The Founder Formula

Garima Kapoor - Co-Founder of MinIO

• Trace3 • Episode 43

Share episode

This special episode of The Founder Formula goes behind the scenes with Garima Kapoor, Co‑Founder of MinIO, and was recorded live at Trace3’s Evolve Conference!

Your co-hosts Todd Gallina and Sandy Salty reflect with Garima on her founder’s journey, growing an open‑source‑first product into enterprise impact, and what it takes to serve the AI era’s demand for on‑prem, exascale object storage. This session is packed with lessons leaders can apply immediately. 

Inside the episode, you’ll hear more about:

  • Building a resilient founder mindset and scaling culture from first principles.
  • Navigating community, product, and enterprise together in an open‑source‑first model.
  • The operational realities of AI‑scale data: performance, footprint, and cost control.
  • Practical advice for founders on focus, market timing, and customer proximity.

Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform or Trace3.com.

Intro:

The founder formula brings you in behind the curtains and inside the minds of today's brave executives at the most future-leaning startups. Each interview will feature a transformative leader who's behind the wheel at a fast-paced and innovative tech firm. They'll give you an insider's look at how companies are envisioned, created, and scaled. We hope you're ready. Let's get into the show.

Todd Gallina:

Everybody, we're really excited today. It's a red letter day for the show Founder Formula. We are broadcasting from Trace3's annual technology leader conference, Evolve. This is the first time we've ever done a live interview at the show. It's something we've wanted to do for a long time, so I'm very, very excited. So before we move any further, I'd like to uh mention that my name is Todd Galena. And with me is the CMO of Trace3, Sandy Salty. Sandy, welcome to another episode of the Founder Formula.

Sandy Salty:

Thank you, Todd. It's good to be here with you. This is a lot of fun.

Todd Gallina:

Heck yeah.

Sandy Salty:

We've just gotten started.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, for those of you who can't see the broader shot, we are right in the middle of the main conference center at the Cosmopolitan. A lot of hustle and bustle, a lot of people who are showing up to our conference, they're getting their badges, they're walking around. So things are just getting started for us, and this will be the first recording that we're doing from the show. So very, very thrilled. Um, but with that, I'd like to get to our founder. Uh today's episode, we're joined by a founder who took an unconventional path into enterprise technology. With a PhD in finance and accounting, she began her career outside of the computer science but went on to create a company focused on high performance object storage. In addition to her role running day-to-day operations, she invests in early stage startups and has been an advocate for building inclusive culture-driven teams. She's a co-founder and CEO of Minio. We are thrilled to welcome Grima Kapoor. Grima, thank you for coming to the show.

Garima Kapoor:

Oh, thank you for having me.

Sandy Salty:

It's a pleasure to be here.

Todd Gallina:

Excellent.

Sandy Salty:

Grima, it's really good to have you. We appreciate you making the time to be with us at Evolve. Um, I'd love to get into MinIO. Why why did you start the business? Why did you start the company and launch this technology?

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah. You know, people always think there's a really strong story behind all the found you know, all the founders that uh build companies. For me, I just wanted to build something of my own. That was the only thing. I didn't think about the data problem that was staring at us, I didn't think about anything, but the I think the only thing that mattered to me was that I needed to do build something of my own, and I knew that if I would not do it, I would not be happy. So that would that is where it all started. And uh, you know, once you start thinking about building, you know, ideas just keep coming up. No matter where you look, you know, things happen. And uh one of the things that uh uh for me, as we were thinking about going through the exploration and the soul searching process that happens is uh no matter where we look, we found that you know data is a problem that can be relevant and that will grow exponentially over multiple years, and this is the problem that we can hack on for the rest of our lives. So that was the only reason why we went to the data space. And uh from when you're talking about data, you know, there are only two things at a very high level that you can do. One is on the storage side, either you can store data at a massive scale and present it at a high perforations at a high performance level and so on. And on the other side, uh either you do on the compute side, which is you know understand the data that is persisting on someone else's platform. So for us, we were very clear that uh, you know, if we get the land grab, if the data sits on our platform, then if we build anything on top of it, that will be only more additional value that we can deliver for our customers. But it is important that we hold the data on our systems or on our software. So that is how Menayo started, and that's the short and long of it.

Sandy Salty:

That's great. Well, uh, you know, congratulations on the great success you've had so far. Thank you. For having, frankly, the bravery to launch something of your own, and in particular um in the object storage space. Um, and it's it do you want to talk a bit about the sort of the compatibility with S3, etc.?

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, sure, sure. So when we were starting, we started the company right around um end of 2014, and uh AWS had convinced the world that S3 Object Store is the right kind of platform to bring all your data to. For us, we knew the technology and uh uh you know the platform that AWS is telling the customers is the right kind of technology in terms of where all the unstructured data needs to persist on. So for us, we actually, from AWS standpoint, they wanted the entire world's data to come to them. For us, we took an approach, we took a strategy that will be wherever the data is getting generated. So we took this the object storage part closer to the data as compared to AWS bringing it to themselves. So that's a change in strategy. But our goal has been to present uh S3 compatible object storage for all the AI workloads, no matter where the data is getting generated. It can get generated at edge, it can get generated at cloud, on-prem, doesn't matter for us.

Sandy Salty:

Amazing.

Todd Gallina:

So going back a little bit, uh you trained as an economist and earned your PhD in finance and accounting, pretty impressive. Thank you. How has that background shaped the way you are building and running Minio?

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah. I think PhD really teaches you in terms to get deep into the problem and it gives you the discipline of not only having a simple structure of identifying the problem but getting deep into the understanding how to solve the problem. So it's the problem solving skills that really PhD gives you. I don't think so. I'm applying any of the thesis work that I did in now in the real life. But I think the skills that you get in terms of problem solving, those are the skills that I'm carrying forward. And I always joke that once you are in the valley, everyone has to be a technologist no matter what. So you know, you just get dropped into right into the middle of things. So yeah.

Todd Gallina:

Was it a big decision to move on to get your PhD? Was there a way that you felt like that education prior had been enough? Or what what what compelled you to say, like, hey, we're gonna next level, yeah.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah. I loved economics, I mean, right from the beginning. Uh so for me, I wanted to go and uh teach economics at uh um you know to college level and be a professor, so that's what I was doing, and that's what I wanted to do. And uh yeah, that was the and you need a PhD to be a professor, so that's yeah, that was the path I was on.

Todd Gallina:

Perhaps that's still in your future. Yeah, yes, I love teaching.

Sandy Salty:

I love teaching. For sure. Yeah. Well, I think you're limitless, so that that could definitely be in your future if you if you choose for for it to be. You are speaking of limitless, you're not only a founder, you're also an angel investor. How does being a founder inform your decision making from an investment perspective?

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, I'll I'll um answer this question a little bit differently. So I was a very active uh investor before I started the company, and that was another reason why I started the company because you know, once you're surrounded by startups, you're surrounded by energy, you know, they are solving different problems and you know, right on the cutting edge of technology. And as investor or advisor, you always think you know best, you know, what others should be doing. Yes. So uh, and uh that kind of led to okay, I want to do things on my own and you know, I want to build it my way, and that that actually led to inception of you know why I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And now that I'm a founder, I've realized that it's very easy to advise when you're outside of it, and uh very hard when you're in the middle of you know, when you're in the battlefield every day. So it's a very different perspective. Yes, yeah.

Sandy Salty:

I mean, I'm sure it embeds a bit of empathy, right, in your ten percent.

Garima Kapoor:

So now my advice is advice to other startups, you know, as I get involved in other startups is much more different and much more deep than it was had I not done you know a startup of my own. That's great.

Todd Gallina:

Have you ever seen any horrible pitches? You know, where they come to you from and you're just like, oh my gosh, this is no pitches are.

Garima Kapoor:

I you know, founders are very special. Entrepreneurs, it's a very special breed of people. I think you cannot have a criteria of success or failure on them, you know. They'll build and build and build.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah.

Garima Kapoor:

So that's what it takes to be successful. It just it's persistence and uh yeah, so I I don't necessarily categorize I think everyone should dream, everyone should be a dreamer, and uh that's how it should be. There's no good and bad to it. It's yeah, yeah.

Todd Gallina:

Okay, so you're an advocate for more open collaborative research and healthcare, similar to CRN, which is the European Organization of Nuclear Research and Physics. Um, what lessons from open source software uh could you apply to accelerating breakthroughs and other critical industries? Excuse me. Oh yeah, critical industries at every point.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, I think open source is extremely special, and uh that's the reason that why built we built Minio. Uh, you know, we truly believe in the philosophy that, you know, I'll give you an example of how open source works. If you have one Apple, I have one Apple. We exchange, we still are, you know, have one Apple each, but if you have one idea, I have one idea. We exchange the ideas now. We both have two ideas. But that's really the foundation of open source, right? Collaboration and building on each other's contribution, and that's what builds up everyone together, right? And cloud would not have happened if it was not open source. Cloud is built on open source. If you see now, even AI, the reason why AI is you know all the frontier models, even though you know, from a geopolitical standpoint, we want to be the leader. If you see Deep Seek, that's open source. If you see, you know, Lama, that's open source uh in certain shape or format. So open source is the one I I truly believe in philosophy of bringing everyone together and building through each other. I think that's very important for as a society if we need to grow. And with AI especially, I think now it's going to be such a level ground for uh across the geographies to rise together. Unlike in past, you know, when there was one leader globally and technology used to percolate from there. But now, if you see with China, India, even countries in Africa, they're all building their own models, and uh before you know it, the it'll be a very level playing field. Yeah. Yeah.

Sandy Salty:

It's absolutely exciting for all of those emerging economies, yeah. Yeah. Um so let's get a little bit personal with you now. Uh uh. You you co-founded Minio with with your spouse. Yes. And um, and by the way, this is the first time we've we've even explored this topic with a founder, so this is exciting for the audience. Um you know, building something with your spouse in a in a business capacity, I'm sure has its challenges. We'd love to kind of pick your brain about that. Does it offer you more upside, or I'm sure you can't say it offers more downside, but walk us through how you sort of navigate the pitfalls. Like how do you avoid talking about Min Io every second of every day, even outside of your work hours, so to speak?

Todd Gallina:

And and don't worry, Ab is not listening or watching.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah. You know, as you mentioned, my background is not engineering, it's finance and accounting and economics. And uh when I really wanted to build a startup, I needed someone that I can really lean on to from product perspective. And uh I couldn't find anyone better than A B to come and build it with me. And he still jokes that he's the cheapest engineer I could hire. So that's why it was important because one thing is you know, when you are doing it together as a married couple, there's just hundred percent trust, 100% collaboration, and as founders, you know, other founders who are not married, they're some some shape or format always together in that way, right? So being married gives you that extra advantage of just unconditional trust, and I think that cannot be replaced. So uh that is extremely, extremely important, especially when you build the company together and you're going through this journey together. There's always, you know, so many challenges that happen, whether it is from uh, you know, board standpoint, whether it is how to build the right go-to-market standpoint, and you need to really think through all the scenarios and so on. Uh so it's important to have someone that you can really lean on to give you the right kind of advice, the right kind of perspective that you can trust. I think that's super important and uh yeah.

Sandy Salty:

That that's so well said. I mean, I think the uh the the most critical trait of every amazing team I've ever been on um fundamentally is just having that trust layer. 100% and naturally with your spouse, of course you would have that. Yeah, you should you you hope.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh and and you know the thing is that with founders and and I get asked this, you know, how do you take a break uh because you're working together and you're always talking about but the thing is that when you're building something that just occupies every bit of you, there is just no other way to do a startup, right? It it has to consume you. So it's better to have someone else with you along the way who can understand that journey, right? Otherwise, if if I'm doing it by myself and my spouse cannot understand what is going through, you know, uh without even understanding, you know, the dynamics of the things and what is consuming my mind and my time and everything, I think it's extremely important.

Sandy Salty:

I mean, analogous to having a child and raising it together. 100%. I um you know, I think about we've met so many founders over the years. Um it's a a privilege, really. And you know, I think oftentimes people think of founders as these extremely confident people who, you know, just kind of go for it devoid of any level of self-doubt, and you realize actually they're they're human too. And and I'd love to get your perspective on how do you navigate kind of self-doubt and um you know, I know we're getting a bit mushy here, but like over overcome self-doubt so that you can lead effectively. I think it's always a great sort of nugget from a founder's perspective.

Garima Kapoor:

I think you surround yourself with very smart people. I think that is one thing that you can help yourself because they give you the perspective in terms of how things are shaping up. But uh at the end of it, it's your decision, right? I mean, uh you are the CEO, you're the founder. So you need to know where you're headed. Along the way, you know, there'll be decisions that you will have to take how to get to that destination faster, right? And that is where those perspectives really help when you're thinking through the strategies. But as a leader, you always need to know where you're going, otherwise, you know, you cannot guide the team correctly. So that's one thing that I truly believe in. As a leader, all of us need to have that. From self-doubt perspective, there are of course always times when you're thinking, you know, is this the right decision or not, the impact of it. But you always have to have eye on the goal, and really, if you simplify the complex problems in very simple things and keep your eye on the fundamentals, the solutions will emerge itself. So I think that is one way to go through that and help clarify some of the situations. For sure.

Sandy Salty:

It's you know, I think giving your teammates perspective on the North Star it it helps uh really sort of um solidify the why behind all of the decisions you're making. 100%. 100%, 100%. Yeah, thank you for that perspective.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, you know, this uh episode has so many firsts. Um you know, we're here at the show for the first time, but we have a founder whose spouse is also a founder of the company. But we've done 43 episodes of the founder formula, and you are the only the third female founder that we've had, and we've tried. Yeah, um, for sure we've tried. Um can you talk a little bit about some of the unique hurdles uh female founders face?

Garima Kapoor:

So um not so much in the female founder, but I'll just give you a perspective of um any female in the workspace overall, they have to do ten times more hard work to show to you know the leadership that they're relevant or you know they are uh important and to get to the same level where their male peers would be. So I think in the early journey, as any uh I think uh females are building up their career, they have to put in more hard work. There is just no other way, it's unfair, but there is just no other way. Once you reach a certain level, then it kind of stabilizes. You have earned that credibility, but as you're building up your career, it is just how the industry is set up that as a you know, yeah.

Todd Gallina:

Do you see do you see it getting better at all over the last because I I see far more, and not to minimize what you said in any way, shape, or form, but um, when I first entered the industry, it was 95% male. I entered at the same roughly the same time that Sandy did. Um, but I do see more diversity, far more diversity than I did, especially in the last five years.

Garima Kapoor:

It is, and I think with every generation it's going to improve. I see it with my kids, how they look at each other, and I'm like, huh, this is a very different perspective because when I was growing up, that was not the perspective that I had, right? So I do believe as more women are, you know, getting educated, coming to workforce, you know, all those things, uh having STEM education, that's extremely important, and that kind of expands the pool in terms of the women coming into workforce itself, and that is what uh you know, you it gets showcased, especially like if you see there are a lot of young founders who are women, and that's so amazing to see. I think OpenAI CTO, you know, Mira, she's so phenomenal, and she's now doing her own startup. So I think, like I said, once you get that credibility, it kind of evens out. But to get to that level, you need you need to work. I mean, at least that's what that's how it was when I was growing up or coming up. You had to put in the hours, you had to do a lot more to show up that you know you are at that level.

Todd Gallina:

So that totally makes sense.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sandy Salty:

So one of our favorite questions to ask um when we get an opportunity to speak to founders is um the question of gratifying client moments that you've had as a founder. Um, you know, you're building this incredible company, and at the end of the day, it is to service a client, it is to alleviate a pain point in our industry. So really in the center of the universe is the sun, and that's the client, right? Um any any stories that you'd like to share with us?

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, I mean uh uh there are of course, you know, several clients who have very, very cool use cases in terms of you know one of the early uh customers that we had, and they're of course still now with us with a great partnership. Our team was very proud. I'm not a Star Wars fan, but Star Wars was streaming through, you know, Minhayos and was like, Star Wars is awesome.

Todd Gallina:

She's never even seen it.

Garima Kapoor:

I have not seen either.

Sandy Salty:

I've never seen it. That's its own podcast. People have never seen Star Wars. Is it a point? A point of pride. She closes her eyes.

Todd Gallina:

She sees it on TV.

Garima Kapoor:

Yeah, but so the our team was very uh happy about that, and everyone was very excited. But I think some of the things that um the work that is touching is in terms of you know how much is Minaio powering the AI and how much it is going to impact on the applied AI side of things. And I think the use case that I'm very proud of is you know, you see autonomous driving cars around you, and that's all uh, you know, Minaio is enabling that applied AI to happen. So that's that's something, you know, every day I drive that car and I'm like, okay, this is this is neat, like amusing.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, so you got bit by the bug. I heard. I heard you've got a little bit of you know racer fever in you.

Garima Kapoor:

I just recently, recently started it, and it was A B who got me into. And I'll tell you, this is how like you know, men can really uplift uh women around them because a lot of times what happens is that uh women, the way at least in my times when I grew up, you know, there's a lot of till you reach a certain level, you know, self-doubt, confidence, all those things. So A B really actually pushed me into trying this, like it'll help build you confidence, you know. You will know you're going to deal with people who are who have a certain A-type personality, and you need to know, you know, who you're dealing with. So you need to get into that kind of zone and understand who they are as people till you don't do all these activities, you will never know. So that is how I got into. And once I got into on the tracks and driving supercars, it's been just phenomenal. I've never had that kind of thrill before, so it's just very addictive. But you need to have a trainer. I mean, I have a coach who helps me, and it sounds very privileged, but I uh I I do have a coach who's uh I love it, who helps you know drive in the right kind of way and really push like right in terms of um getting a little bit excited and deeper into the weeds here, but uh when I was first driving, because you never completely push it to the floor, right? The accelerator. And I have uh McLaren and uh he really told me to it's okay, just trust me, trust me. And the distance was this short, it was not like a big distance that he was asking me to go go at it. Yeah, it was just so liberating and you went and so amazing. I just trusted him completely, and uh I just trusted his judgment that he's done this before, and he trusted me that I'm going to hit the brick right at that. So we both came out alive, but it was just the most exciting, exciting wow time. So, yeah.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah. Again, we're gonna get a little cheesy here, but like probably analogous to taking the leap and launching your own business and doing something that's super uncomfortable for most people and being brave.

Garima Kapoor:

I think you need to be a little bit uncomfortable all the time. All the time. That's the it's it's hard, I mean, but that's the only way you grow. There is no other way to grow, so there's no doubt. Yeah.

Todd Gallina:

Geez, on that note, I think we we've tied a bubble on on this episode.

Sandy Salty:

Absolutely. First of all, we so appreciate you giving us your time, sharing your journey with us. Before we let you go, there are a couple of headlines I'm gonna play quick truth or uh truth or or false with you here. Um is it true that half of the Fortune 500 uses MinIO today? Yes. Amazing. Again, congratulations on the success.

Todd Gallina:

That's pretty impressive.

Sandy Salty:

And then from an investment perspective, you have some pretty heavy hitters. Yeah. One of uh whom happens to be a huge partner of Trace 3, Dell Technologies, Dell Capital backs Min IO, which is frankly a signal that you are a horse to bet on, whether you're a channel partner, whether you're a client. Um congratulations, Karima. Thank you. We love what you're building. Thank you. We appreciate your time. Thank you.

Todd Gallina:

Thanks for being our first live guest.

Garima Kapoor:

Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's such a pleasure to be here. This is my first time at Evolve, and I just love the energy. We will see you again. Yeah, likewise.

Todd Gallina:

Well, everybody, that's it. Uh, we will catch you. We're gonna record another episode of Founder Formula while we're here at Evolve, and for now, we're signing off and we're gonna enjoy the conference.

Sandy Salty:

That's great.

Todd Gallina:

Thank you. Bye bye. Yeah.

Sandy Salty:

Trace3 is hyper-focused on helping IT leaders deliver business outcomes by providing a wide variety of data center solutions and consulting services. If you're looking for emerging technology to solve tried and true business problems, Trace3 is here to help. We believe all possibilities live in technology. You can learn more at trace3.com slash podcast. That's tracethenumber3.com slash podcast.

Intro:

You've been listening to the Founder Formula, the podcast for all things startups from Silicon Valley to innovators across the country. If you want to know what it takes to lead tomorrow's tech companies, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast. Until next time.