>>from Menlo Park, California In the heart of Silicon Valley, it's the Cube covering cloud now. Awards 2020 Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media. Now here's Sonia category. >>Hi and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host Sonia category, and we're on the ground at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California covering Cloud now's top women entrepreneurs in Cloud Innovation Awards. Joining us today is Tao Johnson, who's the CEO and founder of Kaizen Technology Partners. Now welcome to the Cube. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So give us a brief overview of your background. >>Sure, I actually have a finance degree and have no idea what technology was. I started as a finance analyst at Sun Microsystems and had no idea who they were or what job awas but having the interest to be a CFO one day, our CEO in another company, I figured I'd go into sales and really understand what drives a company growth and revenue. So I was actually trained by Scott McNealy's best of the best program and was in sales class with him and his with his sister in law. And, um, I never left sales after them, >>so um So you mentioned that you have a finance background? How do you think that background has helped you to become a successful CEO versus, say, a technical background? >>And I think having the finance background is very important because your cash flow management is one of the biggest reasons companies fail. You know, before they can get their next round of funding, they run out of their overhead costs, their monthly overhead costs. The other thing is really to understand how to sell in our ally and total cost of ownership to the decision powers that be at the CFO level and CEO CIO. >>Okay, Um, so you're on the cloud now advisory board to tell us, How did you join And how was that experience? Like, I think >>it grew organically having been a participant to a few of the events with Jocelyn and then helping her. Where can I help? How can I get speakers for you or winners? And over time, just like just came to me and said, You know, you have such a network, Why don't you join our board and help us where we can? Hence we have mailing today, um, as our keynote because of our network. >>And speaking of entrepreneurs, you, um, I just want to mention that you are at this program for Harvard, for entrepreneurs. Can you talk more about that? >>Sure, it's an amazing program. I wish that there were more women who applied and were able to invest the money and time into the program. It's, ah, owners and entrepreneurs who have companies around the world. There's 41 countries represented. Unfortunately, only about 17% of women of 151 participants in class. We meet three times once a year, and we go through three weeks of intensive training to discuss marketing finance how to scale operations. But the best thing you get out of it is 1 30% of it is learning this case studies method and Harvard, the other 30% is really the network and the different industry's. You get to meet. We have film. As you know, we've talked about retail and other industries there that you can self reflect on. How does that involve with technology? Um, and then the other 30 self reflection time. A lot of entrepreneurs, especially CEOs, don't have the time to get away from their business, and it really forces you to not be the operator. Walk away and be able to self reflect on Where do you want to take the business >>today >>and speaking about networking? What's your advice on networking within the industry? What are some tips and tricks >>in my belief? You know, we have social media, but the best way to meet people is through other people. So going to events like this and really having an idea of your goals at the event when you're going there, who's going to help you get to that person? Um, and having a focus, not. I want to meet 100 80 people, and I don't know who they're going to be really being able to say, Who do I want to meet at that event who can help me get there and preparing plan as much triple the time that you're gonna be even at the event? >>Yes, the networking can be really difficult. So as an entrepreneur, what do you think makes a great entrepreneur? >>You know, entrepreneurship is very hard because you really have to touch all facets of a company and find the right people to trust to do certain areas, but then be able to understand all the different parts of the company, right, from supply chain to partnerships to sales and finance. So what, you really have to be diverse and ambidextrous, and that makes it very difficult for some people who are only analytical or only sales e to be able to run a company in scale. >>And what advice do you have for female technologists who maybe feel that so it's really difficult to navigate in this male dominated industry? I would >>say to them they're stand out, make your different standout, right? Why make it a negative? The positive is you are female and you stand out so less men get called on by you and you might have a chance to get in the door. But you better have your ideas in line and your resource is and you better be >>kick ass. But use it to your >>advantage that you are different and that they're not used to hearing from women. >>So you've been with carved out for many years now. Where do you hope to see cloud now in the future, I >>would love to see cloud now be more, uh, geographically worldwide as we're doing more work in my non profit for women Rwanda, in Afghanistan as entrepreneurs, Um and I think, you know, we've upped and stepped up so much more with Facebook bringing in investments to us to compared to what we've done before, Um, I think just the awareness and may be doing this on a, um, twice a year basis instead of only once a year to be ableto celebrate these wonderful women. >>Don, thank you so much for being on the Cube. This has been really knowledgeable. Thank you for having me. I'm Sonia Tagaris. Thank you for watching the Cube stay tuned for more. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

hi welcome to the cube I'm your host Lisa Martin and we are at Google with cloud now which is a nonprofit organization supporting and foreign led by great female technology leaders expertise and cloud computing and converging technologies and we're here because tonight is their fifth annual awards for the top women in cloud innovation so we're very excited to be here we're here right now with Dow Johnson Dow and I go way back and now you are the CEO of Kyson technology partners jealousy's are the founder of the office of the cloud which I was fortunate to get your launch a couple of months ago we're fortunate to have you thank you first time on the cube you are as a founder of the office of the cloud you're also partnering and sponsoring with talk to us a little bit about what you guys are collaborating on to really help foster and inspire more women to be as successful as yourself sure well we believe that men are very important in helping women get into the cloud economy and with their help and raising them up into the ladders of the ecosystem so here to support cloud now we want to make sure there were sponsors from all cloud public companies as well as private so we've started after meeting with Jocelyn a few months ago getting those sponsors and I believe will have some greater sponsorships and some scholarships out of this for the sixth year of cloud now fantastic something that you said was actually echoing a lot of what we've heard tonight at the show is that it's not just about women in tech female Sontag that men are actually essential and I remember when I was talking with you a few months ago about the launch event and that was something that was very important to you and I think it's great to hear that because your message has has been reiterated tonight what are some of the things that you've heard tonight maybe from some of the keynotes or some of the Award winners that you have found that's awesome this is inspiring and so I found some of the inspiring pieces like I've been working on this project for 12 years and now I'm just getting credit for it right the persistence of someone being able to work on it the other pieces were the heart stories heartfelt stories of how the technologies were helping out cancer patients and women and young children who didn't have a voice literally physically did not have a voice and how technology is helping them get there and be able to have their own voice yes that was voice ID we actually spoke with them and we actually had one of their soon-to-be customers with us and it was it was like why is it just now or two years ago that someone said you know what all these computerized voices are the same they're not customized but as people we have personalities so what a great idea and a great insight inspiration to leverage technology in that way I agree with you I found it tremendously inspiring we also you mentioned cancer and we were just talking with Mary stencil poor who is an associate yes at OHSU and she was talking about what how they're collaborating with Intel to create the collaborative cancer cloud and that's something that's very near and dear to my heart and I just thought it's that's what we need and but I want one of the messages that I like that that sends is everything now is technology your car is a computer everything is technology so having that message be reiterated to whether they're young girls in stem programs or mckee about what to major in or maybe they've got a degree in something different but are interested in that I think those are great messages and speaking of career paths you and I are very similar in in a very Zig zaggy path talk to us about your career path to not only CTO but also co-founder of the office of the cloud so I actually started in a finance degree not knowing what a CPU was in the 90s or who Sun Microsystems was I'm not sure if I'm feel good about acknowledging that but I think what you're even seeing in the computer and cloud world like the driverless car right having a Google driving self car it's not about just the technology but also the experience that's in the technology so you need people with the marketing sense the EQ of how does that sensory affection me or how will that affect my experience and what can I do in it doesn't mean that you have to have check mycological background on it but that you can think as a person and the experience so for myself the finance background helps me relate to my clients just from this technology works and the technology can solve your problem right but really from the political business view of understanding that finances politics personalities and I was the youth governor of my state those things are very important in decision making as well as your inter relation with people and things absolutely I couldn't agree more and I think that's a message that we've heard from all the guests here tonight joseline talked about that as well I think that and I I know I wouldn't change my career path and I bet you wouldn't either because as you've said you've gotten this you have a diverse perspective correct that you wouldn't have had otherwise so what's next really quickly before we well what's next for the office of the cloud so what we're looking for is really to be able to help the s'more scholars at the whole Burton School here at cloud now but I think we're looking for an event that will make really run by the by the end users the needs that they're seeing in the future so look for us in the spring I think we'll have a wonderful guest speaker maybe from the federal government talking about how cloud and security and security isn't in the way of cloud but for us cloud now is all about a person at a time and a company at the time putting companies together to talk to each other and be able to solve problems where people have failed and they can share that failure so that the next company doesn't fail and cloud doesn't become an overarching inability to get to absolutely really cloud is just an enablement I would not have been able to start a company and many women aren't able to start a company or men without consuming a server or a storage right so it's really a gap to let us in but it's not the answer to everything and without sharing absolutely I love your kind of final message fear of collaboration we've heard that echoed a lot throughout our guest tonight Jensen thank you so much for joining us you know yeah it's been great to be on again soon absolutely thank you for watching we've had a great time here cloud now thank you for having us we hope you've been inspired and if you know a female in tech who should be interviewed in our Studios in Palo Alto please tweet us at the cube hashtag women in tech I'm your host Lisa Martin we'll see you next time