M&A Strategy and Acquiring Startups

Nikesh Arora became the CEO of Palo Alto Networks with no cybersecurity domain expertise and has grown the company from $18B to nearly $100B in under 6 years. In the episode, we discuss some of the greatest learnings from revolutionizing Palo Alto Networks into a powerhouse, his celebrated M&A strategy, and stories from his wide-ranging career path.

Prior to Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh was Chairman and COO of Softbank, working alongside Masa to make investments. Before that, he spent time scaling T-Mobile in Europe as CMO then spent a decade at Google as CBO. Hear how Nikesh has consistently succeeded in each new role and built a prolific career across industries.

(0:00) Intro

(1:13) The Benefits of Being a Generalist

(2:20) Acquiring Domain Expertise

(4:05) The Constant Learning Curve in Cybersecurity

(5:07) Understanding the Cybersecurity Industry

(9:19) Nikesh's 3 Rules For M&A

(20:04) The Role of Marketing and Storytelling in Tech

(24:57) Leadership and Management in Large Companies

(35:49) The Challenge of Scaling and Managing People

(36:43) Transitioning Roles and the Importance of Skill Sets

(38:01) The Art of Making Successful Career Choices

(38:36) The Journey from Analyst to Tech Entrepreneur

(43:44) The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Business

(50:43) The Importance of Product Obsession in Tech Leadership

(52:52) The Journey from India to the U.S. and the Pursuit of Education

(1:01:04) Venturing into the World of Investment and Venture Capital

(1:05:54) The Mission-Driven Aspect of Cybersecurity

(1:07:21) Romanticizing the Past: A Perspective on Life and Career

Produced: Rashad Assir & Leah Clapper

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

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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, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

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

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

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.

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