And both are giant giants in the business. You know, I think if you look at the graphic side, you know, we’re kind of sandwiched in between Adobe, and maybe Figma and Canva. So I looked at the team and said, my goodness, there’s a swath of blue ocean that just opened up right in front of us. And so what’s exciting there is that both companies have also said that they’re going to fire all their customers that are under 5,000 employees, they’re going to get rid of all their small customers. Quarles: Well, on the virtualization side, it’s pretty specifically VMware and Citrix, and what’s awesome for us as both companies have gotten taken private, are about to get taken private in the next couple of months here. Murray: Christa, istening to you describe that, the first question that comes to my mind is, who are you competing against? I mean, is it Box and Dropbox? Is it Slack? Is it Miro? Are you taking on Microsoft? Who are you after here? And then we also have our application side or you know, we talk about workflow and so these are businesses like MindManager, which is, you know, task software, CorelDRAW, which is graphics software, or WinZip, which really helps around security at rest and security in motion. With things like remote application server product, IT departments were having to get to remote workers, and so it became foundational to our remote-work philosophy at the company. So our Parallels business enables anybody to work on any operating system on any devices, virtualization software that really exploded during the pandemic. So we have two, essentially, buckets of businesses that we do. ![]() And she got there, and we’re going to talk to talk to her about how she did it.Ĭhrista Quarles: Yeah, so we rebranded our company to Alludo back in September, and it’s sort of a portmanteau for all you do, which is really about knowledge worker software. She said, when she was CEO of OpenTable, she set a goal of 50/50 gender parity and hiring, which you know, better than I do, is very rare in the tech space. After calling bullshit on that conversation at Brainstorm Tech, she’s also done what she needed to do at the company. Murray: Yeah, and what’s great about Christa is that she is a CEO who really walks her talk. And so I was very excited to talk to her. But yeah, she’s a big thinker, and really influential, a very influential woman in the tech industry. Lev-Ram: Yes, she said, bullshit, I’ll go ahead and say it too. It was at our Brainstorm Tech conference a few years back. ![]() And my first interaction with her, she really, really made an imprint on my brain. ![]() She is a CEO who always seems to speak her mind. So she has quite a history and is also somebody you know pretty well, right? And she did work in interactive games at Disney. You may not have heard of Alludo or Corel. Murray: And we’re going to do that today with our conversation with Christa Quarles, who is CEO of the software company, Alludo, which used to be called Corel. Lev-Ram: Yeah, Alan, this is one of the biggest reasons we became journalists, right? Is to talk to incredible thinkers, to people who are in the news, and definitely hope that we can add some perspectives, and more perspectives from the tech industry-you know, happens to be in the news quite a bit these days. So I appreciate what you’re bringing to the conversation. And Michal and I have vowed to bring her back from time to time when the issues are right, but Michal, what I really love about this pairing is, we’re on opposite coasts, and being on opposite coasts sometimes these days is like being on Mars and Venus. Murray: I know our listeners are all going to miss the amazing Ellen McGirt, as will I. So I’m thrilled to add this to my portfolio at Fortune and join the team here. ![]() A lot of CEO profiles, which is great, and I also work across our live events, which has been very exciting. I tend to write about the tech industry, as you would imagine, being out here in the Bay Area. I have been at Fortune now through two economic downturns, a pandemic, a revolution in print and media overall, and my current hat, or hats that I wear at Fortune, is an editor-at-large. I think you’ve probably even been here a little bit longer than I have. You’ve worn many hats during your years of Fortune. Murray: I’m so happy to have you here, Michal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |