Episode 334: Don Bulens - 5 Time Startup CEO & Executive Chair at CloudZero

The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode #334 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Don Bulens, 5 time Startup CEO and Executive Chair at CloudZero. This episode was recorded live at Suffolk University which was so much fun! We recorded 3 interviews with Suffolk alums on April 2nd, so this is the first conversation and we’ll have two more coming in the following weeks. And just a side note about Suffolk, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well at the school. I was blown away by how many students attended the sessions and how many came up to me afterward with great questions. Back to this episode... Don has had lots of success throughout his career including being the CEO at EqualLogic which exited to Dell for $1.4B in cash, which was the largest cash transaction of its time for a venture backed company… but what I admire about Don is his transparency about his failures. His first two CEO positions didn’t quite work out and he shares the details of this experience of getting knocked down and losing confidence, but how he got back at it and ultimately persevered. Today, Don is the Executive Chair at CloudZero, a venture backed cloud cost intelligence platform, which raised $41M last year in one of the most difficult markets to raise capital. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Why the success of a company is all about the people. * Don’s background story and how he got into sales, plus the importance of learning how to sell. * A journey down the tech industry across the companies he led as a CEO - that being Radnet, Trellix, EqualLogic, Unidesk, and CloudZero. * Don’s 3 secrets to success. * The story of the EqualLogic exit. * All the details about CloudZero and how they found product market fit. * Meeting his wife, Lynne Capozzi at Suffolk, who was the Chief Marketing Officer at Acquia. * And so much more.