In 2011, I got a call from longtime friend and colleague Ed Bugnion, who wanted to introduce me to two guys working on a dangerous idea in data center networking – JR Rivers and Nolan Leake.

Dan and Alex follow an independent path well outside the industry dogma - such orthogonal, cross-grain thinking stands behind the biggest entrepreneurial success stories.

Varun Mehta and Umesh Maheshwari founded Nimble Storage based on an observation at the foundation of data storage – the physical media itself.

Krish Ramakrishnan has an uncanny ability to detect fuzzy, early market signals and turn them into clear-eyed strategy. Blue Jeans is the latest example.

I first met Jahangir Mohammed, founder and CEO of Jasper in 2002 when he was the CEO of Kineto Wireless. I was struck by his clarity and audacity.