Kazuki “Kaz” Ohta is the CEO at Treasure Data, a leading customer data platform and InfoWorld's 2022 Technology of the Year Award winner. Previously, he was the founding Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the company. Prior to that, in 2009, Kaz co-founded the world’s largest Hadoop User Group.

In our conversation, Kaz explains:

- The drive that took him from Japan to arrive as an unknown underdog in Silicon Valley.

- Success principles for building a solid business.

- The importance of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) when 70% of today's customer journey takes place online.

- How in a demanding market, businesses must be more efficient and they can do that if they know their data.

- The value of being a multi-company founder and how that has shaped his outlook on his business life.

Kaz moved to America without even knowing how to speak English, where he overcame this obstacle and majored in computer science. During that time, his professor built the world’s faster supercomputer (essentially 500K computers combined into one), and Kaz was part of the team that built the file system.

A long-time open-source advocate, Kaz has made numerous contributions to open source software and was instrumental in developing the open-source applications Fluentd, Embulk, and Messagepack.

Be sure to check out Kaz’s links listed below. Enjoy the show!

Connect with Kaz Ohta:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazukiohta/

Twitter: @kzk_mover

Website: https://www.treasuredata.com/

Forbes: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/tech/profile/Kazuki-Ohta-Founder-CEO-Treasure-Data/9fcb6c9e-d7af-44f1-b6a4-2b1344bc09df

Connect with Allison:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/

Website: DisruptiveCEONation.com

Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO 

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