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Crucible MomentsAuthor: Sequoia Capital
A podcast about the inflection points that shaped some of the most significant companies of our time. Crucible moments are pivotal decisions that determine your trajectory. In Season 2, hear from founders and leaders like Steve Chen of YouTube, Drew Houston of Dropbox, Frank Slootman of ServiceNow and Tony Xu of DoorDash, Steve Huffman of Reddit and more about how they navigated the challenges and opportunities that defined their stories. Hosted by Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital. The content of this podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to provide investment advisory services or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund. Language: en Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Palo Alto Networks ft Nir Zuk & Nikesh Arora - The Grudge That Transformed Cybersecurity
Episode 4
Thursday, 4 December, 2025
In the early 2000s, the cybersecurity industry was dominated by incumbents focused on high margins, not innovation. Nir Zuk tells the story of how, frustrated by this stagnant culture, he set out on his own with a radical idea: the Next-Generation Firewall. His vision was to unify dozens of security functions into a single, intelligent platform delivered via cloud—an approach everyone thought was crazy. Palo Alto Networks started as a disruptive startup with Nir sporting a "Check Point Killer" vanity license plate, and grew to dominate cybersecurity. We explore the crucible moments that defined its path: the controversial decision to insist on being a new kind of "firewall" vs. a “firewall helper,” the challenge of scaling a hyper-growth company, and the critical pivot from building everything in-house to current CEO Nikesh Arora’s aggressive acquisition strategy that remade the company for the cloud era. Nir, Nikesh, and the core leadership team offer a masterclass in product conviction, strategic transformation, and the courage to disrupt yourself before the market does it for you. Featuring: Nir Zuk, Nikesh Arora, Lee Klarich, Rajiv Batra, Mark McLaughlin, Jim Goetz, Asheem Chandra Hosted by: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
