Episode Overview

Podcast: In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
Guest: Jayshree Ullal, CEO of Arista Networks
Air Date: January 2, 2026
Theme:
In this highlight episode, Nicolai Tangen interviews Jayshree Ullal, a pivotal figure in the networking industry and CEO of Arista Networks. With over 40 years of experience, Ullal discusses the essential role networking plays in the AI revolution, contrasts today’s transformation with the internet boom, and shares insights on leadership, culture, and her own journey from India to Silicon Valley.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arista Networks’ Mission and Technology

• What Arista Does

  • Arista builds high-performance, mission-critical networks for large-scale, low-latency, highly reliable, and automated data centers, serving AI and other demanding applications (00:49).
  • Quote:

    “Arista is building the world's most demanding mission critical networks… high performance, high scale, low latency, high reliability, high availability, high automation, high telemetry.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [00:49]

• Networking as the Information Highway

  • Tangen likens chips to the engine and networking to the “highway” connecting them—Ullal expands on how Arista unlocks infrastructure performance by supporting full utilization of hardware like GPUs (01:21).
  • Quote:

    “We are the information highway to all accelerators, users, mission critical workloads, you name it.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [01:28]

• Arista's Role in Everyday AI and Software

  • Arista’s products are the invisible yet crucial backbone, connecting clouds and devices; every AI prompt flows through Arista’s switches and routing platforms powered by their extensible operating system, EOS (02:19).
  • Quote:

    “We are very much behind the scenes… we connect and... make that all work through our purpose built software.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [02:19]

2. Comparing the AI Era with the Internet Boom

• Speed and Scale of Transformation

  • The current AI-driven transformation is much faster and larger in scale than the original internet boom—today’s wave is “collapsing” a 15-year revolution into 5-7 years with 1000x the magnitude (03:42).
  • Quote:

    “That 15 years I was talking about is collapsing literally into five to seven years. The time aspect is shrinking… The scale aspect of it is just exploding in magnitude. It's 1000x more.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [03:42]

• On Bubbles vs. Mega Trends

  • Ullal doesn’t believe this is a speculative tech bubble—responsible companies are leading, and the trend has staying power (04:28).
  • Quote:

    “More than a bubble, it feels like an explosive mega trend that is here to stay for some time.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [04:28]

3. Leadership Journey & Career Choices

• Leaving Cisco for Arista

  • Ullal describes herself as an “accidental executive” who never planned on C-suite leadership. She left Cisco—where she rose alongside the company’s explosive growth—out of a desire to re-embrace entrepreneurship and technology, joining Arista at its inception (05:32).
  • Quote:

    “I loved product... working with the engineers to enable products to customers… I really wanted to get back to being an entrepreneur.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [05:55]

• Entrepreneurial Motivations

  • She sought an organization where she could enjoy building something from scratch with people she respected, joining Arista when it had no revenue and just 30 engineers (06:33).

4. Culture and Leadership Philosophy

• Defining Arista’s Culture

  • Ullal encapsulates Arista’s ethos as "Do the right thing", emphasizing long-term thinking over short-termism, even as a public company (06:54).
  • Quote:

    “If you look past [short-term pressure] and do the right thing, then all the intermittent things take care of themselves.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [06:54]

• How Culture is Maintained

  • Consistent leadership matters—the management team has remained largely unchanged for 15 years. Middle management is expected to be “coach players” and hands-on, maintaining cultural continuity and expertise (07:15).
  • Quote:

    “We make sure that the middle management… isn’t just a professional manager, but a coach player. They’re contributing with their own two days of coding.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [07:42]

5. Upbringing, Family Expectations, and Ambition

• Indian Heritage and Early Education

  • Ullal discusses her upbringing: born in London, raised in Delhi, educated in the US, with an emphasis on educational achievement driven by her father, a key figure in founding the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) (08:24).
  • Quote:

    “My dad was an educator… He started the first five IITs in India... So I didn't dream what I'm doing now. I dreamt more, one step at a time.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [08:24]

• Coping with Expectations

  • Parental expectations pushed her to excel—sometimes beyond her own ambitions—teaching perseverance and perspective on long-term achievement (09:24).
  • Quote:

    “Anytime my dad or mom went to meet... teachers, they'd always say, Jai Sree has a lot of potential, but she's not using it all... So they come back obviously demanding more, expecting more.”
    — Jayshree Ullal [09:28]

• Efficiency and Self-Knowledge

  • She realized she could achieve well without overworking, focusing on a "long game" even before it was fashionable (09:48).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You can ask my parents how little of a superstar I was when I was five years old." — Jayshree Ullal [05:55]
• "Do the right thing." — Jayshree Ullal on company culture [06:54]
• “We are the information highway to all accelerators... mission critical workloads, you name it.” — Jayshree Ullal [01:28]
• “That 15 years... is collapsing literally into five to seven years. The time aspect is shrinking... The scale aspect... is just exploding.” — Jayshree Ullal [03:42]
• “If you look past [short-term pressure] and do the right thing, then all the intermittent things take care of themselves.” — Jayshree Ullal [06:54]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:49 – What Arista Networks does
• 01:28 – Networking as the information highway
• 02:19 – Arista’s hidden but essential presence in AI workflows
• 03:42 – Comparing the AI boom with the 1990s internet revolution
• 05:32 – Ullal’s personal journey: why she left Cisco
• 06:54 – Arista’s culture: “Do the right thing”
• 07:15 – Maintaining culture through management practices
• 08:24 – Early life, family, and the value of education
• 09:28 – Parental expectations and motivation

Tone and Style

The conversation is open, witty, and insightful, mixing technical depth with personal stories and leadership philosophy. Ullal’s candid reflections and Tangen’s engaging prompts reveal not only the technological backbone of the AI era, but also the values and human stories driving innovation at Arista.