Getting rejected, then hired, by Elon Musk + The Future of Serverless Databases [Sugu Sougoumarane, CTO Planetscale]

<p>Listen to the Sourcegraph podcast: <a href="https://about.sourcegraph.com/podcast/sugu-sougoumarane/">https://about.sourcegraph.com/podcast/sugu-sougoumarane/</a></p><ul> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/ssougou">https://twitter.com/ssougou</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sugu-sougoumarane-b9bb25/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sugu-sougoumarane-b9bb25/</a></li> <li><a href="https://planetscale.com/blog/blog-series-consensus-algorithms-at-scale-part-1">Consensus Algorithms at Scale</a></li> </ul><p><br><strong>Transcript</strong></p><p><strong>Beyang Liu:<br></strong><br></p><p>Yeah, tell us that story. What happened between you and Elon Musk?</p><p><strong>Sugu Sougoumarane:<br></strong><br></p><p>So, this was 2000. Elon had just founded X.com. He had sold off Zip2, which was his previous company, and he was considered one of those up and coming entrepreneurs. He wasn’t as popular as he is today. But when I read X.com, if you read the description then, it said that it was an online bank. So, basically, there’s Wells Fargo, there’s Bank of America, and now there’s X.com, which is an internet-first bank.</p><p>That’s what it looked like. I said, “Wow. If it’s a bank, I better be formal.” So, I wore a tie and suit.</p><p><strong>Beyang Liu:<br></strong><br></p><p>Oh no. And I’m assuming the dress code was a lot less formal.</p><p><strong>Sugu Sougoumarane:<br></strong><br></p><p>That turned him off instantly. So, I’m sitting there, he walks in and says, “Who the hell are you?” “I’m here for the interview.” “Oi, why are you wearing a suit?”</p><p><strong>Beyang Liu:<br></strong><br></p><p>That’s hilarious.</p><p><strong>Sugu Sougoumarane:<br></strong><br></p><p>So it turned out that this was 2000, where the boom was happening–‘99, 2000. And there were so many “me too” companies. “I’m going to change the world” kind of companies.</p><p><strong>Beyang Liu:<br></strong><br></p><p>Sure. A lot of copycats.</p><p><strong>Sugu Sougoumarane:<br></strong><br></p><p>And I had been interviewing with