Welcome to Episode 30 of the Cloud Wars Horizon Minute — featuring news and commentary hosted by Acceleration Economy analyst Tom Smith. Each episode provides insights into one or more Innovation Accelerators on the Cloud Wars Horizon.
This episode touches on the most compelling quotes and best insights from Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who was more forthcoming than many earnings call speakers.
Highlights
00:35 — In his company’s second quarter earnings call, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince laid out the factors behind 54% YoY growth, and in so doing delivered some compelling insights for other corporate and cloud leaders. Following are four of his top quotes.
01:05 — Recalling the early days at Cloudflare, Prince said: “I literally had to borrow money from my mom to pay my rent. That’s when I got an extremely personal lesson on the importance of free cash flow”
01:20 — Prince said: “We shifted our messaging to focus on ROI, helping customers save money, and consolidating spend from multiple point solution vendors behind Cloudflare’s broad platform. Messages about saving money and using fewer vendors didn’t particularly resonate a year ago, but they do today”
01:45 — “Some things I know are universally true. No matter how bad this recession may get, companies aren’t going to abandon the Internet. Hackers aren’t going to stop hacking, so cybersecurity will remain a must-have, not a nice to have,” Prince said. “And we’re already seeing evidence of all of this, with our gross renewal rate in every region for the first half of the year, hitting all-time highs since we went public.”
02:15 — Tough times force you to reevaluate everything you’ve done and become better, according to Prince.
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