EP 89: Jay Kreps (CEO, Confluent) on Confluent’s Resilient Rise to Software Behemoth

The Logan Bartlett Show

In the episode, Confluent CEO Jay Kreps dives into Confluent's transformation from a LinkedIn spin-out to a publicly traded company. He discusses the challenges of turning an open-source project into a thriving commercial venture and the bold decision to launch a second product while the first was thriving. Additionally, Jay opens up about his transition into the role of CEO, how he only went to one year of high school, and his unique philosophies about steering startups to success.

(0:00) Intro

(1:26) How being a writer benefited Jay as a CEO

(3:05) Building a management team

(13:28) The Role of Titles in a Company

(17:54) Only Going To One Year of High School

(23:02) The Decision to Pursue Computer Science

(31:05) The Birth of Project Kafka

(34:32) Reflections on the Success of Kafka

(36:47) Launching an Open Source Project

(37:43) The Power of Product Marketing

(39:35) Should You Be A Founder?

(42:00) The Transition from Individual Contributor to CEO

(47:51) Navigating the Public Markets

(1:09:46) What's Wrong With Hybrid Work

(1:14:27) Navigating Politics in the Workplace

(1:17:36) Why Fairness Matters

(1:26:51) The Evolution of Open Source

(1:35:22) The Future of Artificial Intelligence

(1:43:41) The Shift from Using Software to Becoming Software

Produced: Rashad Assir & Leah Clapper

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.

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