Stardust and Building Products - Mohan Atreya (VP Products, Rafay Systems)
In this episode, we start with a new segment called “This week in exits”, and then we have the pleasure of hosting Mohan Atreya. Mohan is VP Products at Rafay systems, a startup that does enterprise-grade Kubernetes management. An avid human psychology practitioner and astronomy enthusiast who has spent serious money chasing stardust. Unlike many B2B Product Managers, Mohan's path to product management has been non-traditional perhaps because of ideal growing years spent in Chennai right next to the beach. He started his journey as a Sales Engineer, sold a lot of enterprise security products at RSA and then pivoted to Product Management. Since then he has launched and grown products at OKTA, Neustar and now at Rafay Systems.
Show Notes
0:00 This Week In Exits
Positives Of Housing Bubble, Views On Companies Going Public, Airbnb, Layoffs’ Management,
AI Platform Contributions.
Interview
16:09 Latest Tech Trends
17:43 Spotlight On Influencing IT Decisions
19:00 How Has The Role Of SE Changed Now?
21:31 How To Think About Building Moat In A SaaS Start-Up
24:25 How The Transition To Be A Product Leader Shaped Mohan?
27:26 Learn To Deliver On “The What And The Why”
29:06 Insights On Okta’s Culture
31:14 Demonstration Of Transparency Under Mohan’s Leadership
35:11 Okta’s Success In Customer Focus And Obsession
37:40 Dilemma: ‘Post-Covid Boosted SaaS Companies’ or ‘Uncertain Rafay’
39:53 Technology Forecast For Coming 5-10 Years
42:57 Facilitate- Saying “NO”
45:10 Learnings Through The Process
47:14 Creating A highly Efficient Team
50:11 Post-Covid Effects On Onboarding Process
51:56 How To Turn Mentors Into Sponsors?
Rapid Fire Segment