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A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry (Part 5)

Sramana: Tell us about the first offer to buy your company. How was the proposal made and how did you evaluate it?

Jay Chaudhry: The CEO of an existing public company called me up one day out of the blue. He told me he wanted to buy my company, and I told him that I would love to partner with them but that we were not for sale. He told me that he had decided to go into the security marketplace and that if we did not sell we would get wiped out. He then asked me how much money I had put into the company. I told him it was about $500,000. He then told me he would make a $45 million offer, all cash. >>>

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry (Part 4)

Sramana: After you were unable to get VC funding, how did you finance the company?

Jay Chaudhry: My wife and I talked and we decided to put our life savings on the line. We figured that if our business was successful then we would have fulfilled the dream, and if it failed then we could always find a job. Our lifestyle was very simple. We had a simple house with a very low mortgage payment. We really had no risk issues. >>>

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry (Part 3)

Sramana: How big was this new company that you joined?

Jay Chaudhry: They had about 130 people in it and I became the number 2 man handling all the marketing and some of the BD functions. This was a wonderful experience. I was able to put all the lessons I had learn up to that point into practice. We enabled more sophisticated selling. This young company had never engaged Gartner before. The most satisfying thing was that you can see the results in days and weeks. In a large company you don’t know what difference you are going to make. >>>

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry (Part 2)

Sramana: Did you try to move to a sales and marketing position in the startup company you were with, or were you hoping to get a position with a larger company?

Jay Chaudhry: I was hoping to get with a more established company, but I was still in Cincinnati. I sent an email to the head of sales for the IBM branch office in Cincinnati. They have a big presence in that area which did around $200 million per year. They liked my background and invited me in to interview and eventually hired me into sales. >>>

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.

Jay Chaudhry is the founder and CEO of Zscaler, an enterprise cloud security company. He is an innovator and trendsetter who has founded and funded several successful companies, including Zscaler, AirDefense, CipherTrust, CoreHarbor, Air2Web, and SecureIT. Chaudhry’s 25 years of sales, marketing and engineering experience also includes leadership roles at leading companies such as IBM, NCR and Unisys.

Sramana: Jay, let’s get started with an overview of your background. Where do you come from? Where do your entrepreneurial roots come from?

Jay Chaudhry: I have the biggest contrast with where I came from and where I am at. I have seen the Stone Age and I have seen the rocket age in the span of 40 years. I come from a tiny village at the foothills of the Himalayas. There were 800 people in the village where I grew up. Every so often I look back, and I can’t believe the transition that I have been through. We had a village well, no electricity, and we had to self-sustain as a community. We grew out own cotton and made our own clothes. It was a good, simple life. The best thing I learned from that is hard work and honesty. Life is tough, and you have to work very hard. >>>

Bootstrapping Using Services: Krish Kupathil, CEO, AgreeYa Mobility (Part 7)

Sramana: Right now your product offering is Microsoft-centric. Do you see that remaining your strategic outlook?

Krish Kupathil: We will definitely continue to support and develop around enabling access to Microsoft products. We will also look at other technologies for which we can enable corporate access. We are a startup, and we are more opportunistic. We will look at which companies it makes sense to make work with based on our technology. >>>

Bootstrapping Using Services: Krish Kupathil, CEO, AgreeYa Mobility (Part 6)

Sramana: How much financing have you secured?

Krish Kupathil: We took very little from Saama, only $2 million. We also took $4 million of debt financing.

Sramana: How much were you doing in revenue?

Krish Kupathil: We did $10 million in revenue last year, and we will do over $20 million this year.

Sramana: What are some of the other interesting strategic moves you have made, and what was the thinking behind those choices? >>>

Bootstrapping Using Services: Krish Kupathil, CEO, AgreeYa Mobility (Part 5)

Sramana: Let’s talk about customers. Who did you receive product validation from?

Krish Kupathil: Currently we received validation from operators like Vodafone Spain and Vodafone Group in Europe. From the handset vendors we have received validation from Samsung who is distributing it in their store and on their latest secure platform. The validation is from all the major players in the ecosystem. In the case here are 2,000 Vodafone resellers who sell this solution for us. The entire Samsung enterprise team promote this solution for their enterprise customers. We also have our direct customers as well. The oil and gas giants are discussing solutions with us.

Sramana: Were these companies all people you had talked with before you set out developing this product solution?

Krish Kupathil: No. These people all signed up after the product was developed.

Sramana: Who validated the opportunity for you? You had enterprises and operators asking for a solution, but how did you check that your solution was the correct one to build?

Krish Kupathil: We did the validation of the idea with the telecom operators, Verizon and Vodafone. On the handset side we did the validation with Samsung. They are the largest player in the Android space so we went with them. >>>