Keyana Corliss’ Post

I've been a runner for the entirety of my professional career. Running is where I get my best ideas, metabolize stress, and where I've made nearly every important decision. And for the last several years, I've spent every run trying to be faster than the one before. That said, true runners know that gains are made in recovery. If you go too hard, too long, too often, you'll never get faster or be able to run longer. Looking at the last decade of my career, I feel so fortunate for everything I've had a front-row seat to and the work that went into it: Tableau's IPO, the subsequent 24 earnings cycles, and its historic $15.7B sale to Salesforce. When I joined Databricks, we did two massive $1B+ raises six months apart from one another, created a whole new category of data management, and became one of the most anticipated IPOs in tech. Somehow, I also found time to record a podcast series (shameless plug for Just Checking In!). But in that decade, I also had two kids (now ages 8 and almost 6) and if you know me, you know I attempted to do it all. For a while, you could say I was pretty close. All that to say: I'm going for a proverbial recovery run and leaving this incredible job at Databricks later this month to take the rest of the year off. I'm so proud of the work our team has done over the last few years to get the company to where it is today. I have no doubt that one day, Databricks will be an iconic tech company and I'll be able to say I had an impact in those early days. Until then, I'm going to run, ski, and hang out with my family. I'm going to go to my kids' sports practices without a laptop and I'm going to cook dinner without being on a call. Most importantly, I'm going to root for Databricks from the sidelines (but you guys better FaceTime me on IPO day)! As for what I’m doing next, stay tuned. By the time I come back, I'll be faster than ever. PS: the picture below is me crossing the Chicago Marathon finish line this weekend. My sixth marathon, but my first one under 4 hours (3:58:10 to be exact). It happened to be the first time I made recovery runs a big part of my training. Who knew ;)