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You'll never BELIEVE how this guy's using his engineering brains

We grill the ex-VMware CTO who became *gasp* a VC

Harmsel biz blog VMware alumni are known for turning up in diverse environments. Steve Herrod, who had 12-year long stint at VMware, and was its chief techie when he left, has joined this tradition. However, Herrod's move is perhaps a little more unorthodox - he has joined the venture capital community as a partner at General Catalyst Partners.

I spoke to Steve about developments in the market and his investment focus at his new firm. Specifically we discussed the trend towards mobile, mobile payments and the increased scarcity in developer talent.

WTH: You are based in Palo Alto? You live there as well?

SH: Yes, I’m based in Palo Alto. I live and work here. Most of the startups that I’m working with are in this area. But obviously there are some interesting ones around the world as well.

WTH: It has been more than 12 years that you have worked for VMware, right?

SH: I worked at the company before it was a company, in Stanford. Then I did another startup, and I was there for almost 12 years. Just over a year ago I joined a venture capitalist (firm).

WTH: I think many people were surprised when you made that move. How did people around you react?

Steve Herrod

Steve Herrod

SH: There have been mixed reactions and a lot of questions. I had been thinking about it for a long time but I definitely had a theory that not enough investors had the engineering background that you get in a CTO role. I felt it was the perfect time to have a different approach to investing. So far things are good.

A lot of startups have looked for someone with a different background from other VCs. A lot of people try to build very technical enterprise IT companies. Having been a CTO at VMware, it has prepared me perfectly for finding and helping these next really cool companies that they are building out here.

WTH: Lots of startups in Silicon Valley started as internal projects at VMware that you helped along the way, right?

SH: It has been really amazing. Obviously you know many of the companies yourself. VMware has created this giant ecosystem; PernixData, Bracket Computing, Illumio, Nuova Systems - these companies are founded from what has already been there.

WTH: Off the top of my head I am thinking Platform9 and Hillview Technologies.

SH: There are literally hundreds of great teams that are attacking nasty problems. In a lot of them, I am very interested.

WTH: I loved the interview you did with The Cloudcast guys. They asked you for the most significant developments - one thing you indicated was the move enterprise companies are making to mobile.

SH: I really think, Willem, people have not totally grasped the idea. I spend a lot of time with LinkedIn, Facebook and SalesForce. The transformation they made is amazing. They pivoted from a 100 per cent web company to a mobile company. I think right now there are many good reasons why enterprises are going to be making the big shift.

One is that consumer expectations have definitely crossed the chasm. It is unacceptable now to have these terrible apps, so there is demand for 100 per cent mobile apps. People will go elsewhere; they go use Dropbox or something else if they don’t like what IT does.

"It is unacceptable now to have these terrible apps"

Second, it is actually far easier to build for mobile platforms now as well. There is far less diversity than 40 years ago. There are really two platforms you have to worry about.

WTH: IOS and Android.

SH: IOS and Android - that’s it. If you are really focused on those two you are going to be fine. The skill sets really caught up well, there are Objective C or Swift classes wherever you go, companies are retraining Java programmers to Android programmers.

I see everywhere that people are building APIs for the first time and I’m really heavily interested in API buildouts for companies. It is the core engine that is going to allow the creation of mobile applications, but also allowing a more diverse set of people accessing that critical asset that companies have. So I’m helping to build their APIs for the first time, and thinking about that is kind of the fuel for next generations of applications.

WTH: Regarding this whole move to mobile, what are some of the most striking applications in your mind?

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