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Hi, I'm Seth Boreau, Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo, and this is Beyond the Deal, a special bonus episode of Thoma Bravo's Behind the Deal. And I'm here with Mark McClane, SailPoint CEO and founder, and Matt Mills, SailPoint's President of Worldwide Field Operations. I'm really excited to dive deeper into what drives you as business people and as just people. If our viewers want to learn more about the origins of our partnership, they can listen to your full-length episode of Behind the Deal. But now, in case anyone is joining us for the first time, can you give us the elevator pitch for SailPoint? I think we'll start with Matt, given he is responsible for selling products. So let's hear if he can do it.

Matt, what is the elevator pitch?

The guy that really would be perfect for this is Mark, but I'm going to give it a go. Look, you just do it such great because you started at the from the beginning. We're uniquely positioned to solve the complex identity security problems of the largest, most complex multinational companies in the world. Being able to help them really identify who is doing what to with the data, access, and the outcomes. It started off in 2005-ish, and it was really about provisioning and lifecycle management. And today, it's evolved into identity security. No longer is it It's no longer just about efficiencies, no longer is it just about productivity. It's more than certifications. You cannot secure your enterprise without securing your identities. And to be fair, the identity security is actually a means to an end. What we're really securing is the data and the applications. And that's what we do better than anybody in the world today.

You're really good at that.

I can see why he got the job. I think he got the job because he's really good at that.

I'm actually...

Seth would like to buy now. I'm in.

Mark, have you heard of AI?

I have. Do you know what it stands for? Everybody keeps talking about it, and I'm very confused.

Where does it stand from your perspective in terms of importance as it relates to the evolution of cyber and tech? You've been in the identity market, obviously, for a long time.

Well, good news. So point to our credit, and credit our product team on this, we actually got into this game pretty early. Generative AI is what blew up in the last year, but AI as a technology has been around. And we first really started pressing into AI six years ago now. And the reason was, if the scale and complexity of the customers we deal with, it's gotten quite clear to us, and I think increasingly to our customers, you cannot solve these problems without lots lots of intelligence and lots of automation. The days of people are thinking they can manage that with a spreadsheet is just over. They know now they're going to need lots of intelligence to sift through mountains of data, see patterns, understand concerns, and help really ensure, as Matt said, that we are securing the enterprise and its data and applications by understanding the identities, who they are, where they are, and what they can access. And customers have really, really woken up to that in the last 5 to 7 years.

That makes sense. I mean, it's such an amazing opportunity for the company. And also, of course, as we talk a lot about, there's all sorts of incremental cyber threats now that come on the back of AI and generative AI, namely, that also create opportunity, but also mean that we have to innovate, continue to innovate aggressively as a company. Very much. How do you think... I mean, obviously, Mark, you like this opportunity. You started the company and have been an identity for a long time. But when you think about what you see ahead of you in this identity space, and you're responsible for all field operations, you're in front of the customers all the time. How does it, relative to other opportunities you've seen, just where does it stand?

Look, I get up every day and I'm on fire. I'm pumped. I think this is a unique opportunity for us. Just go back to 2019 when I came here, and one of the first conversations he and I had is, I said, We got to get out of the governance business. And we agreed, and we knew where this was going. Little did we know. And March 13th, 2020, everybody was going to go home and it was going to be on. And the pandemic really accelerated with work from home. We saw a digital transformation at a rate that we hadn't seen in the prior 10 years. And all that fit very nicely into our strategy of Identity Security.

One of my favorite SailPoint memories, and honestly, one of the best days of my career, because it was, first of all, the culmination of an amazing partnership in some ways, but also something that I hadn't done before was the IPO of SailPoint and being on the exchange floor ringing the bell. What was that experience like for you? How did it feel? It must have been just an amazing day for you and the company after all those years of building the business.

It really was. Yeah, I guess the only word that comes to mind is surreal. I remember walking up, we had stayed at a hotel, of course, and we walked around the corner there in New York, and there was the Stock Exchange, and they had this big banner for SailPoint. It just took my breath away. I'm like, wow, look at that. And then it was really a fun thing. I had no idea this was going to happen. We had a little gathering earlier that morning over breakfast before we went in for the bell ringing stuff. The then CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, he gave what I thought was probably going to be a, I don't know, scripted, oh, isn't this nice? We're all here. It felt like something. Instead, he actually gave quite a stirring little speech about America and entrepreneurship and the things this has done for our country and the whole world of building the economy and everything. And then he turned to Kevin, my co founder, who was with me that day and said, and it's just really rare that guys who started these businesses are here to ring the bell.

And I got all choked up. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I wasn't supposed to get all choked up. This is just a business thing. And it was quite a thing. Okay, let me flip the question, Seth. What was it like for you? You said it was something you had expected, certainly experienced.

It was so much more exhilarating than I thought it was going to be. Just the energy around it, being on the floor, bringing the bell, being on the platform. It felt very historic. But it also was so meaningful for you and Kevin and the company that it was just so nice to be a part of. We were along for the ride. But it was really nice to be there A very important part of the ride. It was a very momentous day, and I just remember being so energized that whole day and really couldn't wait to do it again. Mark, one of the things that was very clear from the moment we met you many years ago.

We were both much younger.

Actually, I think we can edit out our age. I hope so.

Very easily. I hope so.

But it's clear that you're just an amazing leader. I think that that's been obvious from day one, from the first time that we met. You see it in the loyalty of your people that you hire over time to the business and also how you treat them both on the way in and on the way out. But you wrote a book about leadership. I did. We'd love to hear about your leadership philosophy. We want to ask you how many copies it sold.

Well, see, now that your mom bought that one, I think it might be up to two dozen. So we're doing great. Yeah, it's obviously hard to try to capture, I guess at that point in my life, about 30 years of leading an industry and trying to think, what is it that really drives how I think? And I think a lot of it is just a complete belief that I can only succeed when I'm surrounded by amazing people. And those people have the right attitude. That it's a team first. We win together, we help each other, we cover for each other. We hold the bar high on the people we want in this business. Forget about my book. Let's go to a guy who writes a lot of books that have sold, a guy named Patrick Lincioni. He's one of my favorite business authors because of the way he talks about culture and its impact on strategy and performance. And one of the things he talks about is that the people you need are these people that are humble. They're not like to the point of milk toast, but they're highly confident without being arrogant. Then they're really good at what they do, and they're looking to grow and get better, and they're really attuned to what's happening in both inside and outside the company and the environment.

His shorthand for that is humble, hungry, and smart. And we've adopted that, really. It's his point. We say, look, when we bring a company full of those kinds of people and we continue to focus on listening to the market and to customers, we're just going to stay ahead, as Matt said, because we're attuned to what's needed and we're going to get there before the other guys. I like to say the long term sustainable competitive advantage is listening better. The more you're attuned and listening to where the world is going, you're more likely, as Gretzky famously said, to go where the pucks going. You're a hockey guy, I think. Thanks for talking A big shout out for a Canadian hockey player. You're welcome. Okay, I have to ask you one question. Yeah. Well, you had part one with SailPoint and part two with SailPoint. What is the old question we always got on essays in school? Comparing contrast, SailPoint one and SailPoint two, what do you see that's better, different, good? What do you see that, oh, gosh, we really got some things really great that first time, and maybe we need to maybe even revisit those.

I don't know how you think about it.

I feel like part one was when you have this very young, to maybe think about a sports analogy, a very young team that all of a sudden wins a championship. You're like, wow. I didn't think I didn't think that was going to happen so soon.

Yeah. It could be your local team maybe, pulling that off here shortly.

Yeah, now I feel like we've got the three P.

There it is. Going on.

The thing that's amazing, though, really, the thing that's amazing is it's really rare to see a company that is growing at scale. Let's call it a billion dollars or so of revenue at a growth rate that is not that dissimilar from when we first met you when you were roughly 50 million of revenue. And the market has become bigger, more complex, more interesting. And today, really, all kidding aside, the operational execution in the business across all functions is world-class. And doing that, being very profitable while you do it continuing to innovate. It's just... It's like such a well-oiled machine at this point, but it hasn't lost... The company has not lost what made it so special when it was 50 million of revenue. So it's really incredible to see. It's so much... It's so fun to be back. I mean, I can tell you how happy I am that we repartnered together. We were missing you guys. It had been a few A few lonely years.

We were wandering out there in those public markets. We didn't know what to expect out there. No. Well, we'll see where it goes from here. It's still exciting time to head. So, yeah, it's fun to be back. I think that's a pretty universal view of our team.

From myself and all of your followers. We would like to thank you for coming back. The popular demand was hard to control. We appreciate it. We appreciate the partnership. It's a special partnership that we have, and round two feels even more special than the first one. So thanks to you both.

Thanks, Seth. Thanks for having us.

Yeah, it's a great pleasure. Please do thank both of our followers.

Certain statements about Thoma Bravo made by portfolio company executives are intended to illustrate Thoma Bravo's business relationship with such persons rather than Thoma Bravo's capabilities or expertise with respect to investment advisory services. Portfolio company executives were not compensated in connection with their podcast participation, although they generally receive compensation and investment opportunities in connection with their portfolio company roles, and in certain cases, are also owners of portfolio company securities and/or investors in Thoma Bravo funds. Such compensation and investments subject podcast participants to potential conflicts of interest.