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Mohit Aron.
Mohit has over 20 years of experience in building scalable, high- performance distributed systems, and has been attributed as the father of hyperconvergence. Mohit founded Cohesity in 2013 and has grown the company into a leading provider of next-gen data management. He also co-founded Nutanix as the CTO, now a public company and leader in hyperconverged technology, in 2009. Prior to co-founding Nutanix, Mohit was at Google as a lead developer on the Google File System, the software that manages data on Google’s large scale clusters. Aron graduated with a Ph.D. in computer science from Rice University with a focus on distributed systems. He also holds a bachelor of science in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi India. In 2018, he received the “Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award” from Rice University and also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi in 2019.
Company:
Cohesity
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In a recent episode of Unicorn Builders,  we spoke with Mohit Aron , founder of Cohesity , to learn about the company's journey from a focused VMware backup solution to becoming a leader in AI-powered data security and management trusted by 47 of the Fortune 100 and over $1B in ARR.

Topics Discussed:

Five takeaways from this conversation.

Actionable for Unicorn Builders founders

  1. Find your initial beachhead market
    Mohit's strategy of focusing initially on VMware backups is a perfect example of this principle. By targeting a specific pain point within the broader data management space, Cohe
  2. Master the "land and expand" approach
    Cohesity started with small footprints in customer environments, often with VMware backups, then gradually took over entire backup footprints. Some customers replaced up to seven legacy products with Cohesity's solution.
  3. Align your brand with your core value proposition
    Cohesity chose a name that directly reflected their main offering - bringing cohesion to fragmented data management processes. This clear alignment between the brand and the product's key benefit helps communicate the company's value to potential customers quickly and effectively. It also positions the company as a solution to a specific, widespread problem in enterprise data management.
  4. Engage with industry analysts early
    Mohit emphasized the critical role of firms like Gartner in influencing enterprise buying decisions. By building relationships with analysts early, consistently engaging with them, and ensuring your customers provide positive feedback, you can shape analysts' opinions of your company. This positive perception can lead to favorable mentions to potential customers and better positioning in influential reports like Gartner's Magic Quadrant, ultimately driving more business your way.
  5. Build your GTM team early
    Mohit hired key marketing and sales personnel six months before launch. This team, reaching 5-10 people by launch, was crucial in securing design partners and initiating sales conversations, enabling a strong market entry.

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