While Snowflake’s astronomical growth during CEO Frank Slootman’s first three years has been nothing short of legendary, the real test for Slootman has arrived: Can he keep high-flying Snowflake on CXOs’ A-lists even as hungry competitors swoop in and runaway inflation slashes IT spending?
But if the ravages of inflation plus a potential recession plus ravenous competitors all wanted to pick a worthy foe, they’ve certainly done so in putting Frank Slootman to the test. Not only is his company roaring along with a new category of its own creation — the data cloud — but Slootman himself is a flinty blend of keen intellect with fearlessness. He’s always on offense, he’s relentless about being customer-obsessed, and he’s a strategic visionary who also is wickedly focused on operational excellence.
Slootman is also a shining example of a disappearing breed: a CEO who is not afraid to say what he thinks and defy the presumptive know-it-alls (aka ankle-biters) who seem unable to understand innovative and customer-focused thinking. From just the past 6 months, here are a few of my favorite examples of Slootman using plain, tough talk to shoot down some “expert” opinion or question:
- Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman: This Is Not Philanthropy
- Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman: ‘We’re Not Cowering in the Corner’
- Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman: ‘Customers Are Not Falling Off a Cliff’
On August 24, Snowflake will report its fiscal-Q2 results for the three months ended July 31 and we’ll all get a chance to see how close Slootman and Snowflake will come to the 84% revenue growth they posted for the quarter ended April 30.
My guess is they’ll come in right around 75%, which is clearly a drop from the previous quarter’s 84% but nevertheless an exceptional performance, given not only the budget cutbacks made by many customers but also the fact that the major cloud players totally bushwacked by Slootman’s “data cloud” positioning are finally getting their data-cloud acts together.
For example, late last month, the CEO of Google Cloud parent Alphabet said that in Q2, Google Cloud continued “to lead” the data cloud category, although Sundar Pichai offered no data or reference to support that claim. In spite of that vagueness, however, Pichai’s mention of data cloud as the very first of four reasons why customers are picking Google Cloud gives us a very clear idea of the strategic significance Google Cloud is placing on data cloud. You can find out more on that in our recent Cloud Wars Minute episode, Google Cloud Lists Four Flavors of Customer Love.
Then there’s the market’s 800-pound gorilla — or perhaps I should say $100-billion cloud vendor — Microsoft, which made data and related cloud services a highlight in its recent earnings call for its fiscal Q4.
CEO Satya Nadella spoke at length about Microsoft’s data business and described it in terms that were quite similar to the language used by Alphabet’s Pichai to outline Google Cloud’s data-cloud business. That, by the way, gives Slootman a big opening to differentiate what Snowflake is doing when he delivers his opening remarks on Snowflake’s August 24 call.
While Nadella did not use the term “data cloud,” take a look at what he did say and tell me if this doesn’t sound like a data cloud:
- “With our Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, we provide a complete data fabric, spanning operational databases, analytics, and governance, helping customers focus on creating value instead of integrating a fragmented data estate.”
- “More than 65 percent of the Fortune 1000 use three or more of our data solutions, and we are growing faster than the market. We’re seeing leaders in every industry, from LaLiga and Lenovo, to Swiss Re and Walgreens, unify their data using our tools.”
- “Cosmos DB is the go-to database powering the world’s most demanding, mission-critical workloads, at any scale. Transactions and data volume increased over 100 percent year-over-year for the fourth quarter in a row.”
All of that might be enough to rattle some executives, but my guess is that Frank Slootman’s not going to lose a wink of sleep over it. He’s been through the wars and he and the companies he’s run — Data Doman and ServiceNow — have not only survived but have by every possible measure thrived.
When I sat down with Slootman over Zoom earlier this year, we talked about how the “forward” section of his new book, Amp It Up, is taken from Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech. Slootman related how leaders have to be willing to defy conventional wisdom, ignore the yipping of the know-it-alls, and have the courage to slug it out under relentless and pervasive pressure.
As I noted above, some CEOs might shy away from that type of vicious competition — but I very much doubt Frank Slootman will.
No, I suspect Slootman will, as he always does, stay on offense and take the fight to the competition, to the inflation-triggered disruptions, and to the reluctant buyers trying to opt out of making a decision out of fear of a recession.
And that’s why I think on August 24 we’ll see Snowflake report that product revenue has increased 75% to $446 million.
