Cisco Investments

Jeetu Patel is Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer, helping turn one of the world’s largest technology companies into what he calls “the world’s largest startup.” Cisco is now positioning itself as the picks-and-shovels company for the AI era, spanning networking, security, silicon, and infrastructure. Its AI infrastructure business went from zero to $9.3B in orders in just two years. In this episode of Main Function, Jeetu joins YC's Jared Friedman to talk about bringing a founder mindset to the company, and what the massive data center buildout looks like from the inside. He also shares the unlikely path that took him from waiting tables at Sizzler to leading product at Cisco, and the lessons he’s learned about ambition, compounding, and making the most of the opportunities in front of you. 00:00 — Cisco’s Bet on AI 03:38 — Running Cisco Like a Startup 06:45 — The Infrastructure AI Agents Need 10:00 — Getting 32,000 Engineers to Embrace AI 14:07 — Bringing AI to Hardware and Silicon 17:15 — Inside the AI Data Center Buildout 21:27 — Are We Overbuilding AI Infrastructure? 25:10 — Building Trust in AI Agents 28:18 — From India to Waiting Tables at Sizzler 32:12 — Choosing Learning Over Ego 35:31 — Ambition, Teamwork, and Compounding 39:31 — Don’t Squander Your Opportunity