Building the Next Layer of Innovation with Dhiraj Sharan

The Business of Open Source

Dhiraj Sharan, CEO and founder of Query.AI, joins me this week on Cloud Native Startup.

With a career that spans over 20 years in cybersecurity, Dhiraj has seen the swift adoption of multi-cloud environments and SaaS apps. In this episode, Dhiraj discusses the importance of evolving your product as the world changes and why you should ask yourself, “How can I be innovative for the next layer?” Dhiraj also gives his younger self advice on the cybersecurity game of chess and much more.

Highlights

• What led Dhiraj to pursue Query.AI? (0:23)
• Dhiraj shares ideas that he ultimately didn’t pursue (3:52)
• The importance of evolving and the layers of innovation. (5:30)
• The difference between being a founder and being an early employee. (8:52)
• Advice Dhiraj would give himself if he could go back 20 years. (10:19)
• Dhiraj’s advice on building a company. (11:52)
• Security team budgets and creating an ROI calculator. (13:11)
• Query.AI’s “unique” struggle. (18:47)
• CSO’s general response to Query.AI. (20:03)
• Dhiraj reflects on lessons learned and the importance of understanding your customer. (21:48)
• Dhiraj on the entrepreneur in everyone. (23:32)

Links:

• Dhiraj:
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhirajsharan
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/dhirajsharan
• Query.AI:
  • Website: https://query.ai
  • Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/query_ai