This morning, John Schroeder, CEO of MapR, shared a great post on what it takes to run a company that is “Built to Last.” As John writes, being “built to last” is an idea that is arguably most relevant in the technology world, where customers invest in products that are strategic to their businesses and where there are relatively high switching costs. But, I think his post is a must read for anyone looking to start a company today.
Built to Last: How MapR’s Business Model Supports That Goal
As a venture capitalist, we are looking for executives like John that think big and have a vision for not only how a technology can solve a problem, but also how that technology can disrupt a market or even create a new one. John and the rest of the MapR team are not trying to build a good company, they are building an exceptional one with the type of staying power that companies like Oracle, Salesforce and Riverbed have achieved.
If you haven’t yet heard about MapR; the company delivers a Big Data platform that supports the mission-critical and real-time production demands of today’s data-intelligent enterprise. It has the largest deployment by a factor of 10 in the financial services industry, and is the chosen platform for over 500 customers including the world’s leading retailer. 99% of MapR customers renew their subscriptions, while 88% purchase additional capacity within the first 12 months of initial purchase.
John ends his post by stating that “In a market the size of Big Data, many companies will succeed, but only one will be around in 20 years…At MapR, we are confident that we will be that company.” I couldn’t agree more.
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