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Want a peak behind the curtain into one of the best places to work in cybersecurity and the minds of the innovators behind the industry’s leading security operations platform? Tune in to The Howler podcast!
Hosted by Chelsea Lowman, People Experience Specialist, and Mary Newville, People Experience Senior Manager, the culture duo connects with pack leaders on leadership insights, mental health and overall wellbeing, and how they lead their teams to advance our mission of ending cyber risk.
Howler - Episode 5 - Transcript
Chelsea Lowman 0:01
Hello, welcome back to the Howler Podcast. I'm Chelsea.
Mary Newville 0:04
I'm Mary,
Chelsea Lowman 0:05
and we are on Episode Five and the first episode of 2024. Wow, it's 2024 as I just said, which is wild. And I want to know Mary, do you have any new year's resolutions? Are you a resolutions gal? Do you set intentions? Tell me how January feels for you. And
Mary Newville 0:32
I am a big time New Year's resolution gal like it is honestly, my personality. I know that New Year's resolutions can be a little bit polarizing and people hate them. I love them. I have a whole process. I look through all my photos helped me remember the fun and the good. I look at my calendar. I write I do some journaling about the wins and like the misses and think about what I hope for in the next year. So I don't have mine set yet. It'll be part of the process that I just Okay, okay, it kind of laid out. But I love resolutions, and I will for sure make them in the new year. Okay, love that. But I will say when I say resolutions, they are in goal format. So they're kind of going over my life. I've dialed it in to where they're achievable and realistic. Whereas there used to be a time where they were just these, like so many. not achievable. So I think I got my goals, SMART goals, SMART goals. I'm an advocate for not smart goals, too. I think the goal portfolio needs the realistic ones. And I also think it's important to have the crazy ones that stretch you beyond what you think you're capable of. Yeah, that's okay, let another day.
Chelsea Lowman 1:50
Because like, for sure, because Mary, one of her attributes is She's a great big dreamer, which I love. Okay, love that. I will say I'm not really an intentions, I guess, or New Year's resolution type gal, but I do set intentions. So like a word for the year that I try to like, focus my energy around or like come back to. So I don't know what that word is. But similarly, I also do, like I have a consistent like reflection that I do for the past year that I journal about. And then that helps me determine my intention. My word for the year so well,
Mary Newville 2:35
I feel like you're selling yourself short, though. Because you are like, one of the best examples I know of like, like, like you've had your I'm going to do yoga every day for a year, I'm going to write a memory a week and reflect at the end of the year, I'm going to not buy anything for a year and you have to do it and you've done.
Chelsea Lowman 2:54
Yeah, and I guess there weren't goals because in my mind resolutions are these like, maybe it's just reframing the word resolution. Because so often I feel like resolutions or like, I'm gonna give up this or I'm gonna stop doing this or those types of things. But yes, I do usually like to set one like really challenging goal for myself, like I did yoga and meditated every day for a year, or I didn't buy anything new clothes this past year. But I don't know. We'll see if I do it this upcoming year. TBD.
Mary Newville 3:30
Back in February.
Chelsea Lowman 3:31
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, we're pretty Yeah, we'll see if we've made it a month. Or whatever it is we decide. But anyway, enough about our resolutions. We have a very exciting guest to kick off the new year. Yes,
Mary Newville 3:46
we are kicking off the new year with our president and CEO Nick Schneider. I am so excited for the pack to listen in on this conversation. As President and CEO of Arctic Wolf Nick brings more than 15 years of experience in building global high growth technology companies spanning both emerging and established markets. As a veteran in the security industry. He has developed expertise in creating best of breed technology platforms and world class sales organizations, which have been the driving force behind article wealth, explosive growth and leadership position in the security operations market. It's a good conversation, lots of good things, wisdom is shared. So without further ado, let's jump in and start the new year with our CEO and president Nick Schneider.
Chelsea Lowman 4:33
All right, welcome, Nick, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Nick Schneider 4:36
Thanks for having me.
Chelsea Lowman 4:38
Yeah, when Mary and I were thinking about the best time to have you on the podcast, we were like, we should just kick off 2024 with the CEO. So how this podcast goes will determine the rest of 2024. So no pressure. No, that's a lot to live up to. No, I'm just joking, but a little easier. into it. So we're gonna start with some fun. Would you rather questions before we get to our hard hitting our hard hitting questions.
Nick Schneider 5:07
These are sometimes hard. All right. That's true.
Chelsea Lowman 5:10
Okay, we're good started. Would you rather eat the oldest thing in the office fridge? or clean the office bathroom?
Nick Schneider 5:19
Eat the oldest thing in the office fridge?
Mary Newville 5:21
Oh, really?
Nick Schneider 5:23
Well, we can't we constantly clean them out. So I know it can only be sold. That's
Chelsea Lowman 5:27
true. That is true. We do do every two weeks shout out to facilities. Okay, would you rather be able to read minds or be able to see the future?
Nick Schneider 5:38
read minds?
Mary Newville 5:40
Really?
Nick Schneider 5:41
Why don't I feel like you don't want to spoil the future. And the weed minds can help you in the here and now.
Mary Newville 5:48
personally do not want to know what people are thinking.
Nick Schneider 5:53
Yeah, yeah, no, but I also don't want to know like that. Bad things will happen or not. But think about them. They
Chelsea Lowman 6:03
both they both sound anxiety inducing to me. I'd rather do neither. Would you rather lose all your technology devices or lose every single picture that you own? And
Nick Schneider 6:18
I don't even get pictures on the technology devices that I keep.
Chelsea Lowman 6:21
Now, no pictures of you or anyone you love?
Nick Schneider 6:30
I'd probably lose the pictures.
Chelsea Lowman 6:33
Okay. Okay. That was probably the hardest question of the day. So you made it through? Would you rather write a New York Times bestseller or win an Olympic gold medal? Gold Medal? Gold medal? I figured you'd say that one. Okay, the last one. Would you rather be a famous singer and have the voice that you have right now? Or would you rather be a famous dancer and have the dance skills that you have right now?
Nick Schneider 7:02
famous singer with the voice I have right now?
Chelsea Lowman 7:05
Yeah. Like, are you more confident in your singing skills or your dancing skills is basically the question,
Nick Schneider 7:11
boy, but I'm famous either way. Yeah. Well, then I'll be I'd rather be a rock star.
Chelsea Lowman 7:20
So the follow up is Will you sing us a quick tune right now?
Nick Schneider 7:30
You really are going to know I was thinking about it. But I don't want to. I don't want to ruin the whole podcast.
Chelsea Lowman 7:36
I should have kept my mouth shut and just let you say,
Mary Newville 7:39
like, oh, it looks like he's gonna do it.
Nick Schneider 7:42
I had to come up with a song. You know, I got a few. But we're gonna leave it alone for now.
Mary Newville 7:46
Okay, well, do you karaoke Nick. have
Nick Schneider 7:50
karaoke? I don't think I would say karaoke.
Mary Newville 7:53
So like at the holiday party last week, I was with Santa. So I wasn't in the cafe. But you didn't Grace everybody with a with a number.
Nick Schneider 8:00
I didn't I didn't this I didn't this time around.
Mary Newville 8:06
Next time next time, yes.
Chelsea Lowman 8:07
Okay, well, you survived the Would You Rather so great job. All right.
Mary Newville 8:13
That was fine. A little Would You Rather into the mind of the CEO? Okay, Nick, we're so excited for this conversation, I think. I mean, any chance if you will have the opportunity to hear from you. It's just cool to hear your story and your passion and your heart for what you do here. So I was thinking, so here's what inspired this first question. At our eighth we had an HR holiday happy hour, two weeks ago. And someone on our team mentioned that he ran into will at crosskeys. And Kristen was like, Oh, do you know that the claw skis they used to work out of? And it had me thinking about so for those that don't know. And Nick, you can fill in the details. But I think when you started at Arctic Wolf over seven years ago, there wasn't an office. And you worked out of a crosskeys grocery store Cafe, and just was our to a different return to office and all the changes going on. I would love for you to tell us just a little bit about those early days, like what you left, you were an SVP of sales. And you left to join Arctic Wolf, what made you believe in the vision enough to basically start from square one and Arctic Wolf and build the sales team and work out of a grocery store for a year?
Nick Schneider 9:28
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I spent my whole career in high growth technology companies in generally, in the early to mid stage. So you know, through that, most of my time was spent in the go to market side of the business. So I was speaking to a lot of customers and partners before I came to Arctic Wolf about what was important to them in their, you know, IT infrastructure important to them from a technology standpoint, you know, to run their business, and cybersecurity at the time, you know, now this was eight, you know, ish years ago, cybersecurity at the time was quickly becoming the answer that I was receiving from most of the folks that I was talking to. And I think I got some interesting insights, because at the time, I wasn't selling a cybersecurity solution. So they were pretty open with what they were looking for, and the challenges that we're having. And a lot of the same challenges that they were having then are now they're just more amplified now. Which was to, you know, they, they couldn't find the talent that they needed to, you know, build out their security operations team, the tools that they were using, were expensive, hard to manage with without a team. And, or like cybersecurity was kind of this thing that they weren't trained in that they were now all of a sudden responsible for. And, and it was a pretty consistent message from folks that I was talking to as to a challenge that they were facing. And I spent some time, you know, just kind of understanding the cybersecurity industry. And Arctic Wolf was one of the very few companies that was telling kind of a story that solves for, you know, all facets of the challenge that I was hearing from the majority of the customers or partners that that I talked to. And then, you know, the team itself, you know, had a good culture. The leadership, you know, Brian Nasmyth was the CEO at the time had a track record for you know, of success and cybersecurity and, and building companies. So, and then, you know, there was a solid board with good investors. So it's kind of the combination of, you know, solving the problem that I was seeing in the market, some strong leadership and some strong, you know, financial backing. And then, yeah, we spent our first three or six months working out of the top floor of a grocery store. And, you know, that was our that was our office to talk about our to our to started and stopped with, you didn't have to walk by the grocery carts to get to where we were, you know, hanging out. But it was really important for us at that time, because we were, we were like building everything from from scratch, right, with regards to the go to market motion. So I needed to be next, you know, Elaine, who now runs, you know, pre sales engineering or sales engineering as a whole. And then we'll Briggs who runs the channel, and we, you know, we kind of established our little spot in the grocery store and did that until they graciously told us that it wasn't an office complex. And spent a little bit of time down the street at a coffee shop. And then and then away, we went to our first smaller office up the up the road. Yeah,
Mary Newville 13:03
we're seeing that need from the customers and partners you were working with and found a solution. It sounds like you would research our Arctic Wolf, but how did you an Arctic Wolf officially get connected? Was it serendipity? Did you reach out? Did Brian reached out to you? Yeah.
Nick Schneider 13:19
So I had, there were some investors that knew some of the investors in the company in particular at the time, so I had heard of Arctic Wolf, honestly, the name also caught my eye as I was looking at different, you know, organizations. And then, you know, I think as I kind of dug into what they were doing, and kind of who the leadership team was of the business, it became pretty clear to me that the opportunity for success was there, and that we will just have to work hard to you know, bring it to fruition. Yeah,
Mary Newville 13:58
okay. I want to lean into that for a second, like the opportunity was there, if we're able to work hard, and I think there's something about the starting in a grocery store and just doing whatever you had to do that ownership piece. Do you feel? Um, I don't know. I think my question is just do you feel like we still, I think all employees have the opportunity to take that same level of ownership and build Arctic Wolf. But as we get bigger, it sometimes can doesn't doesn't feel as like we have offices now. And we're global. It doesn't feel as scrappy. But I don't know, what would you say to to to the pack and the opportunity, they have to kind of take on that ownership mentality and build with us.
Nick Schneider 14:41
Look, relatively speaking, we're still not a gigantic, gigantic company. And certainly we have a ton of opportunity ahead of us to continue to build outcomes from our customer outcomes for our customers or outcomes for our partners and that's going to All be as a result of the work that we all put in, I think, you know, how we operate as a business, you know, hopefully still feels in the pockets in which we're working on a daily basis. Like, it has a little bit of the founder mentality, right, like each problem or challenge or project or initiative that we work on as a company generally has a few folks that, you know, own it primarily, and then a team of folks that are working on it together. And those teams, you know, I think, when they think of themselves, you know, in a mentality of a founder, in the mentality of an early stage employee, tend to execute, you know, at a higher level, they produce, you know, higher quality and, and, or they produce, you know, in a, in a more expeditious way. So, you know, so so we do try to ensure that as we grow as a business, that we kind of maintain that, that early stage, you know, founder kind of grit in the individual teams that we work within, and then it's, it's incumbent on us as individuals within the company, to make sure that we kind of maintain the culture of, of what it means to kind of be the earlier stage scrappy company, because there's a lot to be learned by what it takes to go from, you know, $0, in revenue to one to a million and a million to 10 million and 10 million to 100, there's a lot to be learned in, you know, kind of the pressure that is involved in in making sure that those milestones take place. And unfortunately, as you know, companies grow, you can, you can start to get this kind of natural slack in the attention to detail or into the, the urgency or the speed with which we need to act. And it's it's really incumbent on each individual within the company and incumbent on the company itself to kind of create a culture that consistently snaps that slack back out of the system and focuses us on, you know, what initiatives, we have to drive how important they are to the business and to our customers and partners, and ensures that we're still kind of acting as if, you know, the company was still a 10 person or 100 person company, but just with a lot more resources to make ourselves successful.
Chelsea Lowman 17:29
I'm curious, you've obviously seen a lot in your time here from working at the grocery store to now, obviously, growth is always the goal, right? But did you honestly, did you personally think that we were gonna grow in the way that we did? How fast? How fast we did, like when you you know, when you were working in a grocery store? Did you see us here right now, where we are?
Nick Schneider 17:56
I think anyone that answers this question with a yes is, is a liar. You know, because there are so many there are so many milestones, roadblocks, challenges that you have to overcome when we're sitting in the grocery store, you know, leveraging, you know, working together as a three person team you're you're not, you're not thinking about you know, what it's going to look like when you're a 2000 plus person company or hundreds of millions in revenue, you're thinking about how do I get to the next you know, milestone and then how do we go from that milestone to the next one. So so the whole process you know, at Arctic Wolf or and other earlier stage companies that I've been a part of, kind of through that phase is is a real intense focus on kind of what's you know, your three month six month plan and executing against that and then consistently tweaking it and adjusting it to make sure that you're, you know, doing what you can to be successful. Now, I will say that there are kind of three core components that you need or the your ability to succeed are going to be significantly hampered. So one you gotta be in a really good market, which Arctic Wolf, you know, is and was at the time and I think that market has actually become more interesting for Arctic Wolf here now than it was even eight years ago. To you need an exceptional team. In three you need you know, the products have the capabilities to execute against the market that you're trying to, you know, solve for. And you can you can kind of look at various companies that have been successful over time and if you have those three ingredients, you have the opportunity to be great, but you need to execute against the opportunity or it doesn't matter. So you can have you know, the the ingredients but if you don't have the right you know, team and you don't have the right mentality, that culture to execute against, it doesn't matter. So it's kind of, you know, make sure you have the right ingredients. And if you have a playable hand, make sure that you, you know, hold on to it and do everything you can to win because it's, it's not all that frequent that you'll find all three ingredients in the same location.
Chelsea Lowman 20:19
Well, we have them here at active bluff. We
Nick Schneider 20:21
have them here in spades.
Chelsea Lowman 20:25
Oh, love that, um, when you were talking about kind of the three to five month plan and growing, and that got me thinking about all of the decisions that you have to make, we're all making decisions as pack members every day, but as the CEO, you are obviously making some very big decisions, and I'm guessing, oftentimes challenging decisions. So I'm just curious, like, what is that process? Even? Like? How do you kind of like research and validate the decisions you're making? For the company? How often are you having to have some, like gut checks, obviously, you probably lean on your other senior leaders, like, it just seems like a really daunting role having to lead a company. So just curious, if you could take us into your thought process as you make decisions.
Nick Schneider 21:16
You know, I don't think it's all that different than decision making at any level of an organization or decision making that any person makes in their personal lives. Right. So you have a team of people that are working, you know, with you that have experience in, you know, hopefully different areas than you have experience, you got, you know, you have some advisors, or some people that have been there, you know, before, that have some relevant experience from their past lives. You know, in my position, you have a board of directors, you know, that, that has some examples in real time of other businesses, but, but at the end of the day, you know, each decision that you're making, is, in some ways novel to the situation you're in. In other words, nobody has made the decision that you're making, in the exact situation, that you're making that decision. So So you have to have the ability, whether it's in my role, or any role within the company, or in your personal life, to take advice, take feedback, but at some point, you know, sit with yourself and say, What do I think is the right decision for the stakeholders of the business and the stakeholders are the employees and the customers and the partners and the investors. And you have to kind of look at it through all the various lenses and make the best decision that you can with the data that you have at the time, and then move on, and make sure that you're paying attention to the ramifications of that decision, make sure that you understand kind of what you expected to come from that decision is what and whether or not those you know, outcomes are actually being achieved. And then and then continue on, you know, throughout your day, or your quarter or your year, or whatever time period you're looking at, but I really don't think it's all that different from decision making in there, at any level or any, you know, facet of life. It's, it's, it's just that it's, it's amplified in a business setting, because you're impacting potentially a larger number of people.
Chelsea Lowman 23:29
And I'm sure too, you've made decisions, we all have made decisions that not everyone agrees with or not everyone likes. I don't know, what happened to you, has become like, throughout your career, has it become easier to like, kind of accept that and to your point, like move on, like the day continues, we're gonna have to continue to make other decisions? Or is that something that you kind of continue to, like grapple with?
Nick Schneider 23:59
The proof is in the pudding. So, you know, leadership or, or the decision decision making authority in any project or group, it isn't, is not a popularity contest. So if you're, if you're making decisions to make everyone happy, I assure you, you will not win in the long run. So So you have to make a decision that you think is in the best interest of all of the stakeholders. And sometimes some of those decisions are not, you know, optimal at the time for individual stakeholders. But if you make the right decision, it's the best decision for all of the stakeholders in aggregate over time. And that's why it's really important that as you make some of those decisions, especially the ones that are particularly impactful, that that you are honest with yourself about gut checking, the outcomes you expected versus the outcomes you're observing and if You've made the wrong decision. Turns out, you can change it right? Now, you don't want to do that every time. But if you've made the wrong decision, you got to be able to stand up and say, we made a mistake, or we, you know, went slightly too far this way or slightly too far that way, and we're making an adjustment, and we're moving on. And, you know, that's how I, you know, look at it. And I think thus far, it's worked out all right for, for myself, and hopefully, you know, I think it's worked out, alright, for the team.
Mary Newville 25:32
To your point, like, it's decision making, like we would in any role at personal professional, but with the high stakes of all the people that you impact, I can imagine decision making is a hard part about being a CEO, what is something that would surprise people that's challenging about being a CEO? Is there anything that you think is a challenge that you don't think people would think of when they think of your role?
Nick Schneider 25:58
You know, I think the the piece that is the most, you know, probably consuming is just the volume of impactful decisions that you're making on it, you know, given in a given week. Now, I think you have to be able to compartmentalize which decisions are actually really important, in which decisions, you just need to do the best you can and move on. Because if you treat every decision as the most critical decision never gonna get through, or spend enough time on on those decisions that are truly important. So, you know, so I, I think being able to kind of, you know, bifurcate, those decisions that are, you know, a decisions versus B decisions versus C decisions, and those decisions that are urgent, versus important, or urgent and important or just important, but not urgent, and kind of understanding when, and how impactful decision is, is a really important, you know, piece to the, to the job. And then, you know, my view is that there are many situations where there is not a right decision. So there are many situations where you could make two or three decisions, that could be a right decision, but there's one that is very wrong. So some of it is, is being able to, you know, prioritize the decisions that you're making, but also understand the impact of the decision that you're going to make, across the folks that, you know, you've been kind of, that you're working with. And I think a lot of times, making sure that if it's a decision, you know, won't be, you know, met with open arms, if you will, most of the time, if people understand why the decision was made, the way it was made. The rest is understandable. It's when you it's when you lack transparency in your culture, that it becomes really difficult. So here's the decision taken, you know, deal with it, that doesn't go over too well, even if it's a good decision. But but if there's a decision that's been made, and in particular, if you know, it'll have some, you know, angst behind it, you know, explaining to people why it's been made and what the impact is, you know, is expected to come from it is really important.
Mary Newville 28:33
That was great. We're going to take a quick pause right now to hear a security when from one of our security services pack members. Yeah.
Speaker 2 28:39
So morning, everyone, or afternoon, wherever you're from, I'm Jason UI, I actually hit up the business for Arctic Wolf, South Africa, based out of Johannesburg. And I'm here to tell you a story about one of the customers that we have brought on board as part of the optic warfare. So we approached this customer initially to try and understand what they were doing around security operations, service, managed detection response. And the timing was actually really good. The customer was in the process of looking at something and looking to replace the existing solution that they had in place. Now, the interesting thing with this customer is their current supplier, they saw them as a really big stepping stone three years ago when they took onboard their service. But they said just they've gone through a process of almost outgrowing them. So they've started draining into a global company. And a lot of the information that was coming back to them was was hugely intensive on their team. So the timing was good, and they wanted to look at a service that could look at a global footprint, but also take away a lot of the extra heavy lifting as much as they were consuming a service currently. So we had to go into a tender process and anyone that's been in South Africa knows a tender process can be quite, quite long. quite challenging, but we went through it. We actually were shortlisted between us and another two businesses. And then we had to go through the process of talking through the value of what we can deliver. The interesting thing with this one is where we rarely saw where we really got value, and where the customer saw value was the partner that we were partnering with. So we partnered with a local partner that had a security focus, and could wrap a couple of additional security services around it. So for instance, virtual CISO, and a couple of assessments on top of the service. And that's what really won us the deal was this joint offering that we could go in with this customers environment. And the one quotes I wanted to give you when we actually had this customer talk at an event, which was really, really interesting. He said, When we looked at the initial service that we had three years ago, we saw this as a massive stepping stone, where it took us from zero to 100, around the service we were looking at, when we looked at the article service, we thought we were gonna go up a step ladder in the service that we are going to get, and we took an elevator right to the top that was actually the customer's words. So the experience around the onboarding experience around the Concierge Team, just the overall value add is rarely rarely valuable. And rarely the customer from the CISO, all the way down to the engineers that are working on the system sees huge potential value, and they're getting great benefit out of the service. So thank you for your time. And looking forward to the next one.
Chelsea Lowman 31:26
I'm kind of curious, we talked about your early days, and we know that you've spent your career in sales, was the dream always to be a CEO? And kind of what has that career journey been like for you? And were there certain skills that you think you've learned in your sales career that has helped you as a CEO? This is a question. And then the third is what? And then knowing that your career isn't sales? Like, what are some of the biggest challenges transitioning from like, sales to CEO? So making decisions like for the broader company?
Nick Schneider 32:06
Yeah. So no, I didn't like I didn't go into my career with the end goal being to be, you know, a CEO, I went into each one of the roles that I've had, throughout my career with the the plan or the aspiration to be be the best I could be in that role, or be the best person, you know, on my team in that role. And I kind of knew that, if I, you know, aspired to be, you know, at the top of the, of the pack, and each individual role that new opportunities would open. And then I could make a decision at that time as to whether or not I wanted to take that opportunity. And sometimes I didn't take that opportunity intentionally. Because I thought I might be better suited in other areas. And sometimes I took opportunities that I wasn't expecting to take, you know, because the the opportunity presented itself, so, so no, it wasn't something that, you know, was the reason I joined a company or the reason I was in technology, or anything else, it had always been for me about being the best you could be in the role you were in, and then observing the opportunities that present themselves by by putting in the hard work in the world that you're in. You know, for me, it translated into the position I'm in today, which gave me really good purview over a lengthy career and go to market as to, you know, how to build out, you know, a go to market engine and a go to market machine, which is one of the harder challenges, in particular in a growth company, in particular, in a growth company like Arctic Wolf with the growth rates that we've seen, to be able to, you know, to be able to own and, you know, I kind of built, you know, that career with a group of people that had different experiences in different areas of go to market, and a lot of those people are here at Arctic Wolf, right. So, so I was fortunate to to learn a lot with a lot of really smart people that had kind of lived through a few different experiences together and could apply the best of everything that we've learned to the way in which we built out the article machine and I think that served us very well. And it helps in this role, because I I understand how that machine is built the investments you need to make you know for it to continue in the trade offs that come with various decision making within go to market. And it also gives me a like an intense weather I like it or not, per view into the kind of hearts and minds of the customer, that that's like, where I come from, how do I make the customer happy? How do I make the partner happy. And generally speaking, if you're kind of customer first or have a customer mindset, the rest falls into place to some degree. The challenge with that is not everything that makes the company tick, is customer facing. So at the end of the day, almost everything becomes customer facing, or influences the way in which you present the company to the customer. But there's a lot of facets of the business that need to be understood more broadly by the team, because they play just as important or a more important role than then the actual go to market or the actual product, right. So like how we recruit is intensely important to the way in which the teams build out both sales and marketing and product r&d. GNA, you know, so so all of the teams are really reliant on our ability to recruit, obviously, without strong financial metrics, you don't have the funds to be able to support the go to market engine that you might have built. So everything ties together. And, you know, I had to spend a good amount of time in particular early in this role, making sure that I better understood some of the functions that allow the go to market machine to tick. Right. And, you know, I'm not perfect in that regard, I still have a lot more experience in the go to market machine than I do in some of the other facets of the business. But that's where you have to make sure that you hire really good people have good advisors, you know, have a good board and other you know, items.
Mary Newville 36:54
Yeah, I love it. I'm sensing some themes here. Just it's like your example, in the beginning of how you've been found article for new, you wanted to take a chance on it, because you knew that it was solving a need, the customer had like attunement to the needs of the customer. And your philosophy of you just wanted to the best person in the role and do the best job. It was resonating to me of earlier in the conversation, when you talked about when you all used to work out of the crosskeys grocery store, you weren't thinking all the way to where we are today. But you were thinking like, what's our next goal, the next target we're gonna hit. So just those themes of like, baby steps in the right direction, applying learning from the past, applying the best to the future, knowing the needs of the customer, kind of along those veins, skills, mindset, all that good stuff. What professional skills do you think everybody should have, regardless of role? Yeah,
Nick Schneider 37:53
sure. So they might not be like skills, but in a high growth company, like the company or the team needs to have a sense of mission, so you have to be passionate about what you're doing, or you won't be good at it. So you have to have passion about what you're doing as a business you have to be willing to put into in the work. So you have to have a strong work ethic. You have to be a team player, these things don't work. If everyone's out to solve for their own personal, you know, gain. It only works if we're operating, you know, as a team. And as a result, you know, you have to have strong communication skills, you have to be able to interoperate with the people that you're working with. I think the kiss of death on almost all of those skills is like a big ego. And we avoid big egos at Arctic Wolf.
Mary Newville 38:50
So Jeff, the ego, yeah, how do you look out for someone's ego? Like in interviews, what's kind of your tell,
Nick Schneider 38:58
you don't need to find out they'll tell you. It's just generally pretty generally pretty apparent. You know, Different people use different adjectives for egos, but it's usually very, very clear. And it's, it's, it's how it's how a person, you know, carries themselves how a person articulates the teams that they've worked with in the past how a person articulates the teams that they've built in the past. If it's about the team, that's one thing if it's about the individual that's another thing and if it's about you know how good they were and how bad other people are, that's a entirely different thing. So so it's it's pretty easy to it's pretty easy to spot
Mary Newville 39:53
Well, once again, I feel this conversation is going full circle because again, like you had all this sales leadership excuse As we're leading teams had an executive title and you came to our Wolfin, you know, got scrappy, and again worked out of a grocery store store. I feel like that's the such a great example too of like not having an ego and willing to roll your sleeves up and passionate about the mission and wanting to work hard. So I feel like you even in the stories we've talked about today have exemplified some of those things you were talking about. Okay, so you talked about passion, sense of mission, hard work ethic team player, being able to communicate skills that everybody should have, regardless of role for people that want to follow in your footsteps and aspire to be in an in an executive leadership position someday, any other skills you recommend or things to do or pursue? Yeah,
Nick Schneider 40:48
I mean, I think you have to surround yourself with with strong folks. Now. That doesn't mean they have to work with all of them. But you're going to want some advisors in your life that have been through interesting experiences, that can help to kind of guide you both in the role that you're in or in any role that you're considering. A lot of times, they might not have insight into the specific organization that you're in, or the specific organization that you're looking to. But they'll have, you know, some, some observations as to whether or not they, they think, especially if they know you, whether or not you'll, you'll be a good fit. So So you know, make sure that you surround yourself with good people make sure that the role that you're, you know, entering or the role that you're in, has good people around you. You know, make sure that you kind of believe in the mission and that you're enthusiastic about the job that you have, or the job that you're taking. And then And then, you know, work hard in the role that you're in, I can say, you know, and I'll use like, the sales ranks as an example. You know, my first job was a what is now called an SDR. So a sales development rep. So you're, you're basically drumming up demand from people that you've never met before, it's a really hard job. And a lot of times folks get into that role, and they're trying to plan their path into the next role as fast as humanly possible. And that is the worst mistake you can make. Because it's the one role that you can kind of learn all facets of the selling motion, without being responsible for the whole selling motion. So when I've seen folks really excel in their careers, they've embraced some of those earlier roles within their career earlier roles on the ladder, if you will, and, and gotten to a point where they are the expert in those roles. And all the knowledge they gained, in the two years that it took them to get through those roles, allow them to be that much better in their subsequent roles, because they put in the time, where I see people struggle. And this is not I used sales as an example. But is when folks are so fixated on where they want to be in five years that they start, they start figuring out a way if they can skip a step. And it turns out, you can't skip steps. So so it's really important that folks, you know, focus on the here and now focus on the roles that they're in, make sure that they really understand them, because you're gonna have to really understand it and the next role that you take. Yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 43:39
I love that. And I feel like Mary kind of touched on but humility is like a theme that we've been talking about this whole this whole discussion. Earlier, in your answer you were talking about finding advisors, mentors, kind of a group of people that you can trust. And that got me wondering, are there any current CEOs that you look up to right now?
Nick Schneider 44:02
Yeah, I mean, so I think you have to have a, I think you have to have a mix, right? So you have to have folks that you've worked with, because you know, how they operate, and you trust how they operate. And you've seen the results of the manner in which, you know, they've built their business or built their, their brand, and I have kind of a group of, of those folks and then you have more public figures, that are CEOs of you know, larger organizations that, you know, carry themselves or drive their team in a way that that you think resonates you know, the person that you know, I think I find myself saying, I like that approach or those results speak for themselves or interesting career. So stylistically similar, would be probably Frank sluman, who's a CEO of snowflake. I've only like talked to him one time, or once or twice, we've emailed a few times, super approachable, and his results speak, speak for himself. But he's, uh, he's a really well regarded leader. And he's also, you know, very direct in, in what his aspirations are, you know, personally and for the company. And I think that helps everyone to understand kind of the direction of the business. So anyway, he would be, he would be one that that comes to mind.
Chelsea Lowman 45:36
And you were just kind of touching on his leadership style, what would you say is your leadership philosophy, and maybe some of the best leadership advice you've ever received?
Nick Schneider 45:46
Um, well, we've talked a lot about my philosophy, you know, so I like to be direct with the team. So everyone understands what our goals are, how we're going to achieve them, and what, you know, roadblocks or obstacles we have in the way, I think sometimes people shy away from the bad news. And it's hard to fix the bad news if you don't talk about it. So. So I like to be direct and transparent with the teams, I can always, you know, be transparent about everything that's happening in the business, but as much as I possibly can, I try to be really transparent and direct with teams. And then secondly, you know, building the teams, in a manner that that we, we collectively believe in the mission is, is really important to me. And that that always comes out, by the way, also, when you're talking to folks in interviews, or when you're talking to folks that are at the company. And you can, you can always tell who's really, you know, bought in and all in on the mission or are really excited about joining the mission, versus folks that, you know, have either lost it or lost the passion or, you know, maybe you don't fully understand it. And I think those are, you know, opportunities to kind of reinvigorate folks. And for folks that have, you know, a new, you know, set of passion as they're coming into a company, it's always, it's always interesting to kind of integrate them into the teams, because it boosts you know, the teams that they're coming up part of. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 47:24
that was great. And now we are going to take a really short break and hear a recent win from our sales team.
Nick Schneider 47:32
Hi, my name is Anthony, and I'm a triage security engineer for here at Arctic Wolf networks working in the Utah office. I started working in the concierge security operations center three years ago, and I enjoy investigating and helping our customers remediate security incidents. Our team strives to end cyber risk for our customers by going above and beyond in our investigations of threats. One of these examples happened a few weeks ago when we were alerted to a suspicious file being made an exception by a PowerShell command for Windows Defender. Using the logs we collected from the system, network firewall and Host Based endpoint detection response, we determined the infection was related to black bass to ransomware. We quickly called the customer and informed them of the infection, as well as actions needed to remediate the infection. We then started our task at figuring out how the threat actor got in and what they were trying to do. By using our lab created for deconstructing and analyzing live samples of malware. We started working on reverse engineering the software to look for tactics, techniques, procedures, and indicators of compromise used by the threat actor during this incident. Performing a root cause analysis, we determined that the user had engaged in shadow IT activities and downloaded an infected copy of some software from an unsafe site. By analyzing the malware sample, we also went to work on deconstructing the command and control infrastructure to see what useful pieces of information we could get to us in our detections. We discovered several new ways that they were keeping their command and control infrastructure hidden, such as by changing and rotating past keys. Using these newly discovered keys, we were able to download and analyze additional stages of the malware to turn into additional detections for our customers. We then took this new information and searched across our customer base to see if any of our other customers have been infected with the same malware as well. Because of the expertise and professionalism shown by articles concierge security operations center, and our engineers, the customer had a potentially detrimental incident quickly remediated and was able to compute two new business operations uninterrupted. Each of our engineers has their own experience and skills that they bring to the table. And by leveraging this we prove time and time again that Arctic Wolf is a leader in operations and the head of the pack.
Mary Newville 49:47
Okay, Nick, we've been chatting all about you and your role as CEO. But before we end this conversation would love just like a peek behind the curtain. All our PAC members have seen you at town halls and deliver goals and set expectations, but what are you outside of being a CEO? Hobbies interests?
Nick Schneider 50:08
Yeah, so I mean, I have, I have three little kids, you know, so a nine year old, a seven year old and a four year old and they, like, keep me busy. But they're, they're super fun. So I spend as much time as I can with them, you know, outside of work, you know, obviously, along with my wife, we try to get them outside. So we like to go out on the boat. You know, I drag my kids fishing, I think most of them like it, or at least they tell me they like it. You know, so we do that. You know, they play a lot of sports, I like watching them play sports. So most of my time is spent with the kids slash family, or at work, you know, outside of that, you know, imagine that I like to fish and I like to go, the things I tried. Then I can kind of do two things at once. is kind of the idea. And they, you know, they don't all love the same stuff. I do, but but they tag along. Well,
Chelsea Lowman 51:14
that makes sense family and work because on our very first episode, Brian told us you can really only have two priorities at a time. And so you have your two priorities. Yeah. Um, we also really like asking everyone a quick mental health question. Just around, like how you prioritize your well being for yourself, and maybe your team if you want to expand on it, but are there any certain things that you do for your mental health and well being?
Nick Schneider 51:44
Yeah, I mean, I think the most important thing is to just keep an eye on it. Not like an actual lie, but just keep it keep an eye on like, how you're feeling. You know, we have some lofty goals as a as a business. And then when you mix in everything that people have going on, in their personal life, which everyone has things going on in their personal life, whether they tell you or not, you know, it can, it can be stressful, and at times, you know, overwhelming, I think what's critical there is to make sure that you don't let it pass into the danger zone. So as as you're feeling like you just need a breath. Take a breath in sometimes that means, you know, just set your phone down for a few hours, you're gonna be amazed how big of a difference that would make sometimes it means go for a run, sometimes it means go at some, you know, golf balls at the range, but like, just make sure you don't push yourself into the, into the red zone. Because when, when you do or when you see people that have you're not productive, you're, you're, you're, you're kind of in a different headspace than, than probably what you need to be so so it's it's it's not rocket science advice. But you know, paying attention to yourself and your own kind of mental state and then you can't feel you know guilty about taking a little bit of a breather to make sure that you're you know, back to the you know, fully charged self that you need to be to your
Chelsea Lowman 53:17
point like it is really easy to forget to just check in with yourself because we're gonna like get like going we're busy with work and family and life and even though like you said, it doesn't seem like rocket science advice. It can be really revolutionary to just like check in with yourself if you don't already. I
Mary Newville 53:35
would just made me think too about like the pack member experience and under your leadership, like we've added volunteer time off and we have flexible PTO and there's things embedded into the pack member experience so people do have the resources and support to do what they need to do to be their best here and help us advance our mission. Yes,
Nick Schneider 53:55
that's a good point. Sometimes doing something for somebody else is is a multiplier on your kind of your mental break. So if you spend a day for yourself sometimes spending a day for somebody else buys you what feels like a week of of mental illness. So it's it's a good good healthy mix is generally the right path.
Chelsea Lowman 54:23
Yes pack members don't forget to you as your three days of volunteer time off. Nice little plaque. Okay, we have come to our final questions our rapid fire round so similar to the wedgie router, these are just some fun questions to end episode and continue to get to know you a little bit better. So rapid fire first thing that comes to your mind. Best concert of your life.
Nick Schneider 54:48
Well, I've been to a few Rolling Stones concerts, they're all good. The earlier ones in particular, Elton John put on a really good concert a while ago. Then the Eagles when they were at full steam what was also really good. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 55:05
those are all great. It's still on my list to see Elton John, but I don't even know if he's, if he's done touring now he's gonna He's
Nick Schneider 55:12
on his final tour right now. So you gotta get on it. You might travel.
Chelsea Lowman 55:20
I mean, I will. It's worth it to see him.
Nick Schneider 55:22
He's very good.
Chelsea Lowman 55:25
Okay, what's your favorite word? Favorite word?
Nick Schneider 55:36
I don't know if I have a favorite word. I don't have a favorite word. I like I love all words.
Mary Newville 55:42
From a number perspective, I was gonna guess it was either execution or candor. Are those up there?
Chelsea Lowman 55:56
Word. Wait, have you never been asked your favorite word before?
Nick Schneider 56:01
No. Oh, really?
Chelsea Lowman 56:02
Okay,
Nick Schneider 56:04
you guys, have you guys have favorite words? What's your favorite word?
Chelsea Lowman 56:08
My favorite word is reiterate. reiterate. I just like the way it like rolls off your tongue. I guess in my opinion, reiterate.
Nick Schneider 56:19
What's your favorite word? Mary?
Mary Newville 56:20
Um, I'll say magical. I love the serendipity. I
Nick Schneider 56:26
don't have a favorite. I don't have a favorite word, but I'll think about it.
Chelsea Lowman 56:31
Okay, um, a place on your bucket list.
Nick Schneider 56:35
Something in South America. I've never been to South America. So something in South America. Okay. I'd also like to spend some time in Japan.
Mary Newville 56:46
Oh, hello. Yeah. Japan's on Chelsea's list. And Nick, I'll give you your South America bucket list recommendation. Ecuador. Really so underrated. But it is stunning. And you have the Amazon rainforest, you have the Galapagos Islands, you have an incredible city that's tucked in the mountains. It's the second highest elevation capital in the world. So imagine a capital city in the middle of the mountains. So you're the rolling hills and all the lights? I cannot recommend it enough. Sounds
Nick Schneider 57:16
good. I'll add it to the list.
Chelsea Lowman 57:18
What is something that people often get wrong about you? I
Nick Schneider 57:23
think sometimes because I'm like, I'm like constantly in meetings or on the way to a meeting or in a something I'm kind of I can be. I can be a little short. Little direct. But I don't know I at least like to think that I'm, I'm, I'm approachable and available anytime. As long as I don't have other meetings.
Chelsea Lowman 57:51
Available, except for when I'm not available.
Nick Schneider 57:58
I'll be like, Well, I don't think they brought it to you because they're nervous. I'm like, nervous. Really nervous. I'm not like a big bad wolf.
Chelsea Lowman 58:06
Okay, final question. Give us a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that has brought you joy.
Nick Schneider 58:13
I think it's just like, when you see like, the kids learn something new. Like when they have the like, oh, I figured this new thing out. It happens all the time. But those are the those are the big ones. For me. Is
Chelsea Lowman 58:29
there something new? Like is there a recent example that you can think of,
Nick Schneider 58:33
like one of my kids got into Rubik's cubes and solved the white bass buyers? You know, we would have thought she, you know, figured out how to, you know, travel to outer space or something like it was a big moment. But like, you know, she got a Rubik's Cube had no clue how to work it, you know, figured out that she could Google a you know, channel with somebody that would show her how to do it and she figured it out on her own. So that's like one example but it's those kinds of things. You know, having my son you didn't how to swim jumped in, came up and like you could see on his face like, I didn't sink to the bottom that time. This is uh you know, my middle daughter caught her first fit. That kind of stuff is the most interesting. That's
Mary Newville 59:28
yeah, and now that you say this, I think I overheard one of your kids telling Santa they want a Rubik's cube or they had influenced the other some other kids that were in there because there definitely were some kids asking Santa for a Rubik's cube at the Halloween mask or holiday it might
Nick Schneider 59:45
have been my daughter and or if she influenced other people on Rubik's Cubes. I don't know where that came from. By the way. I don't have a clue how to solve a Rubik's.
Chelsea Lowman 59:56
Cube to say I'm impressed because I can't solve even A white of a Rubik's cube. So I think it's a big win.
Nick Schneider 1:00:04
I can show you I had to learn. Oh, no, can't do it. But all I can do is the first the bottom and the first layer and then I then I, then I get all all algorithms. So like once you learn the algorithm,
Mary Newville 1:00:21
and you can do it an
Chelsea Lowman 1:00:22
interesting idea, a Rubik's Cube competition in the office, there's gotta be people that can solve them. There's
Nick Schneider 1:00:29
got to be people. Don't put me in it. It will be here for a month.
Mary Newville 1:00:32
Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Um, bring your wolf pup to work day. Your daughter challenged that can be who can be at Nick's daughter at the Rubik's Cube. Oh, yeah. I think she's got to solve her first full cube, but it worked out. Well, Nick, this was such a great conversation. I'm so excited for the greater pack to be able to hear it. I feel like in your stories and examples and in the things you've shared, there's just such consistency around working hard setting goals executing against the plan humility. So thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to chat with us today. Yeah,
Nick Schneider 1:01:14
thanks, Ben. Fun. Wow.
Chelsea Lowman 1:01:17
Okay, what a great conversation into the mind of a CEO. Yeah, I
Mary Newville 1:01:22
really enjoyed that conversation. Lots of good reminder shared from Nick about work ethic and humility. But also, I'm excited for the pack to hear this. I think because of where we sit. We literally are in the Minnesota office. And we're just a hallway away from Nick's office. So we see him a fair amount than maybe the average pack member. But I think you'd be great for the greater pack to get an hour with with Nick. Yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 1:01:49
for sure. Um, well, we hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, if you are a current pack member, share your thoughts, your feedback, any gems nuggets that you took away from episode in the Halleck Slack channel. This spring, we've got lots of exciting things coming up. It's black history month in February, women's history month in March. We're gonna bring back the well wolf spring wellness challenge. So be on the lookout. Lots of exciting things headed your
Mary Newville 1:02:22
way. Yes. And to our listeners that aren't members of the pack. If you're interested in joining us on our mission to end cyber risk. You can check out our open pit job positions at Arctic Wolf.com backslash careers. Happy New Year to everyone. We hope you're listening and starting the new year strong and we'll catch you in February. Bye everyone.