My Toughest Challenge: Lance Crosby

“Throughout my career, it has always been tough to convince investors, employees, and, eventually, customers about new technologies. You’re pretty much on an island by yourself until you get others to believe in things that don’t yet exist. The main strategy I use is curiosity. If you can at least get people to be open-minded about the concept and be curious about it, then you can begin to sell it. My most successful sell to date was to my StackPath founders and private equity partners. I invited the founders to Fat Rabbit on McKinney and said, ‘I’m going to make a statement here, and I know you are going to think I am crazy, but we need to create a security company that is going to fix the internet.’ Many more doors have opened since then, but the obstacle is still the same-—you have to have a great story and a great idea.”