Lenny's Podcast: Building Wiz: the fastest-growing startup in history | Raaz Herzberg

☑ Early Pivots Shape Everything
▪️ The initial idea didn’t resonate, even after multiple meetings with potential customers.
▪️ The team pivoted to cloud security after Raaz realised that, even as the Product Manager, she couldn’t explain the product vision confidently.
▪️ This pivot was driven by listening for genuine signals of customer interest, not just polite affirmations.

☑ Learning to Identify Real Demand Signals
▪️ Raaz learned that polite feedback ("Sounds interesting") is not the same as real demand.
▪️ A real signal? Questions like “When can we start a proof of value?” or “What’s the pricing?” showed customers were serious.

☑ Following the “Heat” in the Organisation
▪️ Raaz says the “heat” moves as companies scale. It goes from product, to engineering, to sales, and finally to marketing.
▪️ By following the “heat,” she stayed close to the areas where she could make the biggest impact as the company grew.

☑ Shifting from Product to Marketing to Build Brand
▪️ Raaz took her deep product knowledge and brought a fresh approach to marketing, creating a unique, positive brand image for Wiz in a traditionally conservative industry.
▪️ Her approach to marketing? Clear, relatable messaging and an unexpected, friendly brand presence to make Wiz stand out.

I was hired as the first product manager… and I still did not exactly understand what we were going to build, which was confusing, because I was supposed to start building it

We were looking for positive reinforcements, but not really listening intently to signs of deep enthusiasm, and that ended up pivoting us around to cloud security

I think naturally, as human beings, you want to get affirmation from the other side. So you actually, you have a bias to look for affirmation, versus a bias to look for what you don't want to hear

We really felt the type of questions change. Suddenly, the call sounded like, 'Wait, how are you pricing this? When can we start doing a POV?'”

If the founder can't do it, who has the most context and passion and motivation, it's unlikely an employee's going to be able to do it

I really felt like if, in the early days of the company, finding product market fit is a major block for the company… then, building a sales organization becomes a major block

The heat moves within the organization… from product to engineering, then to sales, and then finally to marketing when you're looking for scale

It's hard to get the courage to say, ‘Actually, I don't understand.' But by now in my career, it's my favorite question

If you feel something's too complex, it does mean it's probably not the right solution

My mom used to say, 'If you brush your teeth and there's a bit of blood, then you need to brush harder there.' Friction is good

It's a hard job being a CMO. You are the one representing something deeply meaningful to the founding team, and you're always visible—one wrong ad can break trust

Wiz is a very flat organization. It's not about seniority; it's really about driving impact. Everybody can have a seat at the table

If something is not easy to understand, then maybe it needs a bit more chewing on it

When it works, it works, and you do know when it works… don't be too afraid to get the pull from the customer. It's okay—you need that pull from the other end as well

In some ways, marketing has no cost, no technical debt. If I post a video today that no one likes, nothing happened. There's no maintenance to it. So try everything

The idea is simple: if something starts getting too complex, then take a step back. It's too complex; it's not the right solution

We live inside our own bubble. Every time you write something, don't assume knowledge about Wiz or deep knowledge about the market

I'm okay with being pretty sure I'm going to fail at something, and still attempting it. I'll just give it a try

I deeply believe that we're doing something super special in Wiz, and I think the company is in such an interesting place of hyperscaling, while keeping an authentic, flat, enabling culture

You will never know your limit if you don't try