Michelle Zatlyn, Cloudflare: Protect the Steady State, Disrupt What’s Next

When did showing up become optional?     In 2009 Michelle Zatlyn co-founded Cloudflare, a tech startup that powers 45% of all Fortune 500 companies through solving problems that were keeping their leaders up at night. The surprising thing is, Michelle had no background in engineering. She developed an expertise through showing up, leveraged her own strengths to build a billion dollar business, and wrote a playbook all founders can learn from in the process.     Join host Jimmy Allen of Bain & Company and Michelle as they discuss the importance of solving problems that people care about, how to build teams that thrive off cross-functional collaboration, and how to balance delivery and development agendas throughout moments of hyperscale.     Michelle’s story highlights the importance of showing up. Not all leaders start off as experts, but they can become one through being in the room where it happens. How can founders push themselves to show up, even at times where they don't initially have the expertise?     This is a conversation about balancing delivery with growth, building a team that will drive progress through collaboration, and becoming an expert through showing up in the process.     https://www.bain.com/founders-mentality/    EPISODE CHAPTERS  00:00 Introduction  00:48 No founder has the perfect skillset  02:31 Finding the right problem to solve  04:19 Building a customer-led tech company   06:42 How Michelle became an expert  08:15 The importance of showing up  12:37 Navigating moments of hyperscale  15:18 Scale demands decentralization  16:20 Empowering cross-functional collaboration  17:13 Protect the steady state, disrupt the status quo  18:30 Balancing delivery and development  19:35 How Cloudflare delivers and develops  21:43 Scale changes a founder's role  22:40 Recruiting for spiky capabilities  24:39 The Cloudflare way  26:10 Michelle's playbook     LINKS  A Beginner's Mindset: The Art of Showing Up - Jimmy Allen - Blog [https://tinyurl.com/TheArtOfShowingUp]  Bain & Company LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/bain-and-company/]  Bain & Company X [https://x.com/BainandCompany]  Jimmy Allen LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-allen-3442b/]  Michelle Zatlyn LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellezatlyn/]   About the Host:  Jimmy Allen is an Advisory Partner at Bain & Company with over 35 years’ experience advising leading organizations. He’s the author of multiple best-selling books on growth and leadership and the host and founder of Bain’s Global CEO Community Forum. Jimmy is a regular speaker at global business events, including the World Economic Forum, and serves on the Botswana Economic Advisory Council. Outside of consulting, Jimmy started his own record label [Abubilla Music] in 2008 and supports Singing Wells, a project dedicated to preserving Kenyan village music. >>> Have your say! Fill out our short listener survey, and help us form the future of the show https://www.podpolls.com/founder