A simple “cold email” landed an Indian YouTuber an interview with Satya Nadella, where the Microsoft CEO opened up about a major “lesson” learned — the company’s failure to anticipate the dominance of search. Speaking with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Mr Nadella admitted that Microsoft underestimated search as a way to organise the web, allowing Google to take control of what became the internet’s most lucrative business model.
“We missed what turned out to be the biggest business model on the web because we all assumed the web is all about being distributed,” Mr Nadella said. “Who would have thought that search would be the biggest winner?” he asked, adding they “obviously didn’t see it” and Google managed to capitalise on it.
Mr Nadella acknowledged that this oversight was a crucial lesson for him. “These business model shifts are probably tougher than even the tech trend changes,” he said.
“You have to not only get the tech trend right, you also have to get where the value is going to be created with that trend. These business model shifts are probably tougher than even the tech trend changes,” he added.
The ‘Cold Email’ That Landed An Interview With Satya Nadella
The conversation with Mr Nadella came about unusually. Dwarkesh Patel, known for hosting guests like Mark Zuckerberg and Tony Blair, noticed that the Microsoft chief had subscribed to his newsletter. Without hesitation, Mr Patel sent a short email with the subject line: “Wanna come on my podcast?”
“Hi Satya, saw your email on my newsletter subscriber list. Appreciate you tuning in! Would you be interested in coming on my podcast?… I’m keen to hear how you’re thinking about AI (and Microsoft) over the next 3/10/25 years,” Mr Patel wrote.
To his surprise, Mr Nadella responded in just four minutes: “Your pod is super. I would love to.” The podcast host later shared the story on X, writing, “Don’t underestimate the power of a cold email.”
Kids, don’t underestimate the power of a cold email.
(From @Microsoft‘s YouTube channel – link below) pic.twitter.com/TyqXMiTjZk
— Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) February 19, 2025
In the podcast, Satya Nadella also discussed the major technological shifts he has witnessed. The first was the transition from mainframes to personal computers, followed by the rise of client-server architecture. He recalled attending Microsoft’s 1991 PDC conference while working at Sun Microsystems, where it became clear that servers would shift to x86 systems.
The second major shift was the advent of the web, marked by the release of the Mosaic and Netscape browsers. “We had the browser moment, and so we had to adjust. And we did a pretty good job of adjusting to it because the browser was a new app model,” Mr Nadella explained.