Gili Raanan

And they started a company, which wasn't called Wiz, it was called Beyond Networks. And they had a very, very different idea. They thought to go and secure satellite offices with secure one access, et cetera, you know, some sort of... a business that never took off.

And they started a company, which wasn't called Wiz, it was called Beyond Networks. And they had a very, very different idea. They thought to go and secure satellite offices with secure one access, et cetera, you know, some sort of... a business that never took off.

And at Beyond Networks, we looked at the customer feedback and it was an important problem for customers, but it didn't have a very important ingredient, which is it was important, it wasn't urgent.

And at Beyond Networks, we looked at the customer feedback and it was an important problem for customers, but it didn't have a very important ingredient, which is it was important, it wasn't urgent.

And at the early stage, as much as you like to go after large market size and important pain point, the most important thing in my mind is to go after an urgent pain point that generates sense of urgency. And the sense of urgency is almost everything you need as a small venture, because that means that things would happen fast for you. You get to more customer engagements. You learn faster.

And at the early stage, as much as you like to go after large market size and important pain point, the most important thing in my mind is to go after an urgent pain point that generates sense of urgency. And the sense of urgency is almost everything you need as a small venture, because that means that things would happen fast for you. You get to more customer engagements. You learn faster.

You improve faster. You'll be able to build your revenue faster. And we didn't have that with the secure one access idea. And the Wizz team was smart enough to really pivot into a space they knew very well, which is cloud security. And we named the company Wizz.

You improve faster. You'll be able to build your revenue faster. And we didn't have that with the secure one access idea. And the Wizz team was smart enough to really pivot into a space they knew very well, which is cloud security. And we named the company Wizz.

And we ran our Sunrise program, which is all focused on getting feedback, making sure we understand the pain point, building the right solution that mere mortals can use. And three months later, they had a product, which would generate a sense of urgency. They spoke with customers, and those potential customers, prospects, wanted to bring them in.

And we ran our Sunrise program, which is all focused on getting feedback, making sure we understand the pain point, building the right solution that mere mortals can use. And three months later, they had a product, which would generate a sense of urgency. They spoke with customers, and those potential customers, prospects, wanted to bring them in.

And then I learned a very important lesson about the four customer profiles. When you sell a product, you're going to face four personas. The person that has the pain point, that has the problem. The person who has the budget to pay for a solution to solve that. The person that has the authority to decide on the product or solution.

And then I learned a very important lesson about the four customer profiles. When you sell a product, you're going to face four personas. The person that has the pain point, that has the problem. The person who has the budget to pay for a solution to solve that. The person that has the authority to decide on the product or solution.

And the fourth person is the person that would actually use the product. Now, as a startup, if those four personas map into a single person in real life, that's a mega hit. And that was the case of Wiz.

And the fourth person is the person that would actually use the product. Now, as a startup, if those four personas map into a single person in real life, that's a mega hit. And that was the case of Wiz.

If those four personas are mapped into four real people, there's one real person that has the problem, one real person that has the budget, one real person that has the authority, and a fourth person that actually used the product, don't do that. go and pivot. And if you map into two people, that would be a very nice company. If you're mapped to three people, that's a borderline.

If those four personas are mapped into four real people, there's one real person that has the problem, one real person that has the budget, one real person that has the authority, and a fourth person that actually used the product, don't do that. go and pivot. And if you map into two people, that would be a very nice company. If you're mapped to three people, that's a borderline.

You may or may not like to pursue that. So for Wiz, it was a single person. It was the CISO. The CISO has the problem that the CISO, the chief information security officer, had the authority to decide on a cloud security solution. They obviously had the budget. And most importantly, they had the AWS credentials. that enabled them to really deploy the product.

You may or may not like to pursue that. So for Wiz, it was a single person. It was the CISO. The CISO has the problem that the CISO, the chief information security officer, had the authority to decide on a cloud security solution. They obviously had the budget. And most importantly, they had the AWS credentials. that enabled them to really deploy the product.

So Wiz was able to do something very unique just because all those four personas mapped into one real life person and Wiz built a really cool technology. They managed to build a product that during the first call with a prospect, they could ask for the AWS credentials and within the call show them real value for their own organization, not in a demo environment.

So Wiz was able to do something very unique just because all those four personas mapped into one real life person and Wiz built a really cool technology. They managed to build a product that during the first call with a prospect, they could ask for the AWS credentials and within the call show them real value for their own organization, not in a demo environment.