. 02:3822-year-old that does not really know
  64. 02:40research to figure out what to do. But
  65. 02:43that itself is a journey where you have
  66. 02:45to [music] understand existing areas,
  67. 02:47come up with brave hypothesis for where
  68. 02:50that area could go and then do research.
  69. 02:52[music] To be honest, what I didn't
  70. 02:54realize at the time was I was okay doing
  71. 02:57research, but I was never passionate
  72. 03:00about doing research. When people ask me
  73. 03:02today what they should work on, I
  74. 03:04typically tell them you should work on
  75. 03:06something that makes time stand still.
  76. 03:09There are things that all of us do where
  77. 03:11we are happy to spend more and more time
  78. 03:13doing it. And after 10 years of doing

  79. Reinventing Himself as a Software Engineer

  80. 03:15research, I actually decided that I
  81. 03:17wanted to reinvent [music] myself and
  82. 03:19become a software engineer. Software
  83. 03:21engineering, writing code is still my
  84. 03:23[music] passion. I love the act of
  85. 03:26creation. I love the act of producing
  86. 03:28something [music] from nothing. And my
  87. 03:31success at Google came because I liked
  88. 03:34software. I liked creating systems,
  89. 03:36[music]
  90. 03:37but I also liked creating business
  91. 03:39impact. And there was no better team on
  92. 03:42the planet than the [music] search ads
  93. 03:43team where technology translated into
  94. 03:45great product and enormous amounts of
  95. 03:47money for somebody like me to grow. And
  96. 03:50so my career has been a happy
  97. 03:53combination of yes being at the right
  98. 03:55place at the right time, but also
  99. 03:57finding [music] things that were truly
  100. 04:00resonant to me. And along the way, you
  101. 04:02know, like with everyone else, I've had
  102. 04:04amazing mentors, obviously [music] the
  103. 04:06founders of Google, but also people like
  104. 04:08uh Bill Campbell, who is known as the
  105. 04:10coach in these areas. He's been coached
  106. 04:12[music] to among the greatest leaders
  107. 04:14the world has ever known. The first and
  108. 04:17most important [music] thing that you
  109. 04:18have to internalize is that every job
  110. 04:20has its own set of requirements. There
  111. 04:23are many things that you might know.
  112. 04:25There are things that you have to learn.
  113. 04:26As a first-time public company CEO, for
  114. 04:28example, I had not really dealt with
  115. 04:31analysts that cover Snowflake from a
  116. 04:33financial perspective. Getting to know
  117. 04:35them, establishing relationships with
  118. 04:37them, and understanding what it takes to
  119. 04:39work with them is something that I had
  120. 04:41to learn. I happily learned it. My
  121. 04:43biggest piece of advice would be every
  122. 04:45job has its definition of excellence.
  123. 04:48So, try and figure out what that is. If
  124. 04:50you don't know, that's okay. Find other
  125. 04:53people that know. get feedback from them
  126. 04:55about what it takes to be excellent.
  127. 04:57That way, you can aspire to be as good
  128. 05:00as the best in how somebody does their
  129. 05:02job.

  130. 3 Leadership Principles for the AI Era

  131. 05:07My snowflake story honestly is a bit of
  132. 05:08an accident. My original agreement with
  133. 05:10the company was that I would come join
  134. 05:12and stay for 6 months. I'm a reluctant
  135. 05:15leader. I didn't start my career
  136. 05:17thinking that I would be a [music]
  137. 05:18leader, but I saw it as hugely impactful
  138. 05:23to the organization that you are a part
  139. 05:25of. Too many people think of leadership
  140. 05:27as purely that of people management.
  141. 05:30You're also a cultural icon that sets
  142. 05:32the tone for what is valued in the
  143. 05:35company. And in my mind, that means that
  144. 05:38leaders need to truly imbue the spirit
  145. 05:41of what the company's products are
  146. 05:43about. I pride myself on being a very
  147. 05:46hands-on leader that knows the details,
  148. 05:49that cares about deeply [music] deeply
  149. 05:52about the craft of what we do. I think
  150. 05:54of software engineering as a craft, as
  151. 05:56something that is a tangible product
  152. 05:58that makes a difference to our
  153. 06:01customers. In Google, it was advertisers
  154. 06:04and end users. Over at Snowflake, it's
  155. 06:06our enterprise customers. And so being

  156. Why Great Leaders Stay Close to the Product

  157. 06:09obsessive about things like product
  158. 06:11quality, making sure that it's the
  159. 06:13highest quality that is there. I think
  160. 06:15that's an important quality that a
  161. 06:17leader needs to have, which is feel
  162. 06:19[music] the mission of your company is
  163. 06:22great products or the best defense
  164. 06:24especially today when there is so much
  165. 06:26changing. It means that you really have
  166. 06:29to focus and understand what is great
  167. 06:32today and what is great tomorrow and
  168. 06:34keep building towards that. I think that
  169. 06:38high quality products that are also
  170. 06:40priced very competitively are the
  171. 06:44ultimate defensibility. Taking care of
  172. 06:46your customers, being there for them
  173. 06:48when things are not going well is also
  174. 06:51equally important because customers will
  175. 06:52remember that you are there for them
  176. 06:54when things were not going well. These
  177. 06:56are some of the things that I think
  178. 06:58create iconic companies. That is the
  179. 07:00number one. Number two, as a leader, you
  180. 07:02need to understand that bringing people
  181. 07:05in, helping them grow, and helping them
  182. 07:07thrive is [music] your most important
  183. 07:10job. I look for people that are driven
  184. 07:13and malleable. Why do I say that? That's
  185. 07:15because in a time that is changing as
  186. 07:18rapidly as it is right now, we want
  187. 07:20people that will go the extra mile to
  188. 07:23learn how to do things better. Will
  189. 07:25strive to achieve more. I also feel you
  190. 07:28need to be very malleable meaning you
  191. 07:29need to be adaptable because something
  192. 07:32that you are very good at yesterday
  193. 07:34might be better done by an AI model
  194. 07:36today. You cannot hang on to that. You
  195. 07:39have to keep learning new things both in
  196. 07:40your personal life as well as your
  197. 07:43professional life. And as a leader you

  198. Hiring People Who Can Adapt

  199. 07:45need to find people like this that are
  200. 07:47hungry that want to get things done and
  201. 07:50nurture them. Give them opportunity. be
  202. 07:53there for them when things are not going
  203. 07:54well and be very supportive when things
  204. 07:57are going well. You need to make sure
  205. 07:59that you learn how to share credit.
  206. 08:01Credit is never diluted by sharing and
  207. 08:04good leaders always share in the happy
  208. 08:07news when good things come out of their
  209. 08:09teams. But they always stand in front
  210. 08:12when things are not going well and say
  211. 08:14you know this is my responsibility.
  212. 08:16These [music] things didn't go well
  213. 08:18because I could have done better. That
  214. 08:20kind of giving both nurturing your team
  215. 08:24but protecting your team is very
  216. 08:27important. This is not to say that you
  217. 08:29cannot have a very high bar for who
  218. 08:31should work in your team. I am routinely
  219. 08:33a very demanding boss. I expect a lot
  220. 08:36out of my team. I expect a lot out of
  221. 08:39myself. But everybody who works with me
  222. 08:42understands [music] that it is always in
  223. 08:44the spirit of making us Snowflake the
  224. 08:47company us as a team [music] better.
  225. 08:49that helps you be an effective leader
  226. 08:52and one that is also very genuine.
  227. 08:54Finally, my life principle is also that
  228. 08:56I'm an open and transparent leader. I
  229. 08:58communicate very directly. I give
  230. 09:00feedback very directly. I take feedback
  231. 09:02very directly. If people tell me that I
  232. 09:04can do something better, I never grudge
  233. 09:07that feedback. I think of that as
  234. 09:08something as a gift that they are giving
  235. 09:10me that can help me be better at it. And
  236. 09:14that kind of an open environment can be
  237. 09:16very conducive to [music] things getting
  238. 09:18done very quickly. and us being able to
  239. 09:20get better very quickly as well.

  240. From Google’s $100B Plan to Founder Failure

  241. 09:26Eric Schmidt, our CEO at the time, made
  242. 09:29me and a few other folks write a hundred
  243. 09:32billion revenue plan. This is like
  244. 09:3320078. We all thought that this was the
  245. 09:37funniest [music] thing ever because the
  246. 09:39idea that one company could make $und00
  247. 09:40billion just sounded so preposterous. To
  248. 09:43be honest with you, the hundred billion
  249. 09:46dollar plan was a little bit of a
  250. 09:48planning exercise [music]
  251. 09:49and uh we worked on it even though we
  252. 09:51didn't really believe in it. But the
  253. 09:53real challenge came just a few years
  254. 09:55later when desktop growth completely
  255. 09:58flatlined. People stopped buying new PCs
  256. 10:01[music]
  257. 10:02and so that meant that our query growth
  258. 10:03at Google stopped. This is when mobile
  259. 10:06started taking off. But the terrifying
  260. 10:08thing for Google the business was that
  261. 10:10mobile just did not make any money. So
  262. 10:13the only place we had growth was in
  263. 10:16mobile search and yet mobile search
  264. 10:18monetized at a fraction of desktop
  265. 10:21search. So we worked 5 years to bring
  266. 10:24mobile monetization on par with desktop
  267. 10:27search and that was the key [music] to
  268. 10:30Google thriving through 2014, 2015 and
  269. 10:34honestly through to today. When you look

  270. When Mobile Almost Broke Google’s Business

  271. 10:36at it from the outside, it can look like
  272. 10:38a smooth journey, but it was an ocean
  273. 10:40full of big turbulence. Something like a
  274. 10:43hundred billion dollar plan was so
  275. 10:45audacious that you could not immediately
  276. 10:48translate it. On the other hand, we kept
  277. 10:50working at it. We had a good system
  278. 10:53would try to improve query monetization
  279. 10:55for example by 5% [music] every quarter.
  280. 10:58That was part of what drove the overall
  281. 11:02increase [music] in Google revenue. On

  282. Why He Left Google to Build Neeva

  283. 11:04the other hand, big achievements can
  284. 11:07also raise questions in your head. In
  285. 11:09many ways, us hitting things like a
  286. 11:11hundred billion, being the SVP of ads
  287. 11:14and commerce at Google eventually led me
  288. 11:17to say that I should do something
  289. 11:19[music] differently. It gave me both the
  290. 11:21pressure but also the freedom to go do
  291. 11:24something else. I went and started a
  292. 11:26company and we [music] came up with this
  293. 11:28audacious thesis that a search engine
  294. 11:30that was free could in fact be a better
  295. 11:32search engine. Looking back, I would say

  296. Why Neeva Failed and What I Learned

  297. 11:35that the biggest mistake that we made in
  298. 11:38conceiving Neva was not setting the bar
  299. 11:41for that product to be 10x that of how
  300. 11:45Google search was. Google has incredible
  301. 11:47distribution. It pays money to every
  302. 11:49browser. It pays money to every
  303. 11:52distribution point. [music] And we had
  304. 11:54to have realized that if we wanted
  305. 11:57people to adopt Neva, we needed a 10X
  306. 12:00product. [music] And until AI came
  307. 12:02along, we were not really ready for
  308. 12:04creating that 10x product. And that's a
  309. 12:07lot of the reason why it did not succeed
  310. 12:09as a company. And look, my company just
  311. 12:11was not as successful as might stay at
  312. 12:15Google. That's okay. I actually think
  313. 12:17that resilience, being able to deal with
  314. 12:19failure, is even more important than
  315. 12:22just succeeding. I'll tell you
  316. 12:24something. Every startup is an act of
  317. 12:27believing. It's also an act of madness
  318. 12:29because you think you can do something
  319. 12:32that other people have never done
  320. 12:34before. You need to have that kind of a
  321. 12:36belief. It's a little bit of a religious
  322. 12:38feeling. When we started Neva, we wanted
  323. 12:41to build a product that was 10x better
  324. 12:43than Google. It's just that that is a
  325. 12:46very very high bar. [music] The product
  326. 12:48that we built was a little bit better
  327. 12:50than Google, but not really 10x better.
  328. 12:54And that was a lot of the issue that we
  329. 12:56had in [music] distribution. In many
  330. 12:58ways, I consider Chad GPT to be the
  331. 13:01successor to Google in terms of
  332. 13:04information. I go to Chat GPT often
  333. 13:08because it can solve problems for me
  334. 13:10with a nuance that a Google search is
  335. 13:13never going to have. I sometimes take,
  336. 13:15you know, just pictures. My coffee
  337. 13:17grinder stopped working. I just took a
  338. 13:19picture of the grinder, put it in, you
  339. 13:21know, in chat GPT and said, "Hey, this
  340. 13:22is not working. what's the problem? And
  341. 13:24it told me probably that the top was not
  342. 13:26screwed on tight. I go and tighten the
  343. 13:29top and lo and behold, the coffee
  344. 13:30machine [music] starts working. That is
  345. 13:32the modern search experience. And so my

  346. How to Keep Building After Failure

  347. 13:35biggest message to founders is all of
  348. 13:37you need to believe that you can do
  349. 13:40something better, but you need to make
  350. 13:42sure that there is a compelling reason
  351. 13:46for users to want to use your product.
  352. 13:48At Snowflake, for example, I tell our
  353. 13:51PMs, our engineers that the bar is
  354. 13:54faster, cheaper, better. Your product
  355. 13:57has to be one of these for it to truly
  356. 14:00succeed. Ideally, all of it. I think
  357. 14:03core principles remain the same, that
  358. 14:04it's about creating value, whether it's
  359. 14:06for consumers or for enterprise
  360. 14:09customers. I think what these
  361. 14:10technologies all do is they disrupt how
  362. 14:13value is created. [music] I think making
  363. 14:15sure that their products are leveraging
  364. 14:19whatever is coming out today with the
  365. 14:21best models into their [music] product
  366. 14:23into how they think about creating value
  367. 14:25is going to be really really important.
  368. 14:2810 [music] years from now if Snowflake
  369. 14:31were to become an iconic company like a
  370. 14:34Google or an AWS I could not be happier.
  371. 14:38I'm hope I hope I'm around for that time
  372. 14:40to actually see it. That's the
  373. 14:42collective aspiration that we are
  374. 14:44driving towards. We want to be a company
  375. 14:47that truly makes a difference to all of
  376. 14:50the enterprises that are out there.
  377. 14:52Snowflake's mission is to use the power
  378. 14:54of data and AI to help every enterprise
  379. 14:57realize [music] its full potential. And
  380. 15:00uh in 10 years, I hope we are well on
  381. 15:02our way to [music] doing this for most
  382. 15:04companies on the planet.

  383. You Are More Than Your Successes, Too

  384. 15:08First of all, failure is hard. It's a
  385. 15:11little bit like, you know, like a deep
  386. 15:13gash or [music] scratch that you get.
  387. 15:15You can deal with it. It is still hard.
  388. 15:18But I think dealing with it [music]
  389. 15:20makes us try harder. It makes us
  390. 15:22appreciate success a whole lot more.
  391. 15:25Yes, NEA failed, but out of that failure
  392. 15:28[music] came all the seeds that were
  393. 15:31there that are necessary [music] to make
  394. 15:34Snowflake an amazing company in AI. The
  395. 15:36team that built search at Neva built
  396. 15:38[music] search at Snowflake. The team
  397. 15:40that built our AI mode in NEA [music]
  398. 15:43is the one that's building Cortex and
  399. 15:46Snowflake intelligence which are the
  400. 15:48successors and uh the future [music] of
  401. 15:50where Snowflake is going. Every failure
  402. 15:53has important lessons [music] but it is
  403. 15:56important to accept failures. Accept
  404. 15:58that you're human but also accept and
  405. 16:00internalize [music]
  406. 16:01that you're more than your failures. I
  407. 16:04tell people, I tell my my children, I
  408. 16:06tell myself that we are more than our
  409. 16:09successes and we simultaneously are
  410. 16:12[music] also more than our failures.
  411. 16:15Having that strong conviction in who you
  412. 16:17are as a person, I think just [music]
  413. 16:19makes you believe in life and makes you
  414. 16:22act with purpose as you get things done.
  415. 16:25And honestly, [music] you cherish your
  416. 16:27successes even more because you
  417. 16:29understand that it is something amazing
  418. 16:32and unusual.
He Built $100B at Google, Then Failed. Now He Runs an $80B+ Company | Snowflake, Sridhar Ramaswamy — Transcriptly