Michael Baum (entrepreneur)

Michael Baum (born May 28, 1962) is an American businessman and investor. He is best known as the founder & CEO of Splunk, a big data software technology used for understanding machine-generated data primarily for systems management,^[1] security forensics,^[2] compliance reporting^[3] and real-time operational intelligence.^[4] Baum is the founder of six technology start-ups, five of which have been acquired and one (NASDAQ: SPLK) which went public.^[5] He has also been a venture capital investor with Rembrandt Venture Partners, Advent International and Crosspoint Venture Partners. Baum graduated with a computer science degree from Drexel University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In September 2014, Baum became CEO & Propriétaire of Château de Pommard, a Burgundy winery established in 1726.

Michael Baum
Born	Michael Joseph Baum May 28, 1962 (1962-05-28) (age 62) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Education	Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (M.B.A.) Drexel University (BSc.)
Occupation(s)	Businessman, investor, software engineer
Known for	Founder & CEO of Founder.org Board member of Gemini Data Co-founder & CEO of Splunk Founder of Big Data Supper Club Co-founder of Collation VP e-Commerce at Yahoo! Co-founder & COO of DotBank VP e-Commerce at Disney Co-founder & CEO of 280 Co-founder & CEO of Pensoft Co-founder & CTO at Reality CEO & Propriétaire at Chateau de Pommard
Parent(s)	Mardell A. Baum Richard L. Baum, Sr.
Website	founder.org

Early life and education

Baum was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended high school at Cherry Hill High School East.^{[citation needed]} During his sophomore year at Drexel University, he switched his major from electrical engineering to computer science after a visit to the campus by famed American business and technology icon Steve Jobs;^[6] the focus of his bachelor's degree was artificial intelligence and compiler and language theory. He went on to earn a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on corporate finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.^[7]

Business career

During his time at college, Baum expressed curiosity in understanding how computers and software could be applied to enable people to process large amounts of data in complex decision-making.^{[citation needed]}

Baum pursued a career in technology and entrepreneurship. He co-founded Reality Online, a stock market modeling company.^[6] Reality Online was funded by Venrock, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, and later acquired by Reuters in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2014, Baum bought Château de Pommard, a Burgundy winery established in 1726,^[6][8] and moved to Burgundy with his family.^[9]

Splunk

Main article: Splunk

Continuing to explore the possibilities of advancing an understanding of chaotic systems,^[10] Baum began to explore the application of search technology to large-scale machine data. Reconnecting with Rob Das and Erik Swan in 2003, the three co-founded Splunk.^[11] Their goal was to build a search engine for real-time flows and massive historical corpuses of machine data.^[12] Splunk was the sixth startup for Baum and the first pure-play big data company to reach significant customer and revenue scale and debut on the public markets. Baum, Das and Swan and their team at Splunk have been awarded two US Patents for their work.^[13][14]

Baum was Splunk's founding CEO for the first six years.^[15] He raised $40M in venture capital financing from August Capital,^[16] Seven Rosen Funds, JK&B Capital^[17] and Ignition Partners.^[18]

Splunk is due to be acquired by Cisco for $28 billion in an all-cash deal announced in September 2023.^[19]

References

1. Stephen Sowyer. "Data Center Troubleshooting Rx". Enterprise Systems Journal website. Retrieved February 2, 2006.
2. David Hubler (21 December 2011). "Search fuels one small firm's dream of big data success". Washington Technology, The Authority for Government Contractors and Partners. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
3. Andrew Gillies. "Mining Government Tech Dollars". Forbes. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
4. Victor Hwang (10 June 2012). "Revamping Spacecraft Operational Intelligence". NASA Technical Reports. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
5. Olaf de Senerpont Domis. "Splunk shows spunk in market debut". The Deal. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
6. Will Smale (March 23, 2020). "'I bought a winery and it caused a US-French row". BBC News Business.
7. Jennifer Royer. "Given Thanks to Alumni Inspired Excellence". Wharton Magazine. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
8. "Château de Pommard". Château de Pommard Official Website.
9. "Expert Advice: Michael Baum, CEO & Propriétaire of Château de Pommard". Visit French Wine. 13 June 2017.
10. Clint Boulton (22 September 2006). "Michael Baum, CEO Splunk Interview". Internet News. Retrieved September 22, 2006.
11. "2006 Horizon Awards Winner: Splunk". ComputerWorld. 21 August 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
12. Lisa Vaas. "Splunk Brings Google-Like Search to the Data Center". eWeek. Retrieved August 9, 2005.
13. Baum; et al. "Machine Data Web, United States Patent 7,937,344". United States Patent Office. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
14. Baum; et al. "Time Series Search Engine, United States Patent 8,112,425". United States Patent Office. Retrieved August 28, 2006.
15. Jeremy Geelan. "Splunk's Michael Baum Speaks with Jeremy Geelan". Sys-Con.TV.
16. Hornik, David. "A Tribute to Splunk". VentureBlog: A Walk Down Sand Hill Road. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
17. "Splunk Gets $10M". Light Reading. Retrieved January 25, 2006.
18. Matt Marshall (September 11, 2007). "Splunk, search engine for IT data, raises $25M". VentureBeat.
19. ""Cisco Strikes $28 Billion Deal for Splunk in Biggest Buy Yet"". Bloomberg. Retrieved Jan 26, 2024.