Cloud Giants: Meeting Todd McKinnon, CEO and Co-founder of Okta

Global venture group

06/09/2021

On Cloud Giants, a podcast brought to you by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Byron Deeter of BVP interviews entrepreneurs, founders and great leaders who have built world-changing cloud companies.

In this episode, Byron talks to Todd McKinnon, one of the founders and current CEO of Okta, a well-known cloud identity management service for businesses.

Listeners will hear about:

Todd’s background working at Salesforce and his decision to quit the job after being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

The challenges in finding his co-founder, Frederic Kerrest, and the importance of building the right leadership team.

The toughest point in Okta’s history during the summer of 2011, where the company wasn’t quite hitting its targets, and it was too early in its history to have had the time to build enough functionality into the platform.

Reasons why Okta’s market capitalization rose from $2.0–$2.5 billion USD to $25 billion USD.

Listen to the full recording:

At WisdomTree, we offer an investment strategy that favors pure-play cloud companies. To find out more about our unique cloud computing investment strategy, which leverages the expertise of Bessemer Venture Partners, visit our Cloud Computing Strategy page.

Important Risks Related to this Article

The WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund (WCLD), through a collaboration with Nasdaq, leverages the expertise of Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a leading venture capital investor in cloud-based businesses with more than a decade of investment success in the cloud computing industry. BVP is not affiliated with WisdomTree Asset Management.

There are risks associated with investing, including possible loss of principal. The Fund invests in cloud computing companies, which are heavily dependent on the Internet and utilizing a distributed network of servers over the Internet. Cloud computing companies may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources or personnel and are subject to the risks of changes in business cycles, world economic growth, technological progress and government regulation. These companies typically face intense competition and potentially rapid product obsolescence. Additionally, many cloud computing companies store sensitive consumer information and could be the target of cybersecurity attacks and other types of theft, which could have a negative impact on these companies and the Fund. Securities of cloud computing companies tend to be more volatile than securities of companies that rely less heavily on technology and, specifically, on the Internet. Cloud computing companies can typically engage in significant amounts of spending on research and development, and rapid changes to the field could have a material adverse effect on a company’s operating results. The composition of the Index is heavily dependent on quantitative and qualitative information and data from one or more third parties, and the Index may not perform as intended. Please read the Fund’s prospectus for specific details regarding the Fund’s risk profile.

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