Arsalan Tavakoli Shiraji

Databricks co-founder details enterprise sales lessons from early growth

Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, Databricks co-founder and SVP of field engineering, told TechCrunch Disrupt attendees that strong technology alone did not win enterprise deals in the company's early years. He described failed meetings, including one with UBS, and said partnering with Microsoft as an Azure cloud partner let Microsoft's sales team book meetings and advocate for Databricks under Microsoft's own contract terms.