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”
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