Lenny's Podcast · Nov 17Building Wiz: the fastest-growing startup in history | Raaz Herzberg (CMO and VP Product Strategy)
Reached $100M ARR 18 months after founding and passed $500M ARR in under five years, with roughly half the Fortune 100 as customers. It pivoted from network security after weeks of polite but empty customer calls, sold a couple million in ARR before its first sales hire, and won five times the RSA booth traffic with a Wizard of Oz booth and pink and blue brand.
Tips
- Treat polite interest as noise and look for pull▶ 12:53After the pivot to cloud security, calls changed from 'sounds interesting' to questions on pricing, POV timing and introductions to the right people.
- Run 10 to 15 customer calls a day to find what works▶ 12:32The high volume of calls exposed that the original network security idea drew only polite interest, which led to the pivot six weeks after Raaz joined.
- Ask 'what exactly are we building' until the answer is concrete▶ 10:26One question led to a five-hour founder discussion and the pivot to cloud security, which became the fastest-growing software company in history.
- Build a culture where saying 'I don't understand' is safe▶ 16:08Raaz was sure she was the only one confused, and it turned out nobody had a clear picture of what was being built.
- Test commitment with a long technical questionnaire before starting a POV▶ 19:57The Fortune 10 prospect completed the long questionnaire within a day.
- Have founders sell and close the first deals themselves▶ 23:00Founders sold a couple million in ARR before hiring their first seller.
- Use marketing's low cost of failure to try everything▶ 37:00Within two months of taking over marketing, the team saw changes in awareness.
- Turn your conference booth into the weirdest one on the floor▶ 38:37Booth traffic was five times the previous year, with the same space and the same investment.
- Pick a brand that stands out from your category's norm▶ 39:37The brand change and the booth together drew five times the booth traffic at RSA.
- Follow the heat to place your best people▶ 28:18Two and a half years in, Wiz won POVs against competitors, but customers said they wished they had heard of Wiz before signing with a rival.
- Write every message so someone outside your bubble understands it▶ 48:53
- Use the words buyers search for, not internal category names▶ 48:05
- Make product messages crystal clear before handing them to marketing▶ 45:59
- Resist redesigning your headline when only you are tired of it▶ 50:22
- Learn marketing by reverse engineering brands you admire▶ 59:08
- Attempt roles you expect to fail at and ignore imposter feelings▶ 55:16She moved from engineer to product to CMO without prior marketing experience, and Wiz hit $100 million ARR in 18 months.
- Build deep founder trust and product knowledge to succeed as CMO▶ 34:50
