Reviving NetApp: How I Scaled It To $20B | George Kurian

NetApp was once a rocket ship—soaring during the dot-com bubble in the late ‘90s, riding the wave of data storage dominance. Then the market shifted. Growth stalled, and after peaking at $120 a share, the stock spent over a decade stuck between $20 and $40. Once a Silicon Valley darling, the company became a has-been. When George Kurian took over as CEO in 2015, NetApp was at a crossroads. Instead of clinging to past success, he led a reinvention—transforming the business for the cloud era, rebuilding its operating foundation, and positioning it for the AI wave. In this episode, George breaks down why most companies fail to turn the page, how success breeds blind spots, and why leadership means knowing when to break from the past before it breaks you. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:12 Commuting to Sunnyvale 00:05:09 Growing up in India 00:08:38 Protect the child 00:10:13 Raising kids in Silicon Valley 00:13:53 Money motivation 00:16:18 NetApp’s renaissance 00:23:27 Writing new chapters 00:25:14 Culture shifts 00:29:03 Coming to NetApp 00:32:25 Surprise! You’re the CEO 00:35:40 Making sacrifices 00:40:48 Doubt & lonely decisions 00:46:32 The data wave 00:49:32 Enterprise AI 00:56:16 Starting your own company 00:58:21 Navigating difficulty 01:01:36 Who NetApp is hiring 01:02:21 What “grit” means to George 01:02:47 Outro