In 2003, along with co-founders Erik Swan and Rob Das, Michael Baum set out to solve a big problem. The world was filling up with machine data, and humans needed ways to mine through it quickly. Nearly a decade later, Splunk’s IPO gave it a market cap of $3B. There’s no doubt today that Big Data is big money; but how do you see that coming years in advance? Even today, it’s a confusing term. Ask ten people what “Big Data” means and you’ll likely get ten different answers. Splunk’s founding CEO will talk about chasing big ideas, growing a multi-billion-dollar business and changing the world – all starting with a simple idea.

1. chasing
big
ideas
Michael Baum
Founder & CEO Splunk
Partner Rembrandt Venture Partners
michael@baum.com

2. what’s a big idea?

4. about me.
6 start-ups
1 IPO
5 acquisitions
> 1,000 jobs created
> 100 millionaires
$3.5B in wealth creation
25 years

5. #6 is a charm.
$250M
$3.4B
Splunk Startups 1 to 5

6. what was different?

7. a big problem.
>$500B spent annually manag

8. tons of research.
3 founders
5 prototypes
12 months
62 customers
$50,000
a lot of insights

9. App
Logs
Network
Traffic
Web
Logs
Server
Logs
User
Access
Security
Events
Big
Data
VoIP
Audio
Video
Click
Stream
Order
Data
Customer
Data
a simple solution.
Social
Media

10. build an “A” team.
“good enough” is not good enough
the average hiring mistake costs $500k
50% of hires are mistakes
great recruiters make fewer than 10%
who are your recruiters?
how do they recruit “A” people?
how does your “A” team work?

11. drive in reverse.

12. ignore competition.
picked a big problem

13. blow things up (regularly) .

14. Entrepreneurs are never satisfied, because
fulfillment comes from
participation, rather than reaching a fixed
destination. Entrepreneurship is not a
job, nor even a calling but a hunger to
change the world.