If that's not enough, take a look at this: Nikesh became the highest-paid executive at every company he has ever joined. He earned $208M in just 2 years at SoftBank and is a billionaire despite never founding a company. Let's dive in 👇

Nikesh moved to the US in 1990 with $100 in his pocket. After facing 400 job rejections, he landed at Fidelity in 1992. At Fidelity, Arora rose to Vice President by combining his engineering background with finance skills (he earned his CFA).

In 2004, Nikesh joined Google right after its IPO. He was assigned to build Google's presence in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from basically nothing. Nikesh grew Google's revenue from $2B to over $60B and became Google's highest-paid exec with a $51M package.

Masayoshi Son recruited Nikesh to SoftBank in 2014. Masa publicly named him successor and made him the President & CEO of Softbank. Nikesh was all set to become an heir to a $100B empire. Right after that, Nikesh led a $1B investment into Korean e-commerce company Coupang.

His investment philosophy: Take massive stakes (30%+) in companies with network effects & long-term potential. Nikesh deployed over $1B into various startups: • Snapdeal (e-comm) • Ola (ride-hailing) • Oyo (budget hotels) • Grofers (grocery) Everyone thought he was crazy.

But that Coupang investment alone returned 30X. When Coupang went public in 2021, SoftBank's stake was worth $30+ billion. Nikesh saw what others missed. He wasn't buying just companies, he was buying monopolies.

But in 2016, everything changed. Masa changed his mind and decided to become the CEO again. Instead of being the "CEO-in-waiting", Nikesh walked away from inheriting the SoftBank empire. He sold his $483M SoftBank shares back to Masa at a loss.

2 years later, Arora became the CEO of Palo Alto Networks. It was "a powerful cybersecurity company that had fallen behind." Market cap: $19B. As soon as Nikesh joined, he started acquiring companies (18 acquisitions so far).

Nikesh shifted Palo Alto from hardware sales to subscription-based software services. The results were crazy: • Market cap: $19B → $123B ($104B value created) • Revenue: $2.3B → $8.0B annually • Palo Alto became the world's largest cybersecurity company

In 2023, Arora earned $151M in compensation, making him the 2nd highest-paid CEO in America. That means he is ahead of Zuckerberg, Pichai, and even Elon. Today, Nikesh runs a $130B company with a $1.5B net worth, despite never founding a company.

Nikesh's strategy: Join companies with strong technical teams but unclear strategy. Apply systematic, data-driven scaling. Build platforms and ecosystems, not just products. Most importantly, know when to walk away from power to build bigger power.

I hope you've found this thread helpful. I'm Shrav, and I'm the CEO of Secureframe—a platform that helps businesses automate compliance and enhance security. RT the tweet below and follow @shravvmehtaa for more threads on cybersecurity and entrepreneurship.

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