Co-founder + CEO of
@okta
, proud husband + father, addicted to exercise.
Tweet identity musings and secrets to being a public company CEO.
Give me feedback!
Just got an amazing email. One of our angel investors (invested 50K in
@okta
2009), who has not sold a single share since, just donated every share they own to charity. That. makes. me. happy.
Before I was a CEO, I made decisions faster. But now, I have the final call so I find myself pondering things more 🤔
I’m often asked about my decision making process. Here’s a look at what goes into making the most important ones...
90% of my evaluation of any leader that works for me is the quality of people they can get to work for them. This could be wrong.... Maybe it should be 95%
This morning I made the top 25 leaders at
@okta
sit through an hour-long usability test of an areas of our products that have poor usability. Painful but the first step to fixing a problem is to recognize you have it.
In late January 2022, Okta detected an attempt to compromise the account of a third party customer support engineer working for one of our subprocessors. The matter was investigated and contained by the subprocessor. (1 of 2)
Companies like
@SnowflakeDB
@asana
@Airbnb
are making headlines as some of the most anticipated IPOs of 2020. It feels like yesterday we were preparing to take
@okta
public.
What it’s actually like to go through an IPO & be a public company ⬇️
.
@okta
sells to CIO/CTO. Many of our new customers are because a new CIO/CTO has used us in a previous company. Play the long game, make them successful, they'll move around and bring you along! I didn't foresee it being THIS powerful.
You should never be bored with your Board. A mistake CEOs can make is underutilizing their board of directors. Boards aren’t just for corporate governance; they can be a competitive differentiator.
Lessons learned over the years building a strategic Board of Directors ⬇️
Asked a founder CEO in a meeting today his long term goal with his company. He pulled down his collar and showed me his company logo tattooed on his chest. A picture worth 1000 words!
Now that
#Oktane20
is ready to go (Make sure to tune in tomorrow
@9
PDT ) I’ve had time to reflect. A thread on a virtual conference and lessons learned ...
It's a big day…
@okta
is officially a teenager! 13 years ago,
@fkerrest
& I set out to build an iconic identity company. Today, over 14,000 of the world’s most valued global brands trust Okta. THANK YOU to the Okta team for making the last 13 incredible...here's to many more!
A recent addition to the
@okta
exec team told me “we spend a tremendous amount of energy creating and formatting PowerPoint slides” and I don’t think it was a compliment 👀
Biggest difference between being junior and senior?
It’s “excuses”.
When something isn’t delivered…
Junior: SOMEBODY will care about excuses.
Senior: NOBODY cares about excuses.
How does this work? If I would have gone on
@SquawkCNBC
the day after
@okta
IPO and talked like this, I would have been in SERIOUS trouble with the SEC…. Quiet period, lock up, pumping the stock? Does that all go away with a
#SPAC
Be careful the architectural decisions you make startups. You’ll be living with them for 10 + years. But if you’re “living” in 10 years that’s a high class problem.
We believe the screenshots shared online are connected to this January event. Based on our investigation to date, there is no evidence of ongoing malicious activity beyond the activity detected in January. (2 of 2)
I’ve never known a team that works harder than
@okta
. It’s been a nonstop year+ with a lot of demands & change and people are feeling it. As CEO, it's on me to set the right example from the top. Here's how I'm trying to address the stress and burnout ⬇️
Longer I work in software the more I’m convinced winning is way more about time and focus vs $$ or number of people. Maybe call it “the Shawshank principle”
Just had my annual performance review.
@okta
board gathers feedback and chair of comp committee and lead independent director gives me the feedback. It was positive but man, still stressful! Feels great to get feedback and "pat on the back"!
Our biggest news yet:
@okta
is announcing an agreement to join forces with
@Auth0
, a leading identity platform for developers. Together, we will shape the future of identity. Here’s why I’m excited:
Updated information about the security incident we’ve been working. We’re continuing to investigate and will be sharing more information as we proceed.
Feedback is a
#1
priority for a CEO, especially when you’re in an enviable position like
@okta
. And this year, we got some tough feedback from the Magic Quadrant. We've been a leader in every identity MQ, but we have a lot to learn from this year’s.
When we look back in 10 years, joining forces with
@auth0
will be one of the most consequential moments in our history.
@eugenio_pace
and I are proud to share that we’ve closed the deal and we’re ready to bring together two exceptional companies. My take:
Happy 14th birthday,
@okta
! Highlights from our first year of teenagehood include getting back together in person at events like
#Oktane22
, delivering innovation like Okta Identity Governance, and continuing to make our 17,000+ global customers successful with identity.
Our stance is clear: while
@okta
has customers across the political spectrum, our platform will not be used for threats of terrorism and unlawful activity.
Today is
@Okta
’s 12th birthday!
@fkerrest
and I knew identity would be key in the cloud transition and in the 12 years since Okta has grown into a global, public company with 2,600+ employees supporting 9,400+ customers. Super proud of the Okta team.
Highlights over the years ⬇️
Psst...It’s our birthday! 🎉
iiiiiiiiii
| :H:a:p:p:y: |
|__________|
|^^^^^^^^^^^^|
| :B:i:r:t:h:d:a:y: |
| |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grab a piece + take a look back at a few of our favorite moments...
I’m no Dave Chappelle, but 3 people recently told me I’ve GREATLY improved at public speaking over the past several years. Why? It’s gotta be the 297 weekly
@okta
all hands meetings I’ve hosted since 2012. It’s simple, practice makes you better. Gotta go, 298 starts in 15 mins!
I do a weekly all hands meeting with the entire company
@okta
. It’s sometimes hard to get up for it. Especially when I’m stressed out or in bad mood. But kind of like a good workout, I ALWAYS feel GREAT once I do it!
First friends (2) over in 6 months. All masked up and sat outside. But now our neighbors are having a full on house party. A band , hugs, dancing, close talking all sans masks. Are we trying to save them or are they trying to f us?
Love asking
@okta
job candidates “why do you think Okta will be successful?” Best answer: “I tried the product and like how xyz works”. Worst answer: “Because the stock has gone up"
It feels like just yesterday I was pitching my wife the wild idea of quitting my job and starting an identity company. Fast forward to today and we’re celebrating
@okta
’s 15th birthday! It’s been quite a ride... from sharing our early ideas with customers and writing code in a
Founders dream of success. Dream of beating the odd. One thing nobody tells you is if you get big enough - successful enough - you’ll have enough employees that some will die. It’s numbers and it’s life but it’s pretty hard on me nonetheless. RIP. Thanks for all you did for
@okta
What, like it's hard?
But really, online voting needs a solution with identity technology at the center. We at
@okta
know a thing or two about that 💁♀️
Massive news, role, and market opportunity! I am thrilled to announce
@sstledger
, a leader I deeply respect all the way back to our
@Salesforce
days, is joining
@okta
as our new President of Worldwide Field Operations.
Been having a weekly 30 min
@zoom_us
with a randomly selected
@okta
employee. No structure, just chat. Always learn something interesting AND relevant. Thanks
@Donut
and
@SlackHQ
On this morning's all-hands meeting, I congratulated for the 5th time, an
@okta
employee who’s been on the team 10 years. We hired a lot in 2011 so there’s soon to be many more folks joining that club. It felt pretty good to do that.
I wanted everything to happen FAST. Finish school! get a (great)job! get promoted! get “successful”! Probably came from insecurity. My advice to 20 y/o is “Be Patient. Enjoy the ride. You got this"
Not throwing away my shot! Grateful for science and all the frontline workers for making immunizations happen. (I was eligible due to my T1 diabetes.) Feeling hopeful for the year ahead.
Having "hard conversations" is an important part of my job. But it's always easier to put them off, dull them down and generally avoid them. I try hard to hold myself accountable to having them as quickly and directly as possible. I'm far from perfect in this.
What’s happening in DC is unacceptable and scary, and I strongly condemn not only today’s breach of the US Capitol, but the incitement that led to it.
We’ve been tested a lot this year and our democracy must and will prevail. History has its eyes on us.
Today we reported another quarter with strong financial performance. To the entire
@okta
team: THANK YOU. You keep raising the bar every quarter despite a crazy world and I can’t wait to keep tackling the massive opportunity ahead.
The
@okta
team has benefited greatly from
@Zoom_US
since we started using it and over the past two months as we moved to remote work. We trust
@ericsyuan
and team to continue to make progress on this important technology
#ZoomOn
Many thanks and congratulations to the team at
@okta
for another quarter of strong financial results. I'm so proud of your execution and couldn't be more enthusiastic the short and long-term opportunity.
Ten years after
@fkerrest
and I met our respective spouses for a meal. We wanted to make sure we all liked each other before starting
@okta
Last night we celebrated at the same spot. Thanks Rox and Sara. Wouldn’t happen without you both!
SAP's bold expansion into the cloud over the last decade is paying off:
Q1 2020 revenue:
Cloud: $2B/ 27% growth
Total: $7B/ 6% growth
2020 revenue outlook:
Cloud: ~$9B/ 18% - 24% growth
Total: ~$30B/ 1% - 3% growth
And ~$9B of operating profit
Great case study of execution.
.
@okta
culture is very important to me. On our all-hands meeting, I asked everyone to email me the
#1
thing that makes them feel like a builder, an owner, and empowered. And the
#1
thing that doesn’t. After 2000+ emails the results are interesting…
My conversation with
@pmarca
We discuss:
- what software has done and will do
- fast vs slow sectors
- what Covid changed
- education
- a16z and HP 2.0 (fascinating)
Marc’s ability to go deep on so many topics with such fluency is remarkable
Enjoy!
I’m heartbroken seeing the surge of COVID-19 cases in India.
@okta
launched a 100% matching program for employee donations to 3 orgs involved in relief efforts:
@Give2Asia
@AIDINDIA
and
@goonj
. This is a massive humanitarian crisis—please consider donating what you can.
Thanks to the
@okta
team for solid Q1 results! Total revenue grew 65% y/y, Okta standalone revenue grew 39% y/y, and customers grew to 15,800 👏
Identity is foundational in the era of cloud computing, digital transformation, and Zero Trust security:
There’s just something about print! Nice
@straits_times
feature on
@okta
’s massive market opportunity, founding story, acquisition of
@auth0
, and growing presence in the APAC region.
@RaviVelloor
said it best:
@okta
is just getting started:
Proud to announce that
@okta
is making our tech more accessible to nonprofits everywhere by doubling the number of donated licenses for Okta's Workforce Identity products from 25 to 50. And after the 50 free licenses, we give a 50% discount on any additional products & licenses.
In the past I have attempted to keep my public comments around elections and politics measured. But the events of yesterday crossed a threshold to posing a clear and present threat to our country and democracy.
Stefan Thomas has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth about $220 million. He is one of the many people who are locked out of their Bitcoin fortunes, with an estimated $140 billion in lost or otherwise stranded digital wallets.
Tough calls today with customers having issues, awesome candidates we likely won’t get, prospects we may not win. Tough conversations are the most impactful and satisfying. Ironically don’t have enough of them because who wants to bring them to CEO? Solving this would be magic..
I think it was Q4 of 2011 ... when we finally made our sales "number" after multiple quarters of big misses ... $610k of ACV on a $548k ACV number ... here's the slide from the
@okta
Feb 2012 board meeting I found deep in the archives!
Seeing more “
@Okta
Alum” in social profiles. Mixed feelings. Bummed that people leave, but kind of cool we’ve built something worth proclaiming you’re an alum of ...
Give me your best startup idea (funny ideas welcome) for 2020.
In all seriousness, people called me crazy for starting
@okta
during the 2008 recession. What’s your big leap for this new world?
If you're watching the
#WorldSeries
today and logging into one of
@MLB
's digital properties to see your favorite player's stats, you're using
@okta
. My home team may not be in the running, but protecting the identities of our customers’ customers is enough of a win.
#theyuseokta
A bunch of interviews with Japanese media this week after
@okta
launched our office in Tokyo. Super impressed with promptness, knowledge and prep of Japanese press. Even MORE impressed with translator’s ability to talk identity-management in real-time!
That’s a wrap on Okta’s FY23 Company Kickoff!
@fkerrest
,
@eugenio_pace
and I took the stage to celebrate our wins from FY22, get everyone fired up about our vision & opportunity, and share how
@okta
&
@auth0
are “better2gether.” My highlights: ⬇️
FTX is not the end of the road for crypto. Its collapse is far more emblematic of issues that crypto addresses than those it introduces. The demand for systems where trust lies in code rather than humans is clear: //
@Nasdaq
@Coredao_org
It’s VERY common for people to underestimate (significantly) how much focus and priority something takes. It’s VERY UNcommon to focus on a single thing to the point of inefficiency or waste. Get more focus. Worry less about over-focusing.
We couldn’t be more excited
@auth0
will be joining the
@okta
team as we embark on our joint journey to power identity for the internet and establish identity as a primary cloud. Shared the news ⬇️ with
@emilychangtv
Q2 Ops review
@okta
tomorrow. Slides just KILL ME over
@zoom_us
so we've moved to thorough write ups pre-meeting, then a dynamic discussion for two 4-hour chunks over 2 days. Be careful what you ask for, I have 50+ pages to read tonight. 📚😀
Working out keeps me centered. Last week I hosted a fitness challenge on Instagram and I'm looking for Twitter contenders! Beat my time (17:31) and I’ll mail you a sweet
@okta
swag pack.
"The Okta"
2000m row (alternate: run one mile)
100 double unders
75 bar-facing burpees
This month
@okta
began our phased re-entry plan for all North American offices and a few others across the globe. 🎉
Our biggest paradigm shift? The office of the future isn’t centered only on productivity. And that’s okay!! Here’s what we’re learning ⬇️