Sanjay Beri is the cofounder and CEO of Netskope, a company on the forefront of digital transformation, a new wave of remote work and cloud security.
His latest startup names over a quarter of the Fortune 100 as clients, and they have scaled to have a presence on every continent. Sanjay recently appeared as a guest on the Dealmakers Podcast. During our interview, he delivered his take on creating a vision for your business, curating company culture, how to hire well, the secrets to building a great board, raising capital, scaling a fast-growth startup, and many more topics. From A Bunker To The Bay
Originally from Toronto, Sanjay earned his computer engineering degree in a bunker-like building at the University of Waterloo. Waterloo gave him the option of going to work for four months during his studies. He jumped on that opportunity to get out there and explore the world.
He spent time in Seattle andMontreal, and then discovered the stark difference of Silicon Valley and the palm tree-lined streets of Stanford’s campus in California. He was sold. There he discovered the amazing amount of connectivity you could have with other entrepreneurs, company leaders, people involved with funds and great mentors. He found this environment and opportunities to learn far more valuable than any paper degree. Decrypting The Code To Startup Success Together with a professor at Stanford, Sanjay started his first security company, Ingrian Networks. It was the chance to do what he loved, build and innovate, and do it in an environment with some great people. Ingrian Networks was an encryption company selling to enterprises, which powered a lot of online retailers, protecting their data and data centers.
The company raised over $50 million from Menlo Ventures, Partech, Globespan Capital Partners, and Prims Venture Management, to name a few of its investors. The business was ultimately acquired by SafeNet. After the acquisition was complete, Sanjay held senior roles with Microsoft, McAfee and Juniper Networks. Taking The Leap Although, even at Juniper Networks, Sanjay business unit was very entrepreneurial, he was inspired to get out there and build something himself.
He was deeply intrigued by and felt passionate about cloud security. However, there was only one person he had to convince, and that was his wife. She was fully on board. He still didn't have any funding when he made the leap. He didn’t have cofounders or any team in place. But he knew what he wanted to do. He saw that opportunity and leapt. Next, he spent a month or more just refining and getting clarity on his idea. He found the cofounders, the product architects, and set up office under an umbrella at Starbucks in the Valley. Netskope began selling its cloud security subscriptions to mid-size to large enterprises and the rest is history. The Most Important Move In Raising Money So far, Netskope has raised $400 million from the likes of Lightspeed, Excel, Social Capital, and ICONIQ. From Sanjay’s perspective, proximity and being in the middle of the action can help when it comes to raising capital. If you're trying to raise capital from Silicon Valley, and you live in Denver, it's much harder. Sanjay warns that the worst time to try to raise capital is when you need it. You aren’t going to be in the best negotiating position. You definitely shouldn’t be starting the conversation then. You haven’t built trust and proof. It’s not going to work well for you in your ability to evaluate investors either. So, number one, if you think you're going to do something in 10 years, start building that network now. Picking your investors is also critical. Connecting early really gives you the advantage of getting to know them. Some entrepreneurs go where the valuations are greatest. Sanjay looked for the best fit in culture and who believes in the vision.
He was even very upfront that he has no interest in selling this business. He wants to take it all the way to a very big IPO. That obviously filtered out quite a few VCs who wouldn’t be a match. Sanjay recommends choosing people who you'd go to war with and who also believe in your company. That builds a great corporate foundation. Curating Your Board Picking your board is just as important as picking your founding team or investors. Netskope brought on an independent board member to round out the other members. They got very strategic with selecting board members for specific needs as they were growing. For example, they brought on an investor that helped the company enter Japan. Then one who would help with go-to-market in Latin America. Hiring Strategy Culture is hyper-important for this startup. Some startups will go out to hire those with a 10 out of 10 in domain and expertise, but a 7 out of 10 in culture.
At Netskope, they hire the opposite. If you want a job there, they are looking to hire the person who's a 10 on culture and maybe a 7 or 8 on domain. Because, as Sanjay says, “culture will get you through everything.” The Secrets Of Scale This founder credits his company’s great growth to his commitment to hiring people who are better than him and in every domain. Then empowering them. Sanjay recommends avoiding micromanaging people. Let them do what they know they can do. Let them be entrepreneurs.
From his perspective, great leaders take the approach of, "I'm here to help you. I am not here to tell you, 'Do this, and this, and this.’” Give them the freedom to unlock their capabilities. Your role as the leader is to support them. Listen to the full podcast episode to find out more, including:
The chief enemy of innovation · The key ingredients to keep growing at scale · The four cornerstones of a great startup · How to deal with the politics of sales · The #1 piece of advice to carry with you when starting your own company
