ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Gleb Budman, the co-founder and CEO of publicly listed Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE). In this episode, Gleb shares his visionary take on why first-principles thinking and long-term organic growth are the ultimate competitive advantages in a world increasingly dominated by trillion-dollar tech hyperscalers.
Gleb discusses the evolution of his thinking from his early days as a multi-time exited founder to his team's decision to bootstrap Backblaze without initial venture capital funding. He explains why modern "best practices" of raising massive funding rounds early on can often feel like a trap, hollowing out a startup's focus by prioritizing investor pitches over earning a dollar from real customers. He introduces the reality of building an infrastructure company from a one-bedroom apartment—surviving on "rice and beans" while choosing to fund physical servers over founder salaries. As the conversation explores the future of cloud computing and AI workloads, Gleb highlights why Backblaze has become the core infrastructure layer for the "Neo-Cloud" gold rush, and why the most resilient brands will be those that offer open, flexible data storage without predatory egress fees.
The conversation also touches on the practicalities of leadership and the psychology of performance, including Gleb’s advice on how to protect an organization from the "cortisol fluctuations" of stock market volatility by focusing the team on metrics they can actually control. He shares insights from his decades spent scaling Backblaze, explaining how a single, open-source technical blog post 15 years ago blossomed into a sustainable marketing engine that now attracts millions of readers annually. He also breaks down their recent, deliberate decision to close their physical headquarters—acknowledging their remote-first reality while introducing highly intentional playbooks to keep a 400-person team deeply connected. This episode serves as a masterclass for any leader looking to move beyond "innovation theater" and build an organization that is philosophically and technically equipped to stay resilient in an era of unprecedented uncertainty.
To connect with Gleb, find him on LinkedIn (Gleb Budman) or follow his insights at @glebbudman on X. You can also visit backblaze.com/blog to see his vision for authentic, high-value communication in action. Don't just build a product—build the skills to solve the world's problems!
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