Ep. 254 - Rob Hopewell: It’s Not a Bubble, and Your Phone Is a Data Center (Yes, That One)

Rob Hopewell’s been in data centers so long I keep accusing him of starting at 11 — UUNET, EdgeConneX, now running QTS sales. We get into why this AI moment isn’t the dot-com bust, why the phone in your hand is a data center, and how our industry can finally explain itself.

Chapters:

0:00 From UUNET to now — the early internet, peering, MAE East/West

5:44 “Unprecedented” — solving first-time problems (spiky AI load, the utility)

7:47 Selling power, not square feet — the model that changed the industry

11:48 A day in the life running QTS sales — deals at the C-level

14:16 What the dot-com bust taught him — strategy, relationships, hustle

15:29 The 2016 hyperscale pivot — the Freedom Design and the availability zones

19:04 “Plan B: make plan A work” — the first deal, and Blackstone

24:09 EdgeConneX and what “the edge” really is

30:37 Building speculatively — the formula that won Atlanta

36:04 The messaging problem — what a data center actually is

40:09 Why AI isn’t a bubble (and meeting OpenAI in 2017)

45:08 “One throat to choke,” building sales talent, and the takeaway: culture

Links:

Rob Hopewell on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robhopewell/]

QTS Data Centers: Q.com

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