Databricks’ ‘Truth-Seeking’ CEO Wants to Be Bigger Than Salesforce

New managers acclimating to life at data analytics software firm Databricks are often shocked when CEO Ali Ghodsi calls up one of their team members out of the blue to question them about a product they’re working on. Or drops into a low-level meeting unannounced. Or phones the data scientists working for a customer.

For Ghodsi, it’s an opportunity to avoid something he despises: whitewashed reports from executives about problems in his company, a 7,000-person seller of software that helps businesses crunch all kinds of data. “As news travels up the chain, it becomes more and more positive, and by the time it reaches the very top, we don’t have a problem anymore,” he said. “It’s just fantastic.”