Greene describes VMware’s goal of making virtualization ubiquitous by 2000; the company missed that date by about six years. The founding team began with five people, kept its first office inexpensive, and made room for family life as the company grew.
Diane Greene at Startup School 2013
Speaker
VMware co-founder Diane Greene recounts how she built VMware at Y Combinator’s Startup School in 2013.
The founders initially self-funded and sought technically knowledgeable angel investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, John Hennessy, and David Cheriton. In 2000, they held their valuation steady and closed a round led by Dell after other investors tried to lower it when the dot-com bubble burst.
Greene says a large vision needs a manageable first milestone. VMware began with desktop software that let people run Windows on Linux or Linux on Windows, without relying on changes from Microsoft or Intel. The team priced it at $299 for commercial use and $99 for hobbyists, then drew attention through Demo, Slashdot, and press coverage.
VMware lacked the resources to build its own enterprise sales force, so it looked for ways hardware vendors could benefit from selling its product. An IBM technical fellow saw how the desktop product could help sell IBM servers, and a reseller program later helped VMware reach enterprise customers after IBM’s lawyers halted an initial deal over GPL software.
Greene closes by emphasizing the value of bringing a useful product to market that customers appreciate. She recalls enthusiastic customer messages and says each startup brings different challenges.
Takeaways
- Turn a large vision into a first milestone that can be built and tested.
- Choose investors who understand the technology and the market.
- Keep fundraising options open and avoid a valuation you may not be able to sustain.
- Find partners whose existing sales channels solve a constraint your startup cannot afford to address alone.
- Customer enthusiasm can show whether a product is making people’s work or lives better.
Mentioned in this talk
Search inside this talk
What was claimed 16
- foundedDiane Greene founded
VMware“I co-founded VMware with my husband”
0:37inVMware Cofounder Diane Greene with Jessica Livingston at the Female Founders ConferenceYouTube Verified4 sources· Talk, Web· archived
- acquired$75 million
“VXtreme, which Microsoft bought”
YouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- foundedDiane Greene founded VXtreme
“The first was a low-bandwidth streaming video company, VXtreme”
YouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- featureVMware: Virtualization software sits between hardware and the operating system and lets multiple operating systems run on one computer or across computers.
“It lets you run multiple operating systems that can be moved around on a single computer or across computers.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricVMware: 54% year-over-year growth in Greene's last quarter.
“In my last quarter, we had year-over-year growth of 54%”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricVMware: About $2 billion run rate when Greene left in 2008.
“Our run rate was about $2 billion.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- previously atDiane Greene previously atVMware
“I left the company in 2008.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- invested inAndy Bechtolsheim invested inVMware
“We got Andy Bechtolsheim and a few other people”
5:47inVMware Cofounder Diane Greene with Jessica Livingston at the Female Founders ConferenceYouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- invested inDavid Cheriton invested inVMware
“Andy Bechtolsheim, John Hennessy, and David Cheriton”
YouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- invested in
“we went to Michael Dell and convinced him to invest in us and lead a round”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featurePostHog desktop product: Runs Windows on Linux or Linux on Windows without requiring changes from operating system or chipset vendors.
“require zero changes from any operating system or chipset vendor”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- built
“build this desktop product that would run Windows on Linux or Linux on Windows”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role atLarry Sonsini is managing partner at Wilson Sonsini
“Larry Sonsini was the managing partner of Wilson Sonsini”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role atLarry Sonsini is board member atVMware
“Larry Sonsini saying he would join our board”
YouTube Verified2 sources· Talk
- launchedVMware launched PostHog desktop product
“when we started selling it, we just sold it over the internet”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“IBM was going to resell our product”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
