Splunk Founder Michael Baum ’85 Shares Personal Philosophies, Entrepreneurial Advice and the Impact of His Drexel Co-ops
In a talk titled “Who Am I?” that he said was “all about career” and “a little bit about mindfulness, too,” Drexel University alumnus Michael Baum, BS computer science ’85, shared how his experiential education at Drexel inspired his career path and kickstarted an innovative entrepreneurial journey that most recently led to his fifth startup, Splunk, being acquired by Cisco for $28 billion.
Baum also used the visit to his alma mater to announce the rebrand of his current endeavor, FOUNDER.org. The philanthropic startup incubator, which has partnered with over 50 universities to fund and mentor 125 student innovations over the past decade, is now being renamed Yope, which he says is short for “young hope.” The foundation has funded a number of Dragon-founded startups over the past decade and will continue to partner with Drexel’s Charles D. Close School for Entrepreneurship to support college entrepreneurs.
The March 6 event was held for first-year engineering students in an introductory College of Engineering class taught by Adam Fontecchio, PhD, professor and director of the Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE). Also in attendance were students in the electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering and mechanics senior design classes taught by Jennifer Atchison, PhD, assistant teaching professor.
During the hour-long talk, Baum shared how continuously checking in with himself — asking, “Who am I?” — has guided him throughout his life. He encouraged Dragons to do the same as they think about the lives they are currently living and how they anticipate that changing after graduation.
“Regardless of your politics, your religion, your philosophy, the major that you’re studying, one thing I can tell you all is the more you understand about yourself, the better choices you’re going to make in life and the better career you’re going to have,” he said.
For Baum, some of those choices started with his three experiences with Drexel’s cooperative education program, which enabled him to work at a couple of the biggest technology companies of the ’80s. He said his “amazing” co-ops in “dream environments” inspired him to change his major from computer engineering to computer science to focus on software and also showed him that he wanted to be his own boss. And, after graduation, Baum was his own boss at software startups that were later acquired by AT&T, Disney, Reuters and Yahoo!, in addition to, now, Cisco.
“The trajectory of computing, both hardware and software, from my first co-op to the time I ended back on campus as a senior, was like 100 years in computing technology. It’s just incredible how things changed,” he said, adding, “It engaged my curiosity. I doubled down on computer science and realized that this is what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
He got his second co-op by sending a letter — written on a typewriter in his TKE fraternity house — to a Drexel alumnus working at IBM, “and the guy wrote me back, like, ecstatic that some student from Drexel had reached out to them, and he offered me a co-op job. And it changed my life,” Baum marveled.
At that co-op, in southern Florida, Baum was part of the team that created IBM’s first personal computer, which influenced him to change his major from computer engineering to computer science, to start focusing on software. His third co-op, also at IBM but in California — which he also snagged by writing to another Drexel alum for a position — involved writing compiler software for some of IBM’s most advanced computer systems.
When he returned to campus, it was around the time that Drexel became the first college or university in the country to require students to have access to a personal computer. The University accomplished this through a revolutionary partnership with Apple Computer, Inc. company (today’s Apple Inc.), which enabled Dragons to learn and teach using the brand-new Apple Macintosh personal computer in early 1984. Baum remembered seeing Steve Jobs when the Apple co-founder visited campus as part of that partnership. His younger brother received a Macintosh as a member of the University’s first-year class. Along with their older brother, they went to Drexel as first-generation college students; Baum’s wife, Julie Carabello, and sister-in-law are also alumni.
Baum’s visit to campus coincided with the 40th anniversary of March 5, 1984, when Dragons began receiving those Macintoshes. And, as it also happens, now four decades later, Baum said Apple is the largest client of his data security platform company, Splunk, which keeps Apple’s app store “up and running every minute” to avoid outages and billions lost in revenue.
“The big lesson in this huge success was … if you want to build a really big outcome, solve a really big problem,” Baum said.
While discussing his successes, which he joked are more fun to talk about, Baum also stressed that failures are just as much a part of life’s journey, and that he felt he’s learned much more from his setbacks.
“If I could give you one piece of advice from a career of banging my head against the wall, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing … it’s understand who you are. Be able to answer that question for yourself, and don’t waver from that. What I would say is we’re all unbounded potential. We are so much more capable of greater things than we think we are. How do I know this? I was just like you,” he told students.
Now, he said, students — and the younger generations — are the best hope for the future, which is what inspired him to support and mentor college graduates and young people to pursue their dreams and passions. Four of the student-founded companies supported by his foundation were started at Drexel, including Biome, which Collin Cavote ’15 launched to design smart living walls.
Baum encouraged students to start thinking about their big ideas and futures, and to get in touch with Drexel’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, which also offers and connects students with resources, mentorship, funding, experiential education and co-op opportunities to grow their businesses on campus.
“My next startup is what I’m doing now with my foundation and my next startup is you all —you’re my next startup,” he told the crowd.