The V3 Hot Seat: Box chief executive Aaron Levie
Silicon Valley wunderkind on the importance of cloud computing and his dreams of a Mozart and Bob Dylan concert
Box chief executive Aaron Levie is one of the many Silicon Valley wunderkinds reshaping the IT landscape. Unlike many of his peers he's solely focused on the enterprise market, rather than social media, mobile or gaming apps.
Box, which offers enterprise-grade collaboration and storage tools, now boasts more than 11 million individuals and 120,000 business customers and has been growing rapidly with Levie at the helm.
This growth has included numerous partnerships with enterprise IT vendors such as Oracle, Netsuite, and Qualcomm, the beginnings of a developer network and the opening of offices in the UK to be closer to its growing customer base in Europe.
Levie is the latest high-profile executive to take part in V3's Hot Seat after the likes of Canonical chief executive Jane Silber, Fujitsu UK chief executive Duncan Tait and Bletchley Park chief executive Iain Standen.
V3: What would be your dream job (apart from your current role, of course)?
Aaron Levie: It's cheesy I know but I'm doing my dream job at Box. The amount of transformation in this space, I can't think of a more exciting industry to be in right now... Okay, an astronaut if pushed.
Which mobile phone and tablet do you currently use?
Fairly standard Silicon Valley stuff - an iPhone 4 and an iPad.
Which person do you most admire in the IT industry?
That's hard to answer as I admire quite a few people, from Steve Jobs, to Mark Benioff to the late Thomas Watson Junior, who had a huge impact in the building of IBM.
I try to take inspiration from everywhere and it's important to learn from as many sources as you can.
Which technology has had the biggest impact on your working life?
Cloud. We have 500 employees at Box but we have incredibly lean on-premise technology because we use the strength of other cloud vendors for our requirements.
IT is in a transition period where it's about the abundance of technology - businesses that succeed will be ones that use information in more compelling and competitive ways.
The V3 Hot Seat: Box chief executive Aaron Levie
Silicon Valley wunderkind on the importance of cloud computing and his dreams of a Mozart and Bob Dylan concert
What was your first job?
Erm, probably building websites 15 years ago.
What's your favourite thing about working in the IT industry?
The pace of change - maybe that's a trite answer but I can't imagine an industry that's faster than this one in how quickly things change.
You really have to stay on top of every detail because single things can have a massive impact. In the 2000s there were no such thing as an iPad, then one Steve Jobs's keynote later and everything changed.
It's rapid. This is nicely aligned with my own impatience actually.
What will be the next big innovation of the coming years?
For Box, it's about partnering with other firms to solve problems on how businesses in different industries use data. Mobility is also extremely important, so there's an emphasis on mobile platforms.
In the wider IT landscape, I think any kind of step function in internet access - more bandwidth or better speeds - is really important. Technologies like 4G, and fibre optic access help us move to a stage where internet speeds allow users to do most things they want on a computer without frustration - we're finally getting to that point.
HTML5 also has some amazing applications for business while there's definitely more conversations to be had around big data.
What keeps you awake at night?
Everything. Organisational stuff and competitor stuff. We're in a very competitive ecosystem and will only succeed if we make a better product so everything we do, every day, comes down to those factors.
Where's your favourite holiday destination?
I'm not much of a holiday guy.
Do you prefer e-readers or real books?
Real books - I'm a bit of a luddite in that way.
Who is your favourite band or musician?
Oh man, lots of answers. Maybe Bob Dylan (below) or Mozart. Or Bob Dylan and Mozart. I wouldn't mind going to that concert.
If you want to volunteer for V3's Hot Seat, or want to suggest an IT leader you think should take part, please email [email protected] for more details