Decoding Digital
Feb 23, 2021
Decoding Viral Enterprise Growth: Aaron Levie on Building a Brand
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The Founder and CEO of Box explains what it takes to grow a $3B SaaS business and his vision for the new era of work.
More episodes from Decoding Digital
2 hours ago
Decoding Business Development: Kurt Davis on Closing the Big Deals
Kurt is a technology entrepreneur, world explorer, and expert in business development. The first 20 years of his career were spent between the San Francisco Bay Area and Asia working with technology startups in finance and business development roles. Today, Kurt is the CEO of the startup, Stealth Smiles.
During this episode he talks about how to methodically pursue and land big deals. He breaks the process down into three parts: Chart Your Course, Galvanize Your Crew and Maneuver Strategically, and Land the Deal and Expand. Master these and you’ll be on your way to landing the lighthouses and building an enduring business.
How to methodically approach each business deal
"When you're a hot funded startup with a bunch of money and investors behind you...there's a tendency to think, we can do it all at any given time. And that's just not possible."
Getting the most value out of your business deals
"So many companies play a superficial service level type of business. But why not go get 50% of this market? When I look at doing these deals, I say, I am gonna go after this and do this until I hit what I think is 50 or 60% of the value of what I'm doing here. And then I'm going to ignite something else."
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May 4, 2023
Decoding Digital Security: Tim Prendergast on Cloud Security and Infrastructure Access
“No one ever gained a lot by risking next to nothing.”
This is why Tim Prendergast is so successful in everything he does, from being a CEO to being a dad to his three daughters. Today, as the CEO of StrongDM, he and his team work to solve the problem of getting people access to infrastructure in a safe and sane way.
Before working at StrongDM, Tim was the principal architect for Adobe's Cloud Team and became a seed investor in technologies he truly believes in. Tim is an expert in all things cloud security, cloud infrastructure, and building and scaling SaaS businesses.
In today's episode, Tim talks about how all great innovation starts with pushing the envelope of what's possible. He also talks about what he learned as a 'Chief Couch Officer' (COO), where he took a step back from a fast-paced career to play video games and, most importantly, teach his kids essential concepts, from entrepreneurship to security to computers.
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Why Tim joined StrongDM
"A lot of people ask me like, what got you off the couch? The answer is amazing people and amazing technology. And I think that's a true statement for probably most founders who are passionate about tech."
The power of teamwork in a tech startup
"We're gonna unlock the power of what teamwork can actually do when we don't put the entire burden on either a sales team or an engineering team, but we actually have an entire company moving in a direction using their kind of digital infrastructure to power their business."
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Apr 20, 2023
Decoding Cybersecurity: Jay Kaplan on How to Protect Your Business from Cyberattacks
First and foremost, Jay Kaplan is a technical security expert. He has served in many high-profile cybersecurity roles—including at the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency. Jay was also selected as Forbes 30 Under 30 in Enterprise Technology.
After seeing a gap in the cybersecurity space, Jay started his own cybersecurity company in 2013, ultimately co-founding Synack. Synack is an organization that strives to unite technology and human intelligence to revolutionize the cybersecurity world. With this approach, Synack has developed a premier security testing platform that protects federal agencies, DoD classified assets, and a growing list of Global 2000 customers.
In today’s episode, Jay talks about the rise of ransomware and how to protect yourself and your company against it. He also discusses the evolution of cybersecurity over the last decade and how consumers can secure their accounts.
Press play to hear Jay’s thoughts on…
How people started working in the cybersecurity
"People that transitioned into the cybersecurity field generally were doing something else. They were handling infrastructure, they were system administrators, they were software developers, etc., and they just became fascinated in this subject."
The complicated nature of cybersecurity
"I think there really is no manual to have a comprehensive security strategy. It's not like you go read the Security for Dummies book and go through the pages and you're good. So it makes things very complicated.”
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