Rob Salvagno's guest appearances

Rob Salvagno

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Cisco Champion Radio

Reid Hoffman

Elon Musk

Bill Gates

James Beshara

Josh Wolfe

Annie Duke

Frank Chen

James Loftus

David Helgason

Kyle Samani

Sheryl Sandberg

David Tisch

Wade Foster

Keith Rabois

Kim Scott

OwlTail

Rob Salvagno is VP of Corporate Development and Cisco Investments at Cisco, where he is responsible for leading all M&amp;A efforts as well as managing Cisco’s strategic venture capital which invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually. At Cisco, Rob led the $1.2 billion acquisition of Meraki, one of the most successful platform acquisitions in Cisco’s history, and the $3.7 billion acquisition of AppDynamics, cementing Cisco’s place in the business intelligence, analytics and IT operations market. Most recently, Rob engineered the $2.3 billion acquisition of Duo, the leading provider of unified access security and multi-factor authentication delivered through the cloud. Prior to the world of M&amp;A, Rob was a technology investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin &amp; Jenrette. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rob made his way from investment banking to leading the M&amp;A and venture activity for one of the world's largest tech players of the last decade? 2.) How do M&amp;A teams like to get to know startups that they could invest in or acquire? How does Rob like to work with the venture ecosystem? How does Rob think on Paul Graham's comment of "do not talk to corp dev"? What are the nuances here? How does it differ for consumer vs enterprise?  3.) How does Rob define true success when it comes to M&amp;A evaluation? Should corp dev be strategy first or transaction first? What have been Rob's biggest lessons on successful integration? Where do so many go wrong with integration post M&amp;A? What questions can be asked ahead of time to know if integration and culture will be a fit?  4.) How does Rob reflect on his own price sensitivity today? How does Rob feel about the multiples enterprise companies are currently trading at? What have Rob's most successful acquisitions taught him about price and price sensitivity? How does Rob deal with the inherent conflict of investing and also acquiring companies? How does he communicate that to the companies he invests in?  5.) What does the acquisition-decision making process look like at Cisco? How does it differ on a deal by deal basis? What do Cisco do to allow them to move so much faster than any other M&amp;A teams? What have been Rob's lessons on the importance of speed in winning the best transactions?  Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Rob’s Fave Book: The Poisonwood Bible Rob’s Most Recent Acquisitions: CloudCherry, Voicea As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rob on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

<a href="https://twitter.com/salvagno" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rob Salvagno</a> is VP of Corporate Development and <a href="https://www.ciscoinvestments.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cisco Investments</a> at Cisco, where he is responsible for leading all M&amp;A efforts as well as managing Cisco’s strategic venture capital which invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually. At Cisco, Rob led the $1.2 billion acquisition of Meraki, one of the most successful platform acquisitions in Cisco’s history, and the $3.7 billion acquisition of AppDynamics, cementing Cisco’s place in the business intelligence, analytics and IT operations market. Most recently, Rob engineered the $2.3 billion acquisition of Duo, the leading provider of unified access security and multi-factor authentication delivered through the cloud. Prior to the world of M&amp;A, Rob was a technology investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin &amp; Jenrette. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rob made his way from investment banking to leading the M&amp;A and venture activity for one of the world's largest tech players of the last decade? 2.) How do M&amp;A teams like to get to know startups that they could invest in or acquire? How does Rob like to work with the venture ecosystem? How does Rob think on Paul Graham's comment of "do not talk to corp dev"? What are the nuances here? How does it differ for consumer vs enterprise?  3.) How does Rob define true success when it comes to M&amp;A evaluation? Should corp dev be strategy first or transaction first? What have been Rob's biggest lessons on successful integration? Where do so many go wrong with integration post M&amp;A? What questions can be asked ahead of time to know if integration and culture will be a fit?  4.) How does Rob reflect on his own price sensitivity today? How does Rob feel about the multiples enterprise companies are currently trading at? What have Rob's most successful acquisitions taught him about price and price sensitivity? How does Rob deal with the inherent conflict of investing and also acquiring companies? How does he communicate that to the companies he invests in?  5.) What does the acquisition-decision making process look like at Cisco? How does it differ on a deal by deal basis? What do Cisco do to allow them to move so much faster than any other M&amp;A teams? What have been Rob's lessons on the importance of speed in winning the best transactions?  Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Rob’s Fave Book: <a href="https://amzn.to/2MEwBur" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Poisonwood Bible</a> Rob’s Most Recent Acquisitions: <a href="https://cloudcherry.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CloudCherry</a>, <a href="https://www.voicea.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Voicea</a> As always you can follow <a href="https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harry</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/twentyminutevc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Twenty Minute VC</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/salvagno" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rob</a> on Twitter here! <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hstebbings1996/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.</a>

20VC: Inside The Acquisition Decision-Making Process at Cisco, How To Measure True Success in M&A Evaluation & Why By Not Speaking To Corp Dev Teams You Are Closing The Door On The Biggest Potential Accelerator To Your Business with Rob Salvagno, VP of Co

Cisco’s head of Investments &amp; M&amp;A, Rob Salvagno, joined Cisco Champions Radio to discuss why and how Cisco invests in startups, some of the most exciting investments Cisco has made recently, some of our recent acquisitions, and how Todd Nightingale owes him two bottles of scotch.  We cover Cohesity, Meraki, Kespry and more! Show Notes:•	How does Cisco gets plugged into the startup community?•	Cisco sees an opportunity to participate in external innovation through investing. Cisco invests (on average) around 200M+ every year.•	Cisco invests at scale, up and down the stack, globally. Global approach to investment strategy as innovation happens everywhere. Cisco is currently invested in companies in about 40 countries and in about 120 companies.•	Cisco invests in areas it’s in today (such as security, DC, cloud) and things that are over the horizon (such as AR, ML, Drones, etc.) to get a unique perspective on what may be happening in the future.•	COHESITY: One of Cisco’s fastest growing investments. Cisco &amp; Cohesity combined bring a lot to our customers by working with UCS and Hyperflex•	How do you decide when to purchase something? Cisco invests to test out interesting new products, usually on the order of $1-5M. When Cisco acquires a company, it is because Cisco has confidence they can bring it to a wider market.•	Cisco acquisitions are not one-size fits all. •	Meraki is one of the most successful recent acquisitions. Saw saw they had a new approach when they were coming up with cloud management. •	Todd Nightingale owes Rob 2 bottles of scotch. I recommend Lagavulin•	FUN FACT: Cisco had moved out of SF right before the Meraki acquisition.  Meraki was the foundation for Cisco’s resurgence in San Francisco•	DRONES: For example, mining companies used drones to change their business. Cisco has invested in drone company Kespry and has created a greater solution for customers by adding drone technology to solutions. •	The Cisco Investments team look for people with conviction. •	Teams are asked to focus on different areas. US: Sec, Collab, Big Data, Cloud. Teams spend all day in their topic. Half the time with the startups and half the time within the BUs. •	APPROACH: Cisco Investments utilizes a structured and unstructured approach. The structured approach includes the approval processes for investments and acquisitions. Cisco has also built muscle and a sense of how to meet and find investments in the many years of investing.•	Cisco Investments doesn’t determine the direction of Cisco but is trying to help accelerate the innovation•	SaaS: Startups have to build solutions that are most relevant to today’s business. Most of the time they are software-centric companies with subscription business models. Thus, many of the recent acquisitions have SaaS / subscription services-based business models. •	LEADERSHIP: Hire the right people and set them free to do their job.•	Sometimes companies approach Cisco, we usually have our eyes on people, and we get tips from other VC firms we’ve invested who value Cisco as a strategic partner.•	DECIBEL: Cisco investments has been series B and up. However, Cisco also recently launched an independent investment fund for Seed &amp; Series A opportunities, called Decibel. •	Surfing: chart uncharted territory. Like investingCisco Champions:Jeff Levensailor (http://www.twitter.com/levensailor), Cisco Champion member, Developer Engineer, Presidio.David Peñaloza (http://www.twitter.com/davidsamuelps), Cisco Champion member, Lead Network Consulting Engineer, Verizon Enterprise Solutions.Cisco Guest: Rob Salvagno (http://www.twitter.com/salvagno), VP Corporate Development and Cisco Investments.Moderator: Lauren Friedman (http://www.twitter.com/lauren), Cisco Champion Program.

Cisco’s head of Investments &amp; M&amp;A, Rob Salvagno, joined Cisco Champions Radio to discuss why and how Cisco invests in startups, some of the most exciting investments Cisco has made recently, some of our recent acquisitions, and how Todd Nightingale owes him two bottles of scotch. We cover Cohesity, Meraki, Kespry and more! Show Notes: •	How does Cisco gets plugged into the startup community? •	Cisco sees an opportunity to participate in external innovation through investing. Cisco invests (on average) around 200M+ every year. •	Cisco invests at scale, up and down the stack, globally. Global approach to investment strategy as innovation happens everywhere. Cisco is currently invested in companies in about 40 countries and in about 120 companies. •	Cisco invests in areas it’s in today (such as security, DC, cloud) and things that are over the horizon (such as AR, ML, Drones, etc.) to get a unique perspective on what may be happening in the future. •	COHESITY: One of Cisco’s fastest growing investments. Cisco &amp; Cohesity combined bring a lot to our customers by working with UCS and Hyperflex •	How do you decide when to purchase something? Cisco invests to test out interesting new products, usually on the order of $1-5M. When Cisco acquires a company, it is because Cisco has confidence they can bring it to a wider market. •	Cisco acquisitions are not one-size fits all. •	Meraki is one of the most successful recent acquisitions. Saw saw they had a new approach when they were coming up with cloud management. •	Todd Nightingale owes Rob 2 bottles of scotch. I recommend Lagavulin •	FUN FACT: Cisco had moved out of SF right before the Meraki acquisition. Meraki was the foundation for Cisco’s resurgence in San Francisco •	DRONES: For example, mining companies used drones to change their business. Cisco has invested in drone company Kespry and has created a greater solution for customers by adding drone technology to solutions. •	The Cisco Investments team look for people with conviction. •	Teams are asked to focus on different areas. US: Sec, Collab, Big Data, Cloud. Teams spend all day in their topic. Half the time with the startups and half the time within the BUs. •	APPROACH: Cisco Investments utilizes a structured and unstructured approach. The structured approach includes the approval processes for investments and acquisitions. Cisco has also built muscle and a sense of how to meet and find investments in the many years of investing. •	Cisco Investments doesn’t determine the direction of Cisco but is trying to help accelerate the innovation •	SaaS: Startups have to build solutions that are most relevant to today’s business. Most of the time they are software-centric companies with subscription business models. Thus, many of the recent acquisitions have SaaS / subscription services-based business models. •	LEADERSHIP: Hire the right people and set them free to do their job. •	Sometimes companies approach Cisco, we usually have our eyes on people, and we get tips from other VC firms we’ve invested who value Cisco as a strategic partner. •	DECIBEL: Cisco investments has been series B and up. However, Cisco also recently launched an independent investment fund for Seed &amp; Series A opportunities, called Decibel. •	Surfing: chart uncharted territory. Like investing Cisco Champions: Jeff Levensailor (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/levensailor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/levensailor</a>), Cisco Champion member, Developer Engineer, Presidio. David Peñaloza (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidsamuelps" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/davidsamuelps</a>), Cisco Champion member, Lead Network Consulting Engineer, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Cisco Guest: Rob Salvagno (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/salvagno" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/salvagno</a>), VP Corporate Development and Cisco Investments. Moderator: Lauren Friedman (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/lauren" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/lauren</a>), Cisco Champion Program.

S6|E17 Secrets of Cisco Investments feat. Rob Salvagno