Here are the key points made by George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike, during his interview on CNBC earlier today.
[I am paraphrasing some of Kurtz’s answers]
Q. Are your customers behaving differently in this economic environment?
Kurtz: Customers are telling us they want to consolidate expenses to a single vendor. We have 22 security modules, so we are making it easier for customers to consolidate to us by removing software products that duplicate what some of our modules do.
Q. Is acquiring companies part of a growth strategy for you during this period?
Kurtz: Yes, we see opportunities now to acquire companies that are forced to remain private for a while. We just acquired Reposify, which is focused on finding external vulnerabilities in companies. Makes sense for us to offer that as a module for our customers. Got a very warm reception at Fal.con [CRWD’s security conference] when we announced the acquisition.
Q . Are you seeing any slowdown during these tough economic times?
A. We just see some larger deals getting more scrutiny before they get approved by customers. But security is a boardroom topic, it’s hard to skimp on it. When you can deliver 150% ROI in the first year, you know you are selling value.
Q. What is driving the 50% YoY increase in intrusion activity as reported by Overwatch?
Yes, you even have Ransomware as a Service now! That’s how that industry is growing.
-Ron
Long CRWD