Dave McJannet, CEO of HashiCorp, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to break down how real infrastructure companies are built across cloud, open source, and now AI.

From starting his career as a chartered accountant to leading multiple platform shifts, Dave explains how cloud, open source, and AI follow repeatable patterns. He shares why HashiCorp bet early on multi-cloud, how open source businesses actually monetize, what IPOs really change, and why AI represents a shift from deterministic to probabilistic software.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:00 From accounting to technology

02:10 Why learning matters more than degrees

03:30 Discovering middleware and infrastructure

04:30 Startups vs big tech companies

05:40 Cloud Foundry and platform shifts

06:50 Why Dave joined HashiCorp

08:00 Market, model, and team framework

09:20 Open source business models explained

11:10 Monetization challenges in open source

12:40 How HashiCorp’s model works

14:30 What going public really changes

16:50 AI as a platform transition

19:30 Deterministic vs probabilistic software

22:30 AI, cloud power, and independence

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🔗 Connect with Dave McJannet → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmcjannet/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

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