Before Zscaler’s Dali Rajic arrived at his current company, he helped grow AppDynamics from $7 million in annual recurring revenue to nearly $1 billion — and for his next move, he knew he had to do something even bigger. That’s why he was excited to transition to Zscaler’s COO in February after more than two years as its CRO: “It was a job worth taking because it stretched me and it made me uncomfortable.”
In this episode, Dali and Joubin discuss the state of tech M&A, the meaning of wealth and comfort, the value of hard work, being perceived as intense, going into business instead of science, inspiring your kids, bucketing how your spend your time, integrity and self-awareness, how to recognize your teammates’ contributions, injecting tension, cutting through the noise, demanding excellence of yourself, celebrating the moment, and allowing yourself to unwind.
In this episode, we cover:
- Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of Figma, compared to Cisco’s 2017 acquisition of AppDynamics (01:18)
- What AppDynamics could have become if it hadn’t sold (08:17)
- Remembering your roots when you get a life-changing amount of money (12:26)
- Growing up in Germany, and why Dali came to the US when he was 16 (18:56)
- Living to work and finding fulfillment (23:16)
- The old-school sales style vs. the new generation’s (26:10)
- The unusual way Dali got hired at AppDynamics, and how he thinks about the arc of his career (30:15)
- Asking for the things you want and prioritizing your responsibilities (35:59)
- Hiring mistakes and what traits Dali looks for in candidates (45:36)
- How to turn big wins into learning moments (50:28)
- The benefits of making people “uncomfortable” in their jobs (55:23)
- Maximizing yield for individuals vs. organizations (01:01:39)
- Why Dali schedules his time off as strictly as his time on (01:08:35)
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