Creating the "AI Data Cloud" of the future | Sridhar Ramaswamy (CEO of Snowflake)

In this episode, host Hamza Choudery is joined by Sridhar Ramaswamy, the CEO of Snowflake. Before taking the helm at Snowflake, Sridhar scaled Google's ads business from ~$1B to $115 billion and founded one of the first AI search companies, Neeva (which was acquired by Snowflake in 2023).

During the episode, he discusses:

• The first principles for AI product building,
• The importance of product velocity,
• The future of the foundation model layer,
• Creating data flywheels with AI,
• And much more!

—

[00:00] Up next:

[00:29] Episode introduction

[01:28] Autoblocks: AI Optimization Platform

[01:52] Sridhar's journey

[08:47] The birth of Neeva and the GPT moment

[13:32] Lesson from Google for startups

[16:19] The Snowflake acquisition

[21:48] Snowflake's AI product strategy

[26:35] Snowflake's internal and external AI applications

[28:39] Snowflake Cortex

[30:37] The future of the foundation model layer

[34:52] The AI data flywheel

[38:09] Building reliable LLMs

[41:52] Lightning round

[43:08] Sridhar's hottest AI take

—

Brought to you by Autoblocks (https://www.autoblocks.ai/) — how product teams deliver better AI experiences.

—

Building with AI is a weekly podcast featuring conversations with top AI product builders and leaders. Through thoughtful dialogue, host Hamza Choudery (Co-founder of Autoblocks) uncovers tactical insights that help listeners build & scale world-class AI products.

—

Subscribe to Building With AI:

• Website: https://www.autoblocks.ai/bwai
• X: https://twitter.com/buildingwith_ai

Where to find Sridhar Ramaswamy:

• Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridhar-ramaswamy/
• X: https://x.com/RamaswmySridhar

Learn more about Snowflake:

• Website: https://www.snowflake.com/en/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snowflake-computing/
• X: https://x.com/snowflakedb

Where to find Hamza Choudery:

• Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamzachoudery
• X: https://twitter.com/hamzachoudery

Learn more about Autoblocks:

• Website: https://www.autoblocks.ai/
• X: https://twitter.com/AutoblocksAI