Latest / Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth / 95: Mike Baker, CRO at Noname, talks about leading a sales team through hyper growth

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95: Mike Baker, CRO at Noname, talks about leading a sales team through hyper growth · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:43
  Andrew: welcome to the sales Bluebird podcast, where we believe that is plain wrong that sales teams at startups don't get the help to succeed like sales teams do at their bigger and more well-known competitors.
• 0:55
  Andrew: If you are a seller or sales leader at a B2B startup, especially if it's in the cybersecurity space, you're in the right place today.
• 1:03
  Andrew: I am your host, Andrew Monaghan, and welcome to episode 95 of the podcast.
• 1:08
  Andrew: And today's guest is Mike Baker, who is the CRO at Noname Security, Mike, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:17
  Mike Baker: Great to reconnect with you.
• 1:18
  Mike Baker: Thanks.
• 1:19
  Mike Baker: Thanks for having me guys.
• 1:20
  Andrew: I'm looking forward to this conversation.
• 1:22
  Andrew: Um, so Mike, when I look back at your LinkedIn, interesting kind of couple of bits in here.
• 1:28
  Andrew: You started off in sales, in the looks like the late nineties.
• 1:31
  Andrew: It says here, Cabletron and Intersys together.
• 1:35
  Andrew: What, why were they together?
• 1:36
  Andrew: Was it, were they part of the same company?
• 1:39
  Mike Baker: Yeah, it's, uh, uh, Cabletron since the, um, early competitor with Cisco and then, uh, rebranded itself as Intersys, just see the company change its name.
• 1:50
  Mike Baker: So same company, new name.
• 1:52
  Andrew: Okay.
• 1:52
  Andrew: Okay.
• 1:53
  Andrew: And then from Intersys, you went to McAfee, uh, through acquisitions, is that right?
• 2:00
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 2:01
  Mike Baker: So I was at an, uh, early on Israeli startup called Intercept, a host based IPS company.
• 2:07
  Mike Baker: The McAfee at that point had acquired a network based IPS company, uh, Introvert and Intercept at the same time.
• 2:17
  Mike Baker: And McAfee since they acquired those two technologies and then put us into one business group.
• 2:23
  Mike Baker: So we ended up, uh, the sales team and that part of McAfee was selling both host based and network-based IDs.
• 2:30
  Mike Baker: And so that, that was my start at McAfee and ended up at McAfee for I think it was over 12 years, which is mildly embarrassing.
• 2:39
  Mike Baker: And we had a great time.
• 2:40
  Andrew: Yeah.
• 2:40
  Andrew: According to this 13 years, that's quite the stretch.
• 2:43
  Andrew: Right.
• 2:43
  Andrew: And, and in those times, um, you know, essentially it was probably two or three different companies, really.
• 2:49
  Andrew: Right.
• 2:50
  Andrew: You had a different era in terms of CEO, different ownership as well at one point?
• 2:54
  Mike Baker: Yes, correct.
• 2:55
  Mike Baker: Yeah, that was an interesting time, you know, cyber security was really picking up the pace.
• 3:01
  Mike Baker: McAfee did have a strong brand was well known because of the, uh, early antivirus days and was trying to expand into the rest of the market.
• 3:10
  Mike Baker: So they made probably 10 acquisitions during that timeframe.
• 3:14
  Mike Baker: I think three different CEOs, but through and through what we saw at McAfee was, Good products, a great selling process and finding the right partners and right end users, and really can make a demonstrated value difference for end users specifically, but even for our partners with some great technology.
• 3:36
  Mike Baker: So is a extraordinary experience for me.
• 3:39
  Mike Baker: Wouldn't trade it.
• 3:40
  Mike Baker: It's, it's really where I learned the trade and advance from a sales rep to my last position where I was reporting to the CEO of McAfee, running a big piece of the commercial business.
• 3:52
  Andrew: And in that time, I think you were in the commercial side, but also on the fed DOD side.
• 3:57
  Andrew: Is that right?
• 3:58
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 3:58
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 3:59
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 3:59
  Mike Baker: It was a fun time.
• 4:01
  Mike Baker: McAfee at that point early days in federal really had 0% in terms of endpoint deployments that McAfee antivirus.
• 4:11
  Mike Baker: And so, there was a couple of us can't rounds was a compadre of mind and together we, uh, replatformed the department defense into a program called HBSS.
• 4:23
  Mike Baker: And so it ended up being a deployment of over 5 million nodes of McAfee, where before we essentially had no deployment within the department of defense.
• 4:32
  Mike Baker: So it was a huge victory for McAfee.
• 4:34
  Mike Baker: And even today, it still exists.
• 4:36
  Mike Baker: And, and as, uh, it's a great program for McAfee and they're executing quite well with the department of defense.
• 4:42
  Andrew: Yeah, I remember those days, right?
• 4:43
  Andrew: It was, it was quite the progression then success from pretty humble beginnings in our, in our deployments, in the, in the fair, right?
• 4:53
  Mike Baker: And it also provided an example that how to do just large deployments.
• 4:58
  Mike Baker: Uh, we had a management platform called the policy orchestrator EPO, and so that was key to a lot of victories.
• 5:07
  Mike Baker: And you see it across sales teams.
• 5:10
  Mike Baker: Even in my current job of running sales at Noname is you build the belief that you can make huge value opportunities for end-users, which also equates to large bookings, for manufacturers and when sales reps, and I'm really essentially a sales rep.
• 5:27
  Mike Baker: Uh, you know, I'm a seller.
• 5:29
  Mike Baker: I love it.
• 5:29
  Mike Baker: And, and so when you have confidence and you can see other people doing$10 million transactions,$8 million dollars, it's it's, uh, becomes easier.
• 5:39
  Mike Baker: It's sorta like running.
• 5:41
  Mike Baker: The first person ran the four minute mile.
• 5:43
  Mike Baker: That was hard.
• 5:44
  Mike Baker: And then it became easier and easier over time.
• 5:46
  Mike Baker: Uh, as, as the belief gets to your heart and you know, it can be done.
• 5:50
  Mike Baker: And then, and then.
• 5:52
  Andrew: Oh, it's so true.
• 5:52
  Andrew: I remember, uh, my first million dollar deal, like, you know, junior seller, you don't believe it's possible.
• 5:59
  Andrew: Right?
• 5:59
  Andrew: You think that's right.
• 6:00
  Andrew: 15 years experience, but have the ability to do something like that.
• 6:03
  Andrew: And then you do it and you go, oh, actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it was.
• 6:07
  Andrew: And I can do it again.
• 6:08
  Andrew: And again.
• 6:10
  Mike Baker: Yeah, it's a it's exactly that Andrew, at that time we were running, there was, uh, uh, if any deal over$10 million, McAfee gave you a two year lease on a Porche.
• 6:23
  Mike Baker: And so, uh, that, that was just a really fun time.
• 6:27
  Andrew: Yeah, it was good times, but then good times come to an end and you moved from quite a big role at McAfee, right.
• 6:34
  Andrew: Reporting to the CEO.
• 6:36
  Andrew: And then you joined, which at the time was pretty hot, which is Cylance, right.
• 6:40
  Andrew: That, uh, 2015 was when Cylance and crushed.
• 6:43
  Andrew: Right.
• 6:44
  Andrew: We're beginning to make inroads.
• 6:46
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 6:47
  Mike Baker: You know, I think that that transition is an interesting one we want to talk about too becuase when you think about when you're at a larger company, you tend to have larger OTEs and the income is quite significant.
• 7:01
  Mike Baker: And so when I decided to move, I called Stuart McClure and Nick Warner was over there.
• 7:06
  Mike Baker: Nick's a good friend of mine.
• 7:08
  Mike Baker: It just was time for me to leave McAfee.
• 7:11
  Mike Baker: And to do something different, but really to get back to my roots, my startup, that's how I got to McAfee.
• 7:17
  Mike Baker: And so, you know, I called the guys and, uh, they had a role, but, literally what they were able to offer me in terms of OTE was about a third of what my W2 was at McAfee that prior year.
• 7:31
  Mike Baker: And I took the role, it was a vice president sales role.
• 7:35
  Mike Baker: And my wife, as you might imagine Andrew, looked at me like I was completely insane.
• 7:40
  Mike Baker: Um, but I just knew that it was the right thing.
• 7:43
  Mike Baker: And I think that all of us face these moments where we have to make career transitions and there has to be some sacrifice because what we did in the past, won't get us to where we need to be in the future.
• 7:54
  Mike Baker: I like it's sort of a theme that I have in my life.
• 7:57
  Mike Baker: And so sometimes you take a step sideways or even backwards specifically around.
• 8:03
  Mike Baker: To grow even more, to become better.
• 8:05
  Mike Baker: And so Cylance was a huge big step for me because it put me back into the startup world to put me back into that mindset of young companies and, and how to, how to build great companies.
• 8:18
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 8:18
  Mike Baker: And, and, and get back into that mindset.
• 8:21
  Mike Baker: And over time, the, the money comes back.
• 8:25
  Mike Baker: And, uh, but while just the extraordinary experiences since that early days of Cylance to now, it's just been, uh, you know, 2021 was my best year ever.
• 8:36
  Mike Baker: Uh, just an extraordinary year of my life.
• 8:38
  Mike Baker: And I expect 2022 to be the same.
• 8:40
  Andrew: Well, let's far forward then, uh, Cylance.
• 8:43
  Andrew: You were there for a year and a half or so.
• 8:45
  Andrew: And then, uh, made a move to a company called Armis and Armis has become a lot more well-known right in, in cyber.
• 8:55
  Andrew: Uh, but at the time I would imagine it was, it was pretty early stages for RMS.
• 8:59
  Mike Baker: Yeah they had just hired a COO, so very young company, no customers, um, born in Israel, two incredible founders.
• 9:08
  Mike Baker: Uh, um, you have gotten into dear just.
• 9:12
  Mike Baker: Brought their brothers and mine, and it's super, super good friends.
• 9:15
  Mike Baker: Um, and somehow you have gotten into deer, uh, found me and they were recruiting me, uh, when I was at Cylance.
• 9:22
  Mike Baker: And we were talking about this problem, that of, um, uh, uh, endpoint security, but around devices that you couldn't put agents on.
• 9:31
  Mike Baker: And I, it showed up to me in spades at both McAfee and Cylance, where customers are talking about devices, that they're just, you just can't, you know, a video camera.
• 9:40
  Mike Baker: The telephone, uh, you know, there's thousands of different IOT devices that you can put agents on.
• 9:46
  Mike Baker: And so, we were talking about the approach that they were building and had built in Tel Aviv.
• 9:51
  Mike Baker: And, and for me, it was just, uh, it was an magnificent stay at Cylance.
• 9:56
  Mike Baker: I think my last quarter of silence, we did over 300 net new transactions.
• 10:01
  Mike Baker: So there, there was this tremendous momentum in the business and the team was strong.
• 10:05
  Mike Baker: Um, but I just saw this as an opportunity to.
• 10:08
  Mike Baker: To go do my own thing.
• 10:09
  Mike Baker: And I really wanted to, uh, step into the role, build, be early at a startup and take it from seed to as far as I could take it.
• 10:20
  Mike Baker: And so, uh, I made that transition.
• 10:23
  Mike Baker: It was a great CS Cylance, but the opportunity at Armis is for me to grow as a man, as a seller, as a human was just right in front of me and I saw the market maybe a little bit before the market showed up.
• 10:37
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 10:37
  Mike Baker: If there was coaching that I could give to the audiences, is it, you know, when people call you and saying, you should pay attention a little bit, but, but when you, when, you know, in your heart, that is the right thing to do.
• 10:49
  Mike Baker: When people are calling you and saying it's probably the right thing to do.
• 10:52
  Mike Baker: When the masses go one way, I tend to go the opposite way, because that's where the gold is.
• 10:57
  Mike Baker: You know, is it when people are running in one direction, if you'll just take three steps, the opposite direction that miracles can happen.
• 11:04
  Mike Baker: And that's been my experience.
• 11:06
  Mike Baker: So then this was true with RMS, for sure.
• 11:08
  Mike Baker: I got it.
• 11:09
  Mike Baker: Lot of coaching that this, you know, it's too early.
• 11:11
  Mike Baker: It's not, there's not a market.
• 11:14
  Mike Baker: And yet what we did, I was there at RMS for three years and built a business, you know, over a billion dollars.
• 11:22
  Mike Baker: There was an equity event, Google and insight, um, invested into RMS, paid to pay the original investors out.
• 11:30
  Mike Baker: So everybody in the car.
• 11:32
  Mike Baker: Uh, experience the equity event and including myself.
• 11:36
  Mike Baker: And so then that was a good transition point for me to, uh, to go do it again and, and, and do, do something even more, um, magnificent, but Armis is in really good hands.
• 11:48
  Mike Baker: They've got a great sales leader, great sales team.
• 11:50
  Mike Baker: And then of course the founders are still there and they're doing a terrific job.
• 11:54
  Andrew: Yeah.
• 11:55
  Andrew: Speaking of sales leaders at RMS, let me take you back.
• 11:58
  Andrew: Um, you were, as I have heard, you were on quite the terror for a year or two, you'd be in sales, number one, built the team, and suddenly someone else shows up above you in the sales org and you know, the CRO.
• 12:13
  Andrew: I would imagine that was well, I'll ask you, how did you feel about that?
• 12:17
  Andrew: How did that impact your, your kind of mental state of, uh, how things were going.
• 12:23
  Mike Baker: Well, I think that the, uh, like I think, uh, you know, the F the first 90 seconds of it is just like, it's sort of a wow moment, but, um, the, the critical thing is for me, this is it I knew that I needed to be better.
• 12:37
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 12:38
  Mike Baker: And I needed to grow and needed to learn more.
• 12:40
  Mike Baker: And.
• 12:41
  Mike Baker: And so to have people around me and above me and below me that have done it before younger, older age, really doesn't, isn't a material factor here.
• 12:51
  Mike Baker: It's more around, how do we grow?
• 12:53
  Mike Baker: How do we become better?
• 12:54
  Mike Baker: How do we become better leaders, sellers, humans.
• 12:58
  Mike Baker: And so, after the first 90 seconds for me, it was like, Kind of, uh, let's go let's, let's continue to build this company let's, um, uh, grow together.
• 13:09
  Mike Baker: Um, and Jeff, Jeff Williams is who, who, who came in at that point.
• 13:13
  Mike Baker: He was an advisory board member.
• 13:15
  Mike Baker: And so it was great working with Jeff and, uh, tremendous experience.
• 13:18
  Mike Baker: Jeff has, I think the audience probably knows, has a ton of, uh, terrific experiences and been successful at multiple different companies.
• 13:26
  Mike Baker: So for me, it was as much as anything, it was an honor.
• 13:30
  Mike Baker: To, uh, just to be, to be there, to, to, to can you, like, I continue to run worldwide sales.
• 13:36
  Mike Baker: I carried the global number and, uh, you know, my time at Armis, we never missed a quarter.
• 13:41
  Mike Baker: Uh, we haven't, we haven't missed a quarter.
• 13:44
  Mike Baker: Like it's sort of from a startup perspective, it's so important in those early quarters, not to miss your numbers.
• 13:50
  Mike Baker: And so.
• 13:51
  Mike Baker: You know, there's a lot of, a lot of things that I'm proud of and, and, uh, but most of it is due to just having a great team team members around me.
• 13:59
  Andrew: Well, let's talk about that then as you move to no-name right?
• 14:02
  Andrew: So they, the real liquidity liquidity event at our most timing was right.
• 14:07
  Andrew: Um, and then you can continue the patter and you move somewhere else and you know, no name at the time.
• 14:15
  Andrew: Wasn't well-known um, I would imagine there's a few people telling you that wasn't the right thing to do as well, but, uh, you know, you went forward and did that.
• 14:22
  Andrew: So why don't you give us a little bit about, you know, what is the value prop a no-name what do you do?
• 14:27
  Andrew: And also how how's things going over there.
• 14:29
  Andrew: You've been there almost 18 months now.
• 14:31
  Mike Baker: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 14:33
  Mike Baker: Noname is just a, uh, just super fun company.
• 14:36
  Mike Baker: Uh we're we're on a tear.
• 14:39
  Mike Baker: When you think of the world today, um, specifically, if you were to compare it to 20 years ago and endpoint security, endpoint security was a tough problem to solve.
• 14:49
  Mike Baker: There just wasn't that much out there.
• 14:52
  Mike Baker: And so.
• 14:53
  Mike Baker: If you do some parallel tracks with Noname, Noname, uh, is maniacally focused on API security and APIs are today's new end points from a perspective of it has the customer's most important data, the most important information.
• 15:11
  Mike Baker: It's directly tied to the mission of the business of how, uh, information gets from partners to partners, to partners, to end-users.
• 15:20
  Mike Baker: And, and I think the audiences is hyper-aware of just the integration capability of IAP APIs and the ease of use that they provide.
• 15:29
  Mike Baker: And when, anytime we hear all of those words of ease of use and very important data and channels of information that are critical to the mission of the business, that it's also becomes the largest vector for a cyber attack.
• 15:44
  Mike Baker: And, and also just human.
• 15:47
  Mike Baker: And so this is what we've seen over the last couple of years.
• 15:51
  Mike Baker: More and more, uh, there's a lot of focus around the security of API APIs, Gartner, I think even predicted 2022, we, the year that the API APIs are the largest threat vector of all cyber attacks.
• 16:05
  Mike Baker: So, um, so we were a little bit ahead of the game.
• 16:09
  Mike Baker: Um, starting, you know, I think the company is now just at two years old.
• 16:15
  Mike Baker: Uh, we really just started selling the product.
• 16:18
  Mike Baker: Uh, in 2021 was our first really selling year.
• 16:22
  Mike Baker: So we're just completing that fiscal year, this January.
• 16:25
  Mike Baker: We have a fortune 10, uh, Businesses we have in every vertical, I think four out of the top five big pharmas are customers of ours.
• 16:35
  Mike Baker: And we're able to do seven-figure transactions at a very early stage.
• 16:41
  Mike Baker: And the value prop is really around.
• 16:43
  Mike Baker: Making sure an enterprise knows what all their AP, where and what, what just about discovery of API APIs, because you can't secure something that you don't know.
• 16:52
  Mike Baker: And, and it's nearly impossible for enterprises today without no name, to know where all their enterprise, all their APIs are.
• 17:00
  Mike Baker: And then we think about remediating protecting, and then.
• 17:04
  Mike Baker: And then ultimately, uh, within the platform, we're able to test, uh, APIs in a pre-prod environment with context because we have access to the traffic.
• 17:14
  Mike Baker: We know what the API is, are supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do.
• 17:18
  Mike Baker: And so as folks look at the platform and we're dealing with the largest of financials or customers, largest pharmas, Telcos the largest telco in the world is a customer.
• 17:30
  Mike Baker: So the, uh, experience that we have and selling the team that we've been able to put together.
• 17:37
  Mike Baker: The addressable market that the readiness of customers to and customers knowing what a huge problem this is, has really allowed us to accelerate our growth to the point where, within our first year of selling, we've just recently we're analysis.
• 17:53
  Mike Baker: The first unicorn, the first billion dollar.
• 17:56
  Mike Baker: API business on the planet.
• 17:58
  Mike Baker: So it's, it's been a really fun run, but we, you know, our ultimate goal is to, is to take the company public and, and we're, we're tracking that way to do it, uh, quite efficiently and quickly.
• 18:10
  Andrew: That sounds like quite the tear in the last 15, 18 months.
• 18:14
  Andrew: Um, if I looked on LinkedIn, you don't need to comment on this.
• 18:17
  Andrew: If you don't want to, uh, That there's roughly 250 employees now.
• 18:22
  Andrew: So, you know, in a year and a half, you'd gone from, you know, under 10 to 250.
• 18:26
  Andrew: So, you know, I imagine obviously some of those grown through funding, but, funding in the confidence of the business probably goes with, right?
• 18:34
  Mike Baker: Yeah, I think I it's, uh, it's this is where experience helps Andrew, honestly, of, of building teams at Armis of building teams at Cylance, but it's also the big company experience that I had at, at McAfee from going from rep to, to a leader and just sort of, uh, gathering this, uh, You know, decades of information of what w what might work and what might not work.
• 19:01
  Mike Baker: And every company is slightly different.
• 19:03
  Mike Baker: And so just because it worked in the past, doesn't mean it'll work in the future.
• 19:07
  Mike Baker: So when we saw immediately that we were experiencing rapid growth, I mean, there, the customer adoption was, has, has just been.
• 19:17
  Mike Baker: Extraordinary, frankly.
• 19:18
  Mike Baker: And so, as, as you are crushing your numbers, that the board expects you, then it requires you to start to scale the organization.
• 19:27
  Mike Baker: So when I started.
• 19:29
  Mike Baker: Uh, in early October, uh, you know, 18, whatever that is 18 months ago, I was the first U.S.
• 19:35
  Mike Baker: Employee.
• 19:36
  Mike Baker: We didn't have a U.S.
• 19:37
  Mike Baker: Entity.
• 19:37
  Mike Baker: There was absolutely nothing in the U.S.
• 19:40
  Mike Baker: And then we took that, uh, built the entity out, got, you know, like this.
• 19:45
  Mike Baker: Blocking tackling healthcare, uh, everything that an organization needs, uh, is we built that out.
• 19:51
  Mike Baker: Um, but then the PA I, I, I just felt like that.
• 19:56
  Mike Baker: And to my experience told me that we were going to be able to move faster with Noname security specifically in this, in the API security space.
• 20:06
  Mike Baker: And so what we did was we started with a BDR which is unusual for most startups because typically the pattern is to hire, uh, uh, you know, hire an east and west field rep and use their Rolodex and go get a couple of logos.
• 20:21
  Mike Baker: And, and so we, we upset that, you know, we did it a little differently.
• 20:25
  Mike Baker: And so this is sort of my challenge for the audiences is it look for opportunities to, to shake things up a bit and try new things and not, and most things that you try that are new are gonna fail, but when you're going to have successes too, and that's what we experienced with the, uh, the inside sales team and really the.
• 20:43
  Mike Baker: Is there their business development, right?
• 20:46
  Mike Baker: Like they're calling, they're setting up appointments.
• 20:48
  Mike Baker: We have a pretty good idea of what our, uh, ICP is, our ideal customer profile.
• 20:54
  Mike Baker: And so we started with a couple of BDRs and then a brand stout hired a, uh, you know, a great field rep in the west hired one, you know, uh, uh, It was now a super good friend of mine, the leader in the east.
• 21:10
  Mike Baker: Um, he came from MuleSoft.
• 21:12
  Mike Baker: He was the second rep and, and then it just, it, we just grew right.
• 21:17
  Mike Baker: And, and, and largely it was really paying attention to.
• 21:22
  Mike Baker: Um, stage of the company, I think is really important that you bring people in that are comfortable with whatever stays the company is at.
• 21:32
  Mike Baker: And, uh, that allows for people if they're ready for an early stage company, it, uh, it, it, it makes things easier because I think everybody knows at an early startup.
• 21:45
  Mike Baker: They sort of have a sexy reputation, but once you peel the onion a little bit, it's not that sexy.
• 21:50
  Mike Baker: It's like, it's really hard, right.
• 21:52
  Mike Baker: To, you know, customers don't know who you are, doesn't matter how great your tech is.
• 21:56
  Mike Baker: You, you know, you don't have, uh, you don't have marketing.
• 22:00
  Mike Baker: You don't like you don't have all these tools that you would have at a McAfee or Palo Alto.
• 22:04
  Mike Baker: So, so there's some internal, you know, Guts required to, um, to power through those times, but where the BDR has really helped us a lot was is it, it, it soften, soften the turf a little bit.
• 22:20
  Mike Baker: And we started having these great conversation, early conversations with customers, uh, created momentum in the business.
• 22:27
  Mike Baker: And then when other fields.
• 22:29
  Mike Baker: Reps who I have a pretty large network.
• 22:33
  Mike Baker: Um, and they started to see the success.
• 22:35
  Mike Baker: You've got an email allowed us to recruit this immaculate talent onto the team, both in and all our solution architects or.
• 22:44
  Mike Baker: Are our field sales reps, our BDRs talent attracts talent.
• 22:49
  Mike Baker: So that's, that's what we've experienced.
• 22:51
  Andrew: And if you look back at your first, let's say 20 customers, you know, roughly speaking, did, where do they come from?
• 22:57
  Andrew: Was it BDR, you know, coalface?
• 23:00
  Andrew: Was it investor introductions?
• 23:01
  Andrew: Was it Mike bakers?
• 23:03
  Andrew: Rolodex.
• 23:03
  Andrew: Where do they come from?
• 23:05
  Mike Baker: So I'm just thinking about our first 20 customers.
• 23:08
  Mike Baker: Yeah, I would say that, um, Uh, thinking out loud, it's probably four of them came from the BDR team.
• 23:17
  Mike Baker: Um, probably, you know, a half a dozen or so came from our board or we have a tremendous board Gilly run-on who runs cyber starts.
• 23:26
  Mike Baker: He was a seed investor.
• 23:27
  Mike Baker: He's also Sequoia partner got Thomas Crane at insight partners.
• 23:31
  Mike Baker: He's terrific.
• 23:32
  Mike Baker: He's helped us a bunch, uh, just insights this a terrific.
• 23:37
  Mike Baker: Partner.
• 23:38
  Mike Baker: And then Lightspeed, uh, guru channel is, is the board member there.
• 23:42
  Mike Baker: And guru's just amazing.
• 23:43
  Mike Baker: He's he, he built and sold to ABI networks to be in VM-ware.
• 23:48
  Mike Baker: And so you have this just incredible board.
• 23:50
  Mike Baker: And now the, the recent investment from Georgian, uh, Michael Robinson is the lead there.
• 23:56
  Mike Baker: Michael's a good friend of mine.
• 23:57
  Mike Baker: And, um, Uh, just, you know, just tremendous value that the board has bring.
• 24:02
  Mike Baker: So I would say probably half a dozen seven came from kind of advisory sort of channels.
• 24:09
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 24:10
  Mike Baker: And then the rest of them from, from.
• 24:13
  Mike Baker: The channel like traditional channel has helped us quite a bit.
• 24:16
  Mike Baker: You know, the trace threes of Optiv has been a terrific partner very early on.
• 24:21
  Mike Baker: We have in our business, we have over 80, 80 partners in our, our channel business.
• 24:27
  Mike Baker: It's a, it's a channel like we're maniacally channel friendly.
• 24:30
  Mike Baker: And so the channel has been delivering to us in spades, uh, very early on, which is it's another unusual thing, but we've been able to execute there.
• 24:39
  Mike Baker: Uh, and then of course the Rolodex from the field.
• 24:42
  Mike Baker: Sales team has been helpful too.
• 24:44
  Mike Baker: So it's a, it's a, it's a mix.
• 24:46
  Mike Baker: We're not reliant on one or the other.
• 24:48
  Mike Baker: Um, it's sort of everybody's in the boat or row in the same direction.
• 24:52
  Andrew: Okay.
• 24:52
  Andrew: Eco going back to intercept and then our MIS and then no-name so one common thread is, is really startup right now.
• 25:02
  Andrew: You know, you can agree or disagree with me, but, uh, often culturally, very different to startups, maybe in the valley over here, very aggressive, kind of a culture is about going after things in a certain way.
• 25:14
  Andrew: And yet you've been in the.
• 25:16
  Andrew: Person in the us any, any learnings from how to manage that time differences in culture wise?
• 25:23
  Mike Baker: Yeah, I think it's a great question.
• 25:26
  Mike Baker: Uh, I will just say this out loud.
• 25:27
  Mike Baker: I've been to Israel dunno, maybe 8, 10 times.
• 25:32
  Mike Baker: Um, I love the country.
• 25:34
  Mike Baker: I love the culture of the Israelis there.
• 25:37
  Mike Baker: They're just a, just an overall set of meant for me is, is just, um, it just incredibly impressive how much, how much they do.
• 25:45
  Mike Baker: And it's specifically with how much they do with their mind, how they.
• 25:49
  Mike Baker: They're so strong mentally.
• 25:51
  Mike Baker: And you're talking about a country that has very limited resources yet their GDP is, is just off the hook for this, uh, small country.
• 26:01
  Mike Baker: It is.
• 26:01
  Mike Baker: So just that this, I just, I love the people.
• 26:04
  Mike Baker: I love the country.
• 26:05
  Mike Baker: And so it's that affinity, that I'm able to work with the founders of RMOs and the, now the founders had no name and they're very close, personal friends of mine.
• 26:15
  Mike Baker: They're people that I adore and love very much.
• 26:18
  Mike Baker: And, and I think that that's super important.
• 26:20
  Mike Baker: I think that you start there right When, uh as you're building it out, you build this trust and, um, adoration between the, uh, Israel team and the U S team and trust and keep working hard at it because my experience with the Israeli specifically, the engineering team is largely in Israel for both RMS and, uh, Noname is it they'll do.
• 26:47
  Mike Baker: 25 hours a day.
• 26:48
  Mike Baker: It's just incredible.
• 26:49
  Mike Baker: The work ethic.
• 26:51
  Mike Baker: The U.S.
• 26:51
  Mike Baker: team has to respond.
• 26:52
  Mike Baker: we have to match them toe to toe in terms of our devotion to the company and to work hard and to understand what they're trying to do, and then import what is happening in a platform and move it over to the U S so we can sell it and they don't have to be involved with every transaction.
• 27:08
  Mike Baker: And so it's, it's actually with a ton of excitement and, uh, and when you see.
• 27:15
  Mike Baker: What can be built in in week.
• 27:17
  Mike Baker: Like we do these two week sprints at no-name where we bring in features that, uh, a McAfee would have taken, you know, three years.
• 27:25
  Mike Baker: I mean, fortunately, um, it's not a joke.
• 27:29
  Mike Baker: It's, it's, it's significant.
• 27:31
  Mike Baker: Like we, like, we introduced to GCP.
• 27:34
  Mike Baker: This is over a year ago, but we did, we introduced GCP to a fortune 10 customer and we did it in a two week sprint.
• 27:41
  Mike Baker: Because I come from a place of awe of, and seeing their young, young, just really aggressive there.
• 27:48
  Mike Baker: You're right.
• 27:49
  Mike Baker: They're aggressive, but they're also.
• 27:51
  Mike Baker: Great humans.
• 27:52
  Mike Baker: Like I, my experiences is it, they, they care, nobody cares about people more than, than the Israelis and they, and the company.
• 28:00
  Mike Baker: So, um, but they do keep the bar high, right?
• 28:04
  Mike Baker: Because they're working hard and they built great technology and they're building technology for customers and not building technology just because it's great technology.
• 28:13
  Mike Baker: We're trying to build a great company so that the bar is high.
• 28:16
  Mike Baker: And so the expectation is for the U S team, the AMEA team or APAC team that we, we also are accountable to deliver and to contribute and to add value and to, uh, and to keep paying.
• 28:30
  Mike Baker: With this incredible pace set by the Israelis.
• 28:32
  Andrew: When you think about, uh, you know, the growth of the go to market team, um, how much is that an influence then when you're thinking about the right people in the right roles and you think more about go to market or do you think, no, we gotta think about this more holistically?
• 28:48
  Mike Baker: It's a shade of both, but largely my focus is in go to market, right I think this is true for any startup, is it customer acquisition is so.
• 28:57
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 28:57
  Mike Baker: And so it's communicating, frequently and often with the Israeli team, uh, to making sure that what we're building is aligning to what we're seeing in the market.
• 29:07
  Mike Baker: So we have these daily meetings where we're, we're going through all, all the customers that are testing our product.
• 29:14
  Mike Baker: And so we're, we're very close technically on making sure that we're solving problems that are meaningful for customers.
• 29:20
  Mike Baker: Um, And then it's, it's attracting that talent.
• 29:24
  Mike Baker: When I think about the, the early hires is that I want to bring in people who will bring three with them or four with them, they'll bring a solution architect.
• 29:33
  Mike Baker: They might bring a field marketing person.
• 29:35
  Mike Baker: And it's back to the earlier theme that we talked about Andrew, to have, um, you know, high talent attracts high talent.
• 29:42
  Mike Baker: I mean, I think it's sort of a, maybe that's the, the phrase.
• 29:45
  Mike Baker: It is sort of overused, but we've seen it work at no name where we bring in one.
• 29:51
  Mike Baker: I'm thinking of a lady that's, uh, one of our RVPs and with her, she brings four unbelievable sales reps.
• 30:00
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 30:00
  Mike Baker: And, and so we just we've seen that in, in terms of the ability to scale the organization very quickly.
• 30:06
  Mike Baker: So when I started, you know, a year and a half ago, I was one.
• 30:10
  Mike Baker: In, in my organization alone, there's a, I think a hundred and the seven people now in the go-to-market organization.
• 30:17
  Mike Baker: So you we're an APAC where in Europe and the guys that are running PK over an APAC is he's an incredible leader.
• 30:24
  Mike Baker: Dirk and Europe is amazing.
• 30:27
  Mike Baker: And, and, uh, we've got a lot of good things going on in the U S as well.
• 30:30
  Andrew: With that great of growth in the team then, um, culture can go out of control very quickly if you're not intentional, I guess, but what you want to really create, I'm wondering how you approach that and what your, what your ethos is around culture.
• 30:48
  Mike Baker: Yeah.
• 30:49
  Mike Baker: It's it's um, it's so important, right?
• 30:52
  Mike Baker: And you know, back to the theme of startups is that.
• 30:56
  Mike Baker: You can't have term, you can't have churn with your customers and you can't have churn with your, with your early employees.
• 31:03
  Mike Baker: They've got a, they've got a stick, right?
• 31:05
  Mike Baker: Like they've got to make it.
• 31:07
  Mike Baker: And then there's also this theme that you have to have with whoever you bring in.
• 31:13
  Mike Baker: Even now we're so young and we're still small.
• 31:16
  Mike Baker: This is anybody that comes to Noname has to add immediate value.
• 31:20
  Mike Baker: Like they have to contribute.
• 31:21
  Mike Baker: You work hard, play hard and then you need some wind behind your sails.
• 31:25
  Mike Baker: And so that's, that's where grace shows up.
• 31:27
  Mike Baker: Right.
• 31:28
  Mike Baker: Is this idea that, um, Yeah, you're you just, you make choices and they know the right choices, right?
• 31:36
  Mike Baker: And sometimes it's a bit of a gamble.
• 31:38
  Mike Baker: Not every, every choice hiring choice specifically works out, but are our success rates so far, you know?
• 31:45
  Mike Baker: Oh, of over the hundred people that are part of the organization of the 18 months of putting it together, only one person's left the organization.
• 31:57
  Mike Baker: And so that's, it's a really, it's a test.
• 32:01
  Mike Baker: To the entire team and the culture that we're building, that we look out for each other, that we care about each other.
• 32:07
  Mike Baker: We care about each other's families.
• 32:09
  Mike Baker: We are a family, but we also have our own families.
• 32:11
  Mike Baker: And so I think that there's a.
• 32:14
  Mike Baker: Uh, call it a constitution within our organization.
• 32:18
  Mike Baker: That, that we have each other's back, that we look out for each other and it all building a great company.
• 32:23
  Mike Baker: And they, the key, I think Andrew, is that we have a stated goal that we want to take Noname, public.
• 32:29
  Mike Baker: But once you have that stated goal, then the most important thing is the journey to that goal.
• 32:34
  Mike Baker: It's not the goal itself.
• 32:35
  Mike Baker: It's like every day, are we having fun?
• 32:37
  Mike Baker: Are we growing?
• 32:39
  Mike Baker: Are our problems better today than they were yesterday?
• 32:43
  Mike Baker: Are we solving higher quality problems?
• 32:45
  Mike Baker: And so, we have some KPIs around that that, um, you know, sorta help.
• 32:50
  Mike Baker: Organizationally, but person to person makes sure that everybody's growing when none of us will be at Noname forever.
• 32:57
  Mike Baker: So the idea is, is it anybody that we bring to no name that when they leave Noname, they're a better seller.
• 33:03
  Mike Baker: They're a better person.
• 33:04
  Mike Baker: They're like whatever their goals are that we help them get to their goals.
• 33:08
  Mike Baker: And then, and then when they go to their next opportunity there, they're better set for.
• 33:13
  Andrew: You mentioned high quality problems.
• 33:15
  Andrew: What's a example of a high quality problem you're faced with right now that your, your moment.
• 33:21
  Mike Baker: I think it's the extension of our platform, right?
• 33:24
  Mike Baker: And so when, when we started, uh, like, uh, from a technology perspective, a problem that we were trying to solve is as a, which, which clouds do we integrate with first.
• 33:34
  Mike Baker: And so now we're we're since they integrated with all the clouds.
• 33:38
  Mike Baker: And so sort of the next phase of that is, is it then how does the platform, um, Yeah.
• 33:44
  Mike Baker: Like how do we keep growing?
• 33:45
  Mike Baker: How do we keep adding more value?
• 33:47
  Mike Baker: And so what we we've recently added to the platform, this idea of being able to test API APIs in a pre-prod environment, it's really, it's a, it's a very cool feature.
• 33:57
  Mike Baker: Really it's a platform and itself or our customers, our customers are very excited about it.
• 34:02
  Mike Baker: So now we have, from a technology perspective, we have all these different paths and we've gotten feedback from customers of where to go.
• 34:09
  Mike Baker: And so that's that, I think that's like an example of making sure that, um, uh, You solve a problem.
• 34:18
  Mike Baker: And then, and then on Monday, and then on Wednesday, you're solving a different problem where I think all of us have seen it is it in organizations if you keep solving the same problem on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Six months from now.
• 34:33
  Mike Baker: That's a real problem.
• 34:34
  Mike Baker: Right?
• 34:34
  Mike Baker: So, it's a pretty consistent focus for us.
• 34:38
  Mike Baker: kinda one and done sort of thing of have solved the problem and move on.
• 34:42
  Mike Baker: Cause you're always going to have problems.
• 34:43
  Mike Baker: Like there's always going to be problems.
• 34:45
  Mike Baker: You just want to make sure that problems there matter, really make a difference.
• 34:49
  Andrew: Is it fun?
• 34:51
  Mike Baker: I joke with Oz, our CEO, my, uh, my goal is to live till I'm 108.
• 34:57
  Mike Baker: And so, uh, I'm officially addicted to startups.
• 35:00
  Mike Baker: And so I think I have the, at the math works I have about 14 of them left in me.
• 35:05
  Mike Baker: Once you get into this world and you understand it, and you surround yourself with people that you adore and love, it's just as it's the greatest thing on the planet.
• 35:14
  Mike Baker: You know what, my background, I have a little bit of special ops background.
• 35:19
  Mike Baker: I was an operator in seal team and, and these, this small team sort of operation is a very meaningful for me.
• 35:27
  Mike Baker: And it's incredible what you can get done.
• 35:30
  Mike Baker: It doesn't have to be a bunch of people, but if you can get a handful of people doing their best and working together well, like miracles can happen.
• 35:39
  Andrew: well, let's change gears quickly at the end here, Mike.
• 35:41
  Andrew: I'm like, um, there is no better way to understand and really get to know the real Mike Baker than by using one of these bullshit LinkedIn polls that are out there right now.
• 35:51
  Andrew: So I've got two for you.
• 35:52
  Andrew: Um, no right or wrong answer.
• 35:55
  Andrew: Don't worry.
• 35:55
  Andrew: There's nothing to fail.
• 35:57
  Andrew: Uh, first one is from Bill Farguson at sales vault.
• 36:01
  Andrew: Um, my biggest time management challenge is A.
• 36:06
  Andrew: Work-life balance B.
• 36:07
  Andrew: Procrastination or C.
• 36:09
  Andrew: I'm busy, but not productive.
• 36:12
  Andrew: What is it for Mike?
• 36:14
  Mike Baker: Well, I think the, uh, it's, it's probably a, the, but I I'll, I'll kind of preface it is, is that I don't, I don't believe in balance.
• 36:23
  Mike Baker: And I like how I operate my life is is that, uh, everything I do is out of balance.
• 36:29
  Mike Baker: I have five kids.
• 36:30
  Mike Baker: So any particular kid might need some like focus.
• 36:34
  Mike Baker: And so I have to spend two hours with one of the teenage boys that I didn't plan on.
• 36:40
  Mike Baker: So that's out of balance.
• 36:41
  Mike Baker: And then there's times where, uh, you know, that I have to spend, um, with the business or with my wife, Jill.
• 36:49
  Mike Baker: So, I hear life work balance and, and.
• 36:52
  Mike Baker: Uh, it's just operationally.
• 36:54
  Mike Baker: It's not how I, how I work.
• 36:56
  Mike Baker: It's more of like, um, can you be a wildly successful in a completely out of balance life?
• 37:03
  Mike Baker: And, and I, I feel really good about my chances, you know, like I like that so
• 37:08
  Andrew: it seems like adaptability is probably the better word for you.
• 37:11
  Mike Baker: Maybe.
• 37:12
  Mike Baker: Yeah, that's probably, that's probably a better word.
• 37:14
  Andrew: Okay.
• 37:14
  Andrew: Last one from Sohail batty.
• 37:17
  Andrew: Uh, what did you want to be when you were younger?
• 37:20
  Andrew: And I'll give you five options here.
• 37:21
  Andrew: A, an entrepreneur B.
• 37:23
  Andrew: An educator, C.
• 37:24
  Andrew: A professional sports person, D a rockstar or E something completely different.
• 37:30
  Mike Baker: So, uh, truth be known is, is it, um, you know, I'm five, nine I'm short.
• 37:36
  Mike Baker: I'm really slow.
• 37:37
  Mike Baker: I can't jump.
• 37:38
  Mike Baker: I always thought that I would play in the Olympics on the Olympic basketball team and it just never quite made it right.
• 37:46
  Mike Baker: I've gotten over it though.
• 37:47
  Mike Baker: I've recovered
• 37:48
  Andrew: NBA was out then?
• 37:50
  Mike Baker: It was just the Olympics actually.
• 37:52
  Mike Baker: The 1972 Olympics was a tragedy for me.
• 37:54
  Mike Baker: It was the first time the U.S.
• 37:56
  Mike Baker: Lost the gold medal to Russia.
• 37:58
  Mike Baker: I was upset.
• 37:59
  Mike Baker: And then like, by God, I was gonna, I was going to be in a 1980 and Olympics to, uh, bring back the gold of that.
• 38:05
  Mike Baker: And so didn't quite work out that way,
• 38:08
  Andrew: but, uh, you've got the another 40 years left to do that though.
• 38:12
  Andrew: So you can't rule it out.
• 38:15
  Andrew: So finally, Mike, I would imagine the answer is yes.
• 38:18
  Andrew: Are you hiring a Noname right now?
• 38:21
  Mike Baker: Yeah, the go to market, but it's across the board too.
• 38:23
  Mike Baker: We're actually building out an engineering organization and, uh, the U S as well, we're investing heavily in, in federal business.
• 38:31
  Mike Baker: Uh, we're very excited about the opportunity to work with the U S government and state and local as well.
• 38:37
  Mike Baker: The largest companies.
• 38:39
  Mike Baker: Uh, so there's, there's this a enormous amount of opportunity.
• 38:43
  Mike Baker: And I love the space from a seller perspective.
• 38:45
  Mike Baker: Andrew, when you think about as a seller, what do you want?
• 38:49
  Mike Baker: I want to be involved with cloud native.
• 38:51
  Mike Baker: I want to be on the cutting edge of new channels, leveraging AWS marketplace and azure GCP.
• 38:58
  Mike Baker: And so that'd be the other consideration for folks in the audience, whether it's Noname or some other company is thinking about where the puck is going, where the selling is going to happen over the next five years, not where it is today or where it was, you know, three years ago and go there.
• 39:13
  Mike Baker: And I think that, uh, you'll find, uh, not only did you know, a lot of money, but you also find a lot of happiness and growth too.
• 39:20
  Mike Baker: So, and I think about Noname in that bucket, obviously.
• 39:23
  Andrew: And uh, if people are interested, obviously the careers page at Noname, if they want to get ahold of you, Mike, where would you send them?
• 39:30
  Mike Baker: You know, just, uh, uh, I dunno if we can post to somewhere, but my LinkedIn is probably the I'm pretty frequent on LinkedIn.
• 39:37
  Mike Baker: I've got a bunch of contacts there and just message me and I'll make sure that you get in touch with the right part of the company.
• 39:44
  Mike Baker: To start some conversations, but love to hear from folks and also some feedback on that on the podcast.
• 39:50
  Mike Baker: Have any, any comments, and I'm actually more interested in negative comments just around what, what could have been more useful for your time.
• 39:57
  Mike Baker: And so, uh, uh, glad to help there.
• 39:59
  Andrew: You good ideas on that?
• 40:01
  Andrew: Message Mike message myself, andrew@unstoppable.do is the best place to get a hold of me, always looking for ideas and suggestions about how to keep getting better, uh, with that, Mike, it was great to chat again today.
• 40:15
  Andrew: Great catching up here on the great success you're having over at Noname following on from Armis and, couldn't be happier for you and the family and how things are going.
• 40:24
  Mike Baker: Again, always love to reconnect with you, Andrew, and really honored to be with you.
• 40:29
  Mike Baker: And, and, uh, in any way I can help just let me know.
• 40:32
  Andrew: Thanks.
• 40:32
  Andrew: Bye.