Fireside Chat w/Nick Schneider, President & CEO @ Arctic Wolf

[00:00:00] Thank you. [00:00:30] Hey, Nick. [00:00:35] If you're trying to sort out the app, there's a little microphone on the bottom right of your screen. [00:00:42] You can press that and that will unmute you. [00:00:49] Why you sort through that? [00:00:51] Let me just get this room set up. [00:00:52] Hey, everybody. [00:00:53] We'll get started in about a few minutes, actually. [00:00:55] Let's get the room set up. [00:00:57] And then we will get started. [00:01:00] Hopefully you guys can hear me. [00:01:09] Hey, Katie. [00:01:31] Can you hear me? [00:01:32] I can. [00:01:34] Can you hear me? [00:01:35] Yes, I can. [00:01:36] Not unclear, Katie. [00:01:37] Great. [00:01:40] Nick is still sorting out, I believe, his microphone. [00:01:43] So on the bottom right of your app, you should see what looks like a microphone. [00:01:52] See if you can press that to unmute. [00:01:54] And while you sort through that, let me just add to your profile. [00:02:07] How are you doing, Katie? [00:02:08] How's it going? [00:02:10] I'm good. [00:02:11] I just sent off my notification with his dad for 10 days. [00:02:16] So now I'm like, what do I do with all this time? [00:02:20] Where's the party, Katie? [00:02:22] Where is the party? [00:02:23] Well, I can't party too hard because I am meeting Lisa Beth tomorrow morning for coffee at 8 a.m. in the city. [00:02:28] So I'm really excited to finally meet her in person. [00:02:32] That is awesome. [00:02:34] Yeah. [00:02:34] She is in Chicago, I presume. [00:02:37] Yep. [00:02:38] Yeah. [00:02:38] So I'll finally be able to meet her. [00:02:41] I didn't get to catch her at her book signing when she was at RSA. [00:02:43] It was such a quick thing. [00:02:45] So it sounds like Nick was able to get his microphone sorted. [00:02:50] Hi, Nick. [00:02:50] I'm in. [00:02:52] You're in. [00:02:53] Hey, Nick. [00:02:54] How's it going? [00:02:55] Good. [00:02:56] How are you guys doing? [00:02:57] Doing all right. [00:02:58] We're doing okay. [00:02:59] I'm glad you got that sorted. [00:03:01] So, yeah. [00:03:01] So you can mute and unmute by just pressing that little button. [00:03:04] On the bottom right, which looks like a microphone. [00:03:08] So we'll get started in just a second. [00:03:10] I'm just trying to get the room set up. [00:03:12] We've got some folks following in. [00:03:14] Good to see everybody. [00:03:16] You've got the little party celebration hat. [00:03:18] And I see somebody else in the audience with their little celebration hat. [00:03:21] So welcome to Clubhouse. [00:03:23] That means that you've joined within the past week or so. [00:03:26] So welcome to Clubhouse. [00:03:28] And Nick, thank you for agreeing to do this. [00:03:32] It's going to be a really fun conversation. [00:03:34] I'm looking forward to it. [00:03:35] And I know a lot of our mods, as they cycle in, they were looking forward to it as well. [00:03:42] Yeah. [00:03:42] Thanks for having me. [00:03:44] Yeah. [00:03:44] No problem. [00:03:45] Octavia, quick microphone check for you. [00:03:48] I'm here. [00:03:49] How's everyone doing? [00:03:51] We're doing okay. [00:03:53] We're doing okay. [00:03:56] At least, well, I say we're doing okay. [00:03:58] I'm doing okay. [00:03:58] I don't know how everybody else is doing. [00:04:01] I'm doing great. [00:04:03] Awesome. [00:04:03] How is life north of the border, Octavia? [00:04:10] It's hot. [00:04:12] I thought so, too. [00:04:13] I'm like, you're not getting any of that Canadian weather. [00:04:16] You're getting some of my Chicago humidity. [00:04:18] I sent it over to you. [00:04:19] I'm sorry. [00:04:19] It's so hot. [00:04:21] I'm like, oh my gosh. [00:04:23] It's like, go from freezing cold to ridiculously hot with no type of breeze whatsoever. [00:04:30] But, you know, I'll take the heat right now. [00:04:34] It's better than 28 inches of snow. [00:04:38] I know the feeling. [00:04:40] I'm from, I'm in Minnesota, and we went from like no spring to 100 degrees. [00:04:45] Exactly. [00:04:46] That's exactly what it is. [00:04:48] And the other day, it was like 60 degrees, and we had to get jackets. [00:04:53] Like, I still have sweaters in my closet. [00:04:55] I don't even understand. [00:04:57] It took me about 30 minutes to figure out what I was going to wear to work today. [00:05:04] I understand. [00:05:06] It takes Tomas an hour to get dressed every day, Octavia. [00:05:12] That's a whole other story. [00:05:16] That's because I'm old, Octavia. [00:05:17] That's because I'm old. [00:05:18] Anyways, Hussain, I was going to ask you to do a microphone check, but clearly your microphone is working. [00:05:28] Maybe we should mute you, my friend. [00:05:30] You're welcome, Ted. [00:05:31] All right. [00:05:35] Why don't we, you know, I can't see the time now that the app is open. [00:05:40] Yeah, the app kind of blocks out my time, but it is 8.01 p.m. Eastern time. [00:05:45] I don't remember if Lisa Beff is going to join us, but she is a fellow Minnesotian, I guess. [00:05:50] I guess she's probably not going to join us. [00:05:52] I know she's traveling, I think, right, Katie? [00:05:55] I can't remember. [00:05:55] Yeah, I think she has an event this evening, so will not be joining us tonight. [00:05:59] All right, but I know she's going to miss it because she is from Minnesota, and Nick is in Minnesota. [00:06:04] So, anyways, why don't we get started? [00:06:07] Again, thank you, everybody, for joining. [00:06:10] Nick, I'm just going to do some quick ground rules, housekeeping items, and then we'll get into the thick of the program. [00:06:17] And I'll sort of explain a few things as we get started. [00:06:22] So, if it's the first time you'll join us, this is our weekly fireside chat. [00:06:27] We do this every Wednesday between 8 p.m. Eastern time and about 9.30 or so p.m. Eastern time. [00:06:32] We will typically ask our guests, in this case, that's Nick Schneider, who is the CEO, is the president and CEO of Arctic Wolf. [00:06:39] If you're not familiar with Arctic Wolf or with Nick, I put his LinkedIn link on the top of your screen there. [00:06:48] So, you should be able to click that and familiarize yourself. [00:06:51] But it's going to be a really good conversation. [00:06:54] I'm looking forward to this conversation this evening, and we'll get to that in a minute. [00:06:59] So, again, if it's your first time joining us, this is our weekly fireside chat. [00:07:03] There's a little greenhouse on the top left of your screen right next to where it says fireside chat. [00:07:06] You can click that little greenhouse, and you can join our fireside chat club. [00:07:10] It will allow you to see who's upcoming, so who our next guests will be. [00:07:15] And it will also allow you to be able to do the replays, so you can play back prior conversations that we've had [00:07:21] and even play back this evening if you join us late, but most of you are here and on time. [00:07:28] So, our usual guardrails, we're going to have a really good time. [00:07:34] We'll have some fun this evening. [00:07:35] It's Wednesday. [00:07:37] It's the middle of the week. [00:07:38] So, it's that middle part of you're almost there. [00:07:41] We're almost there. [00:07:42] And for most of you, I don't know if they celebrate this. [00:07:47] Do they celebrate Juneteenth in Canada, Octavia? [00:07:50] I don't know. [00:07:50] But if you're in the U.S., you had a holiday, which was Juneteenth, which was on Monday, observed on Monday. [00:07:58] So, it is a relatively short week for you. [00:08:01] But we are almost to the end of the week. [00:08:04] So, this is our middle of the week to really just let our hair down and have a really interesting and fun conversation. [00:08:11] Let's try to keep some of that work stress away and really focus in on the origin story, the journey. [00:08:19] And that is, you know, as it pertains to Nick and focusing on that. [00:08:24] So, if you are a vendor in the room, and I do know that we do have a vendor on the stage. [00:08:29] But if you are a vendor in the room, please save that time to jump up on stage and sell us on your great ideas. [00:08:36] Save that for another time, another place. [00:08:37] Let's really try to use this as an opportunity to learn more, really get into some thought leadership, just really learning more about our guests. [00:08:47] So, please save any sales pitches you might have. [00:08:50] Save that for a different time. [00:08:54] And then, oh, I almost forgot. [00:08:56] Our thoughts and opinion, at least for most of us, our thoughts and opinion are representative of our own and not representative of our current or prior employer. [00:09:06] So, we do know that this is being recorded. [00:09:08] And we do know that you might be very curious about what we do in our day jobs. [00:09:15] You can, again, let's use this as a different sort of vehicle today to really get to know our guests this evening. [00:09:21] So, our thoughts and opinion are our own and do not represent our current or prior employer. [00:09:25] We ask that you please respect that and know that as we enter the conversation. [00:09:30] So, we'll ask Nick questions for about 30 to 40 minutes or so. [00:09:34] And then, we'll open up for the audience to jump up on stage so you can raise your hand and ask a question. [00:09:39] You can also use the chat feature. [00:09:41] There's a little chat box on the bottom left of your screen. [00:09:44] If you don't want to join us on stage and you want to ask a question or you're in a silent place, feel free to use the chat and we'll interact and we'll sort of field those questions as we go along. [00:09:54] So, I'm going to go around the room. [00:09:56] Nick, we'll leave you for last. [00:09:58] I'm Tomas Maldonado. [00:09:59] I'm the CISO at the NFL. [00:10:01] Katie, over to you. [00:10:02] Hi, good evening, everybody. [00:10:04] I'm Katie Hanahan. [00:10:05] I'm the Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy for a boutique SI in Chicago called IT Savvy. [00:10:11] Also, a VCSO and run our VCSO program. [00:10:15] Over to you, Octavia. [00:10:18] Thanks, Katie. [00:10:19] I'm Octavia Howell. [00:10:20] I'm the VP and CISO of Equifax Canada. [00:10:22] Over to you, Hussein. [00:10:24] Good evening. [00:10:26] Hussein Syed, CISO for RWJBH. [00:10:29] Thank you. [00:10:29] Over to you, Anil. [00:10:30] Thanks, Hussein. [00:10:32] Anil Varghich, virtual CISO, former five-time CISO and co-author of the CISO Mentor. [00:10:38] Back to you, Tomas. [00:10:40] Thanks, Anil. [00:10:40] Anil, you're coming in a little bit low for me. [00:10:43] I'm not sure if that's the same for others, but just a little low for me. [00:10:48] That's it. [00:10:50] You went. [00:10:50] All right. [00:10:51] Sounds good. [00:10:52] We'll adjust that. [00:10:53] So, look, I'm excited. [00:10:55] I'm happy that Nick is joining us this evening. [00:10:59] I know, Nick, you and I, we had a conversation. [00:11:02] I want to say, I don't know, what was it, like four months ago, maybe five months ago or so. [00:11:05] And I asked you, I said, hey, Nick, are you willing to be a guest on our show? [00:11:10] And I know you didn't really know what the show meant, if you will. [00:11:13] But what we typically like to do is we like to have a conversation with leaders across the industry, whether it's cyber, whether it's a different industry, you know, whatever background, startup or more mature, wherever those sort of leaders, if you will, are in their journey. [00:11:31] And it's really to find out more about you as an individual. [00:11:36] Obviously, there's opportunity for you to sort of talk a little bit about your professional career, which is obviously welcome. [00:11:44] But this is really an opportunity to get to know you a little bit better. [00:11:48] So, why don't you introduce yourself? [00:11:51] And while you go through that introduction, why don't you share a little bit about your origin story, Nick? [00:11:55] Because I think we're all sort of superheroes. [00:11:57] And so, that origin story is really important and it helps our audience connect a little bit more with our guests. [00:12:05] So, you know, welcome to the Fireside Chat. [00:12:07] Over to you, Nick. [00:12:09] Yeah, thanks again for having me. [00:12:11] And I, yeah, I remember the conversation and, you know, the request to come on. [00:12:17] I'm glad I took you up on it. [00:12:19] This should be fun for everyone involved here, hopefully. [00:12:23] So, I'm Nick Schneider, you know, currently President and CEO of Artic Wolf Networks. [00:12:28] You know, I've been in, you know, high growth software for the majority, most all of my career. [00:12:35] But I grew up in Minneapolis area, Eden Prairie, which is now actually where our company is headquartered as well. [00:12:45] You know, grew up, you know, playing a lot of sports, you know, baseball. [00:12:52] Gravitated towards track and cross country, you know, long distance running. [00:12:57] Continued that through my college years. [00:13:00] I went to Duke University. [00:13:04] And then after I got out of school, I realized that I was still looking for kind of that competitive juice, if you will, that you get through athletics. [00:13:15] And an area that I found it was in sales. [00:13:18] So, I started my career, you know, working through different selling motions and different sales roles at various high growth companies, which gives you a lot of great experience, not only in how to kind of build on a sales career and understand, you know, customer, customer problems and how to solve them. [00:13:35] But it also gives you a really good experience as to how a company is built and how a company grows through different stages and phases of growth as you're part of the team. [00:13:47] So, anyway, that's my quick intro. [00:13:53] Awesome. [00:13:53] Awesome. [00:13:54] I'll pass it over to you, Katie. [00:13:56] Ooh, okay. [00:13:57] Hi, Nick. [00:13:58] Usually some people go a little longer. [00:14:00] So, and I get a little bit more juicy details before I ask a question. [00:14:05] But I think I actually already thought of something. [00:14:08] I really love that you started with the fact that you, you know, you grew up in Minnesota. [00:14:12] By the way, fellow Midwesterner in Chicago. [00:14:15] And I also ran cross country. [00:14:18] There's a lot that is mental, I feel, in a good way. [00:14:22] Not mental in the way that I think the kids use it now. [00:14:24] A mental game, I guess. [00:14:26] I have a 20-year-old and I'm like, I think if he was listening to me already, he'd be like, did you just call someone mental on your podcast? [00:14:32] No, that's not what I'm saying. [00:14:34] No, there's a lot that goes into having to be mentally strong to do sports like that. [00:14:41] And I wonder if that's why you brought that up so early on in the conversation. [00:14:44] Because here you are today. [00:14:46] I did a little research on you earlier. [00:14:47] You know, 40 under 40. [00:14:50] You know, you've aligned yourself with some very mentally challenging organizations and high growth software companies in your career. [00:14:58] So tell us more a little bit about how is it that you were able to so early on in your career lean into something that is so mentally challenging? [00:15:08] Yeah, you know, so I think part of it was, you know, a little bit aligned there with my intro in that, you know, I ran, you know, track and cross country, competed in sports, you know, from seventh grade through, you know, all of college. [00:15:26] So you have a long run there where you're working really hard towards a team activity or a team goal. [00:15:34] You're kind of an individual within that team, but you're competitive all the while. [00:15:38] And then, you know, all of a sudden one day you graduate and the music stops, if you will. [00:15:43] And for me, anyway, I needed to find an outlet for, you know, those competitive juices. [00:15:52] And what gravitated me towards, you know, high growth software or towards, you know, sales in a high growth software organization was the ability to compete and the ability to, you know, be in a position where more often than not, you know, [00:16:10] you're trying to replace an incumbent or somebody that is, you know, quote unquote, already made it. [00:16:15] And that, you know, kind of spoke to me or, you know, scratched the itch, if you will, to continue, you know, the competitive vibes that, you know, [00:16:25] kind of worked for me through athletics and then in the future, you know, worked for me in the business sense. [00:16:32] And, you know, I can tell you there's other ways to accomplish that because, you know, building a, you know, high growth company or being a part of a high growth company, [00:16:44] regardless of what role you're in, whether it's sales or security or you're in R&D or you're in G&A or finance functions, [00:16:51] there are very high highs and there are some low lows because the road is kind of ever turning as those companies build themselves out and as they build product market fit and as they, you know, [00:17:06] become more relevant in the marketplace and just as they become more relevant, kind of the gaze of the large competitors, you know, turn your way, [00:17:13] which means you have to, you know, amp it up even further. [00:17:17] And for me, that was kind of what I was used to in an athletic sense, you know, growing up and through my college years. [00:17:27] And then being able to kind of feel that again in a professional sense, you know, excited me. [00:17:34] And then what I found is if you get in the right organization, you can find and work with a diverse group, but a diverse group that has a similar mindset. [00:17:49] So you'll typically, you know, work with in a high growth organization, a lot of people that would say things similar to what I just said, [00:17:57] whereas, you know, other folks might feel slightly different about, you know, the way in which they want their day to be formed and they might work in a larger organization and that's fine. [00:18:08] But for me, you know, being a part of a smaller team, you know, looking up at a higher mountain peak that we had to climb, [00:18:17] knowing that there were going to be obstacles we'd have to overcome, knowing that there'd be a team sense, you know, through it all. [00:18:24] And the competition, you know, the competition would be fierce. [00:18:27] That all resonated really well with me, given, you know, kind of my background. [00:18:32] And I think it served me well through the various roles that I've, you know, that I've that I've played in the different companies that I've been at. [00:18:43] I can appreciate that. I've spent a little time in high growth companies and it's quite the bond that you have. [00:18:49] I was just at the RSA conference and saw a few of those folks and it's like coming out of the trenches together and having achieved some of those goals. [00:18:56] And you're right as the as the individual is part of a broader team. [00:19:00] Yeah, I really appreciate that analogy and can see why you've been so successful so quickly in your career. [00:19:06] I could ask a million questions, though. I'm sure the rest of the mods have them teed up by now as well. [00:19:12] So, Octavia, I'm going to pass it over to you or Tomas. [00:19:15] Well, yeah, just really quick. I was just to say, you know, there was no football in that in that sort of background there. [00:19:21] And I don't know. I'm starting to I'm starting to rethink our friendship right now. [00:19:27] And it turns out cross country runners aren't generally also football players. [00:19:30] And RSA was awesome to see the I don't know those who made it out there, but it was great to see the sort of the back to the future car. [00:19:41] It was a back to the future car that Arctic Wolf had on display on I forget the name of the street, but right right near the Moscow. [00:19:48] Nick, that made it into my Instagram montage, just so you know. [00:19:53] So well done. Well done. You can tell your marketing team. [00:19:56] Perfect. All right. Sorry, Octavia. Over to you. [00:20:00] No, it's OK. Football is not everything. So sorry, Tomas. [00:20:08] So, you know, Nick, I think it's interesting. [00:20:11] I kind of looked at your background a little bit, the little that you have. [00:20:17] And it was interesting to actually see, like, when you were the district manager, how you kind of stayed there for five years. [00:20:25] And then you kind of started seeing like two years, two years. [00:20:29] And then, you know, you became like you started moving up and became the president CEO of Arctic Wolf. [00:20:35] And one of the things that I know that people come to this fireside chat to kind of really unravel and understand and kind of tease out is what they want to do with their careers. [00:20:46] Some people are just starting insecurity. [00:20:50] Some people have been here for a while. [00:20:52] So what if if I ask you what was a pivotal moment within your career where you thought that you can go higher or that you had a lesson that kind of empowered you or a change or shifted your mindset to know that you can actually run a company or do something greater? [00:21:13] Yeah, good question. [00:21:15] Yeah, good question. [00:21:17] And I get this question actually a fair amount. [00:21:21] And my answer might be a little more bland than than people are expecting, which is which is pulling from my own experience. [00:21:31] I went out of my way through my career to make sure that I didn't look to the next role until I felt like I had mastered the role I was in. [00:21:39] You know, so, for example, my first job, I was a SDR. [00:21:44] So, you know, my job was to set appointments. [00:21:47] And that role today, you know, people get antsy after they've done it for six months. [00:21:52] I did it for almost a year and a half. [00:21:54] And the reason for it was because I learned a ton in that role about how to handle objections, how to really understand a customer's needs, how to speak to that need, [00:22:04] how to, you know, give it a rest when it was clear that there wasn't an opportunity now, but there might be an opportunity later. [00:22:10] And like it takes time to hone those skills and learn them. [00:22:15] And as a result, I did that job, you know, probably longer than most people would expect. [00:22:20] But it set me up well for the next role. [00:22:23] And then, you know, I did that role for a period of time. [00:22:25] And then I did, you know, a field rep, you know, role where I intentionally moved kind of across the country so that I would kind of get out of my box and, you know, try to make something work in a, you know, geography that I wasn't familiar with. [00:22:42] And, you know, during that time, you know, took on that district manager role and had to figure out how to manage people and, you know, stub my toe on how to do it wrong and, you know, figure out through mentors, you know, how to do it right. [00:22:57] And I, you know, all along the way knew that at some point, you know, I at least had the aspirations to either start a company or be early at a company where I could take a more senior leadership position. [00:23:10] But I also knew that those positions wouldn't just, you know, come to me because I wanted them. [00:23:16] Like I had to earn them and I had to prove that, you know, I would be the right person for the job or, you know, me and a group of people would be the right people for a leadership team. [00:23:27] And what that meant was that I had to excel at the roles that I was in. [00:23:31] And as that, you know, kind of progressed through my career, there were a few different points where I could have, you know, probably taken a different path, a quote unquote easier path. [00:23:47] You know, we had one company that was acquired by a large organization. [00:23:50] The speed with which that, you know, organization operated was far different than the speed I was used to in the smaller, you know, quote unquote startup type organization. [00:24:01] But it just didn't give me the energy that I wanted, although the pay was great. [00:24:06] The flexibility was great. [00:24:08] You could work from home. [00:24:09] And this was, you know, 10, 15 years ago, which, you know, was somewhat unique. [00:24:13] So there were points in time where, you know, I went the direction that maybe was, you know, not advisable or definitely the harder path. [00:24:28] And I did so because I felt like it was going to be the right, you know, fit for me and the right fit for my experiences, but also that I could bring experience to the organization or the role that would be truly valuable or truly beneficial. [00:24:43] And, you know, like a good example would be the transition between, you know, my previous employer, Code42, my new employer or current employer, Arctic Wolf. [00:24:54] Arctic Wolf was a teeny company when I joined. [00:24:58] And I was coming from, you know, Code42 where I had a, you know, 200 plus person sales team that was really successful and then went to a really small company. [00:25:08] And the reason I did so was because I saw an opportunity within, you know, cyber that matched up really well with what Arctic Wolf does, but also because there was there was a skill set that Arctic Wolf could leverage, which was some of my channel experience, which I actually learned in my first role, you know, way back, you know, through my SDR and kind of channel, you know, rep days that I thought was really applicable to Arctic Wolf. [00:25:34] And it turned out that was true. We've done, you know, really well with our channel community. [00:25:40] But had I not, you know, like most of the advisors or mentors that I talked to were like, why are you going to this small company? [00:25:48] You know, so I had to kind of make a bet on myself or make a bet on my intuition that there was a big opportunity and that I could play a big role within the company. [00:25:56] But then you got to get in and prove it. Right. So, you know, for the first several years, you know, at Arctic Wolf, it was about building out the sales team and the go to market motion and proving that, you know, we could make that work and then trying to be helpful in other areas of the business. [00:26:10] And, you know, in the role I'm in or in other roles that I've been in, I can I can honestly say I've never really asked for it. Right. [00:26:20] So I've never said, hey, could I now have this position? [00:26:24] I've kind of tried to go out of my way to make sure that the people that could give you that position recognize that you're the right person for the role. [00:26:32] And and that that helps you for two reasons. One, it makes you think about what would make a great person for that role. [00:26:41] And if you think that you could be that person, it kind of gives you a roadmap for how to get into it. [00:26:46] Alternatively, if you're looking at a role where you're like, that's not me, then don't try. [00:26:52] Look, look for a role that that is you or look for a role that you do think you can add value or succeed at. [00:26:57] If you pick the role that has the highest O.T.E. or has the you know, the best title, but it's clearly not a fit for your personality or your interests, then you won't excel at it. [00:27:09] And then and then getting into the next gig or the next role or the you know, the next title will be that much harder because each step along the way, you know, you want to be, you know, the best you can be in the role that you're in. [00:27:27] Now, that's great. And and also it speaks to, you know, what we tell people when they try to say they want to kind of shift into cybersecurity, like. [00:27:37] Never, never discount the experience that you had previously, right, where some of us are so focused on moving up that we forget what we learned in the past. [00:27:48] So I think that's awesome. Yeah. And you can always learn new skills. Right. [00:27:53] So like I came from more of an infrastructure networking background. [00:27:58] Right. And certainly infrastructure and networking play into the way in which, you know, you should view your security posture and the way in which your security posture, you know, matters within your organization and how, you know, those two items impacted. [00:28:12] But but but the real value I could bring to a cybersecurity organization actually had nothing to do with cybersecurity. [00:28:19] It was it was the channel relationships that I had built and the premise that the channel community was eager to enter the cybersecurity space and were uncomfortable or unclear how they could. [00:28:33] And and and then and then and then through that value add, I was able to pick up some of the skills that I might not have had when I entered while still private, you know, providing value to the company and into our channel community and to our customers and partners. [00:28:51] That's amazing. Thanks for that. Hussein, over to you. [00:28:55] Thank you. Thank you, Octavia. So Nick, I got a couple of a non traditional question here. Can you talk a little bit about a few challenges you may have faced or were just like naturally you were fed? [00:29:09] Were you more from technical to non technical roles or into strategic roles? [00:29:15] How to overcome the anxiety and the hurdles that you may have faced so that folks can understand, you know, if they're looking to move into that direction? [00:29:23] What could the pointers you could give them? Thank you. [00:29:28] Yeah. [00:29:30] You know, so I was coming from more of a go to market, you know, motion. [00:29:35] So I saw so my background, I was very familiar with, you know, generating demand and understanding, you know, product market fit, you know, naturally in the field and, you know, how to run a sales campaign and, you know, how to, you know, ensure that the market fit, you know, [00:29:53] that you're providing optimum service to your customers and what that means for long term relationships. [00:29:58] So that was all kind of embedded naturally in the way that I had, you know, progressed through my career. [00:30:05] As you get to a certain point, though, you have to pivot to the ability to. [00:30:15] And do things. [00:30:17] Well, unless you've, you know, learned them in school or you pick them up on your own. [00:30:23] You know, so so so planning, you know, you know, building a business plan and having that business plan, you know, articulate or understand, you know, what product requirements there may be embedded and making sure that the unit economics with that plan, you know, are aligned to market or market expectations. [00:30:42] There's all this criteria that goes into strategic planning, which is sometimes unknown. [00:30:50] Right. And and for me, you know, I had to rely heavily during those times on, you know, mentors of mine to help me kind of understand. [00:31:00] Look and around corners or where I should be double clicking to make sure that I understand dependencies. [00:31:05] Dependencies. [00:31:11] The most important lesson I learned through, you know, the the modeling or the exercises that I was doing strategically where I felt like I was reaching an impasse, where I felt like I couldn't, you know, overcome an obstacle or, you know, quote unquote, make the math work was that I had to do it myself. [00:31:30] So I had to get into. [00:31:33] How the planning, you know, played out and how it played out, you know, both from, you know, financial metrics standpoint, how it tied into our product roadmap, how that made a difference in the way that we would have to staff GNA functions, what it meant for recruiting. [00:31:51] And as you kind of get into. [00:31:57] With regard to what a strategic plan is, you're really just putting building blocks up. [00:32:04] And and if you really understand what those building blocks are and you understand the dependencies between them and the assumptions that are going in, you get a really clear picture as to how viable your plan is or how viable your strategic direction is. [00:32:21] And. [00:32:22] I think we may have just lost Nick. [00:32:25] Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, it was in and out for a bit, but. [00:32:34] Yes, I learned an invaluable lesson, which is. [00:32:38] Hey, Nick. [00:32:39] Hey, Nick. [00:32:40] Sorry. [00:32:41] We lost we lost you for maybe about. [00:32:44] Five to 10 seconds or so. [00:32:47] Oh, am I back now? [00:32:49] Oh, am I back now? [00:32:51] Yeah, you're back now. [00:32:52] I can hear you. [00:32:53] But we just lost a few. [00:32:54] We just lost some few key points that you just mentioned. [00:32:58] OK, where I don't know where I left off, but. [00:33:02] But the punchline was, you know, doing this work, doing the strategic planning, doing the actual number crunching, really understanding the business, the assumptions that are going into the business, understanding the key criteria or requirements of product and all those. [00:33:22] Like doing that yourself is what's more important. [00:33:25] Sometimes I see people get into those rooms or, you know, get into a strategic discussion and they just want the summary. [00:33:33] Right. [00:33:34] So they just want, you know, give me the summary of of the plan or give me the summary of the, you know, product roadmap or give me the summary of our, you know, key unit economics or key metrics as a business. [00:33:46] And that's great. [00:33:47] And you can tell whether or not the plan is going to work or not high level, but you don't understand how the plan was built. [00:33:52] So you don't understand how to move pieces around or when you reach an obstacle, how to, you know, pivot from A to B because you're you're you're operating in the abstract. [00:34:02] And and for me, that that was a critical a critical learning. [00:34:06] Thank you, Nick. [00:34:07] I guess, you know, as the CEO, the buck stops at your door. [00:34:13] So any decisions that are made good or bad or indifferent, you got to own them. [00:34:19] Right. [00:34:20] So I get your point there. [00:34:21] Over to you, Neil. [00:34:22] Neil, you there. [00:34:23] Thanks, Usain. [00:34:24] Nick, thank you for taking the time. [00:34:25] We're joining us this evening. [00:34:26] One quick question I had for you was, you know, I recall reading an article about how you're doing this, but I'm not sure. [00:34:35] I was, you know, I recall reading an article in Fast Company that you helped co-author regarding the human side of cybersecurity. [00:34:42] As a CEO, as well as a leader, talking to companies about their cyber posture position, give us some insights of what you've seen or gleaned in those conversations as a chief executive, [00:34:54] but also what you're seeing in regards to culture and that human aspect of how to tackle those challenges from interfacing day to day. [00:35:03] Yeah. [00:35:04] You know, it's been a, it's been an interesting time in, in cybersecurity and things have evolved rapidly, both because of, you know, now a changing macro environment. [00:35:21] You know, you had COVID, you have an influx of, you know, new attack surfaces and with it an influx of, you know, products and point solutions that, that, that organizations are trying to manage. [00:35:34] And you're trying to build out a security operation and, and, and, and make that all work together. [00:35:39] And that's a real challenge for a lot of organizations. [00:35:43] But what sometimes people forget is that it's people, you know, making that all work. [00:35:48] And, and, and kind of this human aspect of security, you know, means two things. [00:35:54] One, you, you, you have, you know, humans that have to make a security operation work and you need enough skilled talent for that to work effectively. [00:36:02] But, but you, you got to remember that those people, you know, also, you know, want to work on things that are interesting to them and have, you know, optionality in what their day looks like. [00:36:11] And there's a second component of the human side of cybersecurity, which is that when something bad happens, generally speaking, there's a human or a set, you know, or a, or a number of humans that more like, you know, more, more likely than not did something that they shouldn't have, whether they intended to or not. [00:36:28] And, and, and that's super personal. [00:36:31] And unlike a lot of industries, where, you know, a disk drive fails, and a system goes down, or, you know, networking, you know, you know, equipments, you know, fails, and you lose your network. [00:36:47] And in cyber, when something goes wrong, it's a lot of times there's, there's a human kind of in the middle of that. [00:36:55] And between the humans, you know, fighting to, you know, protect an organization or protect themselves, and then the humans that unfortunately, will oftentimes, you know, make a mistake that, that causes harm and damage to an organization. [00:37:09] It makes cybersecurity an extremely personal business. [00:37:14] And I can see it when I talk to, you know, companies who are trying to figure out, you know, how to improve their cybersecurity posture, how to solve for the human element of cybersecurity, in the face of a talent shortage. [00:37:28] And I can see the look in their face, which is, you know, if something goes wrong, this is on me, you know, and, and, and, by the way, I might not be the person that caused the issue. [00:37:40] But I'm also going to have to be dealing with the, you know, the person that did. [00:37:43] And, and it's, it's really uncomfortable for people, you have bad actors literally attacking, you know, organizations, but those organizations are really being attacked through their people. [00:37:54] And, you know, that, that marriage of, of, you know, kind of personal life, personal activity, and the impact that it can have on the organization that you work in, and the, in the relationship then between a vendor, and a customer. [00:38:12] There needs to be a lot of trust involved. [00:38:15] And there needs to be trust that, you know, you're going to do what you say you're going to do. [00:38:19] There needs to be trust and understanding that not everything's going to be perfect. [00:38:23] And when it's not, that we're going to help each other out, to make sure that we, you know, get through things as best we possibly can. [00:38:30] And understanding that part of the onus of having a good security operation is to make sure that, you know, the humans, the people within an organization, you know, understand how to, you know, protect themselves, and therefore their company, [00:38:42] against the stuff that generally causes a breach, which is more often than not, relatively straightforward tactics, right. [00:38:52] And, and, and that's a very different landscape than a lot of industries. [00:38:56] And it's, it's something that we, you know, work hard on at Arctic Wolf to, you know, understand and build, you know, products and capabilities, you know, towards, but you also see a lot of this, you know, discussion in the marketplace as well. [00:39:11] So, so yeah, it's a, it's an interesting dynamic that will be an ever changing dynamic within cyber. [00:39:18] And something that I think, you know, there is onus both on, you know, cyber practitioners or leadership within organizations to understand, but also incumbent on, you know, the vendors themselves to understand how to solve for. [00:39:30] Awesome. [00:39:36] Awesome. [00:39:36] I know, I know Neil is having some microphone issues. [00:39:39] He's going to reset his zap. [00:39:41] So, but I'm, I'm just going to do a very, very quick room reset. [00:39:46] Again, if this, if it's the first time you join us is our weekly fireside chat. [00:39:50] We're joined this evening by the president and CEO of Arctic Wolf. [00:39:54] That's Nick Schneider. [00:39:55] If you've just joined us, you've missed a good 30 minutes or so of great conversation, but don't worry. [00:40:01] This is being recorded. [00:40:01] So you'll be able to play it back after the session is done. [00:40:05] I be sorry. [00:40:07] I'm just going to pass it over to Katie. [00:40:09] And then once Katie completes her question, if you do have a question in the audience, feel free to raise your hand and we will bring you up on stage and you can ask a question live of Nick. [00:40:18] So go ahead, Katie. [00:40:19] Over to you. [00:40:20] Yeah. [00:40:20] Thank you, Tomas. [00:40:21] Hey, Nick. [00:40:22] So I really am enjoying this conversation and your journey and I've been taking some notes and I'm still trying to get to one piece though, that I wonder if I haven't heard it or what. [00:40:36] So like outside of the competitiveness and outside of the formula that you clearly have a really good one about leadership and the things that you're doing. [00:40:47] I just, I'm trying to get to the why. [00:40:49] Why do you, Nick Schneider, choose this path for your life? [00:40:54] And the reason I'm asking that question is I think in this room when we, when one of the things I love the most is hearing about what it is that drives you personally to achieve the things that you're doing for your clients. [00:41:07] To be, you know, to put people out of the uncomfortableness that they are in and, you know, as end users who don't know what to do and to bring a solution like Arctic Wolf to market at scale. [00:41:18] Like you have, I feel like we haven't quite gotten to the why. [00:41:21] Why do you do that? [00:41:23] Why do you, why do you, are you clearly passionate about doing that? [00:41:27] Yeah. [00:41:28] Good question. [00:41:29] There are two things. [00:41:30] One is external and one is internal. [00:41:32] So the external is, is I'm, I'm, I'm driven by helping customers solve problems in general. [00:41:42] Like it's exciting to me to work with a customer or a prospect on a problem or a challenge that they're having within their organization, business or, or, or personally understand that problem. [00:41:54] Uh, and then, and then develop or work to develop a product solution service that can address that problem. [00:42:03] And then understand kind of in a broader context of the market, whether or not that, you know, problem is prevalent or whether or not that problem is a one-off. [00:42:10] And if it's prevalent, if it's something you hear over and over again, then there's a massive opportunity kind of change the dynamic and change, uh, or, or re-imagine, uh, sometimes, you know, entire markets. [00:42:21] Uh, and you, you, you, you, you, you've seen that in, uh, you know, you have, you know, Tesla doing, you know, so well with, you know, electric vehicles who, who would have thought that they'd be doing as successful as they, as, as well as they are, you know, you know, Salesforce kind of recreated the people, the way people thought of CRM, you know, work day, you know, HRS service. [00:42:40] Now, so there's these examples of, uh, organizations that took a fundamental customer problem, fundamental customer complaint with the status quo, uh, and changed the paradigm, um, not only for the customer and not only for their businesses, but for the market wholesale. [00:42:57] And, and, and don't get me wrong, you don't, you know, wake up and say, I'm going to change the whole market today. [00:43:02] You start with, you know, solving individual problems and then seeing if there's a collective problem that you can solve, you know, over time and do a, into a problem, uh, or into a solution that can solve a larger problem for a, for a larger market. [00:43:17] And in the end, um, you, the, the result is, uh, you know, people get better outcomes for, for less money and they get time back with their founders that go from, um, from, from delivering solutions like that. [00:43:31] But the second is more internal. [00:43:33] So I talked a little bit about the, the teams themselves and the way, you know, how to be products that solve for a, uh, a broader problem in the industry. [00:43:49] And, and, and one of the things that, you know, drives me the most is watching, you know, the careers and watching the, um, the teams themselves kind of grow up within a company as you're, um, you know, trying to do something, you know, together, uh, within an industry. [00:44:07] And, and, and, uh, I felt it as I was part of it. [00:44:11] You know, I, in my first job, I was, you know, single, you know, living with some friends out of school, then, you know, met my wife, moved to Boston, you know, worked out there for a number of years, moved back, you know, with the same organization, got married, had kids. [00:44:27] And, um, and, and like, I, I had that journey personally within an organization. [00:44:32] And the only reason that I could have that journey in the way that I did was because, you know, I worked hard and the company supported me and, and being able to be kind of on the, [00:44:41] on the flip side of that equation is, uh, is really powerful for, for me as a leader. [00:44:47] Um, as I get to watch, you know, the hard work and the efforts of an organization working to solve a really important problem, uh, in the market, um, uh, unfold into an opportunity for individuals to change their lives, right? [00:45:02] Change, change their career and change their lives. [00:45:05] And I've, uh, you know, we've seen it, uh, time and time again at Arctic Wolf, you know, where we, we hired people straight away. [00:45:11] Out of college. [00:45:12] And, you know, next thing I know, I wake up six years later and they're at the company picnic and they've, you know, they've been promoted four times and, uh, and their wife's there and their kids are there and they bought a house and they got a car, you know, and, and all that happens through kind of hard work and, and, and camaraderie. [00:45:29] And, and, and for me, it's, it's, it's those two things. [00:45:32] Can I, can I build something that is lasting, that solves a problem for an individual customer and their, uh, and then transpires into solving a problem for the broader market. [00:45:44] And if I can do that and I can do it effectively, I have an opportunity to change the lives of the employees that are working so hard to make that happen. [00:45:51] And seeing those two things happen when it does happen, it doesn't always happen. [00:45:55] But, but, but if you can find an organization or be a part of an organization where it does, it's special. [00:46:02] Um, and, and the result of it, by the way, is not that those lives change in those people's, you know, careers take a different trajectory and then you never see them again. [00:46:11] And the result of it is, you know, those people become really good friends and not just the people that, you know, are working within the organization, but their significant others become really good friends. [00:46:22] And then next thing you know, their kids are hanging out and going to school to get, like, it becomes this ecosystem of people that grew up professionally, um, within an organization that opportunity to not only be successful in their business careers, but, but to change. [00:46:38] And then next thing you know, their kids end up hanging out and their kids end up hanging out. [00:46:44] So it becomes this, this, this big thing. [00:46:48] Um, and, and to me, that's, that's pretty special to be a part of and, and, and it's awesome to see it when it happens. [00:46:57] Thank you. [00:46:58] Yeah. [00:46:58] For expanding on that. [00:46:59] I can see how that could be very fulfilling. [00:47:01] Seeing a kid right out of college and then him showing up at the company picnic with his wife and kids and, and talking about the life he's made. [00:47:08] I'm sure that sounds, you know, that would be quite fulfilling. [00:47:11] Um, we just had a great, uh, friend of the show join the stage actually to, uh, Ryan and Jennifer. [00:47:16] I think Ryan, you're next up on, on deck. [00:47:19] Do you have a question for Nick? [00:47:21] I have like five, but I'm going to try to, I'm going to try to start easy and see, you know, let's share the, share the space. [00:47:27] But hi, Nick. [00:47:27] Nice to meet you. [00:47:29] Um, Ryan Rosado. [00:47:30] Um, I just wanted to say, you know, one of my really close best friends in this awesome, you know, what, what people still say is a small community. [00:47:38] And cyber, although at RSA felt huge. [00:47:40] One of my best friends works at Arctic Wolf. [00:47:42] We worked previously together at, um, booze Allen and EY. [00:47:45] So we keep saying, no, come work here, no, come work here. [00:47:47] Um, so, you know, in, for one, I want to say thanks for creating an awesome workplace. [00:47:52] Um, but my question is, um, I see, you know, I, I looked at your LinkedIn and I've been listening and I'm just a little bit curious, um, as someone who's also kind of doing some sales now, you know, what was maybe one of the biggest things you realize? [00:48:07] you realize now, as you've now that you're even CEO, and maybe like any differences you have, [00:48:15] especially with cybersecurity related sales, that maybe you didn't see when you were working, [00:48:21] maybe more directly with the sales team. And then similarly, if I could just add on to that, [00:48:26] you know, how did you go to or when did you decide maybe to become CEO? Like, was that a goal of [00:48:33] yours for a while? Or was it similar to I think a question you had, that Octavia had kind of before [00:48:40] when you were answering it? Was it kind of an opportunity that someone you worked for said, [00:48:46] hey, Nick, like, I think you should put your hat in the ring for this? Or was it something that you [00:48:51] you really were knew you wanted for a long time? Hey, wait, wait, Ryan, because my question actually [00:48:57] is really similar. Can I just see if it adds anything to that? As long as Tomas says it's [00:49:02] okay. Just kidding. Yeah. That works for me. Sorry about that. It's similar. It's that you said [00:49:11] you came in via channels without the security background. I was just wondering what the path [00:49:15] was to CEO. Like, if you said, you have to learn the business and really understand the details of [00:49:20] the business, etc. And the foundation. So I think that dovetails with Ryan's question. [00:49:25] Yeah. Yeah. So the first question was with regard to, you know, sales and my experiences within sales, [00:49:36] and how, you know, my experience or learnings, you know, have changed or not changed, you know, [00:49:43] both as a result of being a part of a, you know, security organization and or, you know, being a CEO [00:49:50] of a security organization. Honestly, the, the, the fundamentals of good selling don't change whether [00:49:57] you're in a security organization or you're, you know, selling real estate, in my opinion. Sales is, is at its [00:50:06] core, all about helping people solve problems. And when people lose track of that fundamental, when it becomes [00:50:14] when it becomes about your commission check, or when it becomes about the numbers on the paper, [00:50:20] or when it becomes about getting something done, done in a certain window, because it matters to you, [00:50:26] even though it doesn't matter to the customer, then, then you've lost sight of, of what sales is [00:50:31] really about, or what really good salespeople do, which is find a problem, solve the problem, [00:50:37] and do it on the customer's time, not your time. That doesn't mean you can't adjust the time schedule, [00:50:42] but you need to adjust the time schedule in a way that incents the customer to, you know, to, to, [00:50:47] to have a compelling reason to do so. So, so, so nothing much has changed in my view, in, you know, [00:50:55] in moving from, you know, more infrastructure to, you know, security, you know, or really in moving [00:51:01] from, you know, at one point in time, an individual contributor salesperson, or, you know, or leader [00:51:07] within sales to, to the CEO position. I can tell you that the manner in which we set up, [00:51:17] like a business model or a go to market, you know, model is, is quite a bit different in my current, [00:51:26] you know, you know, position than it would be when you're an individual seller, when you're a DM, [00:51:31] but that's for different reasons. That's because in one situation you're planning for, you know, [00:51:36] individual, you know, territory or an individual quota or an individual, you know, fill in the blank. [00:51:42] Whereas, you know, when you're planning for a larger team, it's a lot more about, you know, [00:51:47] the economics of the team and a lot more about the capacity of the team and, you know, when you're going [00:51:52] to hire and how their people are going to ramp. And there's all these variables and assumptions that [00:51:56] you make to build a good sales plan. But, but, but not much has changed there as it, as it relates to, [00:52:03] you know, kind of the, the journey, you know, into Arctic Wolf and the journey within Arctic Wolf, [00:52:09] you know, into the position that I'm in. I came into Arctic Wolf as the VP of sales, [00:52:15] you know, that's a lofty title. When I joined the company, I think there were [00:52:21] eight salespeople. So it's not like I came into as VP of sales with a giant sales team, but it was really [00:52:28] a blank slate. And that, that is actually what really attracted me to the company outside of the, [00:52:34] you know, kind of product market fit from the conversations I had had at my previous company. [00:52:38] And the founder of the company, CEO of the company, and I, you know, really got along from, [00:52:45] from the beginning, like we saw eye to eye on how to set up an organization, how to set up a go to [00:52:50] market engine, how product, you know, plays a role in that, you know, go to market engine, how, you know, [00:52:56] the, the go to market team plays a role in product direction or doesn't. And, and, you know, we, [00:53:03] him and I built on that relationship, you know, over time. And, and through that, I began to be, [00:53:09] you know, more involved in other aspects of the business, because it happens naturally in a smaller [00:53:14] company. You know, so if you're running sales in a smaller company, you have no choice, but to [00:53:20] understand the product direction, because the product direction influences how you're going to [00:53:24] build out a capacity model or a sales plan, and you have no choice, but to understand the [00:53:29] fundamentals of the financial model. Because without that, you can't appropriately plan for [00:53:35] your hiring plan or, or your investments in, in marketing or, or, or, you know, demand generation. [00:53:41] So, so, so you, so I, I slowly morphed into different areas of the business, less because I was like [00:53:49] clamoring to get into other areas of business, but more because I felt like it was a necessity [00:53:55] for me to understand how to build out a go to market engine that would be successful and that, [00:53:59] and that would be predictable. And, and through that journey, right, you start to get experience [00:54:06] and you start to get relationships in other areas of the business. And, and those relationships are [00:54:12] just as important as your, as your competency, right? So, so you have to develop trust, you have [00:54:17] to develop a competency in the other areas of the business. And then, and then once that happens, [00:54:21] honestly, you know, in my personal story at Arctic Wolf, it was more of a, of a opportunity that [00:54:29] presented itself because, you know, Brian, our founder wanted to do, you know, slightly different [00:54:35] things with, you know, his life. You know, he had been a founder of several companies, had been the CEO [00:54:41] of Bluecoat for, you know, 12 years, had been the CEO of Arctic Wolf for roughly 10 years, you know, [00:54:47] had a bunch of grandkids and, you know, wanted to spend a little bit more time on the personal side. [00:54:52] And I think, and, and is now our chairman of the board. And I think, you know, for both him and I, [00:54:58] I probably wouldn't move into a position with a founder chairman unless it was him. And he probably [00:55:04] wouldn't put a VP of sales into the CEO position unless it was me. Like we, we had a good enough [00:55:09] relationship and understood how each other worked well enough that, that we knew it would work. And it [00:55:15] would not just work for, you know, Brian and Nick or Brian, Nick and Arctic Wolf, [00:55:20] but that it would work for the company because, because I understood the company I'd put in, you [00:55:25] know, five years at the time and understanding the company and the market and the business. [00:55:29] And, and there, you know, was trust involved in, in the team members that were a part of it. So, [00:55:34] so it was an evolution and it wasn't necessarily, you know, people say, well, Nick did like, [00:55:39] when you started at Arctic Wolf, did you know you were going to end in the, no, I didn't. [00:55:44] And, you know, it was a, it was an evolution that I went down or a journey that I went down [00:55:50] through kind of the natural course of business in doing what I felt was required to do the best [00:55:55] job I could as VP of sales, and then do the best job I could as CRO, and then do the best job I could [00:56:02] as being president. And, and as I did those things through time, it became kind of a natural conversation [00:56:09] for Brian and I, uh, as he was looking to do something different in, in, in, in his life, [00:56:14] um, with who, you know, would, would fill that role. Um, and I didn't necessarily like raise my hand. [00:56:20] We, we, we, we, we, we worked through that conversation over a period of, it was probably [00:56:26] over a course of a year. Um, just making sure that, um, that, you know, both sides understood, [00:56:32] you know, what was happening and both sides understood expectations and both sides understood, [00:56:38] um, you know, what was going to be required and what was going to be necessary to be successful. [00:56:43] And, uh, as we got to kind of the end of that conversation, it became clear to both of us that, [00:56:47] um, that it was the, it was the right decision for, you know, the company, our, you know, [00:56:52] ourselves individually and, and, you know, in the team. Hopefully that answered your questions. [00:57:06] Yeah. Did that, did that cover your question, Ryan? I know you had like three more. [00:57:09] I feel like Jennifer, I think I, that certainly goes to Jennifer. I think I get a new question, [00:57:14] but no, yeah, that, that was, and like I said, [00:57:16] All right, Ryan, fine, fine. You can have another. [00:57:19] Yeah. That was really helpful. That was really helpful for me. And also Nick to, um, [00:57:23] yeah, cause I, I'm in legal and support, uh, the rev teams. So I totally understand how they support [00:57:28] the business and learn the business. So I think I much appreciated. Yeah. Ryan over to you. [00:57:32] No, I was going to say, um, that I think was really helpful and really interesting insight. As you can [00:57:38] imagine, um, it, you have a very different path, at least that I've heard from or seen on this platform [00:57:44] or others. And, um, again, just thank you for this. And, uh, um, I, I will come back if everyone, [00:57:50] you know, if there's a question and time, time for more questions. [00:57:54] Perfect. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Jennifer. We'll come back to you, uh, to you both. If you have [00:58:00] a follow on question, uh, my hair, I, I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm butchering your name. [00:58:05] Uh, yeah, you, you got it really close. It's actually matter, right? [00:58:09] My hair. All right. Sounds good. Over to you, my friend. Thanks for joining us again this evening. [00:58:14] Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome. Uh, Hey Nick, how are you, man? And, uh, uh, it's nice to meet a [00:58:20] fellow, uh, uh, CEO, I guess the entrepreneur that likes to chase the challenge. You know, it sounds, [00:58:26] uh, uh, really good. And, um, uh, have you like, uh, are you guys, uh, are you over, [00:58:33] have you heard of like EO and YPO? Yep. Have you joined any of those groups or Vistage or [00:58:40] anything like that before? Uh, I haven't personally, but, um, I'm certainly familiar. [00:58:48] Yeah. Yeah. I've been in EO since, uh, about 2005. It's been very, very helpful. Um, you know, [00:58:53] I got a question as far as like, uh, current conditions, um, for putting together like virtual [00:59:00] teams, you know, I've been doing that, uh, for, for quite some time, like international, uh, [00:59:07] you know, teams and use like, you know, wise to pay out folks and, you know, uh, more, uh, [00:59:12] independent, uh, consultants. And, you know, personally, I think that's going to be more of the, [00:59:18] uh, kind of platform for, for the future. Um, you know, digital, uh, spaces has been, uh, [00:59:26] kind of a desert for, for so long. Um, I've been, you know, doing in, inside of the digital tech world [00:59:33] and all type of aspects since pretty much 1998, uh, 1999, and I've seen all types of cycles and what, [00:59:40] and, you know, COVID as you've seen, um, you know, although it has, you know, created a lot of issues, [00:59:46] it's also, you know, brought the world, I mean, probably five to 10 years ahead in terms of, um, [00:59:53] collaboration, um, you know, uh, cloud, more cloud, uh, specific, uh, operations, more distributed, uh, [01:00:00] operations around the, the, the world pretty much. So, um, as far as what you guys are seeing there in [01:00:07] Arctic Wolf, um, you know, what, uh, plans or do you guys service, uh, com, you know, companies that are, [01:00:17] more, uh, distributed with, with, uh, folks with their own, you know, kind of equipment or, [01:00:23] um, international. Right. And then what's your, what's kind of like your, your target, um, uh, [01:00:30] business side, your product market fit, you know, that, that's a sweet spot zone that you guys, uh, [01:00:36] you guys service. [01:00:40] Yeah. Um, so two questions there, um, distributed workforce, um, you know, clearly that has been a [01:00:49] trend for quite some time and then picked up a lot of steam, uh, during COVID is certainly at the [01:00:56] beginning of COVID and then continued throughout. And I would argue that it's maintained, uh, since as, [01:01:02] as people have kind of thought about the way in which they work or the way in which their employers [01:01:06] will allow them to work a lot differently. And, uh, as it relates to what we do, that means that we [01:01:11] have to be able to protect, uh, organizations and the individuals within those organizations, [01:01:17] kind of regardless of where, of where they work. Um, and, and that means that we have to have [01:01:23] capabilities within our product platform, uh, to be able to do so. So, so we made significant [01:01:28] investments as a, as a company kind of through, um, you know, through the pandemic, but before the [01:01:34] pandemic as well. And thereafter to ensure that, um, we would be able to work with and work within, [01:01:41] um, uh, organizations as they, you know, kind of transformed the way in which they worked. [01:01:46] Yet still, uh, have the ability to service organizations or service, you know, portions [01:01:52] of organizations that don't have the ability, flexibility, or desire to change the ways in [01:01:57] which, in which they work. So we've, we've built those capabilities into, into our product suite and [01:02:02] into our product platform, uh, ensuring that we have capabilities on, on the endpoint, whether that's [01:02:08] on or off network, making sure that we have capabilities both, you know, with regard to detections, [01:02:13] but also with regards to vulnerabilities, you know, awareness training, which is, you know, [01:02:18] geared both towards people that are working in an office and people that are working outside of an [01:02:22] office, uh, people that are traveling, uh, how, you know, traveling has changed the way in which [01:02:28] detections would work and how, uh, you need to understand kind of the business context of the way [01:02:33] in which individuals within a business may work so that you can build, you know, products and, [01:02:38] and detections in a way that doesn't, you know, send off a million alarm bells when people are [01:02:43] operating what in, in their quote unquote new normal. And, and that's, you know, that's taken [01:02:48] a lot of effort, you know, so don't get me wrong. It's, it's, it's not effort that has gone, uh, [01:02:53] wasted or effort that we wouldn't have otherwise done, but just as, you know, kind of individual [01:02:58] businesses that had to change the way in which they thought about remote work, we had to change the way in [01:03:03] which we thought about, uh, the propensity or speed with which that remote work would become prevalent [01:03:08] within our customer base. And, and, and we've, we've, we've made those investments in kind and not [01:03:14] just in, you know, in, in certain geographies, but against the platform itself that would be applicable [01:03:19] to, um, you know, different geographies, you know, throughout the world. Um, so, so that would be, [01:03:26] you know, part one of the question and part two, uh, what was part two of the question now? [01:03:31] Now I, now I, like what's your target, uh, uh, sweet spot for like, you know, company size, um, uh, [01:03:39] that, you know, could utilize your service. What are, you know, like areas, you know, can small [01:03:44] business, uh, afford, you have like different kind of, uh, programs for small business, medium, [01:03:49] large kind of structure, or do you have like a sweet spot you guys go after? [01:03:54] Yeah. Um, we service organizations of really all sizes. And I know that sounds like, yeah, [01:04:01] uh, we lost you there for a little bit. Can you, uh, repeat one more time? [01:04:07] Can you hear me now? Yes, sir. [01:04:10] Okay. Yeah. We, we service organizations of really, uh, any size. Um, and, uh, you know, [01:04:16] I, I know that sounds, uh, like a little too good to be true. Um, but, but it is true. [01:04:23] Yeah. Uh, we lost you again, Nick. [01:04:28] Platform and through the outcomes that are delivered through the platform. [01:04:33] Hey, Nick, if you could repeat, uh, pretty much, uh, the, uh, last maybe 15 seconds, [01:04:38] we lost you there again. All right. Am I good now? Yes, sir. [01:04:43] Okay. Um, yeah. So, so we service effectively the entire market, um, from a size standpoint and from [01:04:53] a sophistication standpoint. Um, and, and the reason for that is because we've built, you know, [01:04:59] our platform and our capabilities, we actually originally built them, um, for the less sophisticated [01:05:05] customer, uh, or smaller organizations that didn't have the time, you know, money, um, or, you know, [01:05:12] couldn't hire the talent to be able to build out a security operation in a meaningful way that would [01:05:16] protect them. Um, and, and from that, um, we've built out capabilities, um, and, and, and a platform [01:05:24] that can now, uh, you know, work not only for, you know, the smaller organizations, but also feather into [01:05:30] larger organizations, um, by working, you know, with their teams or with their products or with their [01:05:37] existing solutions through the platform itself to deliver our outcomes. [01:05:42] Um, and, and for us, um, that's really important. We, we didn't really want to build, um, a platform [01:05:49] that would only be applicable to the very large or to the very small organization. We wanted to be [01:05:54] able to build a platform that could be tuned, uh, or that could be tweaked in its delivery to the end [01:06:00] user, uh, to solve for the unique challenges of a small customer versus a medium-sized customer versus [01:06:07] a large customer and their, their needs and requirements are very different. Um, but one [01:06:12] thing doesn't change with them, which is that, uh, the more data that they have, the more telemetry [01:06:16] that they have, uh, to build detections against the more data that they have to understand, uh, [01:06:22] where they're, where they're vulnerable, the more connections that they have into their cloud, [01:06:25] you know, infrastructure, and the better that they train their employees, um, uh, always improves [01:06:30] their security posture. It's just that everyone starts at a slightly different spot on their [01:06:35] security journey, if you will. Um, and, and we, you know, have built our platform in a way that [01:06:40] allows us to, you know, start at the beginning with customers that are less sophisticated or, or, [01:06:45] you know, on the beginning of their cybersecurity journey, or, you know, start halfway through. [01:06:50] Uh, and we do that by combining, you know, a platform with what we call our concierge delivery [01:06:55] model, which provides this kind of human expertise or human experience, uh, along with the platform [01:07:02] itself, um, to, to, to make sure that we're meeting the customer's needs. Yeah. So with that, if you can [01:07:08] just maybe elaborate on a couple more things, you know, the, you know, we gotta, we gotta move on, [01:07:13] man. I really appreciate you, but yeah, we gotta, we gotta kind of move on. Maybe you can take this offline. [01:07:19] Um, sure. It's fine. All right. Sounds good. Matthew, over to you. [01:07:22] Matthew. Hey, Nick, uh, great conversation so far. Um, thanks for spending the time with us. [01:07:28] My question kind of relates to leadership, if you will. Um, so in your organization and in your view, [01:07:38] um, do you think authoritarian style leadership or a democratic style of leadership is more effective? [01:07:47] And then same thing for people who you would hire into leadership positions. Would you be looking at [01:07:55] task oriented folks or do you think relation oriented folks fit better with your model? Thanks. [01:08:03] Good, uh, good question. Um, it's a tricky one to answer because different roles, um, [01:08:12] uh, and especially different roles at different periods of time need, uh, different types of [01:08:22] leadership. Um, the, the optimal answer is somebody that has a high enough EQ as a leader to understand [01:08:30] when they need to be more authoritative and when they need to be more democratic with their teams [01:08:34] and that they can, they can work in and out of those roles, dependent on the circumstances or depending [01:08:40] on what they're trying to accomplish. If I had to pick one or the other, um, I tend to view a democratic [01:08:47] leader, um, as somebody that's probably going to go further within an organization. So they'll, [01:08:52] they'll be able to weather more storms than somebody that's very authoritative. However, there, [01:08:57] there are roles and there are times within organizations where an authoritative leader is absolutely [01:09:01] required. If you're trying to do something big in a short amount of time, uh, and there's a clean [01:09:07] strategy and a clean, you know, action plan, uh, and everyone agrees on that strategy and that action [01:09:13] plan, uh, being authoritative and what needs to get done, uh, is really important, uh, and, and serves a [01:09:19] massive role within, within that team. Um, but, uh, but a leader that can, that can balance, um, you know, [01:09:27] that authoritative nature and, and the, the nature that is required to drive specific outcomes, uh, [01:09:33] in a meaningful way, but also can take a step back and ensure that they have, you know, the team along [01:09:39] for the ride and that they're, they're getting feedback and that they're, you know, they're taking [01:09:43] criticism, uh, and, and, you know, tweaking the plan over time is really important. So I, I, I tend to look [01:09:52] for people, uh, in senior leadership positions that, that have the ability to manage, uh, in both, [01:09:59] or in both, you know, manners. Um, uh, you know, and, and if I had to have a, a, a slant one way or [01:10:06] another, it would probably be slightly more democratic than authoritative. Um, and then, you know, folks [01:10:11] within the teams, um, again, depends on role. So there are certain roles where an authoritative nature, [01:10:19] authoritative culture, or authoritative, you know, characteristics, um, or character kind of within [01:10:25] an individual are really well suited. Uh, there are other roles where it would be disastrous. Um, [01:10:31] so, so we look very, you know, specifically at the roles that we're hiring for in the time period that [01:10:37] we're in and the goals that we're trying to accomplish to hire the right leader for, you know, [01:10:41] for that job or the right individual for that job. Um, but again, you, you, you, there, there's no, [01:10:47] there's no sense in hiring a, you know, hiring an asshole if you will. Right. So if you're going [01:10:52] to get someone who believes that authoritarianism or, you know, authoritarian style of leadership [01:10:57] means that they get to boss everybody around and, you know, it's their way or the highway and all [01:11:01] feedback should be left at the front door. Well, you're not going to get anywhere on that either. [01:11:05] Um, so it needs to be kind of an open and communicative culture, um, but done so in a way [01:11:11] that, that drives results and drives execution. And it's, it's that kind of marriage. I think that, [01:11:16] that, that, that, you know, works the best and drives the best results. [01:11:22] That was a, uh, that was a great answer. Thanks for that. And I'm assuming since you came out of [01:11:27] the sales side that you would lean more towards relationship oriented. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, [01:11:34] people are, whether you're in a business context or a social context, you know, humans are humans. [01:11:39] Um, they react better, uh, with people that they have built a relationship with and have an [01:11:46] understanding with. Um, and, and, you know, even as it relates to, you know, you know, external sales [01:11:52] motions or internal sales motions or, or coaching or leadership of, uh, of individual teams, you know, [01:11:58] like any, anyone can put a, a game plan on a, on a, on a chalkboard or a whiteboard. Uh, but the [01:12:05] really strong leaders find a way to like earn the hearts and minds of their teams. And you, [01:12:10] you can't do that by barking orders. You have to be a part of the team in order to do that. [01:12:20] I was just going to say, couldn't ask for a better answer. Thank you. [01:12:24] Yep. You got it. [01:12:25] Thanks, Matthew. Thanks for jumping on stage and asking your question. [01:12:29] Uh, I, again, this is our weekly fireside chat. We're going to go for another 23 minutes or so. [01:12:35] I want to be respectful of everybody's time. It's been a really great conversation so far. [01:12:39] Uh, if you just joined us, we're joined today by Nick, by the president and CEO of Arctic Wolf, [01:12:45] Nick Schneider. Uh, if you do have a question and I do see some new faces in the room and you don't know [01:12:51] how to raise your hand, but you want to jump on stage, there's a little hand icon, I think on the [01:12:55] bottom right of your screen, you can, you can click that, raise your hand and we'll bring you up on [01:12:59] stage. Uh, Ryan, over to you. Actually, Ryan, do you have another question? I know you had a few. [01:13:10] Oh, hello. Yep. There you go. Okay. Um, still loving the conversation. I was curious, [01:13:18] um, Nick, you had mentioned how essentially you were CRO and you, the previous CEO [01:13:25] um, you know, kind of, you had planned it for awhile and that's how he went to the board. [01:13:29] You went to the CEO, I guess I'm trying to ask one part is what's next for you. Is it, you know, [01:13:35] even if it's not immediate, you know, is it, um, you know, going to be CEO of another company? [01:13:40] Is it to get more involved at board, but also, you know, how, if you're curious in mentoring, [01:13:47] how do you go about maybe identifying, you know, future CEOs? What are you looking for? [01:13:52] And how do you go about mentoring them? Um, again, that's just super different from what I've been [01:13:57] able to see from a, you know, usually we have CISOs, right? So I would just love any color you could add, [01:14:03] um, and feel comfortable sharing. And again, thanks in advance. [01:14:06] Nick, you know, I think I kind of, uh, walked through my mindset on this stuff, uh, earlier in [01:14:21] the call too. What's next for me is to, um, is to build Arctic Wolf into a category-defining company [01:14:29] and succeed, you know, beyond the expectations that we had set out originally, uh, and make sure that we, [01:14:35] you know, do, do right by our customers, partners, and employees. So, so what's next for me is, [01:14:40] is the role that I'm currently in and the, in the onus that is on me to, to perform, [01:14:46] you know, for the, for the folks that put me in the role that I'm in. So I'll look for other things, [01:14:51] um, if, and when that journey ever comes to an end, but I don't see any, any end in sight. So I [01:14:57] haven't spent any time really thinking about it. Um, as for, as for mentorship, um, and, and kind of, [01:15:04] you know, looking for folks, uh, that could serve in, in different capacities. Um, you know, [01:15:12] so clearly there are people within your own organization or within our organization that [01:15:17] we've identified and that have made, you know, career advancements, uh, through, you know, hard work, [01:15:23] performance, uh, you know, uh, you know, or some combination thereof. Um, and, and obviously they [01:15:29] have the ability to, you know, do more or different things within Arctic Wolf, um, outside of Arctic Wolf. [01:15:36] Um, it's, um, it's interesting. Most of the people that, that I've found, um, that are looking for [01:15:48] for mentorship, um, are, are, are overly shy about asking for assistance, right? So, so clearly you [01:15:58] can identify people that are going to be high flyers that have the potential to do something [01:16:01] more because you can see clear as day how they're performing. And more often than not, you don't have [01:16:06] a crack at them, uh, if they're outside of your organization, because, you know, if they're working [01:16:10] at a good organization, the people within it are making sure that they don't leave. Um, but, but people [01:16:15] outside of organizations, um, and kind of, you know, how I, you know, look at folks, if, if they [01:16:22] want mentorship or if they're looking for mentorship or if they're looking, you know, not for me, but [01:16:26] from other people, uh, is to be open and honest about the type of mentorship you want and don't be [01:16:31] shy. You know, uh, you'd be surprised at how few people, um, ask, uh, for mentorship. And then once, [01:16:39] once they do ask, you know, realize how, you know, easy it was to garner. It doesn't take a lot of time [01:16:45] for somebody that sends a sincere email or, you know, requests a, you know, quick half hour call [01:16:52] or a quick half hour coffee. Um, it doesn't take a lot of time and energy to, uh, to fulfill those [01:16:58] requests. Uh, and I can promise you, uh, the, the folks that are asking for mentorship from men, you [01:17:05] know, from, from those, from those individuals are asking somebody that was in their shoes at one point [01:17:11] and, and leverage the experience, uh, and, and the, the leverage, the, the time of people that are [01:17:19] walking in shoes that they'd like to be in. Um, and you know, my, my suggestion is for, is for people to [01:17:25] not be shy. You, you, you would be, you would be shocked if you put the time and energy into, uh, asking [01:17:31] in the right way, uh, how quickly you can gain, you know, access and, and how quickly you can gain, [01:17:37] you know, relationships with folks that can, you know, guide you down a path or steer you off a path. [01:17:43] Um, uh, if, if you're not shy about it. [01:17:46] Thanks. I appreciate that. And, and yeah, I think that echoes a lot of, of the awesome, uh, tidbits [01:17:57] and, and just collaboration or sharing that goes on in this call. So I appreciate that insight. Thanks, Nick. [01:18:03] Yep. Thanks Ryan. And that's probably one of the reasons why I enjoy our weekly fireside chats. This [01:18:09] is, this is my weekly mentor mentorship opportunity where I get to listen to, uh, to folks like you, [01:18:15] Nick and others who have joined us, right? Just really, really great insight, uh, and great [01:18:20] conversation. Uh, before I pass it over to me, I want, uh, sorry, I've mispronounced your name, [01:18:26] but I will pass it over to you. I just want to ask you, Nick, what are you reading? I need to [01:18:30] add some more books to my, uh, to my audible or my reading list. What are you reading, Nick? [01:18:35] Yeah. Um, so I've read a bunch of different books. The most recent book I read, uh, is a book [01:18:44] that was actually somewhat recently written by, uh, Frank Slootman, who's the CEO now of, uh, of [01:18:51] Snowflake. He was the CEO of ServiceNow Data Domain. He wrote a new book called, uh, Amp It Up, [01:18:58] which is all about, you know, growth and leadership and, in high growth technology companies and has some, [01:19:04] some really good insights as he's, you know, performed extraordinarily, um, through those, [01:19:10] you know, through those efforts and actually tying back to a previous content, you know, [01:19:15] um, uh, comment on mentorship, uh, I emailed him out of the blue and asked for, you know, a half hour, [01:19:22] a few months ago. And I, you know, jumped on a call with him and asked a bunch of questions that [01:19:26] was relevant to our business. Um, you know, but, but anyway, uh, and now I'm reading his book. So, [01:19:32] so that one I found interesting or I find interesting, uh, I recently read, re-read, uh, Endurance, [01:19:39] which is the story of, you know, Shackleton's great adventure, which is a really interesting, [01:19:44] uh, story on leadership and, and, you know, battling through adversity. Um, you know, I've, [01:19:52] I've got some other ones that are more salesy focused. Uh, I enjoyed, um, uh, the speed of trust [01:19:59] by Covey. Uh, anyway, I could give you a few other ones too, but those are the most recent. [01:20:04] Sorry. I was just adding that to my, to my audible list there. So, uh, good stuff. Thanks for that, [01:20:16] Nick. I appreciate it. And it's only for, if anybody is not, uh, have not searched for it, [01:20:21] it's, it's, it's on audible. It's only five hours unchanged. So my commute to work and home is about, [01:20:27] it's about three hours a day. I'll be done with that book in two days. I'm looking forward to that, [01:20:32] uh, to that lesson. Okay. Katie. Oh yeah. I was going to say, um, just again, [01:20:36] just kind of resetting the room, you know, we're having a wonderful conversation tonight. Fireside [01:20:40] chat with, with Nick Schneider, president and CEO of, of Arctic Wolf. A number of people have joined us [01:20:45] since we started the room. Um, I want to make sure that they know that, um, if they want to be a part [01:20:50] of this community, um, they can click on the fireside chat and the, uh, little, the little greenhouse, [01:20:56] um, on the upper left-hand corner and you'll be alerted to both the rooms that are upcoming. [01:21:01] Um, and as they're happening, as well as be able to, to listen to the replays, if you're only able to, [01:21:05] to capture a part of the, a part of the conversation. But, um, my, my mayor, I would say mayor, [01:21:12] but we've known each other now for about a year on clubhouse and I've called you mayor the entire [01:21:16] time. And now I feel like it's, it's, it's getting ridiculous. Sorry. My hair. Uh, welcome back to the [01:21:21] stage. Um, what, one of the things I love about you and, and, and the rooms that we spent together is [01:21:26] that you also have a great origin story. And, um, you know, so as we're, you know, phrasing the [01:21:31] questions, um, you know, can't wait to hear what your next one is. I'm sure you have a great one, uh, for Nick. [01:21:38] Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, Hey Thomas, by the way, you've got a really, really good job at these [01:21:42] fireside chats. You know, this is probably, um, my first one here and, uh, thanks for putting it together. [01:21:48] I'm looking forward to attending your future ones and checking out the replays too. That'll probably [01:21:53] be great. You know, request, you know, just got to join the club. So thank you for [01:21:57] organizing this first and foremost. And Katie, it's always a pleasure to hang out with you on [01:22:01] different stages. Uh, along the way, I've been kind of a little bit off clubhouse, uh, more due to [01:22:06] kind of the work demands, uh, that we, you know, we currently have, um, you know, things just [01:22:11] significantly, uh, broadened and grown in, um, anyway, so, um, one thing, you know, uh, is, [01:22:19] you know, Nick, thank you very much for, for joining us here. It's been a, uh, great, uh, session and, [01:22:26] you know, I couldn't, uh, agree with you more when it comes to mentoring and, and mentees, um, [01:22:32] you know, it is, you know, experience sharing is, uh, so, so key and learning, you know, from others [01:22:38] that have already kind of gone through that road and that experience can, can really speed up your, [01:22:44] your process. And, uh, you know, a lot of times the most important questions you can ask is what [01:22:49] not to do, right. You know, and, um, you know, the, the mentors would really kind of let you know, [01:22:55] Hey, you know, I tried this and that, and this didn't work out, right. Uh, then this is the best [01:23:00] things to do and really take that kind of advice, uh, cause they've kind of been there and done that. [01:23:05] And as, uh, Nick just said, um, he himself, uh, seeks out, uh, mentors, right. And, uh, also mentors, [01:23:12] folks. So the mentor gets, gets quite a bit. So I'd strongly encourage you to follow Nick's, uh, [01:23:17] advice there and just, you know, kind of hop on LinkedIn and send out a few, uh, messages on most [01:23:22] of the time is old sales messages, right. So getting a, um, um, a nice message about jumping on for an [01:23:28] experience sharing mentorship, uh, call is, uh, typically, uh, pretty nice. And, you know, CEOs and entrepreneurs [01:23:34] really like to, uh, uh, you know, they enjoy helping, uh, and grow people. That's our, [01:23:41] that's our job at the end of the day is to help people grow. Right. You know, so one thing I'd like [01:23:46] to ask Nick is as far as growth and, and insights, right. And, um, and I strongly encourage you to come, [01:23:52] you know, uh, to tech news around the world, uh, the club, it's every morning, I think, [01:23:57] but I know I jumped on maybe at 9 AM central. They might start at 8 AM, uh, central, but I think a lot of folks in [01:24:04] this room and it's all about insights and a lot of, a lot of techies. Um, so I'd, uh, encourage you to [01:24:10] kind of join. And I think it'd be great for you to kind of join the, uh, the panel and, uh, you'll, [01:24:15] you'll, you'll get a lot from it. Um, and we'd love to have you share. So as far as insights are [01:24:21] concerned and, you know, one of the alarming things I heard like on tech news around the world was [01:24:25] that Sequoia put out a, uh, uh, letter out to its, its startups and it pretty much told them, okay, [01:24:33] let go of 20%, 25% of your, your staff because hard times are kind of coming and you don't want [01:24:42] to run out of cash. Right. So, um, based on what you do and you know, the, the market and, uh, the [01:24:49] clients you have, you've probably, you know, kind of seen a lot of, you see a lot of insights for the, [01:24:54] for the future, whether it's, you know, companies, certain companies expanding, uh, their, [01:24:59] their structures as you add on new, new folks and new team members there and, and those, uh, shrinking, [01:25:06] right. Uh, which markets are kind of growing, which markets are, are, uh, tough, right. So it'd be nice [01:25:11] to have your insights on your personal experience with customers, you know, what you kind of see in [01:25:16] the market, uh, out there, uh, for, you know, entrepreneurs and, um, uh, you know, executives and [01:25:23] leaders to, to kind of see what's coming, uh, around the corner from, from your vision. Thank you. [01:25:32] Yeah. So there's a few things, uh, there, uh, and I, I hope I'll, I'll get them all and answer them. [01:25:38] So, so I, I read the Sequoia paper, um, you know, and basically the message was, you know, batten down [01:25:45] the hatches, make sure you, you know, get through, uh, the current macro challenges. And if you can, [01:25:51] you know, you'll come out on the other side, uh, much stronger than you, than you entered, [01:25:56] um, uh, embedded in that story though, I think is a, a very important point, which is, um, if you try [01:26:05] to run your business, uh, based on macro trends or based on, uh, generic advice, you're going to [01:26:14] have problems. You're going to make substantial mistakes. And, and what I mean by that, um, is [01:26:22] not all businesses are created equal in different times. There are some businesses that do really [01:26:26] well, um, in, uh, poor economic times. There are other businesses that do really poorly in poor [01:26:33] economic times. You know, you see the gas industry having a heyday right now and, uh, pretty much [01:26:38] everyone else, um, you know, going through a correction, but, but, uh, through a correction, [01:26:44] you gotta be able to, uh, separate, uh, the way in which you're running your business and the way in [01:26:49] which you're running your organization and the fundamentals of, of your business, uh, and your [01:26:54] belief in those fundamentals, uh, of your business from what's happening in the macro environment. [01:26:59] The macro environment, um, is just that it's a, it's the macro, uh, you know, so it is not necessarily [01:27:06] directly relatable to the business that you're running. Um, and that's really important. Um, [01:27:11] and it's really important to look at the aspects of your business that may or may not be impacted by [01:27:17] the macro and make your own determination as to whether or not, uh, you should pivot. Um, [01:27:23] you know, and some of those things are pretty straightforward. Uh, are you seeing similar [01:27:27] demand, increased demand, decreased demand for the products and services that you sell? Do you [01:27:32] believe, you know, fundamentally that the solutions that you're bringing to market, um, work, uh, you [01:27:39] know, better or resonate better or worse in an environment where people's budgets might be slightly [01:27:44] constrained, ability to hire might be straight, you know, strained, constrained, uh, or, or are you [01:27:50] going to have a tough time in that environment? And, and, and, and asking yourself this laundry [01:27:55] list of questions that helps you answer a fundamental question, which is how do you feel [01:28:01] about your business in a changing environment is what's going to separate those that make the good [01:28:07] decisions from those that make the bad decisions. And you can look through history and through, you [01:28:12] know, the various economic downturns. Uh, and there were companies that, uh, you know, folded up shop or, [01:28:18] you know, you know, did a reduction in force or, uh, made a decision to kind of hunker down, [01:28:25] slow growth and save cash. And there were companies that said, you know what, uh, I think our business [01:28:30] is going to thrive in this type of environment and the products and services that we sell, uh, are just [01:28:35] as applicable or more applicable in this environment. Uh, and if I can maintain my unit in economics and I [01:28:41] can maintain the manner in which I'm operating my business, why should I, why, why should I shut off the [01:28:46] funnel? Uh, and, and more often than not, those are the companies that are able to find, uh, a really [01:28:52] good bargain on companies that might need, uh, to be become a new, uh, become a part of, uh, you know, [01:28:58] a larger organization through M and A. Those are companies that, you know, invest in growth when [01:29:03] others, you know, aren't, those are companies that are able to grow a larger share of market when, [01:29:08] you know, when others are, you know, looking the other way. Um, and, and it's really important for, [01:29:13] for companies to make their own decisions on that. You can't read a Sequoia paper [01:29:17] and, and apply everything in that paper to your business. It's just not how things work. Um, [01:29:24] and as it relates to our business, um, you know, that's exactly what we're doing, you know, so we'll, [01:29:29] we'll continue to look at, uh, the products and services, what we said that we sell. Um, we'll, [01:29:35] we'll look at how those resonate in a market, um, that's doing really well versus a market, uh, that has [01:29:42] some, you know, headwinds at the macro level. And, you know, from my perspective, uh, the ability to [01:29:48] deliver a, you know, security operation, you know, through a subscription, uh, in a manner that [01:29:53] delivers, you know, outcomes that are otherwise really hard to, you know, to garner in a really [01:29:57] healthy environment is actually a stronger story in a, in a tough environment. So, uh, you know, so, um, [01:30:04] but, but, but, you know, where exactly, you know, we end up there and where exactly individual [01:30:08] companies end up there really needs to be, um, uh, well thought out and, and well, um, you know, [01:30:16] documented internally and thought through, you know, with their boards, um, to ensure that they're [01:30:22] making the right decision for them, not, not the decision that would work out the best in the average. [01:30:31] Awesome. Thanks for that, Nick. Look at it. It is about 925 PM Eastern time. So we've got about [01:30:37] five minutes left. I want to be very respectful of Nick's time. He's been very gracious to, uh, [01:30:41] to share the stage with us and, and, and sitting off, sitting in the hot seat, answering our questions. [01:30:46] Uh, Katie, I will pass it to you. I know you have one question and Nick, I have one more question [01:30:50] that I want to ask you and then we'll sort of wrap up if you, uh, allow us to. [01:30:55] Sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Tomas. And thank you. This will be a real quick question. Um, [01:30:59] I was really touched by what you said earlier about, you know, in terms of leadership, how [01:31:03] you care so much about the people who are a part of the team that you're building in Arctic Wolf and [01:31:09] in previous corporations. And, um, just now you covered, um, you know, some things around, [01:31:14] you know, how you're, you're looking at your company is going into potentially with the economy [01:31:19] and, and, and, you know, potential economic concerns, but, you know, in the global market. [01:31:25] But I really love that, what you said earlier. Um, and I imagine that you have a really good answer [01:31:29] around how are you looking at, um, from an HR perspective, the people that work for you now, [01:31:35] how are you, um, as a company and as a leader, ensuring that those, uh, folks that have come [01:31:42] out of college and have built a life and have, um, you know, are working for you are going into, [01:31:47] you know, the next five years of their career. Um, just, you know, again, really impressed with, [01:31:52] um, your story tonight. And then what I've seen from, um, the employees that you have working for you [01:31:56] as well. So that's the context with which I'm asking that question. It's not meant to, [01:32:01] please don't answer a whole recession question, really just like, what are like one or two things [01:32:05] that you are doing as a company from an HR perspective to make sure you're retaining the [01:32:09] amazing talent that you've cultivated? Yeah. Um, a few different things. First of all, um, [01:32:17] we go out of our way as an organization to be as transparent as we possibly can with the organization [01:32:22] as to how things are going, good, bad, or otherwise, because it helps to, you know, unify, [01:32:27] uh, the, the team and, and, and, uh, organization as a, you know, community, uh, towards the goals [01:32:34] that we're trying to achieve. So, so transparency is always extremely important because people can [01:32:38] understand the why in various activities. And I've been a part of organizations where [01:32:43] the why gets left out. We're going to do A, B, C, and D, and I'm not going to tell you why. And that's [01:32:48] when people come up with their own why, uh, and you can get yourself into trouble. So we, we spend a [01:32:52] lot of time, um, working through, uh, what decisions we're going to make, but trying to do our best, [01:32:59] uh, within the confines of, of, you know, some parameters to, to be as transparent as, as to why [01:33:06] we're doing things, uh, as possible. And then we've, we've spent a lot of time on career progression. [01:33:12] We've spent a lot of time, uh, on, uh, allowing people to start in one path, but pivot into another. [01:33:19] So start in, you know, acquisition sales, move to customer success, potentially end up in a services [01:33:25] org, you know, work in the detections team, move to the incident response team, uh, and have [01:33:31] flexibility and optionality within our article. I would much rather have somebody get their dream, [01:33:37] to get their dream job, uh, through hard work at article than leave article to get it. [01:33:42] Um, and it's our responsibility, not the responsibility of the employee to provide [01:33:46] those opportunities. And I think sometimes employers get that confused, uh, when people [01:33:50] leave, it's their fault. Uh, when in, uh, meaning the person that left, when in reality, when people [01:33:56] leave, it's always, in my opinion, the company's fault because they had the opportunity to keep them [01:34:00] if they would have done, uh, what, you know, that individual was looking to do, uh, before they left. [01:34:06] So now that doesn't always work out, but if you, if you lose somebody regrettably, it's, it's, [01:34:11] it's on the company's. And then, and then we're spending a lot of ensuring, uh, that we build a [01:34:19] community within Arctic Wolf that's, you know, diverse and inclusive. Um, and, and that, uh, we [01:34:27] don't just, you know, have meetings and talk about it, but that we take, you know, action. Um, and we're [01:34:33] doing a few things that, you know, we haven't announced yet that, that I'm pretty proud of as [01:34:38] an organization. And I'll kind of save that news for when it comes out, but, um, but it revolves [01:34:43] around making sure that, uh, if we're going to, um, purport to be, and if we're going to claim to be, and if we're [01:34:49] going to make it fundamental to our mission to be a diverse and inclusive organization that, that we, [01:34:56] uh, that we, that we show, uh, that in the marketplace, you know, both through the employee [01:35:01] base that we hire and the, in the way in which we operate with our customers and partners, but also, [01:35:06] um, you know, take an opportunity to leverage the position that we're in to potentially help, [01:35:11] you know, uh, the communities that we serve in a way that works towards, you know, our mission, [01:35:16] which our mission as a company is to end cyber risk, but there's a lot of facets of that, um, [01:35:22] that, that we could leverage our position, um, to bolster, you know, so one example would be [01:35:27] get more people interested in cyber. And, and there's a million ways in which we could do that. [01:35:31] Some of which are free, some of which costs money. Um, and, and we're spending a lot of time on, [01:35:36] on building, you know, that kind of sense of community outside of, of Arctic Wolf as well. So [01:35:41] those would be the, the, the, the two or three things that, you know, jump to mind. [01:35:46] Okay. [01:35:50] Okay. [01:35:54] Oh, no, I was just saying, thank you for that. Nick. Yeah, I just, I knew that, um, from the outside looking [01:35:59] in, you had, you know, something else to say in this area and just, you know, mad respect and really [01:36:04] appreciate again, your time. Um, so I will turn my mic on mute and allow to ask his final. [01:36:11] Question. Thanks Katie. And thanks Nick. Thanks for, uh, for, for sticking with us. Uh, I usually [01:36:18] like to ask our guests this, this last question is it's really gets back to again, the, the components [01:36:25] of your origin story and what makes you who you are. So if you had one piece of advice for the [01:36:32] younger Nick, what would it be and why? Um, yeah, for the, for the younger me, um, [01:36:42] you know, and, or just, you know, folks, you know, looking for what they want to do in their career. [01:36:47] Um, you know, there's, there's two things, uh, really, uh, work hard, um, you know, getting to [01:36:55] the position or getting to the, you know, into the situation that you want to, um, you know, get into [01:37:03] will, will not just be handed to you. You know, it's, it's just not how the world works. So you're [01:37:08] going to have to work hard and you're going to have to make sure that as you're working hard, [01:37:11] uh, you're achieving, you know, the level of success that, that you want to achieve and that [01:37:16] you're having fun doing it. If you're not having fun doing it, it's really hard to perform. Um, [01:37:22] and then, and then the second one would be, um, you know, you know, find a way to make it happen, [01:37:28] you know, so that there are going to be, uh, challenges or roadblocks or times when, [01:37:33] you know, the goal seems, uh, you know, out of reach or the goal seems like something that might be [01:37:39] improbable. Uh, and it's usually in those times that you can kind of reset your aperture, reset [01:37:45] the way in which you're thinking about a problem or reset, you know, the way in which you're thinking [01:37:50] about your ability to achieve a goal. And I've found it's in those times when, you know, the going gets [01:37:55] tough or you're feeling like you're going to miss a number or a product release is slipping, or even in [01:38:02] your personal life, a goal that you had set, uh, looks like it might be out of reach that you can [01:38:06] kind of reinvigorate yourself or reinvigorate your team to remember that that goal, uh, is important, [01:38:13] uh, in, in ensuring that you can continue on your journey, but it's also important to ensure, [01:38:19] um, that, that you can prove to yourself, to your team, to your community, um, that, uh, when you say [01:38:25] you're going to do something, you do it. Um, you know, so, so work hard, stick with it. Um, and when you're [01:38:32] faced with adversity, you know, try to use it as an opportunity to, uh, to, to change your aperture [01:38:38] and find a way to, to success. Excellent advice, Nick. Excellent advice. Couldn't agree more. [01:38:47] So folks, that brings us to the end of, uh, of this evening's fireside chat. Again, uh, just a very, [01:38:53] very quick announcement. If you're new to our fireside chat, we do this every Wednesday, uh, between 8pm [01:38:58] Eastern time and 9 30 PM Eastern time. You can join us back next week. Uh, next week we have Joe [01:39:04] Mara, Mara, Mara, Mara, who's the CISO at encompass digital media. So join us back, uh, next week, [01:39:11] Wednesday, June 29th at 8 PM Eastern time. Uh, so with that, Maz, I'll leave some final words for you. [01:39:20] Well, I thought my favorite quote of the night was there's no sense in hiring an [01:39:24] asshole. That's great, Nick. That was great. That's good advice. I agree. [01:39:28] And Nick, just so that you know, when we, when you see the microphone sort of flashing on and off, [01:39:34] that's us doing our virtual applause for you. Aha. I got it. [01:39:42] Go ahead, Hussein. Thanks for carving out the time, Nick. Appreciate you carving out the time. [01:39:46] Yeah, you got it. Nice, uh, nice talking to all of you. [01:39:49] Thanks Nick for coming on. Great conversation. Thanks again. [01:39:59] So I can't wait to see what you take, where you take Arctic Wolf and whatever's next for you. [01:40:04] Keep on doing it. And I appreciate you, your mentorship and your leadership within this space. [01:40:10] Thank you for coming. [01:40:14] Thank you all. [01:40:14] Yeah, no, thanks. Thanks again. Thanks for, for taking the time out of your [01:40:19] busy schedule. Uh, I do know, I do know that you are very busy, so I'll leave you with the final [01:40:24] words and then we'll conclude. [01:40:29] Great. Well, yeah, nice to meet you all. Thanks for the conversation. Uh, feel free to reach out if, [01:40:34] uh, if there's anything else that you'd like to discuss, I'm around and I mean it. Um, and I'll [01:40:41] hope to talk to, uh, hope to talk to you guys soon. Have a great night. [01:40:46] Sounds good. Thanks everybody for joining. Uh, we'll see you all next week. Have a good evening [01:40:50] and good rest of your week. Uh, cheers. Bye everybody. [01:40:54] Cheers. Good night. Bye.