Exit Interview: Varun Badhwar on scaling RedLock with Palo Alto Networks

In this inaugural episode of The DTC Podcast, we’re kicking off with an Exit Interview — conversations with founders who’ve taken a company from square one through acquisition and beyond. Here, Deepak Jeevankumar talks with three-time founder Varun Badhwar about his experience founding and scaling RedLock which ultimately joined with Palo Alto Networks to become the foundation for the Prisma Cloud platform.

Varun Badhwar didn’t set out to create a new category in cyber security when he founded RedLock. Instead, he listened to what was keeping CISOs up at night to find the problem his team would set out to solve. Today, that might be AI and LLMs. In 2015, it was the cloud.

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Key Takeaways from The Exit Interview with Varun Badhwar

Early-stage Company Building

Focus on first principles. Start by developing a clear understanding of the challenges your potential customers face. It’s helpful if those challenges intersect with the first-hand experiences of the founders/early team.

Keep it simple. Start with one simple, easy to define problem and expand the scope of your solution(s) over time.

Set customer-centric KPIs from the start. Sales/GTM people should be able to provide a product overview, give a demo, and leave at least 10 minutes for questions in 30 minutes or less. CISOs/practitioners don’t have any more time than that to make a decision.

Don’t start a company with the sole intention of being bought. If you do, you’re likely to end up selling, not being acquired. There’s a difference. You can’t control timing or other external factors. Build for longevity and scale. The rest will fall into place.

Optimize for the individual investor. Not the firm Not the brand. Take money from the investor you are comfortable with, can trust, and are willing to go through the full journey with.

On the Acquisition

RedLock was a leader. The company had mindshare, a solid team, strong partnerships, and plenty of runway.

The initial conversations. Though there had been other suitors. When Palo Alto Networks reached out, it was clear there was a directive from the top. After a short few weeks, the acquisition conversation evolved from “if” to “how.”

On trust and expectations. Varun was given the latitude to run the RedLock within Palo Alto Networks and the team was given very ambitious goals to hit.

What’s Next: Endor Labs

AppSec is having its moment. For a third act, Varun has co-founded Endor Labs to help companies secure their software supply chain.