thank you so much for being here gentlemen thanks for having us thank you so whiz has been a little bit of a rocket ship founded just four years ago whiz has raised nearly $2 billion doar investors include Andre and hor with light speed and of course Thrive Capital the Ascension has been pretty meteoric and now there's a little bit of an elephant in the room isn't there a 23 ton elephant a 23 ton elephant so I'm sitting on a plane yesterday minding my own business and the News comes through that with is reportedly set to be acquired possibly by alphabet for $23 billion hence the 23 ton elephant you know what's going on what can you tell us as St so as you can imagine I I can share very little if at all I'll share a bit from my experience in in a way I I in my career I got lucky you know my first startup was acquired I ran the cloud security business for a public company and now I'm lucky to run a private company I would say that all of these events I think that either IPO or acquisition or even staying private like great companies like data bricks or stripe eventually it's all about the mission it's every of these events that are very exciting to the media are a milestone in a long journey sometimes it's even the beginning of a journey and I think that's the mindset they always like Founders think about that it's all about the mission it's all about our talent and customers and what's the best way what's the best vehicle to provide it to to the market so that's kind of the mindset that that we always have being private being public and uh and a startup that's a delicate dance you just did there isn't it what about you philli how are you feeling about this I mean did you imagine that four years into the existence of this company we would even be having this type of conversation uh whiz is a company that think has defied every expectation uh and every turn of the journey so I try not to imagine and I like to let ass saw of the team lead uh I will say that you the great security companies get built at these moment of Paradigm Shift you had palala with the internet and crowd strike with you know mobile and distributed work and so whz is one of the rare companies where it's not just one Paradigm Shift they're on top of with the cloud it's actually two with AI and I think as a result they are the center of attention for a lot of people and as a result uh I think there's a lot of uh scrutiny that comes to them well and let's take a couple steps back now about how we got here what does whiz do and why does whiz do it okay so basically we're helping every organization on the planet in a way to to help them secure everything they run and build in their Cloud that's kind of the mission and I think that what excites me about this mission in a way that it's not a technology problem actually technology and I'm building technology to be to be to be very fair but that's that's not the main problem and I think that cloud introduced us many challenges in a way definitely in the security phase like the way revolutionized the way we're doing it for example from a central Iz it to decentralize giving the the keys to the kingdom in a way to every developer in the organization which which is great but poses some some risk I think the the complexity of the cloud being multicloud different Technologies all of that it's much much more complex than we're used to and the last thing is is definitely the speed and the agility and the dynamic environment very Emeral environment so basically the way we should do Cloud security going to be very different that the way we did Security in the past as a whole like and that's kind of what what excites us again wiiz is providing technology as part of the bigger problem but but this is a huge mission that we're excited to be part of and why do you think whiz has resonated because it's actually not easy to explain what whiz does because the cloud itself is already abstract right why do you think it's resonated why do you think it's captured people's imaginations what's behind that growth do you know what I mean yeah I I think it's it's couple of things so first of all wi founded as you mentioned March 2020 you know covid hit ER and Cloud security did you think you were done for in March 2020 look I I left Microsoft on March 2020 and it felt like the most horrible decision ever like you know I was in the mothership I I truly I loved Microsoft I I I had a great job super you know great impact on on on on on security and decided to live by the way with the founders that I have and then we're living perfect timing March 2020 and then nobody picks the phone nobody answers us and it truly it felt like in the first couple of of months it felt like the worst timing ever to start a company in hindin maybe Philip will will will agree with me that if you pinpoint a time in history probably March 2020 that's the time to start a cloud security but I would say that the advantage that we have as I said wh didn't start didn't start Cloud security with whiz actually a decade before was that I think that one of the advantages that we had is like learning from the mistakes of the others and that's kind of the ability to use the cloud native abilities actually to to to solve the cloud security problem which sounds like now very easy to understand but it wasn't the case when we started the company and philli you sort of talked about this a little bit about there being a platform shift what shift what was your thesis around whiz yeah uh look at I can tell you all the obvious reasons to invest in whiz right what are the obvious reasons please tell us fastest growing security company and Enterprise software company of all time uh the top two or three products that every Chief security officer will buy at this point and I I'll embarrass soft little but I was at dinner with uh one of the seite executives at one of his foremost competitors and they told me that aoft gives them nightmare so when you hear that you're pretty interested what do they mean by nightmare hold on I I think when you see a competitor like aoft you get out of the market usually so uh not not the type of person you want to be in a cage match with how do you feel about that I wish it was the case I have dozens if not more than 100 competitors so so I I I wish but uh but yeah I won't embarrass anyone but I think the real reason is the point of softb which is that to us the cloud is different in a really special way when it comes to security and normally in security the formula is you take a piece of the security stack you take Identity or email or network and you build a faster horse and if you're lucky you build a five or10 billion doll company pretty good outcome right but cloud is a sea change in how the entire technology stack is getting built and so really every Enterprise software workload process workflow is now built on the cloud and so for us the big deal was that that whiz is an opportunity not just to be a piece of the security stack but actually to reimagine the entire security stack in a cloud native way end to end and then you combine that with the fact that working with Asaf and you know and Amy and Ron is sort of a dream you know investors talk about second time Founders these guys are functionally third time Founders between AD Alam and then building the biggest security business in the world at Microsoft and now having even bigger Ambitions it it was sort of a no-brainer for us you know we've used that phrase a couple of times already the fastest growing startup in the world what does that actually mean this is for both of you what does it mean for you asof look I I would say is that a label given to you I would say it's it's it's it's it's great to be fast and and and and and great to see the numbers I think the the important eventually is to be the best we're not there yet and the best place for talent the best the best Prov you know the best product for the customer and this is Journey and what we need always we need to understand this is first of all a CH you know everchanging journey and Ever Ever Changing like a challenge but fast is great you know we love that but in a way to be very honest here you know it's it's also a bit about luck like being in the right timing you know when Co hit when when I'm talking about like why the timing was so great when Co hit like every business rushed to become a digital business and rushed into the cloud created a security that everybody needed a solution even if you think about it in the go-to market you talked about competition as a startup during Co and I'm going like two years years ago you know Palo Alto networks Microsoft or crowd strike they have the same real estate on the zoom they look the same as the tiny whis when we were very very tiny so even the advantages of the incumbent in a way during covid were kind of taken from them which allowed us so I would say yes there are many things that we're very proud of I think on on the fast there is a lot of a lack an environment and an ecosystem that actually helped us that is less less related to us and so the co rush to the cloud basically sends you into hypers speed were you ready for that no so in know way I would love to say hey that's how we planned like we started the company and we you didn't play that no we did like the most horrible deals like with with the with the cloud providers as you know hey we're starting a company you know you need to assess how you know how good you're going to do and that's kind of the you know the the deals that you're doing like the the the procurement that you're doing with the with the club we did horrible thisal like just because we never predicted I think now and again this is also a maturity of a company you need to be predictable it's fun not to be predictable and like hey everything happens and it's not good for a company you know you're putting lots of of stress about about the team if your sales Capac capacity is much lower than the demand in the market and what your ability to address that puts a lot a lot of pressure that most of the time is not a good pressure so yes it's great to be fast but I would be prefer prefer to be predictable and knowing where we're going and Philip how do you talk about the total addressable market for something like whiz how much growth is still on the table now and say in six months totally uh look I think when we invest we invest over a period of decades ideally because we believe like I myself in the long term of how these markets are going to play out I think to the point of thinking about platforms really what we think about is there are these moments in time where technology is not a smooth curve but it is nonlinear you get these step function changes and for us there was really a paradigm shift in technology like we talked about on the order of the internet or mobile that was happening with the cloud and re was the company to do that now what makes that special is that the cloud is great it's you know one of the biggest markets in the world every Enterprise is built on top of it even they aren't completely penetrated we think huge secular Tailwinds to that market but when we think about the other big technology Revolution happening right now which is AI which may even be bigger than the cloud the important thing to remember is that unlike the internet or mobile where it was both a technology shift and a platform shift you had to literally change the tech stack AI is a cloud technology it's a Revolution being delivered by API and therefore for us you have this wonderful stacking effect where we think cloud security alone is enough to build the biggest security business in the world but I think once you layer on the AI opportunity as well well I think there's an opportunity to build the biggest Enterprise software business in the world with whiz this is as good a time as any Thrive is also an investor in open AI are how does open AI connect to whiz how does Ai and Cloud security All Connect bring this all full circle for me here Philip well I think there's the literal answer which is that a lot of great AI providers are lucky enough to be secured by whiz um like who uh you know I can't name names but uh one can guess um but I think more importantly the real answer here is that we are facing an entirely new threat surface area that every ceso every CEO is asking themselves as I incorporate AI into my tech stack how am I going to create new vulnerabilities and the company at the Leading Edge of this that is literally going through all the most famous model companies and open source companies and pointing out vulnerabilities and making sure that we stay safe is whiz and so for us at the end of the day this is a Known Unknown that is the center of conversation and all the boards I'm a part of and Thrive sits on and to US Open AI is going to succeed as whiz succeeds and whiz is going to succeed as open AI succeeds for that reason do you think their Futures are tied together in some specific way it's the most important technology paradigm shift I think you think that who are the winners of AI becoming ubiquitous it is the companies that power the revolution with great models and it's the companies that enable Enterprise adoption of those models I had to I had to try I had to try um you know onto the subject of Acquisitions whiz has been incredibly acquisitive this year Assaf you've used the phrase the year of security consolidation what is going on in the cyber security m&a marketplace right now so so so not only we when we look about consolidation you know we we thought 2024 going to be that that's also the reason we we raised $1 billion May 12 billion doll valuation yeah a month and a half ago truly because we're looking about the opportunities that we're going to see I think I think when we're looking specifically in cyber security about why the market going to be more Consolidated maybe than than than other I think first and foremost I think consolidation in the security Market is truly a necessity it's not only about vendor consolidation hey I prefer working with only three vendors and that kind insecurity consolidating into one platform is actually providing better security for the organization I think cloud is an example it's not the only example but it's a great example about think about it that organization have like Hey how do I manage I have one tool to manage vulnerabilities in my cloud and then I have misconfiguration I'm running another tool and to understand Network exposure that goes other ways but actually when you're looking about risk it's all combined and and in a way if you don't have the right platform or the platform is not Consolidated it's truly a a you're getting less of a value so I think that's kind of one of the of the major things that we're seeing in the market we cannot ignore as well that if you ask any founder definitely in the cyber security space two years ago hey what's your dream going to IPO ring the bell I'm going to be you know I'm going to be unicorn and then I'm going to going going to become a public company I think that you know the the trends has changed in a way and the maturity in a way of of of companies and Founders like that the dream a bit has changed and and they're they're seeing other other options that also pushes the market into consolidation and the last thing is of course in investors that are also looking and and pushing that so I think these three kind of H streams in a way puts lots of pressure in the market for consolidation and would love to seize on that opportunity well and we're continue our delic delicate dance here um you've used the phrase a lot win or take all to describe the level of competition in cyber security um but you're also saying now you're like well there actually a lot of ways to win here what does it actually mean to be win or take all in this context at this I think it it's all in Tech like the The Winner Takes It All Is is way I think that in in cyber security there is another element that is that is important and and if you think about it cyber security is a lot about trust you know unlike you know if I my team has a preference if they prefer Office 365 or G Suite or they have like a very knowledgeable way to think about it and I I can have my opinion and and and and and and the organization can can choose I think if you're looking in in cyber security you're looking much more as a trust and this is where you're you're relying more more on on on the community and it's not only hey I'm just relying because others bought it and like a heard way in a way I I I think that what what's truly important is the more customers you have the more data the more signal the more attacks that you're seeing and you definitely can leverage it other so it's not like only a perception exactly it's kind of the network effect that is being created and the last thing that is also important and and that's kind of where whiz is is truly greatly positioned when The Winner Takes It All We have the ability to to work with andr and thrive in seoa and to raise billions of dollars and truly like there are very few companies that are able to invest $2 billion into the specific solution the specific problem that we're solving even the large one even the Microsoft of the world the Pao of the world they're unable to invest as much as whiz the tiny whiz can invest and I think that also takes that takes it to The Winner Takes it all so these are the Motions that we're seeing and kind of to this end too you know I was looking at the Fortune 500 and there actually aren't any PurePlay cyber security companies in the 500 we have one that makes it in at 513 so it's just over the other end they'll get there wait they'll get you you believe okay definitely I'm a big believer why look I'm I'm a big believer in the cyber security it's as as we said it's a top of mind for everyone and we're going through a revolution and platformization and it's too fragmented we're going to see the consolidation I think this is a big opportunity for the platform players whiz is one of them but we're definitely not the only one and and and some of the large one are are great players and they have great technology and they're playing and and they play there so I'm I'm a big believer and for you Philip to what extent do you think a cyber security company can really go at it alone how what are your expectations when you invest in a company like whiz yeah I I think there are two Dimensions to this answer right which is on with us off that when you think about what are the secularly more important areas well we know that the velocity of attacks on companies and even US Government institutions are rising so it should make sense that the importance of security Technologies are going up as well um I think some of the biggest security businesses are hiding in plain sight you know Microsoft reportedly is doing $20 billion doar of Revenue and security so slap any type of multiple you want on that that would make the Fortune 500 but to us there's actually a second element here which is that when you are a platform like whiz um you end up being the system of record for some really important data and for Whiz It's the fact that they're the source of Truth for all Cloud assets you know workloads code identities run times Etc which which is really valuable for security but it's also really valuable for other buyers in the Enterprise you know whiz was really Innovative in being able to bridge The Divide between traditional security practitioners and Executives and the people who are actually responsible for building things at companies the engineering teams and I think through time we'll likely see a blurring between security platforms that are you know security class security and also security platforms like whiz that are ultimately enabling faster innovation in engineering velocity in companies and so it wouldn't surprise me if in the same way Microsoft is a hybrid company working across Enterprises in many ways the same thing starts to be true of the security platforms you know I drafted this question I promise before Sunday um the goal in Venture of course is an exit and if you have a rockstar company the goal is a great exit what does a great exit look like for whiz and I actually would like to let you start philli because this is for both of you I think a soft covered this one already Al which is that I think at the end of the day whiz is a customer Centric company and to us we care a lot about the inputs to that unless about the outputs we believe that if you put in the right inputs which is invest a lot in R&D be unbelievably aggressive about being the best possible uh vendor for your customers and then sees the new technology paradigms when they come the rest will compound over time and maybe that's an exit that happened soon maybe that's an exit where we're partnered with whiz for 10 15 years your stof might get tired of me but uh I won't get tired of him um but to us that's the question and I think every time we've made an investment it's with the expectation that we're going to be long-term holders and if we're surprised to the upside in the interum no one's going to complain but that's how we think we should partner with companies what about usoft what does success look like in this context they're stuck with it with me I think there there's no exit and we talked about like the IPO or acquisition it's all milestone in a journey as long as there is one customer that kind of believe in your product and believe in what you're delivering I think that we're there to to to to deliver H but but I would say like if I'm if we're talking about the the opportunities and I think that that's kind of what has changed in the market the the opportunity to stay private company for much longer is here the opportunity it's not only that the the ability to raise hundreds of millions and billions of dollars and having great VCS like thrive in the market to support the stripe of the world and open AI of the world and and and whiz of the world in a way as private companies this is great but also the ability we can provide liquidity to early investors to some of the to to some of the employees so there is no rush to go to the public market and you can actually you know go public when it's when the markets are right and when it's right it's best and right for the company and that's a that's a big advantage that like a decade a decade ago we didn't have as startups all right one sentence gentlemen what do the future look like for whiz Phillip large I have no clue should have end on me I actually like where we landed thank you so much gentlemen thanks thank you