23 August, 2021

E123 – Sam Kroonenburg, A Cloud Guru

Sam Kroonenburg is the CEO and Founder of A Cloud Guru, a disruptive online learning platform for cloud certification and training. A Cloud Guru has recently been acquired by Pluralsight, a US company, in the largest-ever acquisition of an Australian software company. The story of A Cloud Guru is an amazing example of product-market fit and successfully getting the product into the hands of the customers who need it most.

Sam has an extensive background in software development; he spent years at Microsoft as a Software Design Engineer. Sam also spent time honing his software development skills at Kiandra IT, where he worked as a Software Development Lead and a Software Development Manager.
During their chat, Ian & Sam discuss…

• Sam’s extensive background in software development
• Working in an ever-changing industry
• Engaging customers through education
• The natural progression of adding B2B services
• The process of negotiations that led to the acquisition by Pluralsight
• The unique set of challenges A Cloud Guru faced in raising funds and hiring
• Creating consistency through shared values among employees

…and more!
Quickfire Recommendations

• Book: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Podcast: Lex Fridman podcast
• News source: Ars Technica, The Age, The Washington Post, WSJ
• Tech CEO: Elon Musk (Tesla)
• App: Calm
• Productivity tool: Superhuman Email
• TV show: The West Wing
• Ted Talk Topic: “The future of education and work” or “the biggest and most exciting ideas in physics”