'You have to think crazy': Arvind Jain on the lessons he learned at Google

Arvind Jain, co-founder of cloud data management company Rubrik and artificial intelligence startup Glean, said lessons learned while observing leaders at Google helped shape his own approach to success and company building.

Jain, who worked as an engineer at Google, said he initially sought to understand why some employees advanced more than others despite similar credentials and accomplishments, reports Fortune.

"At Google, we had people who were brilliant, they came from the best schools, they were highly accomplished, and there were some who grew and shone, and then there were others who didn't," Jain said.

"I thought that I got lucky, that somehow I got placed in this group of amazing people… And that was why I was trying to learn and observe what makes one succeed?"

Jain said he drew lessons from leaders including Sundar Pichai and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

"What I learned by observing him was that the same attributes kept coming up—intensity, hard work. But also the ability to think big and have confidence. You have to think crazy," Jain said of Pichai.

Jain said Page and Brin approached ideas with few perceived limitations.

"They had no sort of constraints in their minds on what's possible," he said.

He said the key lessons he took away combined effort with unconventional thinking.

"So I think that those were the two main things I learned: hard work, but then the disregard for normality and regular constraint thinking," Jain said.

Jain said his view was reinforced by the development of Google Chrome, which at the time he considered unlikely to succeed because Microsoft dominated the browser market and Netscape had already struggled.

"I felt like that's such a bad idea. I was not thinking big enough," Jain said.

Former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer also publicly dismissed the browser as a "rounding error".

Jain said pursuing ideas initially viewed sceptically can sometimes lead to outsized outcomes.

"You have to say: we're going to do this thing which everybody thinks is stupid, maybe unrealistic. That's when magic happens," he said.

Google Chrome later became the world's most widely used web browser by 2012, helping establish Pichai's reputation within the company.

After leaving Google, Jain went on to build Rubrik, which launched an initial public offering in 2024 at an approximate valuation of $5.6 billion, and Glean, an AI-focused company that helps employees search and understand company-wide information and is now valued at $7.2 billion.

Jain said he continues to look for new perspectives from younger employees.

"Actually, I feel like I learn the most from the youngest people. They're the ones who have not seen the things that I've seen. They have new points of view," he said.