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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.
The Howler - JJ Freitag_AUDIO
Wed, Jan 29, 2025 3:29PM � 1:01:42
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
75 hard challenge, word of the year, discipline mantra, mindset challenge, corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, Nashville trivia, seeing eye dog, corporate culture, leadership advice, wellness balance, Silentium acquisition, Black History Month, perseverance theme, pack community
SPEAKERS
Chelsea Lowman, Mary Newville, JJ Freitag, Speaker 1
Chelsea Lowman 00:03
Hi, welcome back to the Howler Podcast. I'm Chelsea and I'm Mary. Hello everyone. Welcome to our February episode. Thank you for continuing to listen. We are now, well, we record these early so we're still only like in the second or third week of January, so still like getting into the new year, into 2025 How are you feeling about it? So far,
Mary Newville 00:31
so far, so good. I'm a big reflection gal, so I'm still reflecting on my 2024 I'm easing into 2025, but I will say this actually, on a whim, I decided to do 75 hard. Have you heard of 75 hard?
Chelsea Lowman 00:49
I very much. Have I've done, I've done a version of 75 hard. Okay, well, for those
Mary Newville 00:56
that haven't heard of it, it's 75 days. If you miss any of these things, you have to restart at day one and the seventh or I don't put seven things, but the things are 245, minute workouts a day. One of them has to be outside. Follow a diet, any kind of diet, whatever you want, no cheat meals, a gallon of water a day. Take a progress, pick and read 10 pages. I was inspired by one of my friends from college who was posting on Instagram like every day on her 45 minute walk, she'd share about how the day was going. And I was like, I could use just a good challenge, because it's also a mindset challenge than it is anything else. And I am doing some modifier. So my instead of 245 minute workouts, it's a 45 minute workout, and then the other one is 10,000 steps a day. Okay, okay, which, honestly, I feel like the 45 minute workout may have been a better route, because now sometimes I'll get to the end of the day and I have, like, 5000 steps left, and I'm like, oh my goodness, let me bundle up and wrap my building many times to me, but it's so motivating to know, like, if I don't do this, I can't cross the day off and I have to restart. Honestly, it's been so great for me. I'm on day eight. I think just it's been such a nice way to kind of force myself into some rhythms as I start here. So we're still reflecting, but, but you Okay, switching to you I saw because, actually, we had this really great conversation in the pack about resolutions because of our January Howler newsletter. We're pack members around the globe shared their intentions, and then we opened it up in Slack. And there was such a great conversation, yeah, so many wholesome resolutions. So many people said, I just want to be intentional, to be present in the moment and love my people well and not take time for granted. But Chelsea, you shared your resolution there, and I don't remember it at the moment, but I when I read it, I was like, I love this, so tell us what it is. Tell us the mindset that this year
Chelsea Lowman 03:11
well, so I don't, I don't do resolutions, per se. I pick a word of the year and then like a mantra of the year. So my word of the year is discipline. Ooh, I feel like it's, it's, it's not like a super exciting, original word, but I do. I feel like a lot of times we're always think, we're always talking about, like, find the motivation, find the motivation. And like, motivation ebbs and flows. You need discipline to be doing all of these things. So that's why I chose discipline for my word and then just a mantra that I heard kind of towards the end of 2024 that I started implementing, or like thinking about a lot, that I'm going to carry into 2025 is how you spend your days. Is how you spend your life. Because I feel like a lot of times people are like, oh, you know, they think life is like the vacations, the trips, the like, big, grand things that we do, but like, actually it's just like every day, getting up, going to work, seeing your community, your loved ones, being together. Like, that's what life is. And so like, what can I be doing to, like, make the most out of my life every day? I also have started, like, new routines and rhythms, which I again, kind of start at the end of last year, but now I wake up at 6am and I go to the gym in the morning, which has been nice. And that's really where discipline comes in, because there are, especially in Minnesota today, the high is two degrees Fahrenheit, which, I don't know the Celsius conversion, but that's very cold. Feel like negative 10 degrees outside. And like, the last thing you want to do at 6am when it's like dark and cold, is go work out. Yeah. Um, but. Just like discipline, discipline. You can do it. So I've been doing that and getting back into meditation and just really reminding myself that, like, yeah, just be present. Today is is your life right now in this moment. It's not this like thing, other thing in the future. So enjoy the moment. Okay,
Mary Newville 05:21
I love that. And you know, classic me coming in with a quote I heard, but I just read this in an email newsletter yesterday. If anyone gets like the James clear email, but he had a quote in there that said, the last beat of a melody is not its goal. I feel like that's a different way of saying joy. It's not the destination, it's the journey. And like, thing is, like, life isn't these, like, big one time moments. It's like the mundane and every day that I was like, yeah, the goal isn't like the end, it's like the beauty of that melody or the journey. Yeah. And on your discipline note, I have been thinking about this a lot too, but another James clear nugget diet, I'm a huge fan of his, at least his content that he puts out right now, just putting that out there in case. But he talks about, you can't perfect or refine or optimize a habit that doesn't exist. So the first we focus so much on, like the perfect morning routine, the XYZ this. But like, first things first, you just got a master showing up. So I love your discipline. Like you're just reminded me of that when you were talking of like, I just need to be there, and the more I wear it, we can refine and optimize, refine these days that you're Yes, that is your life. That is your life. Wow, yeah, so that's fine, yeah. And if you're a Howler fan, shoot us a note on LinkedIn. We love those, Mm, hmm. Or we've never, ever had someone comment on the podcast, on Spotify or YouTube, so you could be our first comment. Yeah, join this pack community. Let us know how you're thinking about the year ahead. We had a really fun conversation internally, and it really probably was like the most wholesome slack thread, yeah, at Arctic Wolf. So it was fun to see whatever everyone was focusing on. But anyways, moving into February of 2025, when you all are listening to this, Chelsea and I are going to sit down today to talk with JJ free tag. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm excited, too. So why we're excited? JJ currently serves as our Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Arctic Wolf, and he's responsible for the company's inorganic growth strategy, building our mergers and acquisitions process and leading the corporate development team. He has led and completed over 50 deals worth billions of dollars and analyzed 1000s of deals over his career, prior to Arctic Wolf, JJ spent the last 10 years at Koopa software as the SCP of corporate development and Managing Director of Koopa ventures, and has also served as the COO at slide rocket and vice president at Azure Capital Partners.
Chelsea Lowman 08:26
Okay, welcome to the podcast. JJ, we're so excited you're here. I'm
JJ Freitag 08:31
excited to be here.
Mary Newville 08:35
Podcast, by the way, really away. Well, welcome. Yes,
Chelsea Lowman 08:39
we are honored. We were just talking about New
Mary Newville 08:43
Year's resolutions. Do you make them?
JJ Freitag 08:47
Kind of, my wife is very good about New Year's resolutions, and she does like resolutions for us as a couple, and
Mary Newville 08:56
she makes them for you guys.
JJ Freitag 09:00
She has her own. I'm left to do whatever, whatever I want for me. But you know, for like, you know, we're gonna try and have a, you know, a night a month where we listen to records and drink a glass of wine, like sort of things that we can bring into our lives that maybe help us stay a little connected. She's really good about that. Oh,
Chelsea Lowman 09:23
I love that. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Do you have any input in your couple resolutions, or she creates them?
JJ Freitag 09:32
Um, she does a great job of making me feel like I have lots of input.
Chelsea Lowman 09:37
That's all the answer we need. Okay, well, Mary and I have been when we were working on the questions today, we're just so excited to chat with you and ask you all sorts of behind the scenes type questions. But before we get to that, we always start the episode with some sort of like fun trivia. Or would you rather? Some sort of game to, like, have some fun and get us into into it. So we the, well, we know a little bit more about you, but one thing we know about you is that you live in Nashville, correct? That's right. Okay, so I have some Nashville trivia, yay. And
JJ Freitag 10:24
not Dolly Parton, I'm gonna fail. When
Chelsea Lowman 10:26
I was working on the trivia, it was kind of challenging, because it was either like, way too easy, like everyone, like, I'm not even from Nashville, and I know that, or it was so obscure, it was like, There's no way he's gonna know this. So I tried to pick some that were interesting, that you may know you may not. Who cares? It's all for fun anyway, so we'll get into it. Okay, let's roll Question number one, the first FM broadcasting license went to Nashville's WSM radio station in what year was it a, 1940 3b, 1930 7c, 1952 or D, 1941
JJ Freitag 11:11
I think it was in the 30s. So I'm gonna go 37
Chelsea Lowman 11:15
so close. It was 1941 which is almost 30s, almost 30 Yeah. Was interesting. I didn't know the very first FM station was in Nashville. Yeah, fun to know. Okay, this one is not multiple choice, so we either know it or we don't. Okay, Vanderbilt University student Morris Frank traveled overseas to investigate the use of blank, and he brought it, the first of it back to the US in 1928 What was that thing that he brought back? And was the first of its kind?
JJ Freitag 11:55
Wow, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say vinyl.
Chelsea Lowman 12:02
Okay, Mary, do you have a guess? Oh, that was gonna be my guess too, actually. Okay, I love the thought process around, like, music, um, but it was a seeing eye dog.
JJ Freitag 12:14
Oh, gosh.
Chelsea Lowman 12:17
So the very first seeing eye dog was brought to the US to Nashville by a Vanderbilt University student. So fun fact, that's exciting. Okay, just a couple more Nashville native William Walker became the president of which country in 1856, was it a Costa Rica, B, Nicaragua, C, Chile or D, Cameroon. I'm going
JJ Freitag 12:47
to say Costa Rica only because I think at one point we had a direct flight to Costa Rica. So let's try that one,
Chelsea Lowman 12:56
the National the Costa Rica direct flight. Love it. It was actually Nicaragua. Oh, wow. And no other American has become president of another country since fun fact.
JJ Freitag 13:08
I hope that's not a reflection on how he did. Yeah, I didn't
Chelsea Lowman 13:12
look I didn't look up any more information. And as I say, every week, I get all of this stuff from the internet, and I don't fact check so I could be wrong. Okay, everyone, don't hold me to it. Okay, last question, which maybe I'm hoping you'll know this one, but no pressure. Nashville is home to the largest songwriters festival in the world. What is it called? Either
JJ Freitag 13:38
the CMA fest or tin pan south. I'm going to go with Tin Pan south. Ding,
Chelsea Lowman 13:43
ding, ding, Tin Pan south. It happens every spring, and it draws more than 350 songwriters.
JJ Freitag 13:51
No, it's a big deal. So they put you can see all sorts of cool people in little bars all over town. And there's a couple weeks like that in in Nashville, but, gosh, 20 years ago, I saw Kenny Loggins in a bar with like 200 people during 10 pan South he was in town for the songwriters thing. Decided he wanted to play a gig, and he played, I mean, I mean, y'all are probably too young to realize that at one point, Kenny Loggins was a big deal, but all sorts of fun stuff, it was
Chelsea Lowman 14:30
great. Wow. Okay, love. Did you have, like, an interest in love music before you moved to Nashville, I
JJ Freitag 14:37
did. I got into music as a as a high school kid, one of my swimming buddies was really into REM and The Beatles, and he was a couple years older than me, so we he would drive and I couldn't drive yet, and we listened to a lot of REM as ninth and 10th grade. Later, and got me into music and exploring it. And I'm a big fan. So I live in a great town for that. Yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 15:06
totally.
Mary Newville 15:09
So fun. I love that. Well, I've only been once, but I want to go back. It
JJ Freitag 15:13
is. It's a fun day. It's a great town for couples to come visit, I think, for girls trips, good sports, good guys, stuff, great walking around downtown. And there's always something to
Chelsea Lowman 15:26
do. Yeah, did you know it is the bachelorette capital of the US? Well,
JJ Freitag 15:31
I think everybody who lives here knows that. Yeah, very well.
Chelsea Lowman 15:35
I I've been to three or four, three bachelorettes in Nashville, and I worked a couple times too, because I used to live in Indianapolis, so it's just like a four hour drive. So we would just drive down to Nashville for the weekend. But there was one time we were, like, in the outskirts of the city, we stopped to, like, go to a gas station or something, and only two of us went into the gas station, and the clerk was like, you all here for a Bachelorette. We're like, how did you know
16:06
more than if
Chelsea Lowman 16:07
there's more than one woman by herself, then
JJ Freitag 16:10
that's right, matching cowboy hats. Maybe that's usually,
Chelsea Lowman 16:16
no we were still in our car sweats, so I don't know, but this was, this was like years ago too. But I think it's still about short place. Who knows?
JJ Freitag 16:26
It is very much about short place. Yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 16:30
okay, well, thank you for indulging us in some Nashville trivia. I feel like we all learned some fun facts today. I certainly
JJ Freitag 16:37
did. I only got one right. I don't think anybody will believe I live here.
Chelsea Lowman 16:43
But honestly, I would be curious how many Nashvillians, I don't know what you all call yourselves, would know the first three anyway, you know,
JJ Freitag 16:52
I haven't heard it, so probably not many of us
Chelsea Lowman 16:56
now you can take those to like parties and be like did you all know exactly
JJ Freitag 17:00
right. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring up Nicaragua, our sister country you
Chelsea Lowman 17:06
should look up if there's a direct flight. Okay. Well, like I said, Thanks for playing our game. We'll get into it now with all of our fun questions and get to know you a little bit better. So we always like to start with just tell us a little bit about yourself, your journey to Arctic Wolf. And if you could maybe start with, like, what did JJ want to be when he was a little boy? And how did you end up here?
JJ Freitag 17:34
Yeah, oddly enough, I grew up wanting to do deals and buy companies. Really work in finance? No, I, I think, probably, like most boys, I think I wanted to be, you know, a quarterback for the Washington Redskins. It was my team at the time growing up, or maybe a doctor like, you know, my uncles, or something along those lines. But I went, ended up going to leaving Virginia to go to school in California, and started working in the software company right out of college. So I worked at Oracle in the 90s, and sort of, you know, it was a good time to get into the software business. And I was in sort of focused on enterprise software, pretty much my whole career. So it was, it was right out of college, you know, for the next 30 years, I guess,
Mary Newville 18:32
wow. What did you study in college?
JJ Freitag 18:35
I was a public policy major. We didn't we at Stan, Stanford was pretty liberal arts school, so we only had a handful of of majors. Didn't have a business degree or accounting or finance type things, so public policy was was a close kin in the economics department. Yeah, history and poli sci.
Mary Newville 19:02
Wait, what was that first job out of college, then in at Oracle? Well,
JJ Freitag 19:08
my first job was actually working for an economist at the Hoover Institute, studying the federal budget and so, so I realized after about nine months that I really enjoyed John COVID, the professor I was working for, but I did not want to be an econ PhD, and then took a job at Oracle as a compensation analyst, working In the finance department, paying our very large sales team,
Mary Newville 19:44
interesting details. So how'd you get from there to what else
JJ Freitag 19:50
I was there for, maybe 18 months or two years, and then sort of, this was. In the mid 90s at this point, and people were, you know, I had colleagues and friends working at startups that seemed like a fun thing through a friend of a friend, ended up taking a job as an Associate Product Manager at a bi company so focused on reporting and analytics, and spent most of the next 10 years in that space, product management and then pre sales and technical sales, and then ended up managing a territory on the sales side. So that was sort of the first phase of my career the first decade or so, and then ended up going back to business school, got my MBA with an intent to get in on the investing side of software. So took a job with with a venture capital firm back out in California. So I bounced around a little bit, went to business school in New York, and then moved back out to the Bay Area and worked for a venture capital firm out there where we were doing really early stage investing. So got a chance to, you know, sort of knock on a lot of doors, talk to a lot of CEOs. We invested in about 13 companies in the fund that I was in, and then I ended up joining one of the companies that that I invested in is the head operations. We sold the company to VMware, and then I moved into, sort of my first step into corporate development. Spent some time working for a group that was doing consulting for NetSuite to try and find them some targets to buy. And this was in probably 2012 2013
Mary Newville 21:46
so you've lived all over the country. What? How did you land in Nashville?
JJ Freitag 21:52
So I was working for Koopa, which in the corporate development running the Corporate Development Team sort of there. I went there to to build an M and A function at Coupa as a we were probably $50 million when I started. And my ex wife, who I'd met in Nashville, was from here. We had two kids, and I was traveling very external facing, so I was on the road a lot. We were very active in the deals we were looking at and working on. She wanted to be back in Nashville, and it wasn't terribly important that I that I'd be at headquarters anymore. So, you know, fortunate able to work it out where I was able to work out in Nashville.
Chelsea Lowman 22:37
I just feel like there's so much I don't know about this world is part of your role, being super external and like networking and knowing people and talking to people like all of that is even happening, obviously, before you have these, like, initial conversations, or,
JJ Freitag 22:56
yeah, if I'm if I'm doing my job really well, and our team is firing on all cylinders. In theory, we should be knowing, you know, all, or most of the companies in the in the segments that we're interested in acquiring things for, you know, a year or two before we're really talking to them. So, you know, watching them grow, getting understand what they're looking for with the exit could be, so, you know, so we're really trying to touch as many of these, is these companies as we can on a very regular basis, probably talking to, You know, 250 or 300 a year. Wow. Wow.
Chelsea Lowman 23:41
And when you're making these connections, is there like, a kind of underlying understanding of like, Oh, they're talking to us because they might be interested, or is it just like, hey, we just want to be connected? Well, it's,
JJ Freitag 23:57
it's it, I think it serves a couple purposes. One, we can be useful in coordinating CEOs, founders, you know, and business folks inside smaller companies with with connections inside our company, we can give them market feedback as as to what's going on. You know, we're seeing lots of deals. Give them some feedback, sort of on, you know, where companies may be trading and valuations and those sorts of things. So, you know, try and make it as is quid pro quo as we can. But certainly when folks are talking to us, you know, there could be a long term intent that either a strategic partnership or, you know, M and A event, or at least an M and A event in the category would would be coming, you know, at some point down the road.
Mary Newville 24:50
So when we energy, when we read your bio, we mentioned that you've led and completed over 50 deals worth billions of. Dollars and analyze 1000s of deals over your career. What's something that people would find surprising about the mergers and acquisition process? I don't
JJ Freitag 25:10
know if it would be surprising or not. It is. It's a very people and it's a very personal business, particularly when you're talking to founder owned companies. You know, these companies are, you know, for all intents and purposes, another child of theirs, maybe their only child, if they have but if they have kids, they you know, they spend, you know, as much time with these companies as they do with their families. They're building these things. So the conversation about how these companies end up somewhere else, what they look like, what happens with the employees? You know, it's very personal to these guys. There's also a financial component, you know, which, often times, is, is sort of, you know, the how much money are you being paid conversation. So it becomes personal, intimate conversations pretty quickly. So you get to know these, the the people on the other side, very well, very quickly. I don't know if that's a surprise or not. It was a surprise to me when I got into it.
Chelsea Lowman 26:24
Well, I was just going to say, you said it was a surprise to you when you got into it. And I'm just so curious about like, the first deal you were a part of, like, if you remember, like, how you felt, what that process was like, if there's like, a highlighter learning that, like, really stood out to you in that first time of like, oh, okay, this is what this business is like,
JJ Freitag 26:48
yeah. I mean, I've probably the first trying to think back to the first deal we did, or an early deal we did at the venture firm. So we weren't buying companies, but we were, we were buying pieces of them, you know, so we buy 20 or 30% of these companies, so the the diligence process and the the intent was very similar. And, you know, they're looking for a long term relationship with us, so that, I mean, that was truly something that stuck out to me was these guys are looking to find out how we do business as people and investors, and, you know, we're going to have a long term relationship with them. So that was a surprise, the amount of dollars that move around at a high level based on sort of, you know, decisions sitting around the table, you know, whether you're data driven and looking at spreadsheets or, you know, conversations with folks, you know, it's, it's people end up getting these deals done, and people end up making these, these business decisions. And it's, it's when you're one of the people making them. It hits home. You know, if you're sitting looking at, well, Cisco acquired, you know, 300 businesses over X amount of time, you don't probably think about the fact that there's a person you know sitting in a room talking with other people, and you know, she may be pitching, you know, a founder, and, I mean, it takes people to get these things done, right? I don't know how AI changes that, but, but for now, it is, it is a, a, very much a, you know, very few to very few people sitting across a table or a phone or zoom and and moving these deals that end up, you know, driving billions of dollars of value. Now,
Chelsea Lowman 28:47
let's take a moment for our well wolf break and hear from one of our pack members.
Speaker 1 28:51
Hi. I'm Forrest Barth. I am a wolf ambassador and concierge security engineer out of the Pleasant Grove office in Utah as part of the well wolf Ambassadors Program, we pulled the office try and get a feel for what people wanted to see and do with our budget and how we could try and maximize impact. And ultimately, we decided to go with meal Nutri meal prep and nutrition planning. So we had a Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist Heather Lieber, come in and give us an hour long presentation on best practices and things that you can do to try and help implement this in life. And it was a huge success. Had tons of people joining from not only the Utah office, but across the company. So it was great to see the the massive response for that, and just the sheer number of attendees in that meeting, and kind of the the big key takeaways that she offered up, you know, don't get, don't get caught up in the extremes. You know, a lot of people will go for these fad diets that are very. Very, very prescribed, very, you know, stringent in how they dictate the things that you can or shouldn't eat. And a lot of it was just trying to find the neutral kind of middle ground in that, you know, that's the whole idea behind Goldie, you know, Goldilocks. You know, not too hot, not too cold, just right, and so avoiding the extremes, but, you know, finding the good in each of those different diets and things that you can implement a few different techniques so you can do, you know, pre portion planning, where you're just making everything in advance and then just portioning it out and sticking in the freezer or fridge for use throughout the week, or just kind of, kind of mice in place having, you know, the various ingredients that you can just kind of pick and pull and throw something together last minute. We've got that recorded so we can, we can send you the the video if you'd like to check that out. We also have the PDF handout that she included. So if, if there is anything that you want to dive into and get a better feel for, hit me up on Slack. I'll get you the that information and, yeah, any questions or, you know, recommendations for future activities, or anything like that. I'm all yours. Looking forward to what we have coming in 2025 our next planned activity is a do it yourself, build a miniature Zen Garden.
Mary Newville 31:32
Okay, I have to imagine, with your experience, there are some truisms you've learned over the years. What are the truisms you've learned about negotiation and, like, negotiating with people? Like, are there, like, some things that are like, Oh, you low ball, if you go low there. Like, what are those things you've learned over the years of like, managing these huge deals?
JJ Freitag 31:55
I mean, I think that everybody sort of finds their own style, and it probably reflects either, you know, I think done well, it reflects the culture of the business you're with. Also, I think the last two groups that that I have been with, Arctic Wolf and the job prior, we were very action oriented, sort of, you know, focused on the outcome, but also very authentic in our approach, you know. So I think generally, tried to be honest about what we were, you know, any position we were taken be transparent about what we wanted to get done the time we wanted to get done. I think there's a point of view that investment bankers or guys in M and A are sort of sharks or, you know, just trying to get to the end best deal possible. And I don't, you know, in my experience, that's not the case at all, because you're, you know, when you're buying these companies or investing in companies, you're working with these folks for years, you know, so, so you're, you're trying to set up a great working relationship going forward. So I think being authentic about the the deal and the terms and how you want to do it, and the timing pays dividends, because, you know, it's never a one and done. You know, it's not like we're going to pay a 50 bucks and, you know, great, wash your hands and you're done. I mean, there's, you know, so many levers to pull and and turns to work through and nuances in a deal, that being authentic and transparent from the get go pays dividends, you know, down the line, in the deal and certainly in your reputation going forward. And the other truism, and I would say this is more of a truism, is, don't do deals in Florida. Oh, really?
33:58
Why?
JJ Freitag 33:59
It's sort of like the, you know, Google. Man, in Florida in your birthday and, and what do you come up with?
Chelsea Lowman 34:08
Florida? Man, yeah,
JJ Freitag 34:09
that's that. That's exactly right. It's just, it's a different world. Stay away, interesting.
Mary Newville 34:14
Well, I'm hearing great deals involve really solid relationships here and see authenticity. And long term investment.
JJ Freitag 34:25
It that's absolutely right. And we're, we're in these things for a long, long time, you know? I mean, it's, it's, if you get it wrong, you can't just turn it off and wipe it away. Yeah. It's
Mary Newville 34:40
really interesting that you bring up the person aspect, and how it's someone's dream and it's their baby, like when you think of a business, you don't think about the human or the original people that dreamed it up and poured blood, sweat and tears, and now they're going to sell it, and that might mean it gets to. Taken apart or something they built. Like, yeah, there's a lot of emotions there,
JJ Freitag 35:05
for sure, and it's, it's, you know, some of the early questions about their business. Why did you start the business? Why did you decide to, you know, leave a great paying job and go start something on your own that's a risk and cost your own money. Why'd you name it? What you named it? There's great stories in the, you know, the creation of of any of these companies, big or small. I
Mary Newville 35:31
have to imagine from your seat, as the you always bet on the side of the company acquiring I mean, I'm sure you've probably been in both, but like, in your job, you're acquiring companies. I gotta imagine that you've been on the seat where you know that you would have, or could have paid way more, or like you, like the company was prepared to pay more, but they settled much less. And then companies, or is that true? And if so, like, what's kind of the difference between like deals where it's most advantageous for both parties versus when a company's like, could have gotten more? I don't know if you can share that. Yeah,
JJ Freitag 36:14
it's probably a hard question to answer, because there's so much work that goes into the deal. And it's, it's again, it's not it did this. Is this worth $100 or $1,000 there's time, you know, there's deal structure, whether you're buying things with stock or cash. There's, you know, employees that you take on and cash burn. So there's a lot of different pieces that aren't just, you know, am I paying 100 or $1,000 for this? So it's it. I don't think there's a simple answer to, well, we could have gotten a lot more. It's, it's, you know, which, what's the piece that's most important to you, and what's the piece that's most important to us? And hopefully we can both get most of the things that are most important to us. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 37:18
wait, I also have so much, um, have you ever finalized a deal, or been part of a deal, and obviously no naming names or anything that that like you closed it and it just like for you didn't necessarily feel right. There
JJ Freitag 37:35
are certainly deals that I have done that I disagreed on the priority of getting the deal done, but it was important to other folks in the company that would that we do it so, you know, you know, there's, there's a lot of people on The executive team, and, you know, drivers that have influence and why we would want to do something, and rarely does everybody agree on a single thing, right? So plenty of deals will go where I would have preferred we do something else, or there was another company that maybe I liked better, but this was a better structure or framework, or we couldn't afford it, or we needed, you know, more revenue, or less people, or less Barnes, so that those, those things happen a lot.
Chelsea Lowman 38:30
Do you off the top of your head, what's the shortest deal that you've ever closed, and what's a deal that's taken the longest?
JJ Freitag 38:41
Probably this, you know, a very short deal would be probably 45 days, start to finish, so maybe the company to buying it, wow, that's generally going to be on the smaller side, or a space that we know really well. Silence was very fast, but it was. It was a space that that we as a company know really well. We'd spend a lot of time and talk to more than a dozen companies in this space, and you know, thought about it for years. So we were able to move quickly because we talked to them before we knew the technology. We knew that we wanted it. We were very positive on on what it was doing. On the long side, probably two years, okay, you know, it's not two years of continuous work. It's, you know, start, stop, start, stop. Now is not the right time for us, or, you know, for the other side. I mean, it's, it's probably like, like dating in some ways, like both parties have to be. Be ready. It's got to be the right time for everybody. You know, both sides have to be in a, you know, a place where that commitment is is available.
Chelsea Lowman 40:12
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So sometimes
JJ Freitag 40:15
it can take longer than either I would want, or, you know, the founder or the investors on the other side would want for sure
Chelsea Lowman 40:24
you mentioned silence. And so before we get to some silence discussion, one more random question. Mary and I are on the people experience team. So we're all things, culture, employee, experience. How much, how much chat is there in your discussions? Um, with, you know, companies that you're going to acquire, like, how curious are they about culture and employee experience, and how big of a role does that maybe play in companies choosing to join together, I guess a
JJ Freitag 41:04
lot, I mean, it's, it is a critical part of of US selling, particularly a founder, you know, a PE owned company, not always as concerned sometimes, but the founder owned companies, 100% of the time, are very concerned about where their people land. What it's like? Does it? Does it match? The have to match. But is it? Is it a good fit for their employees? You know, we talked about their babies, so that culture and the things that y'all do on the experience side, the onboarding, getting them acquainted with with us that is critical to to success and a huge part of our pitch. Well,
Chelsea Lowman 41:56
that's a perfect segue, because by the time this podcast will have come out, we will have literally just onboarded our brand new silence employees, which is so exciting. Yeah, so like, obviously, whatever you can share publicly. Like, just take us behind the scenes. A little bit. You said, silence moved pretty quickly. Um, like, is there any fun facts you want to share about that process? And then also, like, what initially made you also excited about silence as an opportunity?
JJ Freitag 42:30
Well, I mean, I think one of the reasons it was able to move fast is, I think it was a great you were able to have a real win for both sides, it was important to BlackBerry that they find a good home for the employees that had been there for six or seven years. You guys will see this when when you do some of the onboarding, but you know, the BlackBerry employees are very loyal to BlackBerry, and Blackberry has been very loyal to their employees. They treated them well. It was really important that they find a good home for the employees. And they're, you know, they're good folks, you know, in our discussion. So that helped move things quickly. The cultural fit was an easy box to check, and something I think that was a real advantage for us going into this deal, and a reason why BlackBerry was was pretty happy to to engage with us. We were able to get in to talk to them just before they had announced that they were looking to divest. So the timing was good on our part. As you'd heard Nick say in the town halls this end point, space is a place we've been very interested in we've had, we had a couple people involved on the diligent side that had worked at silence prior to the purchase from BlackBerry. So we had guys internally that knew the company the technology, were able to vet it pretty quickly because of that. So a lot of things lined up to make that move pretty quickly, from intro or re intro, I guess, to to sign in the deal.
Chelsea Lowman 44:31
Well, like I said, when this is live, we'll have around 400 new PAC members with us. I know. How about that? Yeah, thank you for all your hard work and, yeah, bringing that to life. So exciting.
JJ Freitag 44:46
Yeah, it was, it was fun for me to be able to come on board and sort of have access to a project that was really important for us, that we've been, you know, a cat. Board we've been looking at for a long time. And, you know, have the good fortune that timing wise, this came up when it did.
Mary Newville 45:08
I mean, like on the moving fast piece. From my perspective, I went on a little vacation to Brazil at the end of November, and I remember my manager had told me, I think at the time, like the expected, announced date was like, late January, and then closed sometime late, early spring. I don't remember, but it was like in the future. And I thought to myself, like, okay, no worries, when I get back, I'll still have, like, a lot of time. And then I got back, and she was like, yeah, by the way, this is moving really quickly. We plan to announce next week, or whatever. It was like, right away, I was like, oh my goodness
JJ Freitag 45:42
it is, you know, you asked about truisms earlier. Another truism for M and A is certainly that that time is the enemy of of deals, you know, so where you have focus and an opportunity to, you know, for everybody on both sides to move quickly, you've got to take advantage of it, because it doesn't last, you know, forever, and it can can bring down, you know, tons of things that are working at the company, if you get too mired in a deal that's not going forward, okay,
Mary Newville 46:12
well, switching gears here a little bit. We always like to chat about leadership and our culture. What's like the best leadership advice you've ever heard and how have you grown as a leader throughout your career?
JJ Freitag 46:26
I had a great meeting right out of college with with an investor named Charles Schwab, who run, you know, ran still has a name, but you know a giant investment firm,
Mary Newville 46:40
well, you met e Charles swab, I did
JJ Freitag 46:43
so
Chelsea Lowman 46:49
I know when you like, you may have heard the name. I'm like, Yes, Haven't we all? Well,
JJ Freitag 46:55
we used to advertise a lot more, but he was very generous with with his time, and sat down with me for a couple minutes. But he used to sell insulation, I think, sort of early on between college and business school. Okay, I'm sure I'm getting some of this wrong, but, you know, sort of a door to door thing. And he told me, he said, he said this. He said, I haven't found a business yet where you can be successful without having to manage and understand people. So sort of back to, you know, deals being people related. He impressed upon me early on that whether it was investing or sales, or, you know, teaching that you know one to one communication and group communication is going to be critical to your success. Invest in it, understand it and and you know it will certainly help you in your career. And he's been very right. Do
Chelsea Lowman 48:01
you have any, like, books or podcasts or things leadership resources that you've used throughout your career that you'd recommend? Yeah.
JJ Freitag 48:11
I mean, I think some of the standards, I think Good to Great was, was something that that was a fun one for me, there's a podcast called acquired where these two sort of self proclaimed Silicon Valley sort of analytic nerds spend several hours diving into company structure and acquisitions. That's a cool one. It's, it takes a lot of time. There's a lot to chew on when you get into it, but that one's really good. And you know, anytime I can, I learn as much from talking to and listening to, you know founders across the world that I get a chance to meet is from from anybody else, because they've all got their own stories and they're fascinating. Oh
Mary Newville 49:11
my gosh. Wait on that topic of founders and leadership. What would I mean? I'm all about the themes today. But is there, like, some characteristics that you would say are common in the best founders that you've met over your career?
JJ Freitag 49:30
So characteristics that are common in the most successful founders?
Mary Newville 49:35
Yeah, there we go. I have met
JJ Freitag 49:38
off of the list is, optimism and stubbornness. Okay, you know? I mean, I don't think anybody in their right mind quits a job and goes to start a business. They shouldn't, if they were, you know, being very realistic. About their chances of success, but they do because they're, you know, very reliant on their own ability to get things done. They're stubborn to the point that, you know, they won't take no for an answer ever you know, and they believe you know that that optimism, it's a real thing that
Mary Newville 50:22
is, yeah, it's fascinating because it's true. I mean, it is hard, so you've got to have someone that believes you can weather the storm and overcome any challenges, kind of interesting. I'm listening to Steve Jobs autobiography, or not autobiography, the biography of Steve Jobs right now, and I feel like optimism, and I'm not saying he's a great people leader, but the optimism and stubbornness, like, it's interesting right now, I'm just they're talking a lot about how, like, he wouldn't give up on his ideas, even when everybody else didn't see the vision.
JJ Freitag 50:55
Yeah, they're the they are, or tend to be a force of nature to to start these things from the ground up and build it into something. Would
Chelsea Lowman 51:04
you say that someone in your role would need those same two characteristics, or would they you need kind of opposite characteristics to play along with them as you're so to speak,
JJ Freitag 51:22
I think we've got to, we need to be decisive. We do have to be optimistic, but we have to communicate realism, right? You know? I mean, we have to communicate sort of frameworks of deals that, in all cases, are less than you know. The the other side tells you they want you know whether or not that's true. So we do have to sort of be a bit of a mirror. I think it's a good point to highlight that, that some of that you know, this is where the market trades. This is what the last 10 deals we've seen have done, you know, preventing present a realistic point of view is is critical. Now we also were pitching a vision of what the combined groups look like, you know, so there's certainly plenty of optimism and vision that we're trying to pitch there.
Mary Newville 52:21
Okay, and I need to know, have you come across any like Elizabeth Holmes
JJ Freitag 52:31
in different forms? Yes, for sure. And
Mary Newville 52:35
it does it ever, have you ever kind of been bamboozled, where you all are like, this is great, but then as you dig underneath the surface, you're like, wait, yeah,
JJ Freitag 52:43
it's there's never enough time to get all of the information that you want on everything you know. So if you don't ever get below the surface, you're for sure, going to be misled, you know, maybe bamboozled. Sometimes you you close a deal, or you get to signing, and you know that you don't know everything you like, but you are hopeful or optimistic that you got enough right, that the thing's going to work. There are bad actors that that I have come across and not done deals with often, that usually reveals itself sooner rather than at the end. I think it's hard to be a bad actor and have, you know, a legal team on the other side, an accounting team, you know, a whole team that's also subscribed to that.
Chelsea Lowman 53:39
I feel like Mary and I could talk to you about about this process for three more hours, even during the leadership portion, we somehow got back to but it's just so interesting.
JJ Freitag 53:55
It's, it's nice to think that somebody else is interested in the, you know, sort of the the nuances and messiness of what we do over here well,
Chelsea Lowman 54:07
and I think there's that aspect of, like, secretiveness at the beginning. You know,
JJ Freitag 54:15
a lot of the confidentiality of what we do is critical, right, yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 54:19
So it's like, Ooh, what's happening in these meetings? You know, before we get to our rapid fire questions at the end, we do always like to touch on wellness and well being. So we ask all of our guests, what does well being mean to you? And kind of like, what does well being look like to you it,
JJ Freitag 54:41
I mean, sadly, it sort of goes out the window when I get involved in a deal. And, you know, I've been doing this for a long time, and I still have not really wrapped my arms around how to manage my well being and get a deal closed when I want to get it closed. Uh huh. So not, not a super strength on a an ongoing basis, but I come in and out of it, and when I find it, I know it's good for me. And it's, you know, it's, it's usually the basics of for me, of of balance between, you know, as I get older, sleep, eaten decently, and, you know, exercise, spending time with the family. I mean, those are the things that sort of keep me in a good place, you know, and some level of, you know, staying attached to things that that are really important to me, seeing music, you know, mentioned sort of meals with the family or friends or those sorts of things. Yeah. And, you know, oftentimes I'll go, you know, six or 12 weeks without doing much of that, and hopefully find my way back to it.
Chelsea Lowman 55:55
Yeah. We've talked a lot on the podcast with various guests of like, part of well being and finding that balance is just accepting that there are busier times and there are less busy times, and just like doing what you can for yourself in both of those,
JJ Freitag 56:12
yeah, I think that's a great point of view. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 56:14
well, you've made it to the end, Mary, and I don't want it to be the end, but we we do try and keep our podcasts within the hour, so we always end with rapid fire questions. So just first thing that comes to your mind, okay, okay, best concert of your life.
JJ Freitag 56:35
So I've seen a lot of concerts, okay, best concert this year would have been the red clay strays at the Ryman Auditorium, or Jason is bull out at the kettle house Amphitheater in Montana. Probably the most coolest show I think I've ever seen would be you two with the sphere in Vegas, because it was just such a I couldn't begin to have convinced myself what I was going to see and feel so and then there's a band that I saw whatever as a teenager is there
Chelsea Lowman 57:13
are you like any type of genre? Do you have a favorite genre? Probably the
JJ Freitag 57:18
stuff that I listen to the most now is like Americana, singer songwriter,
Chelsea Lowman 57:23
sort of things, okay, favorite word,
JJ Freitag 57:27
what rating is this podcast?
Chelsea Lowman 57:30
We can bleep it out. Gratitude. Oh, I don't think we've had someone say that one before. Love, okay, a place on your bucket list? Athens Greece? Well, Nashville has the only other replica of the Parthenon. Look at you, one of them on one of them.
JJ Freitag 57:53
Which one is it? Yes, it's, it's the Greek one, obviously. Yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 57:58
Okay. What's something that people often get wrong about you. I think it
JJ Freitag 58:03
hard. I'm a pushover. Really nobody knows. Really nobody knows.
Chelsea Lowman 58:07
Like you mean, family, friends, yeah.
JJ Freitag 58:11
I mean, I think asked the right way. There's
Chelsea Lowman 58:17
I'll do anything interesting. I mean, even just talking to you, obviously, like, we all have various different personalities and show up in different ways depending on the context. Like you seem like such a friendly, nice guy. I can't see you in a boardroom like, you know, being like, but
JJ Freitag 58:37
it is fun to get to play the role that you're supposed to play, right?
Chelsea Lowman 58:41
Yeah, to put on that suit for a day and be
JJ Freitag 58:44
like, This is, yeah, I know my job. When I have to do it, I was like, I
Chelsea Lowman 58:49
don't know. Do we want that public that you might be a pushover for? Like, future negotiations?
JJ Freitag 58:53
I've gotten through enough of these now I'm probably okay, okay, okay, good,
Chelsea Lowman 58:58
okay. Final one, give us a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that has brought you joy.
JJ Freitag 59:03
Oh, gosh, so many. I mean, literally, just a we try and do on Sundays, my wife and the two boys play golf and have dinner. And you know, it doesn't happen 50 weeks a year, but we probably get 20 in a year, and they're just delightful. The
Chelsea Lowman 59:22
whole fam, all four of you play, that's right. Okay, nice. Who? Who's the best.
JJ Freitag 59:27
The wife is the best. My oldest son is second best. I moved into third this year. Two years ago, I was the best, but they've gotten better, and then me and my me and my 14 year old are duking it out, but he'll pass me soon.
Chelsea Lowman 59:46
Okay. Well, that was it. You survived. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was truly so fun.
JJ Freitag 59:53
It was so fun and so so nice to get a chance to chat with you guys and hear about y'all a little
Mary Newville 59:57
Yeah. Great to get to connect. I know you don't have a Slack profile picture, so it's nice to, like, put a face to the name and yeah, know the person behind all these exciting things happening in
JJ Freitag 1:00:11
her here we are. Hopefully we get to do lots more fun stuff together. Thank you all.
Chelsea Lowman 1:00:15
Wow, that was such a great conversation. It was so fun getting to hear a little bit more like behind the scenes of the silence process, especially now that they're officially part of the pack.
Mary Newville 1:00:27
Yes, that is true. Shout out, silence. Um, yeah, such a fun, fascinating conversation,
Chelsea Lowman 1:00:35
for sure. All right. Well, February is Black History Month. So we are celebrating here at Arctic wolf the theme. Our theme here at Arctic wolf for Black History Month is perseverance, which is really exciting. So there'll be a lot of events and activities related to that theme. So if you are a current pack member, make sure to check out the pack unity Slack channel, as well as the black employee Alliance Slack channel, where you can see all of the fun that will be happening this month.
Mary Newville 1:01:09
And if you want to be part of our vibrant and connected and one of a kind community that we call the pack, check out our open job postings@www.articulf.com back backslash careers, we'll talk to you in March. Bye. Everyone, everybody you.
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