Zscaler CEO on Picking the Right Market, Risking Everything, & Scaling to $30B
EP 128 of The Logan Bartlett Show: Untold stories from tech's inner circle
Jay Chaudhry is the definition of a self-starter. Born in the Himalayas with no running water or electricity until high school, Jay has now scaled Zscaler to a $30B public company. He and his wife went all in many times over—betting their life savings and quitting their jobs to launch their first venture, Secure IT, which became a huge success. Jay then parlayed that into building three more self-funded, successful cybersecurity companies before founding Zscaler.
In this episode, we dive into his playbook for building disruptive companies, how he picks a market, and insights on using AI to combat modern breaches—plus his perspectives on life, family, and money.
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✉️ Episode Memo
Going all in on disruptive technology
Truly disruptive companies can’t rely on customer validation because customers are often anchored to existing solutions. Instead, success comes from identifying a niche where the big players aren’t yet focused, going all in, and creating something fundamentally different. Disruptive technology gives you a far better shot at long-term success than incremental improvements—if your tech is only 10-30% better, competitors will catch up. For Zscaler, Jay’s early conviction in cloud-native cybersecurity fueled their 1st-mover advantage.
The Power of Focus
Though Jay built and sold four cybersecurity companies—three at the same time—he realized the power of focus when starting Zscaler. He initially believed he could stagger multiple ventures, giving more attention to the newer ones while the others operated independently. However, he learned thatevery company requires huge commitment—there’s no such thing as hiring a CEO and setting it on autopilot. For Zscaler, he put all his chips into one basket, took no initial outside funding, hired a strong team of engineers, and gave it 200% focus.
Give decisions, not options
Forcing a decision, not a choice, can work wonders. Instead of letting customers compare multiple options, position yourself as the best choice with a single, superior offering. For example. while competitors offered multiple firewalls to purchase, Jay Chaudhry’s first company chose just one, branding themselves as the best in deploying it—earning exclusive referrals from Check Point. When Home Depot questioned his $2,000/day rate, citing IBM’s $1000 lower price, Jay reframed the decision: “If you want a heart specialist, you come to us. If you want a generalist, go to IBM.”
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