EP 589: HeptIo Growing Kubernetes Adoption With $8.5M Raised From Accel with Founder Craig McLuckie

Craig McLuckie. He’s the founder and CEO of Heptio, a startup focused on making Kubernetes accessible enterprises. Prior to starting Heptio, Craig was a product manager at Google where he founded the Kubernetes project, launched Google compute engine and created The Cloud Native Computing Foundation that he also shared.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Influence
• What CEO do you follow? –  Andrew Grove
• Favorite online tool? — Lever
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished my 20-year old self understood the importance of kindness”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:25 – Nathan introduces Craig to the show
• 01:55 – Kubernetes is a technology that is used to run applications in a production setting
• • 02:16 – The idea is to take the collective learning that Google instilled over the last decade of building and running applications
• 02:35 – Kubernetes is an open-source technology
• 02:53 – Kubernetes is being widely adopted by enterprises but there are still some gaps
• 03:16 – Heptio‘s job is to make Kubernetes more accessible to a broad array of developers
• 03:47 – Heptio generates revenue through support, training and professional service and consultancy
• 04:25 – Heptio is currently on pre-product revenue
• 04:50 – By providing Heptio’s professional service, they connect with customers and understand where the key gaps are
• 05:12 – Heptio has raised $8.5M
• 05:20 – The people backing Heptio
• 06:17 – Nathan simplifies Kubernetes’ description
• 07:50 – Craig explains how Kubernetes actually works in applications
• 09:07 – Heptio wants to present the perfect idea of how machines should be operating
• 09:23 – Kubernetes provided the steps from thinking about virtual infrastructure to logical infrastructure
• 09:49 – At Heptio, they bring the idea of logical infrastructure to companies everywhere so they can experience a better way to decode without worrying about the difficult task of configuring
• 10:22 – Heptio also helps companies organize themselves around the technology
• • 10:53 – It is like helping people stack the bricks of technology
• 11:58 – John and Craig started Kubernetes in Google and they had successes in the past
• 12:20 – Craig demonstrated clearly the product market fit for Kubernetes so they were able to raise $8.5M
• 12:40 – Craig has spent time with the community
• 13:10 – Craig quantifies the adoption of Kubernetes
• 13:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Kubernetes is an open source technology that is used to run applications in a production setting.
• Demonstrating your product’s market CLEARLY can lead to investors believing and trusting your product.
• Remember the importance of being kind.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives