Okta's CEO is betting big on AI agent identity
My guest today is Okta CEO Todd McKinnon. Okta is a platform that big companies use to manage security and identity across all the many apps and platforms their employees use. Most of us run into it as login management at work.
SaaS companies like Okta are under a lot of pressure in the age of AI, which Todd even said on an earnings call he's "paranoid" about. But you'll also hear Todd say that for Okta specifically, there's also a world of opportunity as the very concept of a digital "identity" has to expand into things that aren't really people.
Links:
CEO ‘paranoid’ as vibe coders stir SaaSpocalypse fears | The Register
$300B evaporated. The SaaSpocalypse has begun | Forbes
How AI assistants are moving the security goalposts | Krebs on Security
What everyone’s missing about AI and development | CRN
Agents run amok: Identity lessons from Moltbook’s experiment | Okta
Breakup of IBM is Antitrust goal (1972) | New York Times
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Risky Business #795 -- How The Com is hacking Salesforce tenants
On this week’s show Patrick Gray and Adam Boileau discuss the week’s cybersecurity news:
New York Times gets a little stolen Russian FSB data as a treat
iVerify spots possible evidence of iOS exploitation against the Harris-Walz campaign
Researcher figures out a trick to get Google account holders’ full names and phone numbers
Major US food distributor gets ransomwared
The Com’s social engineering of Salesforce app authorisations is a harbinger of our future problems
Australian Navy forgets New Zealand has computers, zaps Kiwis with their giant radar.
This week’s episode is sponsored by identity provider Okta. Long-time friend of the show Alex Tilley is Okta’s Global Threat Research Coordinator, and he joins to discuss how organisations can use both human and technical signals to spot North Koreans in their midst.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
Show notes
How The Times Obtained Secret Russian Intelligence Documents - The New York Times
Ukraine's military intelligence claims cyberattack on Russian strategic bomber maker | The Record from Recorded Future News
Harris-Walz campaign may have been targeted by iPhone hackers, cybersecurity firm says
iVerify Uncovers Evidence of Zero-Click Mobile Exploitation in the U.S.
Spyware maker cuts ties with Italy after government refused audit into hack of journalist’s phone | The Record from Recorded Future News
Italian lawmakers say Italy used spyware to target phones of immigration activists, but not against journalist | TechCrunch
Android chipmaker Qualcomm fixes three zero-days exploited by hackers | TechCrunch
Cellebrite to acquire mobile testing firm Corellium in $200 million deal | CyberScoop
Apple Gave Governments Data on Thousands of Push Notifications
A Researcher Figured Out How to Reveal Any Phone Number Linked to a Google Account
Bruteforcing the phone number of any Google user
Acreed infostealer poised to replace Lumma after global crackdown | The Record from Recorded Future News
BidenCash darknet forum taken down by US, Dutch law enforcement | The Record from Recorded Future News
NHS calls for 1 million blood donors as UK stocks remain low following cyberattack | The Record from Recorded Future News
Major food wholesaler says cyberattack impacting distribution systems | The Record from Recorded Future News
Kettering Health confirms attack by Interlock ransomware group as health record system is restored | The Record from Recorded Future News
Hackers abuse malicious version of Salesforce tool for data theft, extortion | Cybersecurity Dive
shubs on X: "IP whitelisting is fundamentally broken. At @assetnote, we've successfully bypassed network controls by routing traffic through a specific location (cloud provider, geo-location). Today, we're releasing Newtowner, to help test for this issue: https://t.co/X3dkMz9gwK" / X
Ross Ulbricht Got a $31 Million Donation From a Dark Web Dealer, Crypto Tracers Suspect | WIRED
Australian navy ship causes radio and internet outages to parts of New Zealand
EP 122: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on Scaling to $13B, High-Stakes Decisions, and Market Dynamics
What does it take to scale a company from an idea to a $13B industry leader? In my latest episode, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon dives into the essential lessons he’s learned on high-stakes decision-making, managing up to the board, and competing against tech giants like Microsoft.
Todd also reflects on his journey to founding Okta, his bold choice to team up with a co-founder he hardly knew, and the motivations that have fueled him for over seven years as a public company CEO. Some key takeaways…
[0:00] Intro
[0:33] Todd McKinnon's Early Career and Founding Okta
[1:38] Challenges and Psychological Shifts in Leadership
[2:49] Decision Making and Company Culture
[6:10] Milestones and Early Successes
[18:03] The Importance of Market Timing
[30:34] Hiring and Building a Strong Team
[39:22] Setting Expectations with Board Members
[40:50] The Shift in Board Dynamics
[41:41] Maintaining Context and Strategic Input
[43:15] Navigating Public Company Governance
[45:21] Trusting Instincts and Founder Mode
[47:11] Breaking Out of the Echo Chamber
[51:00] The Importance of Prioritization
[53:05] The Loneliness of Innovation
[1:05:33] The Role of a CEO in Decision Making
[1:18:17] The Journey to IPO and Beyond
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
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📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
Mastering Tech Transitions with Ceora Ford
Join us for a fascinating talk with Ceora Ford, a Developer Advocate at Okta, as she explores the changing world of tech. Ceora shares her unique journey through different tech roles and talks about the importance of keeping technical skills sharp, even when focusing on advocacy. She also gives us a sneak peek into the exciting AI developments happening at Okta. Tune in to this episode to get a better understanding of the fast-paced tech industry and what's coming next.
About Ceora
Ceora Ford is a Developer Advocate from Philadelphia, renowned for her expertise in making complex computer science concepts accessible to a broad audience. With a rich history of creating educational content, she has significantly contributed to the tech community, working with leading companies like CodeSandbox, DigitalOcean, egghead.io, and Apollo GraphQL. Ceora's career is marked by her unique ability to simplify technical topics, making them understandable for everyone, from students to professionals in tech-adjacent roles. Her non-traditional path into tech and her current role at Okta showcase her commitment to making the tech industry more inclusive and approachable for all.
Links Referenced:
Okta: https://www.okta.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceeoreo_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceeoreo/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ceeoreo
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ceeoreo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceora-ford/
Personal website: https://ceora.dev
SaaStr 715: The 7 Biggest Mistakes CMOs Make (And How to Avoid Them) with the CMOs of Databricks, Zoom, and Okta
SaaStr 715: The 7 Biggest Mistakes CMOs Make (And How to Avoid Them) with the CMOs of Databricks, Zoom, and Okta
In this CMO panel, Rick Schultz, CMO at Databricks, Janine Pelosi, Former CMO at Zoom, and Ryan Carlson, Former CMO at Okta, joined Carilu Dietrich, Advisor at Hypergrowth B2B Startups to talk about the seven biggest mistakes CMOs make. These CMOs have all taken their companies from the early stages through IPOs and have been apart of multi-billion dollar organizations. Here are the 7 big mistakes they made, so you can avoid them.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Join us in 2024 at:
SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20
SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave200
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This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent
When starting your business, it's important to use a service that will actually help you. Northwest Registered Agent is that service. They'll form your company fast, give you the documents you need to open a business bank account, and even provide you with mail scanning and a business address to keep your personal privacy intact. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.
Biometrics? Bring it on: Why Okta’s Jameeka Green Aaron wants passwords to go away
Okta is a big company, a Wall Street SaaS darling. For most of us, it's the thing we have to log into 50 times a week just to get any work done. But from Okta's point of view, Jameeka Green Aaron told us, it's an identity company.
I spoke with Jameeka about what "identity" really means — in the digital space, in your real life, and at work — in 2023, and how an identity-based approach might be more or less secure than other approaches. I’m also gearing up to host Code in September (apply to attend here), and I’m thinking a lot about AI — very much a challenge for the future of security, even in a biometric-based era.
Links:
Apple IDs now support passkeys — if you’re on the iOS 17 or macOS Sonoma betas
How to use a passkey to sign in to your Google account
Windows 11 tests letting you sign in to websites with a fingerprint or face
Apple, Google, and Microsoft will soon implement passwordless sign-in on all major platforms
Microsoft called out for ‘blatantly negligent’ cybersecurity practices
Okta Faces Long Road Back
At Okta, CTO and CISO collaborate by design
Apply to attend the Code Conference
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO
In the early days of Okta, co-founder Frederic Kerrest was courting a 3,000-person company in Louisiana, which was considering Okta and one other vendor. When he learned who he was up against, he said, “We love competing with them ‘cause we beat them every time.” That arrogant boast lost him the deal, and taught him a humbling lesson: Your confidence is not superior to your customer’s needs.
In this episode, Frederic and Joubin discuss literally walking down memory lane in San Francisco, who his new book “Zero to IPO” is for, the value of time, the happiest nations on Earth, why Frederic prioritizes writing personal thank-you notes, why it’s better to be lucky than good, pivoting to an upmarket strategy, the letdown of being at the top, the problem with “product-led growth” in enterprise, “sharpening the contradictions,” and staying present.
In this episode, we cover:
Why Frederic wrote “Zero to IPO,” and why he leads it with a story about failure (08:23)
Entrepreneurship is a pie-eating contest (13:07)
Frederic’s direct communication style and the dichotomy between time and money (15:19)
His passion for hockey, and why he used to park his car around the corner (24:35)
Getting thrown out of two Okta board meetings in a row (29:03)
Surviving awful quarters and service outages (36:10)
How Frederic’s arrogance lost him a huge early deal (42:20)
Would he build a company from scratch all over again? (45:39)
Why Frederic doesn’t take phone calls on the weekends and the “oxygen mask rule” (54:06)
“Nothing happens until somebody sells something” (57:20)
Is Frederic personally affected by Okta’s stock price? (01:02:09)
The key players who receive a “ball bearing award” at Okta (01:07:22)
How taking on additional projects and working with a professional coach has extended Frederic’s time at Okta (01:11:48)
Links:
Connect with FredericTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
S19:E5 - What are some common mistakes people make when learning to code (Ceora Ford)
In this episode, we talk about some very common relatable mistakes when you learn to code with Ceora Ford, developer advocate at Apollo GraphQL. Ceora talks about 5 major mistakes she learned in her first year learning to code, how to avoid them, and some new mistakes she’s encountered in her second year of coding.
Show Links
Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor)
5 Mistakes I Made My First Year Learning to Code
GraphQL
Kode With Klossy
HTML
CSS
Ruby
JavaScript
Udacity
Python
React
Codecademy
DEV
Discord
Ceora Ford
Ceora Ford is a developer advocate based in Philadelphia. Her career thus far has centered around creating educational content focused on making the tech industry more accessible to everyone. She specializes in making abstract computer science topics understandable for everyone, students, new developers, or people on engineering adjacent teams. She's worked with companies like CodeSandbox, DigitalOcean, egghead.io, and Apollo GraphQL, helping them craft great content and make their platforms and products better for all users.
CRO Okta, Steve Rowland: Identifying and Developing Future Business Leaders
When Steve Rowland studied at Texas A&M University to get his degree in engineering, he likely wouldn’t have expected that his career would shift into one of an extremely successful sales leader.
Over his 20+ year business career, Steve’s built successful teams at technology companies such as BMC Software, Appigee, and DataStax. Now, Steve serves as Chief Revenue Officer of Okta, a company selling identity security software.
On this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Steve talk about what Steve looks for in a company before deciding to join, the ins and outs of an acquisition integration, and the importance of leadership development.
In this episode, we cover:
How Steve's upbringing informed his work ethic. (1:46)
'The beginning of many career pivots': Steve's first job at BMC as an inside sales rep. (5:43)
Size, product, and leadership: What Steve evaluates in a company before deciding whether to join. (7:51)
Curiosity, relevance and new experiences: Why (and how) Steve continues to reinvent himself and his career — and his process for analyzing risk. (12:11)
Steve's current company, Okta, and its successful identity security software. (21:46)
How company culture can make or break an acquisition integration — and how change can lead to positive growth. (25:26)
Examples of the 'core DNA' Steve looks for in future leaders — and how he uncovers these unteachable qualities during job interviews. (32:26)
Working with potential leaders on their professional development. (40:36)
What the word grit means to Steve. (46:01)
Guest: Steve Rowland, Chief Revenue Officer at Okta
Links:
Connect with SteveWebsite: https://www.okta.com
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
SaaStr 465: The CIOs of SurveyMonkey and Okta Share Their Strategies for Embracing the Data Tsunami
The value of investing in technology has only been heightened throughout the past year. In this podcast, Okta CIO Alvina Antar and SurveyMonkey CIO Eric Johnson share how to best move your company forward and create new opportunities across the enterprise.
20VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Todd McKinnon is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Okta, the identity layer for the internet, providing one trusted platform to secure every identity, from customers to your workforce. Prior to their IPO in 2017, Todd raised over $229M for the company from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, a16z, Greylock, Khosla and Floodgate to name a few. Prior to founding Okta, Todd was VP of Development @ Salesforce.com where he spent an incredible 5 years and before that enjoyed an 8 year run in the software development team @ PeopleSoft.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Todd made his way into the world of startups with PeopleSoft and Salesforce? What was the a-ha moment for Todd with the founding of Okta? What were the biggest management takeaways from his time with PeopleSoft and Okta? How did Todd convince his wife that leaving a safe job with Salesforce to found a company was the right decision?
2.) How does Todd approach decision-making today? What frameworks does he use to optimise his decisions? How does Todd analyse reversible vs irreversible decisions? How does Todd know when he has done enough work and is ready to make the decision? Who does he debate the most important decisions with?
3.) What does Todd believe makes for a truly great enterprise software entrepreneur today? What were the first elements to break in the scaling of Okta? When is the right time to hire your first recruiters and Head of People? What should you look for in those people? How did Todd make mistakes when it comes to hiring recruiters?
4.) What are Todd's biggest lessons on successful board management? How would Todd describe his style of board management? How has it changed over the years? What can CEOs do to extract the most value from their board? What were the biggest mistakes Todd made in the early interactions with his board?
5.) How does Todd balance the growth expectations of Wall St on a quarter by quarter basis with the long term vision and strategy? Why does Todd believe that Okta has been able to make the transition from unsexy to one of Wall St's most loved companies? What is the secret to investor relations as a public company?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode
Todd's Favourite Book: Slaughterhouse 5
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
SaaStr 410: 10x Your Organization's Performance with Todd McKinnon, CEO and Co-Founder @ Okta and Jason Lemkin, CEO @ SaaStr
In today's SaaStr insider episode SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin catches up with Todd McKinnon, CEO and co-founder of Okta. Together they discuss what it takes to build, maintain and grow a high-performance organization.
Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/10-learnings-from-talking-with-todd-mckinnon-ceo-of-okta/
Todd McKinnon - Creating and Defining a New Market Category - [Founder’s Field Guide, EP.7]
My guest today is Todd McKinnon, co-founder and CEO of Okta, the leading provider of identity management for enterprises. Todd started Okta in 2009 after realizing that enterprises would need a robust solution for identity management in a world where everything was quickly moving to the cloud and today counts over 7,000 enterprises as customers. Our conversation focuses on how Todd decided to leave Salesforce to start Okta, the painful early years of growing the business, how companies can create and define a new market, the different roles he's had to play as the company grew and went public, and the frameworks he's put in place to continue to innovate and test new things as public business. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
(2:19) – (First question) – Best slide in his presentation for starting Okta
(5:21) – The early days of Okta and what they were trying to do
(8:36) – Challenge of building the company from an engineering perspective
(10:32) – First version of the Okta product
(11:03) – An overview on identify management
(13:55) – The major innovation in the early days of the product
(16:11) – The early struggles of starting a company
(18:49) – Becoming a default mode solution
(20:39) – Most interesting ways the company has grown its services
(22:10) – Future of platform businesses
(24:24) – Expanding into an infrastructure business
(25:59) – Important shifts that they are paying attention
(28:21) – Future of our digital identity and Okta’s potential role
(32:20) – The chapters of Okta’s story so far
(35:03) – Challenges they had to overcome in growing the company
(37:31) – Recruiting the right talent and fostering it early on
(39:12) – Biggest mistakes he’s made with the business
(41:06) – Benefits of extreme focus vs having a broader view of the problems
(43:35) – Innovating within Okta
(46:02) – How software businesses define cost of revenue and cost of goods
(48:23) – Lessons they’ve learned about selling the services of a small company into the largest company
(49:54) – Lessons from working with bad clients/customers
(51:06) – Their inside view into the future of business today
(51:10) – Jeff Lawson podcast Episode
(52:36) – Best way to maintain the growth of Okta over the long term
(53:30) – Lessons he would give to business students today
(54:51) – Being scared as a founder
(55:27) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Learning Tech in Public with Ceora Ford
About Ceora Ford
Ceora Ford is a digital marketer turned software engineer based in Philadelphia. She is really into Python, AWS, education and diversifying tech. She's had the pleasure of teaching with Kode With Klossy, BSD Education, and more recently, egghead.io. When she is not coding, she's usually watching movies and pretending to be a film critic.
Links
egghead.io: https://egghead.io/
Eight Resources for Learning Python blog post: https://www.ceoraford.com/posts/8-resources-you-can-use-to-learn-python/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceeoreo_
Personal Blog: https://www.ceoraford.com/
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceora-ford/
Ceora’s Website: https://ceoraford.com/
SaaStr 388: Okta CMO, Ryan Carlson on How To Measure Marketing Attribution Effectively, Why People Think About Category Creation Incorrectly Today & How You Have To Think Through The Product vs The Company Story
Ryan Carlson is the CMO @ Okta, the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise. Prior to their incredibly successful IPO in April of 2017, they raised funding from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, a16z, Greylock, Khosla and Floodgate to name a few. As for Ryan, he has spent an incredible 9 years at Okta in numerous different roles starting with running the product marketing team before moving to run the marketing team, leading to his promotion to CMO close to 5 years ago now. Before Okta, Ryan was the Co-Founder and CEO @ Sproost, a bootstrapped online expert recommendation system.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Ryan made his way into the world of enterprise SaaS? Why was joining Okta the most challenging interview process he has experienced? How did it impact how he assesses candidates today?
How does Ryan distinguish between the company story vs the product story? When do they align and when do they separate? How should your strategy change as they move apart? How does the structure of your marketing team need to change with the evolution?
What should the first marketing hire look like? What experience should they have? Why does Ryan believe you should hire two in marketing to start? How do you want them to work together? How does Ryan ensure cross-function working seamlessly from the very beginning with marketing?
How does Ryan think about measuring success when it comes to product marketing? How does Ryan think about marketing attribution today? How should we think through SAL vs closed revenue as indicator of marketing success? Where does Ryan believe many go wrong with regards to marketing funnels?
Ryan's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What makes Frederic Kerrest the special leader he is?
What is the most challenging element of Ryan's role with Okta?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-388-with-okta-cmo-ryan-carlson/
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Ryan Carlson
20VC: Okta Founder Frederic Kerrest on Why You Want To Be A Monopolist In A Small Market, The Biggest Challenges in Scaling Okta To IPO and Being a16z's First Ever Fund Check
Frederic Kerrest is the Founder & COO @ Okta, the independent and neutral platform that securely connects the right people to the right technologies at the right time. To date Frederic has raised over $415m with Okta from some of the best in the business including Doug Leone @ Sequoia, Marc Andreessen @ a16z, a dear friend of the show in Mike Maples @ Floodgate, Aneel Bhusri @ Greylock and Vinod Khosla, just to name a few. Okta IPO'd in April 2017 at a stock price of $17, today they sit at $102. Before founding Okta, Frederic enjoyed roles with Hummer Winblad on the other side of the table as a VC and also at Salesforce and Sun Microsystems on the operations side.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Frederic came to found the now public Okta having spent time with Salesforce, Sun Microsystems and Hummer Winblad as a VC?
2.) What about an idea makes it worth pursuing and investing in? Does Frederic agree with the advice he was given, "it is 70% market, 20% people and 10% product"? When evaluating a market, what characteristics make for the most attractive markets? How does Frederic think about insertion points into markets? How does he evaluate market adjacencies? Why is it so good to be a monopolist in a small market?
3.) What were some of the hardest times Okta went through? How does Frederic determine the balance between vision and realism? How does Frederic as the leader personally deal with these challenging times? How can a founder determine from their hiring process whether they have product-market fit? What were the key turnings points that contributed to Okta's success? What did you have to get right to keep scaling?
4.) A little birdy told me there was an amazing story behind the a16z investment, what is that story? How did Frederic meet Marc and Ben and how did his relationship with them evolve over time? When analysing his investor base, where did each add real strategic value? What advice does Frederic give to founders today on the theme of investor selection? What should the core considerations be?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Frederic's Fave Book: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Frederic on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
a16z Podcast: The Rise of the CCO
There's a new C-level role in town: the CCO, or Chief Customer Officer. This episode (based on a previous event) is all about the rise of this new role, why it's so important -- and what the actual scope and function of the role should be.
a16z's Matt Levy, partner on the exec talent team, discusses with (CCOs all) Allison Pickens of Gainsight; Krista Anderson-Copperman from Okta; and Hatima Shafique from Databricks why it is that the Chief Customer Officer is becoming more prevalent across a number of different kinds of companies; what the strategic value of a CCO is (and how it's actually very different from a VP of Customer Success!); and finally, the career pathing of the Chief Customer Officer.
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
a16z Podcast: Securing Infrastructure and Enterprise Services
The modern enterprise holds all sorts of applications, devices, and workflow needs. How should we be thinking about securing infrastructure -- and identity -- in this context, for entities like major news media outlets or financial institutions such as News Corp or NASDAQ?
Well, this episode of the a16z Podcast brings those voices together: Frederic Kerrest, cofounder and COO of Okta; Brad Peterson, CIO of NASDAQ; and Dominic Shine, CIO of News Corp ... in conversation with Ben Horowitz at our recent a16z Summit.
What's the big security picture for these types of organizations, and others? How should we prepare? Last year's DINE DDoS attack was just one glimpse of what's to come, providing a bit of a barometer read for what's currently working, and what desperately needs re-engineering. One interesting solution involves decentralization; but as we move towards such technology (like blockchain) in security, what will high-frequency trading look like? How will consumer relationships, transactions, UI/design security be reimagined? What areas and fundamentals should we focus on?
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
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