With a valuation of $190 billion, Databricks has become one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing software companies.
But CEO Ali Ghodsi says the secret to scaling the company isn’t more meetings — it’s fewer. Speaking on the Long Strange Trip podcast, Ghodsi explained that compressing his calendar and avoiding back-to-back sessions helps him focus on the company’s biggest challenges, according to a report by Fortune. Ghodsi revealed that at 8 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he and his team meet to identify the “main thing” — the biggest bottleneck facing Databricks. “I want to unblock that big thing that I think is going to get us 10x,” he said. Beyond those sessions, he avoids filling his calendar with meetings, warning that endless back-to-back schedules leave him “a slave to my calendar” and distracted by “monkeys on my back.”
Ghodsi further added that he makes sure that the top talent at his company is not suck conference room all day.
To identify that priority, Ghodsi said he and his team meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8 a.m. to pin down exactly what that blocking issue is and figure out how to work through it together, with the explicit goal of unblocking whatever he believes could drive 10x growth for the company. The data backs up some of that frustration: a 2024 survey by Atlassian found that nearly three out of four meetings fail to effectively communicate information, and 77% of respondents said meetings tend to simply generate even more meetings. Speaking at Fortune’s 2025 Most Powerful Women summit, Dimon said he always comes to meetings having done the necessary pre-reading, and expects full attention in return, saying he has no patience for attendees nodding off, checking email, or getting distracted by notifications during a meeting, calling that kind of behavior simply disrespectful.
He described days packed with back-to-back sessions from morning until evening as days where he’s effectively lost control of his own schedule, spending his time working through everyone else’s priorities rather than his own — a dynamic he bluntly likened to carrying “monkeys on his back.
The goal, he said, is to preserve open blocks of time so he can keep returning to what he calls the company’s “main thing” — the single biggest bottleneck standing in the way of major growth. Beyond those recurring sessions, Ghodsi said he actively resists letting his calendar fill up with additional meetings. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been especially blunt about his disdain for unnecessary meetings, famously writing “Kill meetings” in his 2024 letter to shareholders. That said, Dimon has been careful to note that not every meeting is a waste of time — he simply expects the ones that do happen to be treated with real focus and preparation.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Long Strange Trip podcast, Ghodsi explained that his approach involves intentionally avoiding filling up his schedule, even though it inevitably ends up busy anyway. Ghodsi’s comments reflect a growing sentiment among top executives who argue that meeting-heavy calendars often get in the way of real progress, even as companies face constant pressure to move faster. This skepticism isn’t limited to leaders at younger companies like Databricks. Other executives have voiced similar preferences for leaner, more conversational meetings over slide-heavy presentations, favoring direct discussion over sitting through decks read aloud. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.