95: Mike Baker, CRO at Noname, talks about leading a sales team through hyper growth

Mike Baker, CRO at Noname Security, joins me today to talk about his experience (and success) in the cybersecurity sales world and how he tends to go the opposite way of where the masses head…because that's where the gold is. Bluebird anyone?!?!

Mike joined Noname Security in October 2020 as its first employee in the US and first in the sales team.  Now, just 16 months later, the go-to-market team has over 100 people, with most of them in sales. Mike talks about the decisions he made during that period, the type of people that do well, the first hires he made, and what's coming up in 2022.

If you are a sales leader at a startup, or you're in the sales team, and you're searching for your repeatable scalable sales process to grow sales faster, then please get in touch with me at andrew@unstoppable.do or you can also go to my site at www.unstoppable.do.

Sign up for our newsletter (https://www.salesbluebird.com)

Fast ramp to revenue for your new sales hires

A proven training program to get your new sales hires productive in just 4 weeks using your content and sales process, but without using your own headcount.

Transcript

Andrew 0:43

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. 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. I am your host, Andrew Monaghan, and welcome to episode 95 of the podcast. And today's guest is Mike Baker, who is the CRO at Noname Security, Mike, welcome to the podcast.

Mike Baker 1:17

Great to reconnect with you. Thanks. Thanks for having me guys.

Andrew 1:20

I'm looking forward to this conversation. Um, so Mike, when I look back at your LinkedIn, interesting kind of couple of bits in here. You started off in sales, in the looks like the late nineties. It says here, Cabletron and Intersys together. What, why were they together? Was it, were they part of the same company?

Mike Baker 1:39

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. So same company, new name.

Andrew 1:52

Okay. Okay. And then from Intersys, you went to McAfee, uh, through acquisitions, is that right?

Mike Baker 2:00

Yeah. So I was at an, uh, early on Israeli startup called Intercept, a host based IPS company. The McAfee at that point had acquired a network based IPS company, uh, Introvert and Intercept at the same time. And McAfee since they acquired those two technologies and then put us into one business group. So we ended up, uh, the sales team and that part of McAfee was selling both host based and network-based IDs. 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. And we had a great time.

Andrew 2:40

Yeah. According to this 13 years, that's quite the stretch. Right. And, and in those times, um, you know, essentially it was probably two or three different companies, really. Right. You had a different era in terms of CEO, different ownership as well at one point?

Mike Baker 2:54

Yes, correct. Yeah, that was an interesting time, you know, cyber security was really picking up the pace. 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. So they made probably 10 acquisitions during that timeframe. 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. So is a extraordinary experience for me. Wouldn't trade it. 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.

Andrew 3:52

And in that time, I think you were in the commercial side, but also on the fed DOD side. Is that right?

Mike Baker 3:58

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a fun time. McAfee at that point early days in federal really had 0% in terms of endpoint deployments that McAfee antivirus. 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. 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. So it was a huge victory for McAfee. And even today, it still exists. And, and as, uh, it's a great program for McAfee and they're executing quite well with the department of defense.

Andrew 4:42

Yeah, I remember those days, right? It was, it was quite the progression then success from pretty humble beginnings in our, in our deployments, in the, in the fair, right?

Mike Baker 4:53

And it also provided an example that how to do just large deployments. Uh, we had a management platform called the policy orchestrator EPO, and so that was key to a lot of victories. And you see it across sales teams. 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. Uh, you know, I'm a seller. I love it. 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. It's sorta like running. The first person ran the four minute mile. That was hard. And then it became easier and easier over time. Uh, as, as the belief gets to your heart and you know, it can be done. And then, and then.

Andrew 5:52

Oh, it's so true. I remember, uh, my first million dollar deal, like, you know, junior seller, you don't believe it's possible. Right? You think that's right. 15 years experience, but have the ability to do something like that. And then you do it and you go, oh, actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it was. And I can do it again. And again.

Mike Baker 6:10

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. And so, uh, that, that was just a really fun time.

Andrew 6:27

Yeah, it was good times, but then good times come to an end and you moved from quite a big role at McAfee, right. Reporting to the CEO. And then you joined, which at the time was pretty hot, which is Cylance, right. That, uh, 2015 was when Cylance and crushed. Right. We're beginning to make inroads.

Mike Baker 6:46

Yeah. 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. And so when I decided to move, I called Stuart McClure and Nick Warner was over there. Nick's a good friend of mine. It just was time for me to leave McAfee. And to do something different, but really to get back to my roots, my startup, that's how I got to McAfee. 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. And I took the role, it was a vice president sales role. And my wife, as you might imagine Andrew, looked at me like I was completely insane. Um, but I just knew that it was the right thing. 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. I like it's sort of a theme that I have in my life. And so sometimes you take a step sideways or even backwards specifically around. To grow even more, to become better. 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. Right. And, and, and get back into that mindset. And over time, the, the money comes back. 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. Uh, just an extraordinary year of my life. And I expect 2022 to be the same.

Andrew 8:40

Well, let's far forward then, uh, Cylance. You were there for a year and a half or so. And then, uh, made a move to a company called Armis and Armis has become a lot more well-known right in, in cyber. Uh, but at the time I would imagine it was, it was pretty early stages for RMS.

Mike Baker 8:59

Yeah they had just hired a COO, so very young company, no customers, um, born in Israel, two incredible founders. Uh, um, you have gotten into dear just. Brought their brothers and mine, and it's super, super good friends. Um, and somehow you have gotten into deer, uh, found me and they were recruiting me, uh, when I was at Cylance. And we were talking about this problem, that of, um, uh, uh, endpoint security, but around devices that you couldn't put agents on. 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. The telephone, uh, you know, there's thousands of different IOT devices that you can put agents on. And so, we were talking about the approach that they were building and had built in Tel Aviv. And, and for me, it was just, uh, it was an magnificent stay at Cylance. I think my last quarter of silence, we did over 300 net new transactions. So there, there was this tremendous momentum in the business and the team was strong. Um, but I just saw this as an opportunity to. To go do my own thing. 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. And so, uh, I made that transition. 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. Yeah. 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. When people are calling you and saying it's probably the right thing to do. When the masses go one way, I tend to go the opposite way, because that's where the gold is. 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. And that's been my experience. So then this was true with RMS, for sure. I got it. Lot of coaching that this, you know, it's too early. It's not, there's not a market. And yet what we did, I was there at RMS for three years and built a business, you know, over a billion dollars. There was an equity event, Google and insight, um, invested into RMS, paid to pay the original investors out. So everybody in the car. Uh, experience the equity event and including myself. 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. They've got a great sales leader, great sales team. And then of course the founders are still there and they're doing a terrific job.

Andrew 11:54

Yeah. Speaking of sales leaders at RMS, let me take you back. 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. I would imagine that was well, I'll ask you, how did you feel about that? How did that impact your, your kind of mental state of, uh, how things were going.

Mike Baker 12:23

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. Right. And I needed to grow and needed to learn more. And. 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. It's more around, how do we grow? How do we become better? How do we become better leaders, sellers, humans. 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. Um, and Jeff, Jeff Williams is who, who, who came in at that point. He was an advisory board member. And so it was great working with Jeff and, uh, tremendous experience. Jeff has, I think the audience probably knows, has a ton of, uh, terrific experiences and been successful at multiple different companies. So for me, it was as much as anything, it was an honor. To, uh, just to be, to be there, to, to, to can you, like, I continue to run worldwide sales. I carried the global number and, uh, you know, my time at Armis, we never missed a quarter. Uh, we haven't, we haven't missed a quarter. Like it's sort of from a startup perspective, it's so important in those early quarters, not to miss your numbers. And so. 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.

Andrew 13:59

Well, let's talk about that then as you move to no-name right? So they, the real liquidity liquidity event at our most timing was right. Um, and then you can continue the patter and you move somewhere else and you know, no name at the time. 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. 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? And also how how's things going over there. You've been there almost 18 months now.

Mike Baker 14:31

Yeah, it's awesome. Noname is just a, uh, just super fun company. Uh we're we're on a tear. 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. There just wasn't that much out there. And so. 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. It's directly tied to the mission of the business of how, uh, information gets from partners to partners, to partners, to end-users. 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. 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. And, and also just human. And so this is what we've seen over the last couple of years. 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. So, um, so we were a little bit ahead of the game. Um, starting, you know, I think the company is now just at two years old. Uh, we really just started selling the product. Uh, in 2021 was our first really selling year. So we're just completing that fiscal year, this January. 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. And we're able to do seven-figure transactions at a very early stage. And the value prop is really around. 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. And, and it's nearly impossible for enterprises today without no name, to know where all their enterprise, all their APIs are. And then we think about remediating protecting, and then. 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. We know what the API is, are supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do. 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. So the, uh, experience that we have and selling the team that we've been able to put together. 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. The first unicorn, the first billion dollar. API business on the planet. 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.

Andrew 18:10

That sounds like quite the tear in the last 15, 18 months. Um, if I looked on LinkedIn, you don't need to comment on this. If you don't want to, uh, That there's roughly 250 employees now. So, you know, in a year and a half, you'd gone from, you know, under 10 to 250. So, you know, I imagine obviously some of those grown through funding, but, funding in the confidence of the business probably goes with, right?

Mike Baker 18:34

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. And every company is slightly different. And so just because it worked in the past, doesn't mean it'll work in the future. So when we saw immediately that we were experiencing rapid growth, I mean, there, the customer adoption was, has, has just been. Extraordinary, frankly. And so, as, as you are crushing your numbers, that the board expects you, then it requires you to start to scale the organization. So when I started. Uh, in early October, uh, you know, 18, whatever that is 18 months ago, I was the first U.S. Employee. We didn't have a U.S. Entity. There was absolutely nothing in the U.S. And then we took that, uh, built the entity out, got, you know, like this. Blocking tackling healthcare, uh, everything that an organization needs, uh, is we built that out. Um, but then the PA I, I, I just felt like that. 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. 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. And, and so we, we upset that, you know, we did it a little differently. 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. Is there their business development, right? Like they're calling, they're setting up appointments. We have a pretty good idea of what our, uh, ICP is, our ideal customer profile. 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. Um, he came from MuleSoft. He was the second rep and, and then it just, it, we just grew right. And, and, and largely it was really paying attention to. 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. 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. They sort of have a sexy reputation, but once you peel the onion a little bit, it's not that sexy. It's like, it's really hard, right. To, you know, customers don't know who you are, doesn't matter how great your tech is. You, you know, you don't have, uh, you don't have marketing. You don't like you don't have all these tools that you would have at a McAfee or Palo Alto. 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. And we started having these great conversation, early conversations with customers, uh, created momentum in the business. And then when other fields. Reps who I have a pretty large network. Um, and they started to see the success. You've got an email allowed us to recruit this immaculate talent onto the team, both in and all our solution architects or. Are our field sales reps, our BDRs talent attracts talent. So that's, that's what we've experienced.

Andrew 22:51

And if you look back at your first, let's say 20 customers, you know, roughly speaking, did, where do they come from? Was it BDR, you know, coalface? Was it investor introductions? Was it Mike bakers? Rolodex. Where do they come from?

Mike Baker 23:05

So I'm just thinking about our first 20 customers. Yeah, I would say that, um, Uh, thinking out loud, it's probably four of them came from the BDR team. 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. He was a seed investor. He's also Sequoia partner got Thomas Crane at insight partners. He's terrific. He's helped us a bunch, uh, just insights this a terrific. Partner. And then Lightspeed, uh, guru channel is, is the board member there. And guru's just amazing. He's he, he built and sold to ABI networks to be in VM-ware. And so you have this just incredible board. And now the, the recent investment from Georgian, uh, Michael Robinson is the lead there. Michael's a good friend of mine. And, um, Uh, just, you know, just tremendous value that the board has bring. So I would say probably half a dozen seven came from kind of advisory sort of channels. Right. And then the rest of them from, from. The channel like traditional channel has helped us quite a bit. You know, the trace threes of Optiv has been a terrific partner very early on. We have in our business, we have over 80, 80 partners in our, our channel business. It's a, it's a channel like we're maniacally channel friendly. 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. Uh, and then of course the Rolodex from the field. Sales team has been helpful too. So it's a, it's a, it's a mix. We're not reliant on one or the other. Um, it's sort of everybody's in the boat or row in the same direction.

Andrew 24:52

Okay. Eco going back to intercept and then our MIS and then no-name so one common thread is, is really startup right now. 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. And yet you've been in the. Person in the us any, any learnings from how to manage that time differences in culture wise?

Mike Baker 25:23

Yeah, I think it's a great question. Uh, I will just say this out loud. I've been to Israel dunno, maybe 8, 10 times. Um, I love the country. I love the culture of the Israelis there. 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. And it's specifically with how much they do with their mind, how they. They're so strong mentally. 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. It is. So just that this, I just, I love the people. I love the country. 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. They're people that I adore and love very much. And, and I think that that's super important. 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. 25 hours a day. It's just incredible. The work ethic. The U.S. team has to respond. 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. And so it's, it's actually with a ton of excitement and, uh, and when you see. What can be built in in week. 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. I mean, fortunately, um, it's not a joke. It's, it's, it's significant. Like we, like, we introduced to GCP. 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. Because I come from a place of awe of, and seeing their young, young, just really aggressive there. You're right. They're aggressive, but they're also. Great humans. Like I, my experiences is it, they, they care, nobody cares about people more than, than the Israelis and they, and the company. So, um, but they do keep the bar high, right? 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. We're trying to build a great company so that the bar is high. 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. With this incredible pace set by the Israelis.

Andrew 28:32

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?

Mike Baker 28:48

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. Right. 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. So we have these daily meetings where we're, we're going through all, all the customers that are testing our product. And so we're, we're very close technically on making sure that we're solving problems that are meaningful for customers. Um, And then it's, it's attracting that talent. 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. They might bring a field marketing person. And it's back to the earlier theme that we talked about Andrew, to have, um, you know, high talent attracts high talent. I mean, I think it's sort of a, maybe that's the, the phrase. It is sort of overused, but we've seen it work at no name where we bring in one. I'm thinking of a lady that's, uh, one of our RVPs and with her, she brings four unbelievable sales reps. Right. And, and so we just we've seen that in, in terms of the ability to scale the organization very quickly. So when I started, you know, a year and a half ago, I was one. In, in my organization alone, there's a, I think a hundred and the seven people now in the go-to-market organization. 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. Dirk and Europe is amazing. And, and, uh, we've got a lot of good things going on in the U S as well.

Andrew 30:30

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.

Mike Baker 30:48

Yeah. It's it's um, it's so important, right? And you know, back to the theme of startups is that. 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. They've got a, they've got a stick, right? Like they've got to make it. And then there's also this theme that you have to have with whoever you bring in. Even now we're so young and we're still small. This is anybody that comes to Noname has to add immediate value. Like they have to contribute. You work hard, play hard and then you need some wind behind your sails. And so that's, that's where grace shows up. Right. Is this idea that, um, Yeah, you're you just, you make choices and they know the right choices, right? And sometimes it's a bit of a gamble. Not every, every choice hiring choice specifically works out, but are our success rates so far, you know? 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. And so that's, it's a really, it's a test. To the entire team and the culture that we're building, that we look out for each other, that we care about each other. We care about each other's families. We are a family, but we also have our own families. And so I think that there's a. Uh, call it a constitution within our organization. That, that we have each other's back, that we look out for each other and it all building a great company. And they, the key, I think Andrew, is that we have a stated goal that we want to take Noname, public. But once you have that stated goal, then the most important thing is the journey to that goal. It's not the goal itself. It's like every day, are we having fun? Are we growing? Are our problems better today than they were yesterday? Are we solving higher quality problems? And so, we have some KPIs around that that, um, you know, sorta help. Organizationally, but person to person makes sure that everybody's growing when none of us will be at Noname forever. So the idea is, is it anybody that we bring to no name that when they leave Noname, they're a better seller. They're a better person. They're like whatever their goals are that we help them get to their goals. And then, and then when they go to their next opportunity there, they're better set for.

Andrew 33:13

You mentioned high quality problems. What's a example of a high quality problem you're faced with right now that your, your moment.

Mike Baker 33:21

I think it's the extension of our platform, right? 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. And so now we're we're since they integrated with all the clouds. And so sort of the next phase of that is, is it then how does the platform, um, Yeah. Like how do we keep growing? How do we keep adding more value? 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. Really it's a platform and itself or our customers, our customers are very excited about it. 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. And so that's that, I think that's like an example of making sure that, um, uh, You solve a problem. 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. That's a real problem. Right? So, it's a pretty consistent focus for us. kinda one and done sort of thing of have solved the problem and move on. Cause you're always going to have problems. Like there's always going to be problems. You just want to make sure that problems there matter, really make a difference.

Andrew 34:49

Is it fun?

Mike Baker 34:51

I joke with Oz, our CEO, my, uh, my goal is to live till I'm 108. And so, uh, I'm officially addicted to startups. And so I think I have the, at the math works I have about 14 of them left in me. 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. You know what, my background, I have a little bit of special ops background. I was an operator in seal team and, and these, this small team sort of operation is a very meaningful for me. And it's incredible what you can get done. 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.

Andrew 35:39

well, let's change gears quickly at the end here, Mike. 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. So I've got two for you. Um, no right or wrong answer. Don't worry. There's nothing to fail. Uh, first one is from Bill Farguson at sales vault. Um, my biggest time management challenge is A. Work-life balance B. Procrastination or C. I'm busy, but not productive. What is it for Mike?

Mike Baker 36:14

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. And I like how I operate my life is is that, uh, everything I do is out of balance. I have five kids. So any particular kid might need some like focus. And so I have to spend two hours with one of the teenage boys that I didn't plan on. So that's out of balance. And then there's times where, uh, you know, that I have to spend, um, with the business or with my wife, Jill. So, I hear life work balance and, and. Uh, it's just operationally. It's not how I, how I work. It's more of like, um, can you be a wildly successful in a completely out of balance life? And, and I, I feel really good about my chances, you know, like I like that so

Andrew 37:08

it seems like adaptability is probably the better word for you.

Mike Baker 37:11

Maybe. Yeah, that's probably, that's probably a better word.

Andrew 37:14

Okay. Last one from Sohail batty. Uh, what did you want to be when you were younger? And I'll give you five options here. A, an entrepreneur B. An educator, C. A professional sports person, D a rockstar or E something completely different.

Mike Baker 37:30

So, uh, truth be known is, is it, um, you know, I'm five, nine I'm short. I'm really slow. I can't jump. I always thought that I would play in the Olympics on the Olympic basketball team and it just never quite made it right. I've gotten over it though. I've recovered

Andrew 37:48

NBA was out then?

Mike Baker 37:50

It was just the Olympics actually. The 1972 Olympics was a tragedy for me. It was the first time the U.S. Lost the gold medal to Russia. I was upset. 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. And so didn't quite work out that way,

Andrew 38:08

but, uh, you've got the another 40 years left to do that though. So you can't rule it out. So finally, Mike, I would imagine the answer is yes. Are you hiring a Noname right now?

Mike Baker 38:21

Yeah, the go to market, but it's across the board too. We're actually building out an engineering organization and, uh, the U S as well, we're investing heavily in, in federal business. Uh, we're very excited about the opportunity to work with the U S government and state and local as well. The largest companies. Uh, so there's, there's this a enormous amount of opportunity. And I love the space from a seller perspective. Andrew, when you think about as a seller, what do you want? I want to be involved with cloud native. I want to be on the cutting edge of new channels, leveraging AWS marketplace and azure GCP. 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. 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. So, and I think about Noname in that bucket, obviously.

Andrew 39:23

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?

Mike Baker 39:30

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. 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. To start some conversations, but love to hear from folks and also some feedback on that on the podcast. 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. And so, uh, uh, glad to help there.

Andrew 39:59

You good ideas on that? 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. 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.

Mike Baker 40:24

Again, always love to reconnect with you, Andrew, and really honored to be with you. And, and, uh, in any way I can help just let me know.

Andrew 40:32

Thanks. Bye.