A easy “chilly e-mail” landed an Indian YouTuber an interview with Satya Nadella, the place the Microsoft CEO opened up a few main “lesson” realized — the corporate’s failure to anticipate the dominance of search. Talking with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Mr Nadella admitted that Microsoft underestimated search as a approach to organise the online, permitting Google to take management of what grew to become the web’s most profitable enterprise mannequin.
“We missed what turned out to be the largest enterprise mannequin on the net as a result of all of us assumed the online is all about being distributed,” Mr Nadella stated. “Who would have thought that search could be the largest winner?” he requested, including they “clearly did not see it” and Google managed to capitalise on it.
Mr Nadella acknowledged that this oversight was an important lesson for him. “These enterprise mannequin shifts are in all probability harder than even the tech pattern adjustments,” he stated.
“You need to not solely get the tech pattern proper, you additionally need to get the place the worth goes to be created with that pattern. These enterprise mannequin shifts are in all probability harder than even the tech pattern adjustments,” he added.
The ‘Chilly E-mail’ That Landed An Interview With Satya Nadella
The dialog with Mr Nadella took place unusually. Dwarkesh Patel, identified for internet hosting friends like Mark Zuckerberg and Tony Blair, observed that the Microsoft chief had subscribed to his publication. With out hesitation, Mr Patel despatched a brief e-mail with the topic line: “Wanna come on my podcast?”
“Hello Satya, noticed your e-mail on my publication subscriber checklist. Respect you tuning in! Would you be concerned about approaching my podcast?… I am eager to listen to the way you’re fascinated with AI (and Microsoft) over the following 3/10/25 years,” Mr Patel wrote.
To his shock, Mr Nadella responded in simply 4 minutes: “Your pod is tremendous. I might like to.” The podcast host later shared the story on X, writing, “Do not underestimate the facility of a chilly e-mail.”
Children, do not underestimate the facility of a chilly e-mail.
(From @Microsoft‘s YouTube channel – hyperlink under) pic.twitter.com/TyqXMiTjZk
— Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) February 19, 2025
Within the podcast, Satya Nadella additionally mentioned the most important technological shifts he has witnessed. The primary was the transition from mainframes to private computer systems, adopted by the rise of client-server structure. He recalled attending Microsoft’s 1991 PDC convention whereas working at Solar Microsystems, the place it grew to become clear that servers would shift to x86 techniques.
The second main shift was the appearance of the online, marked by the discharge of the Mosaic and Netscape browsers. “We had the browser second, and so we needed to regulate. And we did a fairly good job of adjusting to it as a result of the browser was a brand new app mannequin,” Mr Nadella defined.
Discover more from News Journals
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.