Early Life and Sailing:
Diane Greene grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, with a passion for sailing and racing. She won the national dinghy championship in 1976, demonstrating her love for the ocean and vessels.

Naval Architecture and Ship Design:
Greene pursued a degree in mechanical engineering and later studied naval architecture at MIT. She designed a roll-on roll-off cargo carrier and used computers to calculate the ship’s stability.

Transition to Computing:
After working at a consulting firm in San Francisco, Greene learned Fortran and became involved in computer work. She recognized the limited opportunities for women in naval architecture and eventually returned to school to study computer science.

Windsurfing Adventures in Hawaii:
Greene lived in Hawaii for a period, pursuing her passion for windsurfing. She engaged in challenging windsurfing experiences, including a treacherous windsurfing journey from Maui to Molokai and back.

Expertise in Computing and Startups:
Greene co-founded and served as CEO of VMware, leading the company to a $2 billion run rate and a successful IPO. She was involved in the acquisition of Bebop by Google and subsequently became the leader of Google’s cloud business.

Introduction:
This transcript is a segment of a presentation given by Diane Greene, a renowned tech entrepreneur and pioneer. It focuses on the beginning of her career in computer science and her journey through some of the earliest tech companies.

A Shift Towards Computing:
While earning a degree in naval architecture, Greene became fascinated by the field of artificial intelligence, influenced by her conversations and interactions with friends working in AI.

Pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science:
After exploring her options in the windsurfing industry, Greene chose to return to academia and pursued a master’s degree in computer science at Berkeley, specializing in databases.

Early Role at Sybase:
Her first tech job was as a maintenance engineer at Sybase, an early database company, where she gained extensive knowledge by working with all the codebases. With a colleague from Sun, she developed asynchronous IO, leading to improved benchmark results for Sybase.

Roberta Henderson’s Impact:
She worked with a remarkable computer scientist, Roberta Henderson, who advocated for SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) support in Sybase’s products. Ignoring Henderson’s advice, Sybase faced challenges that might have been avoided had they listened to her expertise.

Transition to Tandem:
Following Henderson’s departure from Sybase, Greene joined Tandem, which was known for its exceptional fault-tolerant transaction processing system. Jim Gray, a renowned computer scientist, was among the talented individuals at Tandem during that time.

Advocating for Openness:
Recognizing the growing significance of open systems, Greene pushed for porting Tandem’s products to an open world beyond the Guardian operating system. Encountering resistance to this idea, she left Tandem and eventually joined SGI (Silicon Graphics).

From Venture to Success:
Diane Greene’s initial company, The Extreme, focused on low bandwidth streaming video. Despite being ahead of its time, Microsoft recognized the potential and acquired it for $75 million.

Entrepreneurial Lessons:
Greene learned valuable lessons about management, communication, and team dynamics from her first venture.

Second Act:
Greene assisted a startup in developing the first internet ad serving company, which eventually became DoubleClick, now owned by Google.

Virtualization Revolution:
Inspired by her husband’s research, Greene co-founded VMware to commercialize virtualization technology on standard hardware.

Team Building and Scaling:
VMware’s success stemmed from its exceptional engineering team and Greene’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Greene implemented a systematic approach to scaling the company, hiring key personnel when needed.

Conquering Nervousness:
Greene overcame her fear of public speaking by conducting weekly company all-hands meetings, which helped her become more comfortable in front of large audiences.

IPO Triumph:
VMware’s IPO in 2007 was a resounding success, with its stock price surging over 75% on the first day of trading.

Lessons and New Beginnings:
Greene reflected on her experiences at The Extreme and VMware, recognizing the importance of lessons learned. Despite not planning to start another company, she co-founded Bebop after convincing a respected Stanford professor to join her.

Joining Google:
The decision to join Google as the head of the cloud business was complex, involving considerations of scale, impact, and the opportunity to tackle new challenges.

Google Cloud Adoption:
After a successful funding round, Diane Greene proved her faith in VCs by raising money from three respected firms. As a board member of Google Cloud, she worked closely with Urs Hussle, who convinced her to join Google Cloud. When a promising candidate for Google Cloud leadership fell through, Greene felt a sense of responsibility and stepped into the role herself.

Bebop Integration:
Greene’s decision to join Google Cloud was influenced by the potential for her company Bebop to benefit from Google’s technologies. Bebop’s board and team discussed the implications of the move and eventually reached an agreement.

Google Cloud’s Scale:
Since joining Google Cloud, Greene has been amazed by its massive scale, including $10 billion in annual CapEx, extensive fiber optic cable networks, and supporting services like YouTube’s watch time and internet searches.

Customer Collaboration Highlights:
Greene shares examples of innovative customer collaborations, including: Gojek in Singapore, a rapidly growing ride-sharing company using motorcycles and expanding into diverse delivery services. Planet in San Francisco, a company that builds and launches tiny satellites to capture high-resolution images of the entire world every three hours.

Pokemon Go Success:
Greene recounts the successful launch of Pokemon Go, which experienced 50 times the predicted usage but was successfully handled due to Google Cloud’s scalability, demonstrating the crucial role of cloud infrastructure for modern startups.

Google Cloud’s Strengths:
Google has a strong network and engineering talent pool, enabling it to lead in the cloud industry. Google Cloud offers identity and access control, networking configurations, and other features necessary for enterprises.

Regulatory Challenges:
Different countries have varying data regulations, requiring Google Cloud to adapt its services to each region. Governments may prioritize data residency and access, leading to complexities for global companies.

AI and Machine Learning:
AI is rapidly changing various industries, offering applications in healthcare, banking, media, and more. Machine learning allows companies to analyze data more efficiently, leading to improvements such as reduced energy usage in Google’s data centers.

Building the AI Team:
Google Cloud recruited Fei-Fei Li, former director of Stanford’s AI lab, to lead its AI efforts. Li emphasizes diversity in the AI team to prevent unconscious biases from influencing AI algorithms.

Gender in the Tech Industry:
Greene acknowledges the challenges faced by women in the tech industry, especially in male-dominated fields. Greene’s experiences in male-dominated industries have given her a unique perspective on gender-related challenges.

Susan Fowler’s Blog Post:
Susan Fowler’s blog post at Uber was a seminal moment in highlighting the challenges faced by women in tech. It documented clear examples of discrimination and misconduct at the company with credibility. Greene admired Fowler’s courage in speaking out against the issues.

Personal Reflections:
Greene admits to not noticing the extent of the challenges faced by women in tech earlier. She gained empathy and understanding after reflecting on her own experiences and conversations with other women. Greene now values having more women to work with and appreciates the positive impact it has on the work environment.

Progress on Diversity:
Greene acknowledges the efforts being made in Silicon Valley to address diversity and inclusion. She emphasizes the importance of addressing the pipeline problem by supporting and encouraging more women to pursue careers in STEM. Greene cites the growing number of women majoring in engineering and computer science at elite universities as a positive sign of change.

Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment:
Greene prioritizes creating a safe and inclusive workplace where anyone can speak up about issues without fear of retaliation. She believes that proactive measures and a culture of respect can prevent problems from arising in the first place.

Changing Landscape of Silicon Valley:
Silicon Valley has become world-famous as an environment for entrepreneurs. The tech culture is deeply ingrained, with discussions about technology prevalent in various settings. Advances in technology, open-source software, and accessible APIs have made it easier for entrepreneurs to build and launch businesses. Venture capitalists (VCs) offer comprehensive support, providing former executives to mentor startups in sales, marketing, PR, and more.

Lessons Learned from Failure and Setbacks:
Greene emphasizes the importance of resilience and perseverance. She draws parallels to racing sailboats, where mistakes can lead to setbacks but also opportunities for learning and adaptation. Greene shares an example from VMware, where a setback with IBM resulted in an unexpected advantage through reseller partnerships. She stresses the need to find creative solutions and not be discouraged by challenges.

Importance of Tenacity in Entrepreneurship:
Greene’s word of advice to entrepreneurs is “tenacity.” She encourages entrepreneurs to have a clear vision and to remain focused on their goals. Greene believes that if someone is convinced that their path is correct and has considered various perspectives, they should be tenacious in pursuing it.

Story of Perseverance:
Greene shares her personal story of securing a job in San Francisco after graduating from MIT. Despite initial rejections, she reached out to a firm and engaged the hiring manager in a conversation about sailing, which led to an interview and eventually a job offer.

Google’s Ecosystem Integration:
Diane Greene acknowledges that it is hard to comment on Google’s integration efforts due to the presence of the “suppress” function during the discussion. She suggests that recent innovations like the jobs API integration in Google search could be related to the company’s efforts in this area.

Hardware vs. Software Innovations:
Greene emphasizes that there is significant innovation in both hardware and software within the cloud ecosystem. She cites examples such as Google’s proprietary chips for security, hardware-level authentication, and custom processors for machine learning, along with advancements in storage, networking, and system software. Innovations are also being driven by machine learning, making it easier to use and enhancing the capabilities of data analysis. Greene highlights the rich environment for startups in the cloud space, with the potential for innovation at the intersection of cloud and legacy systems.

The Future of Standalone Infrastructure Software Companies:
Asked about the future of standalone infrastructure software companies in the cloud era, Greene expresses her belief that they can still exist but may need to be innovative in their hardware offerings to compete with cloud vendors. She acknowledges that as more services move to the cloud, it might become challenging to sell entire storage systems unless they offer revolutionary capabilities that cloud vendors can’t match.

Key Focus Areas for Building a Company:
Greene emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking when building a company, aligning incremental milestones with the desired end goal. She stresses the need to design systems with scalability in mind, anticipating future requirements and making necessary adjustments along the way. Greene also highlights the significance of hiring the best possible people and retaining them through a continuous upgrade process. She shares a trick she used to ensure a balance between hiring individual contributors and managers by placing a temporary hiring freeze until the required managerial positions were filled.

AI’s Role in Addressing Social Problems:
Greene suggests that AI and cloud computing can play a significant role in addressing social problems that the public sector may struggle to solve or lack the political will to address. She cites healthcare as an example, where AI can provide advanced disease diagnosis, predictive health analytics, and remote monitoring, increasing access to high-quality healthcare globally. Greene believes that encapsulating doctors’ expertise in AI can lead to significant social benefits.

Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent:
To attract talented individuals, a compelling vision and the ability to showcase how their expertise aligns with that vision are essential. Clear articulation of why their unique skills are crucial to achieving the desired outcomes is key to successful recruitment. A harmonious and stimulating work environment, combined with excitement about the product’s potential impact, are key factors in retaining talent. Fair treatment and compensation complete the trifecta of factors that keep employees engaged and satisfied.

Balance Between Technology and Traditional Learning:
Diane Greene advocates for a balanced approach to education, acknowledging that technology alone cannot replace traditional learning methods. She emphasizes the importance of direct experiences, physical activities, and a well-rounded education to complement technology-based learning.

Google’s Contributions to Education:
Google’s Chromebooks, document management tools, and Classroom platform provide affordable and accessible resources for schools. Google’s philanthropic efforts in education include initiatives to support technology integration while preserving cultural values.

Thoughts on Elon Musk’s Call for AI Regulation:
Greene believes that regulatory oversight of AI requires a comprehensive understanding of the technology. The complexity and uncertainty surrounding AI necessitate a cautious approach to regulation.

AI Regulation:
Diane Greene believes regulators should not dictate how AI should be used. Elon Musk’s concerns about AI are premature. It is essential for regulators to have expertise to make informed decisions.

Motivation:
Greene is driven by her passion for solving problems and making the world a better place. She sees her work as a form of exercise for her brain. She donated all the money she made from her company, Bebop.

Legacy:
Greene believes her children are her best possible legacy.