Evan Goldberg has been leading NetSuite for 26 years and counting. In this episode, Evan reflects on the journey of building NetSuite—from launching it with Larry Ellison’s support, to scaling through its IPO, and eventually being acquired by Oracle for $9.3B. He shares his leadership philosophies around humor and empathy, lessons learned from Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff, and why he still feels passionate about the business after all these years.
0:00 Intro
1:30 Lessons from Economic Crises
2:39 The Importance of Existing Customers
4:41 Founding and Early Days of NetSuite
6:49 The Pivot to Business Software
10:43 NetSuite’s Growth and Customizability
20:43 AI and the Future of NetSuite
32:41 The Role of Customizability in NetSuite’s Success
39:06 Balancing Profitability and Growth
41:03 Leadership Evolution and Management Philosophy
47:16 The Importance of Empathy in Leadership
48:59 Navigating Hypergrowth and Tough Decisions
51:28 Consumer Quality in Enterprise Software
52:48 Oracle’s Transformation and Redwood Design System
56:14 Maintaining Focus Amid Distractions
59:56 Company Culture and Humor
1:03:20 NetSuite’s Unique Position within Oracle
1:10:32 Involvement with the V Foundation
1:14:09 Reflections on Founding and Leadership
1:16:55 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Sam Dewees and JR Bohannon
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint’s AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures – a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you’re interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
