The Founder Formula

Vikram Kapoor - Co-founder of Lacework

• Trace3 • Episode 35

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This entrepreneur knows that to build a successful company, the clients’ experiences, motivations, issues, and mindset comes first. Vikram Kapoor, Co-founder and CTO of Lacework, talks about the origins of his customer-centric mentality in his journey of building a Series D funded technology startup.

Vikram tells co-hosts Sandy Salty and Todd Gallina about the most important factors in scaling Lacework - the shared principals and keeping a pulse on competition. Hear about the ins and outs of building a founding team, what happens at different capital funding stages, ups and downs in different global economic times, and a Founder’s Slack messaging strategy in this episode of the Founder Formula.

Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform or Trace3.com.

Vikram Kapoor:

Ironically for me, like, you know, my best day and the worst day happened to be like, you know, the same day. So it can get crazy.

Outro:

Founder Formula brings you in behind the curtains and inside the minds of today's brave executives at the most future-leaning startups. Each interview will feature a transformative leader who's behind the wheel at a fast-paced and innovative tech firm. They'll give you an insider's look at how companies are envisioned, created and scaled. We hope you're ready. Let's get into the show.

Todd Gallina:

Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. My name is Todd Galena and with me today is the Chief Marketing Officer at Trace3, Sandy Salty.

Sandy Salty:

Hey Todd.

Todd Gallina:

How's it going?

Sandy Salty:

It's good, it's good to be back with you.

Todd Gallina:

It is super exciting to start this next leg of podcasts. We're excited to announce that we have a bunch of podcasts that are going to be coming out starting with this one. We're going to be talking a little bit more specifically about founders in the cloud security space.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah. Well, and it's such an emerging and growing trend. It's super relevant to the world of technology, obviously, and specifically Trace3. We are calling our shot on cloud security, and we're making a lot of investments in that arena. So it's pretty perfect, actually, that we have a bunch of cloud security founders lined up.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, and not only is it exciting that we are launching a new batch of episodes, but we are going to be doing most of them from our super cool new headquarters here in Irvine, California. You and I are sitting in one of our cool new podcasting rooms. Not completely finished, but here we are back in the office, back in New Digs.

Sandy Salty:

It's awesome to be with people again.

Todd Gallina:

Totally. People are showing up, even the ones who are even working from home while we had our previous digs. People are showing up to see the new office, how bright it is, how open it is. Yeah,

Sandy Salty:

there's a lot of curiosity and I think people are remembering just like how much fun it is to like... hang out and have a bite and have a cup of coffee together and catch up on like life you know it feels like every conversation in the past couple of years has been like a zoom conversation that's focused only on business and you forget that like It's actually like all the other stuff that helps you connect with other people. It's like, how is their family doing? What's going on with their dog? You know? Yeah, no, totally, totally. What's happening with the kiddos? And so it's just that. you know, you don't really take the time to have those types of conversations until you see people in real life.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah. It's funny. Like you'll be on a zoom call with like 12 people and you're like, can you 11 people leave? I have to ask John about a surgery. Yeah,

Sandy Salty:

exactly. No, never happens.

Todd Gallina:

No, but, um, okay. So we've got, we've got some exciting news there. I have to warn our listeners because the episode that they're about to hear was recorded on between our old office and our new office. And so we went and we found a super cool open workspace called the Hannah House. We recorded the episode. It was great. But then when I went back and listened to it, we had some serious, we had some serious echo. So it'll only get better after this first episode.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah. Well, and it was not the perfect place for like a sound studio, but pretty pleasing to the eyes, wouldn't you say? Oh,

Todd Gallina:

heck yeah. I mean, I would love to work there. If I I didn't have this brand new cool place.

Sandy Salty:

By the way. Okay. So us being together in this new office, people rolling in is definitely a sign of kind of the world, you know, getting back to normal, whatever normal is. But you know, what's another sign that like we're headed back to normal world?

Todd Gallina:

What?

Sandy Salty:

We have Evolve coming up in October. Our Evolve conference is back in session after a two-year hiatus.

Todd Gallina:

Yes.

Sandy Salty:

And I know you're very passionate about Evolve, having been someone that built it. within Trace3U.

Todd Gallina:

Love that

Sandy Salty:

show. So it's in Vegas this year, Cosmopolitan. So we're getting better and better every year. Never thought you could evolve, evolve, but it's happening. Yeah. And we have been at this company long enough to develop some amazing memories at Evolve over the years. I know you have a couple of kind of really big memories related to Evolve. Do you have any that you want to share with

Todd Gallina:

the audience? Oh my gosh, like meeting the Woz and there was a whole lead up to him appearing at the show and him being there. And I was just a massive Wozniak fan as a Mac user and the whole thing. So I loved that. And maybe we'll tell some Woz stories. But I think to answer your question, having Mike Tyson there. We had him there a few years ago. He was the host of our Outlier Gala, which happened after our, you know, giant Outlier Awards. But those who've had a chance to meet me, there's a picture of me standing next to Mike Tyson and my eye is busted open. Yeah, there's a big

Sandy Salty:

gash on top of your eye. And by the way, never would be funny in any other scenario, but the fact that you're standing next to one of the best boxers in the history of the universe with a big gas on top of your eye. Yeah.

Todd Gallina:

And he's pointing at it. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone thinks, of course, the obvious math is that he punched me in the eye. But the truth is, when we were trying to move so quickly to get people to kind of have a meet and greet with him, I happened to walk straight into a glass door. Door. Kind of like the way a bird would fly into a window. I

Sandy Salty:

should not laugh at

Todd Gallina:

that. Now, in my defense, that door I had been going in and out of probably a hundred times over the previous like 40 minutes and somebody went ahead and closed it.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah, I mean, in your defense, that door walked into you. Damn door. So

Todd Gallina:

I had this, so I don't even kind of realize that this has happened because I'm moving so fast. And then I go and I sit down for a couple of minutes and I happen to be sitting next to Mike and I look down and I'm bleeding all over his leg. He's got like this super nice suit.

Sandy Salty:

I mean, most people get to shake Tyson's hand. Maybe give them a hug if they're brave enough. I mean, who gets to bleed all over Mike Thompson? That's a whole new level of intimacy.

Todd Gallina:

There's probably like... 30 boxers that have had that. And me. Yes. Like I said, you added a new angle to that. But what about you? So you've got to have a great memory of the show. Oh,

Sandy Salty:

my gosh. Oh, so many. I mean, I think for me, all the Outlier award shows are memorable. Like, I remember the year Todd, you and I hosted Outlier. Yeah. It was one of my favorite years of all time. Super fun.

Todd Gallina:

Well, you've done such a good job. You've become the permanent host. Oh, my God. Of the Outliers now. You'll be going on to doing your fourth one, right?

Sandy Salty:

Yeah, it's almost... It's like prison. It's like one of those things you can't get out of. You're awesome at it. You're awesome. Thank you. But I will say my favorite memory, probably evolved memory of all time. This is how I would describe it. I got to drive on stage in one of the fastest cars in the world owned by the guitarist of Guns N' Roses. What? in front of a thousand plus person audience. Need I say more? I think that's a drop the mic moment.

Todd Gallina:

For sure. I was super iconic. And as I recall, this car had those doors that kind of, the side opening doors.

Sandy Salty:

The wing doors,

Todd Gallina:

yes. And then yourself and the CIO of the San Francisco Giants, Bill Schlau, got out of the car.

Sandy Salty:

Yes, it was epic, Todd. And I guess the scariest part of that was like not... pressing the gas pedal.

Outro:

Just driving right into the

Sandy Salty:

audience. Well, truthfully, I mean, like, so as a result of that show, I had a chance to meet as I mentioned, the guitarist of the Guns N' Roses, who, by the way, is like one of the nicest guys ever. And he let us borrow his car. And I remember when he was giving me instructions, he was like, look, you don't even need to press the gas pedals. Just release the brake. Just ever so slightly. The car drives itself. Like, literally, just release the brake. It'll do the rest. And I remember... I'm on stage, curtains are opening, and in my head I'm like, just release the break. That's it. No sudden movements. Be cool. So, no, it was a pretty special moment. That's one of those, like, if I'm sitting on my deathbed as a 90-year-old woman... yeah like that i'll recall that moment

Todd Gallina:

it's uh i mean i was obviously there and i saw it happen live and and it was awesome even when you know it's gonna happen yeah and you see it it was incredible yeah it's a

Sandy Salty:

bit surreal

Todd Gallina:

it's it's and by the way people can check that out online online unlike the busted eye of todd galena they can see we

Sandy Salty:

should put that

Todd Gallina:

online too no oh my gosh okay all right so Just a reminder to our audience, we'll have a little bit of dip in audio quality, but we're going to have a great interview and hope you guys enjoy it. Let's roll. Okay, as promised, our guest started out as a software engineer and was soon architecting and leading engineering teams. He worked on big data and analytics for a long time before jumping into security. Today, he is the founder and chief technical officer of Lacework, which is a data-driven cloud security company. They deliver end-to-end visibility and automated insight, into risk across multi-cloud environments. They're located in San Jose, California. We're excited to have on the show, Vikram Kapoor. Vikram, thanks for hopping on.

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, thanks a lot for having me. I really appreciate it and, you know, really looking forward to it.

Sandy Salty:

Welcome to the show, Vikram. Let's start with the first question. First and foremost, tell us about LeaseWork and why you started it.

Vikram Kapoor:

So Lacework is a security company focused on helping customers secure their infrastructure all the way from data centers to cloud, like primarily cloud, and multiple aspects of securing it, which goes all the way from ideas to vulnerability management, compliance, containers, Kubernetes, you know, and another cloud infrastructure. And we really started it because, you know, like seven years ago when we were looking into the problem, we found that for most of the, you know, companies that were running like large environments at scale, they were really having trouble kind of figuring out what's going on in the environment at all. And if they couldn't figure out what's going on, there was a very little chance that they could find something wrong because of security. So it was pretty clear that there is a good market here where if you solve the problem at scale in an automated way, then we can basically solve a real customer problem and have some value there. And that's really why we started Lacework.

Todd Gallina:

Perfect. Well, this isn't your first go around working for large technology companies. You had worked previously for a few others before you decided to start your own. What in your background made you think that you could start and run a successful company?

Vikram Kapoor:

So to be honest, at that point, I didn't know it would be a successful company, but I was pretty sure of two things before we started. And not just me, the founding team overall. One, that whatever we were thinking of to build was something that was of value to a customer. And partly because we were on the other side of being a customer to our product and our previous jobs at one point or the other. And secondly, we can build the product. So if you are sure that you can build the product, then it's of value to our customer. It's kind of a point to start. And then beyond that is just kind of going through it. And then eventually, hopefully, it becomes a successful company. But those are the two things. And in my background, like I've built a lot of products, you know, starting from zero to one, like, you know, before I did Lacework. And that's what really gave me confidence that, you know, we can go ahead and like, you know, build something and it's something that we build will be actually useful.

Sandy Salty:

Vikram, so you mentioned value to client and, you know, we've heard and seen many of your interviews and always pick up on this sort of client first approach mentality. Where did that come from? Like, was it a set of lessons learned over the years? And then the secondary question to that is like, how do you instill that value in your teams?

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, it's actually a great question. Like, you know, and it goes back a long time back, you know, when I was like basically a teenager. My father had a, you know, a textile shop. And I would, I basically had to go there like every day I had a, you know, any vacation from school, right? Like starting from like maybe 13 or 14 years old. And then, you know, at one time when I was in like 18 or 19, he sent me out and said, like, you need to go buy some stuff to sell to customers. So I went there, I was alone. I picked up a bunch of stuff, which was, you know, things that I would like to wear and things that, you know, would look good to me. And when I brought it back, you know, and I tried to kind of sell it to actual customers, I couldn't do it. Like they would not buy it. And it took me like two, three years of constantly, like every day I was there, I was trying to sell what I bought. And, you know, it was still there. It will still be there. Next time I go there, it will just kind of annoy me. And eventually I kind of figured that, you know, like what, you know, what I bought was something that was pleasing to me, but that was not something what the customers were looking for. And they had a different background. They had different kind of economics and they had different kind of things that they were looking for. And at that point, I had to kind of start pivoting to like, what do they like and kind of understand that better. So next time when I went out to buy something, I have to kind of consciously buy something that they would like and I have to keep that persona in my mind. And that kind of, you know, went a long way for me over the last 30 years now where I've always kept the customer focus front and center to make sure that whatever we build is something that customers would find valuable. And to do that, it's easier said than done. You have to really put yourself in their shoes, kind of understand their lives, understand what their motivations are, and then figure out what you should build. And so that kind of stays with me from that point onwards. And one of the things that we do to kind of instill that in our team is really just talking about it, like every conversation has to basically end with like, how is it that whatever we are doing is going to be valued to a customer? How does it kind of change their life in some way? How does it make them, you know, be delighted with the product or on many times there are like different opinions and then you have to kind of run them through to kind of find the one that's actually the best. Right. And so it's really a lot of conversation alignment that has to happen for us to kind of get aligned on what the customer value is.

Todd Gallina:

I have this, it's a great, great story. I have this vision of you running through this marketplace, you know, grabbing these different items. And were you just grabbing like, Like, so Sandy would go and grab a bunch of beads and I would go and grab a bunch of black v-necks. Yeah. And so for you, was it, was it like certain colors weren't working or certain fabrics or was it just the whole thing?

Vikram Kapoor:

Oh, that's a really funny story there. Like, so I'm at the heart of engineering. Even then, even though I was not an engineer, I still was. So for me, it was always, almost always like everything I bought was basically like a high quality textile at a good cost. and happened to look good enough to me, to my eye, right? Like, and I would buy it. And I would be like, oh, it's a great textile at a good cost and, you know, should be able to sell. And guess what? It doesn't sell, right? At all, right? Because sometimes you are, and actually one of the examples which is very relevant there is that when people go looking for a wedding clothes, for example, right? You would think it's a wedding day. People want like the most expensive or the best quality textile. But it's actually one-time wear. So most people want something that they can wear one time, looks good, and throw it away. So in general, the motivation to buy something is at the core of what you need to sell. And for me, at the beginning, it was all about quality and cost. But that turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to do to figure out what to buy, basically. Right.

Sandy Salty:

I love that. And it's amazing how often I think businesses forget to correlate the decisions that they're making to how it drives the client experience, how it drives client value. And I love what you said about ending every meeting with, okay, how does this benefit the client at the end of the day? It's, you know, really kind of triggers that kind of, you know, this concept around shift left and actually Trace3 has taken this stuff farther and we've started to token the concept of start left and really kind of always considering the client teams and the client in our approach to business making and in our approach to sort of advising our clients as well.

Todd Gallina:

Vikram, I had a question about your gigs with the previous four startups. You obviously went through some difficult times, ups and downs in the economy, which we're kind of experiencing currently at the moment. You went through some things in 2008. Were there any lessons learned with kind of an economic up and down scenario that you went through that you can apply to what's going on today? Oh

Vikram Kapoor:

yeah, definitely. So it's actually, you know, all in hindsight. So I wasn't smart enough in 2008 to figure it out. But today, you know, in fact, like 10 years ago, when I look back at that era, what I found was that among all my friends and all the people I knew, People who are focused on creating customer value and just focus on product, building stuff, actually turned out to do much better after the downturn. Because you were able to create something that was useful. And then once you came out of the downturn, then it was useful to customers and you could sell it. But overall, that's really the big lesson I draw from that where you always keep focusing on building value. And if you're doing that, then at some point, you know, yes, some downturns are crazier than the others and some you survive, some you don't. But overall, your best bet is basically, you know, survive the downturn and keep focusing on value. And then you come out of it at some point.

Sandy Salty:

Well, speaking of value, translating into sort of the valuation of the company, you closed your Series D round last year. Congratulations. Thank you. Tell us about that journey. Do you have to pitch the VCs every time? What makes the experience of one fundraising round different from the previous?

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, actually, in the beginning, I had to, like, you know, the lot of the initial conversations on, you know, seed round, series A, series B, all about product, all about differentiation, all about, you know, what we're doing, and how can that make a material difference to how many people. And then it was like, you know, I had to be very heavily involved in that. But as we kind of grew from like series C to series B, now it's a lot more about like, you know, we have a product, we have a differentiated product, it's really good, we have like a good, you know, team. in place. Now it's a lot about like numbers and, you know, you know, sales and go to market essentially. So it kind of changed over time. But basically I think that's kind of norm for most startups where it starts off with a product focused thing and eventually moves into a, you know, into a marketing financing, finance discussion, essentially. So as it kind of happened, like, you know, my, you know, you know, my pitch kind of, you know, requirements kind of reduced down over

Sandy Salty:

time. Okay.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah. Got it. So Vikram, you know, you started a company, you've been around a little bit, you've met a few people here, you've met a few people there, but now it's time for you to launch your own company and you get to literally handpick who you want to be on your founding team. How did you go about doing that?

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, it's actually a great question. And, you know, the way I think about it, in fact, when we did our lacework, we had a very small team and the founding team doesn't have to be big, but it does have to cover, all the risks that you have to cover for your next kind of milestone. And that's exactly how we kind of, you know, approached it every time we had to keep growing. And, you know, the way I think about it is really a jigsaw puzzle where you have to cover like, let's say, a square of real estate. And every puzzle piece that you put in there has to basically fit to the other puzzle pieces. It has to cover all the area and it has to be not too much overlap. So you have to be very careful in the first 10 people, make sure that they have complementary skill sets, they are able to work together, and then you're able to cover all the stuff you have to do. And once you have that, then a very small team can do a lot of stuff. And that's really why startups are able to do, in general, much more innovative stuff than big companies. Because really, the first founding 10 people, 15 people are really special in that sense that they're kind of working together to achieve a goal, which is really hard to do in big companies.

Todd Gallina:

Perfect. That makes a lot of sense. You're going to have to have people that can do a little bit of multitasking, wear some different hats. I love that.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah, so we've already covered a lot of ground. We talked about fundraising and the pitch. We talked about product definition and value to clients. We talked about hiring people. Let's talk about another milestone in building a business. Let's talk about scale. So what's the hardest part about scaling a business, Vikram, in your opinion?

Vikram Kapoor:

Yes, actually, to be honest, like I'm still learning a lot from our co-CEOs like David Hatfield and Jay Parikh. They're like much better at this than me. But for me, like, you know, the hardest part has always been essentially alignment. And what I mean by that is that, you know, the more people you add, you get different rich experiences, which is obviously, you know, very useful. But at the same time, you know, there's also more opinions that differ. And in many cases, you can kind of settle the opinions through data. But in many cases, it's just different opinions and there's no good objective way to kind of get to like one reality and that's really the hard part where you have to like have a lot of communication have a lot of like shared principles you know shared culture to be able to arrive at like you know something that on which you're aligned because once you get alignment then you are able to kind of execute and even if you're wrong on the goal or the alignment you can always pivot it to the right place but without alignment you're really like a like a round boat and you're kind of you know, rowing in different directions and you just stand still. But if you get some alignment and at scale, like it's hard, but once you get it, then you're able to kind of go in one direction. And that's kind of the most important thing in a startup.

Sandy Salty:

It's so true. And that alignment is really kind of the foundation for a good culture.

Vikram Kapoor:

So I think the culture is also like one of those things where, you know, everybody who comes into the company has different experiences and they bring their own strengths. At the same time, you want to have one culture. So I think eventually it boils down to alignment and training the new people who join to kind of say, how do we operate and how are we able to operate at a point where we're able to achieve outcomes that we need to achieve? And then it's an evolving process. Every time you double, the culture is going to change too. So overall, it's an evolving process. You're kind of always aligning to one goal. And one of the goals is the shared principles on how you want to operate. And that's really your culture.

Todd Gallina:

Okay, perfect. Vikram, let's talk a little bit about the space that you're in. Very competitive. Everyone's talking about security. Everyone's talking about cloud. How do you guys track your competition? We've heard a lot of different things on this podcast. Some founders say they never look, don't care. Some are very interested in what's going on outside of their company with their competitors. what are your thoughts on this

Vikram Kapoor:

yeah actually uh so i generally do both to a degree and i'll let me explain why uh so market is really defined by both us like the company and the competition together right like we're all uh kind of talking to customers we're kind of understanding their pain points and together we're trying to find them from the market and so from that perspective you have to totally watch your competition like all the time and kind of figure out if they figured some insight out that you didn't or customers you know told them something that you haven't heard yet. So you have to really watch out for where the market is evolving and, you know, kind of define the best as you can, but also kind of follow if you're not able to define it. But then when it comes to execution and you say, okay, what do we need to do for the next six months or a year? That's where you kind of ignore the competition, right? You kind of execute on your strategy, on your belief of why you would win, your differentiation. And actually, that's where the execution is going to differ from your competition because they have different strengths and they have different philosophies. But overall, you have to watch to make sure you're kind of aligned to the market where it's evolving. And then you have to execute with your view and not have to worry too much about competition at that point. So we kind of do both in different dimensions.

Todd Gallina:

Thank you for that. Yeah. I've never heard anyone say that the market is defined by you and your competition, which is just, it just seems so basic. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So we've covered a ton here, Vikram. Sandy and I like to do this thing called the lightning round, which is kind of fun. But I don't know if there's anything that maybe we didn't cover during this conversation that you thought would be important for any budding entrepreneurs out there.

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, actually, there is one thing, like, which is basically, it is really a marathon. Like, I know it's a cliche, and people will talk about how it's an emotional roller coaster. But it really is a marathon. And every time you reach a milestone, you can't stop, you have to keep running. And the more milestones you achieve, in fact, your speed kind of goes up, right? So you really have to treat it as a marathon, not get burned down and emotionally it goes up and down. So you just have to kind of manage that. And ironically for me, like, you know, my best day and the worst day at least happened to be like, you know, the same day. So it can get crazy, but you have to just kind of manage it and then just move on and then, you know, keep running. So I think anybody, you know, like the best advice that I got like 10 years ago from, you know, one of my mentors was really, you know, manage your emotions and just keep running, right? Like that's what you ought to do. And then if you do it, then again, over time you build value.

Todd Gallina:

That's great. My best day and my worst day were the same day.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah. That's like my everyday.

Todd Gallina:

It's true. It's true. At least she gives us the impression. Okay. Sandy, do you want to do our first lightning round? Sure, I'd love to.

Sandy Salty:

So Vikram, if you had to compete in an Olympic sport, clearly talking is not mine, my God. So Vikram, if you had to compete in an Olympic sport right now with absolutely no training, which one would it be?

Vikram Kapoor:

Okay, so for one, I don't think I'd be competitive at all, but But if I have to compete, I would probably pick like a 1500 meter like swimming where, you know, you just swim for a long time. And then, you know, eventually the goal is to kind of swim as long as you can. That's what I love doing. And yeah, that's what I would compete in most likely if I had to do it today. Have

Todd Gallina:

you done any swimming,

Vikram Kapoor:

any competitive swimming? No, not competitive, but I do love to swim in a leisurely way. And I generally like swimming long distances, not really short sprints, but just keep swimming for an hour, hour and a half. That's fantastic.

Sandy Salty:

Ocean swims or pool swims? Or perhaps river or lake?

Vikram Kapoor:

No, pool. I tried ocean and it's very hard to do unless you actually practice it a lot. But mostly for me, it's just pool swimming. That's great. You

Todd Gallina:

know, choosing swimming for me, swimming for me in Olympic sport would be terrifying for two reasons. One is you got to wear that Speedo. And two, it's like, they're so militant about like the misstart, you know, like when you jump into the pool, I would, that gun would go off and I'd almost wait like an extra three seconds to jump in because I'd be so afraid I'm going to, False start.

Sandy Salty:

Well, and Vikram, what you may not know is that Todd has fantastic hair and would never want to wear a swim cap

Vikram Kapoor:

to cover it. Yeah. There are a lot of analogies from, I mean, one of the reasons why I like it is because it's kind of very similar to how, again, like startups are, right? You just have to keep running and keep swimming. And then, you know, and at some point you pull the trigger and the clock starts then. And you don't have hair or no hair, you just got to keep doing it.

Sandy Salty:

It's a perfect analogy.

Vikram Kapoor:

What would be your sport, Sandy?

Todd Gallina:

You think you might already get out of this? Totally. You weren't expecting it. Totally not expecting it. Eating.

Sandy Salty:

I don't

Todd Gallina:

think they've added that yet. Maybe next time. Okay. Okay, so this one is for both of you. Okay, so I've got another one here, Vikram. Can you share with us what your most commonly used emoji is?

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, it's probably the smiling face because like, you know, most of my communication happens on Slack or email and, you know, electronic is just very hard to get emotions across, right? And most of the time I'm just kind of in, you know, in generally in like a smiling mode. So I think communicating that I've kind of learned over time is like super important because otherwise, you know, reading it on the other side, people, it's very hard to figure out what the original intent was. So that's probably my most commonly used emoji and I use it a lot.

Sandy Salty:

Do you want to know what mine is?

Vikram Kapoor:

You

Sandy Salty:

would love to know. So by far my most commonly used emoji is the laughing face with the tears coming out of the eyes because, you know, intense laughter. I mean, I love the fact that like there are so many different tiers of laughter that we can text to each other. There's like the ha ha, which is like, kind of mildly funny and then the lol which is a little bit funnier and then the the the one that's like laughing with the tears coming out but then like the the one that just absolutely represents sheer joy is the one that with with the one that's rolling with the tears coming out like that's when you know like that's a that's a that's a true belly laugh right

Todd Gallina:

there yeah that's always a solemn lol like we're on this course because you say to yourself like is that person really laughing out loud so you're in line somewhere like you know

Sandy Salty:

right or you can see that person on video and they text you lol and you're like no you actually

Todd Gallina:

didn't lol my new one which is gets sent to me a lot is the one where the person is looking down and they have their palm against their forehead. I can't believe you just said that. I get that one a lot. Okay, so last one. Last lightning round question. Are you ready to go take one first now?

Sandy Salty:

Oh, sure.

Todd Gallina:

What's the fastest you've driven in life? For fun,

Sandy Salty:

I bet. I think probably in the 90s. You know, like 93 probably is the fastest I've gone. Okay. And I'd love to say that there was a reason, but it's mostly that when I drive the Tesla, you don't even feel the speed. Like it goes so smoothly that before you know it, you're like at 100 and you didn't know how you got there, you know?

Todd Gallina:

It's so dangerous. Yeah,

Sandy Salty:

totally. You start

Todd Gallina:

flying and you're like, wait a minute. I'm afraid of... people who get so close to me.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah.

Todd Gallina:

That like my way of showing them that I'm not a slow driver is to totally floor it and go like 120 miles a week. Like, look how fast I can go. So

Sandy Salty:

you get pressured into speeding. Totally, it's sad.

Todd Gallina:

Todd.

Vikram Kapoor:

It's actually probably, you know, closer to Sandy's. Like, you know, I'm driving and I'm like, you know, you're just driving and then you notice, oh, it's the 90s now. Oh, I will get a ticket. So then you kind of reduce it. But in general, yeah, like high 80s is probably like max I go most of the time when I'm driving.

Sandy Salty:

I feel like you've made us confess to like criminal driving.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah. Highway patrols listening in. Well, good. Well, this has been fun. Thank you so much for hopping onto the podcast, buddy.

Vikram Kapoor:

Yeah, same here. It was really fun and really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, Vikram.

Outro:

Trace3 is hyper-focused on helping IT leaders deliver business outcomes by providing a wide variety of data center solutions and consulting services. If you're looking for emerging technology to solve tried and true business problems, Trace3 is here to help. We believe all possibilities live in technology. You can learn more at trace3.com slash podcast. That's trace the number three dot com slash podcast. You've been listening to The Founder Formula, the podcast for all things startup from Silicon Valley to innovators across the country. If you wanna know what it takes to lead tomorrow's tech companies, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time.