Q&A with Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures

August 13 2015
 


Following up on my discussion with Steve Harrick, I had the opportunity to speak with Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures. Matt is a longtime industry veteran focusing on mobile and cloud enterprise investments including Instart Logic, Puppet Labs, Shazam, and several others. He’s also an investor and board observer of AppDynamics.

Along with asking about the future of technology and how the CIO role is transforming, we also spoke about what he’d be doing if he wasn’t an investor.

Here’s our chat…

In your opinion what category of technology will be most impactful to businesses in the next 3-5 years?

I’m most excited about the power of machine learning and how it will impact everything from IT to consumer and enterprise apps. ML will help IT more efficiently use resources and move even more so to automation. On the app front, integrating ML helps deliver a more targeted/custom experience for the user. The intelligence and learning that cloud apps put back into the product to make it smarter, will have a huge impact. 

What is the next category to be ‘ubered’?

So many categories are being “ubered” or “airbnbed,” the big question is what category has the potential to be as big as Uber, and if I was clear on that, I’d already be an investor. On demand services and the rental economy are going to be massive going forward. We’ll continue to be surprised at the scale of these businesses.

How would you describe the future role of the CIO?

The CIO of the future is an innovator. The role has shifted from a manager of teams and process to being a driver of technology change in the organization.

We’re at a rare time where there is an abundance of new technologies and platforms. The future CIO will embrace those and drive new tech adoption for competitive advantage. We’re final at a stage where IT will not only streamline, simplify and lower cost, but really be used to outrun one’s competitor.

If you were not an Investor, what would you be doing right now?

Trying to find the next AppDynamics or Uber to start or join. Beyond that, spending more time with my wife and boys, traveling, sporting, laughing. There is never enough of that and we all have to remember to keep the balance. You only live once. Make the most of it on the dimensions that matter in the end.

Thanks again Matt for your time!

Kevin Goldberg
Kevin is the Senior Content Marketing Manager for AppDynamics. He's a longtime suffering San Diego Chargers and Padres fan. You can follow him on Twitter at @Kevin_Goldberg

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