How Snowflake’s New CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Plans to Scale the $50.96B Giant

“Being good with data is no longer an option for a company,” says Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake, adding that the best companies on the planet today are data-savvy and data-literate companies.

“We aspire to be that partner to all of these companies, in order to have them realise the full power of their data and use that to change what they do on a day-to-day basis,” he adds.

In a conversation with YourStory, Ramaswamy dived into his leadership style, why data literacy is key for the next step in innovation, and how AI is the bridge to achieve insights from this untapped data.

The ‘magic’ of AI

In a world increasingly defined by data, Ramaswamy believes AI is the transformative bridge between the analogue and digital.

Snowflake’s ‘evergreen’ mission, he says, is to help enterprises mobilise their data. The company began with investing in analytics and then moved to data collaboration to solve one crucial problem: enabling enterprises to work with each other without complicated pipelines.

But how does Snowflake stay relevant in this fast-paced and highly competitive data cloud space? According to Ramaswamy, the key is to have a mission that outlasts any particular year (or CEO, he adds) by embracing change and helping customers take advantage of said change. For example, AI and its ability to transform unstructured data into actionable insights “with minimal effort”.

“AI creates fluidity…The magic of AI lies in its ability to connect worlds previously isolated. It’s about creating structured value from chaos,” he says.

According to the tech leader, enterprises are standing at a pivotal juncture. With vast repositories of untapped data, companies are finally asking, “How can we get value from all this information?” Ramaswamy cited an example of Bajaj Insurance, which is now using AI to analyse decades’ worth of claims, finding inefficiencies, and predicting outcomes — a feat made possible only because of the implementation of AI.

But he also urges leaders to focus on business value rather than trends. “AI should answer one of two questions. How do you make more money? How do you spend less? It’s not about AI for AI’s sake,” he noted.

A culture of excellence

Ramaswamy, who succeeded Frank Slootman as the CEO of Snowflake in February 2024, is the latest in a long line of Indian-origin tech CEOs in the global tech industry. An alumnus of IIT Madras, he moved to the USA in 1989.

He joined the company in May 2023 as a senior vice president after it acquired Ramaswamy’s startup Neeva which he had co-founded in 2019. He had been leading Snowflake’s AI strategy.

“I feel very fortunate as an Indian immigrant who, like many other people, went to the US with two suitcases and $800 to have had opportunities like what did,” he says. “There is always a lot of luck in every person’s career, mine included. But you can create a lot more luck for yourself by trying hard.”

The most important lesson? “The basic realisation that you are in charge of your life,” he quips, followed by adaptability and malleability. “Most people get good in a particular field and get into a job in that are and don’t really change. [But] we need to understand that the only way you get bigger opportunities is by embracing change.”

Drawing on his time at Google, he shares lessons about thriving amidst change: “We realised desktop growth was saturating, but mobile was the future. Transitioning wasn’t easy, but it led to 10 more years of growth.”

But how do you build a business that keeps growing without getting complacent after certain milestones? For Ramaswamy, the path to building a successful company hinges on cultivating a culture of relentless excellence. “Excellence is a way of living; it’s not a milestone you reach,” he says.

Ramaswamy’s philosophy also embraces hard work diligently. “I work 24x7…I send emails on Saturdays, and I’m proud of it,” he says, emphasising the value of striving for greatness. However, he adds that he doesn’t expect everyone to work as hard. “But I do not want to be in a culture where working hard is a crime.”

Today, Snowflake is experiencing a growth of about 30% but the new CEO aspires for this to reach 40%. “We can do more. If you are growing at 40%, you are doubling every two years,” he adds. While identifying that this is an “insane growth”, he says that it takes a certain work ethic to get it done.

India’s transformative decade

Reflecting on India’s rapid progress, Ramaswamy says that the scale of prosperity India is achieving is something to be very proud of and adding a trillion dollars to GDP every year is a feat few nations can achieve “This is a transformative decade for the whole country. There aren’t many countries, even the USA, that can do this currently.”

However, he cautions that this pace of growth can also end, which is why it is important to ensure that this prosperity is broad-based and not limited to a select few. “People should consider themselves to be very fortunate living in this time.”

For Ramaswamy, India’s achievements demonstrate its potential to lead globally. “We've been an independent nation for 75-odd years. But to me, both what India has accomplished internally and what its diaspora has achieved all over the world, should convince them that they're just as capable of greatness both from India and outside India as anyone else.”

To sum it up, he adds, “It's a wonderful time to be alive.”