E27: From Unix Coder to Enginer-Founder - Rob Woollen's Journey Founding Sigma Artwork

Zero Prime Podcast

The Zero Prime Podcast with Pete Soderling explores the early stories of top startups as seen through the eyes of their engineer-founders. In each episode we uncover insights on what it takes to start a company as an engineer in the words of the founders themselves. From the most cutting edge infrastructure companies to the newest trends in developer tooling, we introduce you to the engineer-founder personalities behind the up and coming software startups that you can’t afford to ignore.

All Episodes

Zero Prime Podcast

E27: From Unix Coder to Enginer-Founder - Rob Woollen's Journey Founding Sigma

February 13, 2025 • Data Council

In this episode of the Zero Prime podcast, engineer-turned-founder Rob Woollen gives a refreshingly honest take on the founder journey. Rob shares his path from Unix coder to BEA Systems architect to Salesforce CTO, and finally to pioneering data analytics at Sigma.

Get Rob's reflections on turning deep tech into market wins and navigating the AI revolution from an engineer who's built it all.

1. 00:00 - Introduction and Early Career
2. 04:25 - Salesforce Years and Career Evolution
3. 06:51 - Path to Entrepreneurship
4. 10:41 - Sutter Hill Ventures and Sigma's Genesis
5. 14:38 - Building Sigma
6. 20:30 - AI and the Future of Business Intelligence
7. 28:55 - Closing Thoughts

👉 Data Council 2025 brings together the brightest minds in AI and data, featuring no-BS technical talks from industry leaders at Databricks, Perplexity, Replit, Datadog, DeepMind, and more. Join us for 3 DAYS of 100+ deep-dive talks, workshops, and our signature office hours where you can meet your AI & data heroes in person.

Tickets are selling out fast, buy yours today!

People on this episode

Pete Soderling

Host