Best of Panic: Michelle Zatlyn of Cloudflare on Building a Better Internet (EP.217)

Long time listeners know I've taken a few weeks off the podcast circuit to go climb some mountains on my bike. In the meantime, I'm doing reruns of some of my favorite Panic with Friends episodes. This one with Michelle Zatlyn aired back in November of ‘21. If you missed it when it came out, now is a good time to catch up. And don't worry, I'll be back in the podcast booth soon.

I’m excited to have my friend and fellow Canadian, Michelle Zatlyn, on the show. We’re going to talk about the internet today. Podcasts wouldn’t exist without it, and you’d be unable to appreciate the banter between Knut and I. But this just feels like the right time in the right moment to talk about the internet. Michelle is just the right person to talk about it with. She’s the co-founder, President, and COO of Cloudflare – the company that helps the internet work. We discuss security, how things really work on the internet, where Cloudflare is headed, and how the hell you grow even faster during COVID. 

Guest - Michelle Zatlyn, Co-Founder, President and COO at Cloudflare 

howardlindzon.com, cloudflare.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @zatlyn, @Cloudflare, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/michellezatlyn 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Show Notes:

• Introduction (00:57)
• Welcome Michelle (05:36)
• Moving to US & Harvard Business School (06:51)
• Building Cloudflare (08:47)
• Cloudflare’s mission (10:18)
• Building a better Internet (10:49)
• Layering Cyber Security (11:24)
• A quick internet history lesson (13:06)
• Safe, reliable Internet (15:53)
• Harvard Professor Clay Christensen (15:59)
• Democratizing the Internet (16:47)
• A directional bet on the Internet (18:44)
• Crypto v. Cryptography (19:27)
• A public company with real revenue (21:11)
• Number of daily cyber attacks (21:55)
• Table stakes for merchants (25:25)
• The rise of the ‘Cloud’ (26:42)
• The perfect time to start Cloudflare (28:04)
• Protecting the Internet-of-Things (29:32)
• A network of networks (31:46)
• The rise of social and mobile (32:17)
• Following Web3 (32:42)
• Cyber attacks and cryptocurrency (34:03)
• Making your data your data (35:05)
• Cloudflare leadership team (36:40)
• Evolving business structure (38:56)
• Improving digital literacy (40:10)
• Building better products and delivering value (40:42)
• Michelle’s personal investing philosophy (43:15)
• Business continuity through the pandemic (46:08)
• Going big on digital literacy (53:11)
• Wrapping up (57:45)
• Closing thoughts (58:32)