

How to Build a Successful Company in an Era of Disruption
About this episode
From the show’s notesWhat happens when a startup becomes a giant—and then has to reinvent itself all over again?
In this episode, Martin Casado sits down with Raghu Raghuram (former CEO of VMware) and Jeetu Patel (President and CPO at Cisco) for a deep, tactical conversation on scaling, disruption, and navigating transformation from the inside. They share hard-won lessons from leading two of the most iconic infrastructure companies in tech—through waves like virtualization, cloud, containers, and now AI.
Read the show’s notes in full
They cover:
How to keep innovation alive inside large companies
Why the best companies operate with a founder’s mindset, even without founders
The difference between selling to buyers vs. practitioners
Why the story is the strategy, and how to tell it at scale
How Cisco is rebuilding its startup DNA in the age of AI
If you're building or leading through a major tech wave, this episode is a playbook.
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Resources:
Find Martin on X: x.com/martin_casado
Find Raghu on X: x.com/raghuraghuram
Find Jeetu on X: x.com/jpatel41
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