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    Andrew Nowinski

    Senior Research Analyst at Wells Fargo

    Andrew Nowinski is a Senior Research Analyst at Wells Fargo, specializing in coverage of cybersecurity, analytics, and infrastructure software companies. He covers leading firms such as Zscaler and provides detailed quantitative forecasts, recently projecting Zscaler's annual recurring revenue to outperform market consensus. Nowinski's career spans roles at Wells Fargo, Piper Jaffray, and D.A. Davidson, along with prior technical experience at IBM, Accenture, and Target, after beginning his career as a Senior Software Engineer. He holds professional credentials in financial research and analysis and is recognized for his thorough methodology, though specific FINRA license numbers are not publicly listed.

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership • Q2 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo inquired about the Q3 and full-year revenue guidance, specifically asking if the partner rebate program's impact of $10-15 million per quarter is factored in for the remainder of the year.

    Answer

    CFO Burt Podbere confirmed the impact is included in the guidance and emphasized that Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the best leading indicator of business health. He reiterated the guidance assumes at least 40% year-over-year net new ARR growth in the back half of the fiscal year. Podbere stated the partner investments were successful, sustaining high retention and accelerating net new ARR, and that the company would make the same investment again.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski sought clarification on the financial impact of Falcon Flex, asking how a "reflex" transaction is recognized in the company's reported metrics like revenue, net new ARR, and RPO.

    Answer

    CFO Burt Podbere clarified that when a customer exhausts their Falcon Flex credits and decides to "reflex," they enter into a new contract. This new commitment is then recognized as net new ARR for the company.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for details on net new ARR, questioning the contribution from the Adaptive Shield acquisition and why the metric was down year-over-year even after accounting for the CCP impact.

    Answer

    CFO Burt Podbere stated that the ARR contribution from the Adaptive Shield acquisition was 'de minimis' and that overall customer churn was in line with historical trends. CEO George Kurtz added that despite the small initial ARR, customer excitement for the technology (now Falcon Shield) is extremely high, with it being added to the Falcon Flex rate card just 20 days post-acquisition.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked if the Falcon Flex model is effectively 'supercharging' customer retention by making the platform stickier and if this was being factored into future ARR forecasts.

    Answer

    CEO George Kurtz affirmed that Falcon Flex absolutely makes the platform stickier, as increased module adoption embeds CrowdStrike deeper into customer processes. CFO Burt Podbere added that this dynamic, along with faster adoption, gives the company increased confidence in its ability to reaccelerate net new ARR growth in the second half of the next fiscal year.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for color on the mix of renewals throughout the year and which quarters might carry more risk, given that Q4 is typically the largest.

    Answer

    CFO Burt Podbere confirmed the typical seasonality with Q4 being the largest quarter for deals. He reiterated the 'half-life' concept of the incident's impact, suggesting that nearer-term quarters like Q3 face stronger headwinds, and this should be combined with seasonality to assess risk.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Okta (OKTA) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Okta (OKTA) leadership • Q2 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo asked why the strong customer demand for consolidating identity vendors onto a single platform has not yet translated into a more significant positive impact on Okta's workforce ACV growth, which has been decelerating.

    Answer

    CEO Todd McKinnon stated, 'we're gonna do better there,' acknowledging the large opportunity and emphasizing the focus on better communicating the breadth of new products like IGA and PAM. He highlighted fast deployment as a key differentiator. President & COO Eric Kelleher added that customers increasingly see consolidation as a way to reduce complexity and security risks, a value proposition that is resonating more.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Okta (OKTA) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo questioned the Q2 cRPO guidance, which implies a second consecutive sequential decline—a trend not seen before, even in more challenging macro periods. He asked if any Q4 deal pull-forward or other factors were at play.

    Answer

    CFO Brett Tighe advised against simple historical comparisons, noting past growth rates were higher. He urged analysts to model cRPO using the 'current RPO coverage ratio' against next quarter's subscription revenue. He stated that applying historical seasonality to this dollar-based metric would have predicted a cRPO value in the guided range.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Okta (OKTA) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked if the new OIG and PAM solutions, and the platform sale in general, are applicable to Okta's entire customer base or are primarily targeted at large enterprises.

    Answer

    CEO Todd McKinnon pushed back on the impression that these are only large enterprise tools. He argued that this perception exists because legacy PAM and governance products were complex and hard to install, limiting their use. By making these capabilities easily integrated and accessible as a SaaS solution, Okta is opening up a large greenfield opportunity in the mid-market, similar to how they initially democratized access management for smaller companies.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo inquired about the drivers behind the sustained 5% organic growth in the Cyber Safety business and sought guidance on the expected growth trajectories for the new Cyber Safety and Trust-Based Solutions segments.

    Answer

    CFO Natalie Derse explained that the core business's stable mid-single-digit growth is driven by a consistent strategy of cross-selling, upselling, partner diversification, and strong retention. For future growth, she guided that the Cyber Safety Platform is expected to maintain sustainable mid-single-digit growth, while the Trust-Based Solutions segment, powered by MoneyLion, is expected to see accelerated double-digit growth.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo questioned the drivers behind the Cyber Safety business's steady 5% organic growth and requested guidance on the expected growth rates for the two new reporting segments.

    Answer

    CFO Natalie Derse attributed the consistent mid-single-digit growth in the core business to strong execution on cross-selling, upselling, partner channel diversification, and high customer retention. For future growth, she guided that the Cyber Safety Platform segment is expected to maintain sustainable mid-single-digit growth, while the Trust Based Solutions segment, which includes MoneyLion, is projected to achieve accelerated double-digit growth.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked about the visibility into MoneyLion's growth assumptions within the fiscal 2026 guidance and inquired about the capital allocation strategy for share repurchases, dividends, and deleveraging.

    Answer

    CEO Vincent Pilette explained that the guidance combines Gen's mid-single-digit growth momentum with MoneyLion's approximate 25% growth, adjusted for a partial year and a strategic shift towards cross-selling and subscription models. CFO Natalie Derse added that Gen will resume a balanced capital allocation approach, utilizing strong cash flow for both accelerated debt paydown and opportunistic share buybacks after a pause for the acquisition.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo & Company sought clarification on the deceleration in Cyber Safety Bookings growth and asked about the strategic synergies of the MoneyLion acquisition, given the differing customer demographics.

    Answer

    CFO Natalie Derse attributed approximately one point of the prior quarter's stronger bookings growth to a one-time awareness bump from the National Public Data breach. CEO Vincent Pilette detailed the MoneyLion synergies, explaining it provides a back-end architecture for a complete Personal Financial Management (PFM) feature set to cross-sell into Gen's base, addresses customer needs for financial wellness, and will later allow Gen to offer protection services to MoneyLion's customers.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Gen Digital (GEN) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski inquired about the sustainability of strong customer net adds, especially in the U.S. following recent major data breaches, and sought an update on Norton cross-sell penetration and LifeLock attach rates.

    Answer

    CEO Vincent Pilette confirmed the national data breach raised awareness but noted that customer growth was broad-based across all brands and continents. CFO Natalie Derse added that cross-sell penetration continues to be a key growth driver and that the quarter saw strong LifeLock acquisition, up-sells, and higher-tier sign-ups, fueled by market demand.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Fortinet (FTNT) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Fortinet (FTNT) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo & Company questioned the significant deceleration in services revenue growth and asked why the Unified SASE ARR metric was flat sequentially.

    Answer

    CFO Christiane Ohlgart explained that services revenue growth is normalizing after benefiting from large deferred revenue balances built during the high-growth COVID period. She clarified that Unified SASE ARR was flat sequentially because strong growth in the core SSE solution was offset by churn or slower growth in other, older products included in that metric. CEO Ken Xie reiterated that the core SASE component is growing very strongly.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Cloudflare (NET) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Cloudflare (NET) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo inquired about the performance of Cloudflare's 'Act One' products (WAF, DDoS) and the company's progress toward its $5 billion ARR target.

    Answer

    Co-Founder & CEO Matthew Prince attributed the strength of Act One products to Cloudflare's unique architecture, where every server runs every service, eliminating the need for separate 'scrubbing centers' and providing a significant cost and performance advantage. CFO Thomas Seifert confirmed the company is tracking well towards its long-term financial targets, citing the Q2 reacceleration, strong performance with large customers, and go-to-market improvements as positive indicators.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Cloudflare (NET) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo & Company asked for more detail on SASE market trends, why Cloudflare is winning larger Zero Trust deals, and for an update on its traction within the government sector.

    Answer

    CEO Matthew Prince attributed SASE and Zero Trust success to superior performance, a comprehensive feature set, and the ability to bundle solutions into a single, unified platform. He noted that customers are signing longer-duration contracts due to confidence in Cloudflare's innovation. Regarding the public sector, he confirmed strong traction with government agencies globally as they move away from on-premise hardware and adopt Zero Trust mandates.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Cloudflare (NET) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo asked about Cloudflare's SASE business, questioning whether wins are primarily from greenfield opportunities or competitive displacements and the key reasons for its success.

    Answer

    CEO Matthew Prince stated that, surprisingly, many SASE wins are competitive displacements of first-generation Zero Trust vendors. He attributed this to customer dissatisfaction with incumbent performance, reliability, and lack of innovation. Cloudflare wins by offering a faster global network, a more comprehensive platform that secures the entire network, and a superior ROI, positioning Zero Trust as a feature within a complete network security solution.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Cloudflare (NET) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski inquired about the shift from AI training to inference that Cloudflare is observing and asked about the product direction under new hire CJ Desai.

    Answer

    CEO Matthew Prince highlighted the rapid adoption of Workers AI for inference, citing a $7 million deal and noting Cloudflare's advantages in performance, ROI, and GPU utilization. He expressed confidence that new Chief Product and Engineering Officer CJ Desai's enterprise focus will be critical as the go-to-market team pursues larger deals.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Tenable Holdings (TENB) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Tenable Holdings (TENB) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo questioned whether the increase in large six and seven-figure deals was driven more by new logos or renewals, particularly in light of the sequential decrease in the net retention rate.

    Answer

    CFO and Co-CEO Steve Vintz clarified that while the gross dollar renewal rate remains healthy, the net retention rate moderated to 107% due to a constrained U.S. Federal spending environment delaying expansions. He emphasized that new logo demand is strong, with over 350 new enterprise customers, and that strong RPO growth indicates customers are making longer-term platform commitments.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Tenable Holdings (TENB) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski questioned how customers perceive the link between cloud security and exposure management and asked about the potential market impact of Google's acquisition of Wiz.

    Answer

    Co-CEO Stephen Vintz positioned the Wiz acquisition as a market opportunity for Tenable, suggesting it could create uncertainty for multi-cloud customers. Co-CEO Mark Thurmond added that this uncertainty is a net positive, driving more prospects to consider Tenable for its multi-cloud and hybrid environment capabilities, which is a key differentiator for the Tenable One platform.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (CHKP) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (CHKP) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo asked about the criticality of identity security to Check Point's SASE solution, questioning how the company can succeed in the enterprise without a native identity offering, given its foundational role in Zero Trust.

    Answer

    CEO Nadav Zafrir responded that creating a Zero Trust architecture is 'very doable' with their existing capabilities. He emphasized that their 'open platform' approach allows customers to choose their preferred identity provider, and he does not see the lack of a native identity solution as a significant impediment to SASE adoption.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (CHKP) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked if CEO Nadav Zafrir is leveraging his extensive cybersecurity background to engage with CISOs and drive new logo growth, and also requested clarification on the decline in maintenance revenue.

    Answer

    CFO Roei Golan explained that the maintenance revenue trend is a lagging indicator that should improve in the second half of the year with the ongoing product refresh. CEO Nadav Zafrir affirmed he is passionately engaging with enterprise leaders, using his experience to help them navigate new technologies like AI securely, which he views as a key advantage.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (CHKP) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo asked for perspective on the normalized billings growth rate for Q4, noting that after adjusting for deal timing, growth appeared to accelerate from Q2 to Q3.

    Answer

    CFO Roei Golan declined to provide specific billings guidance but expressed confidence in a strong Q4. He cited a strong pipeline, independent of the slipped deals, plus the expected benefit from those Q3 deals closing in Q4 as reasons for anticipating a strong quarter, while remaining cautious as it is based on the current funnel.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to VARONIS SYSTEMS (VRNS) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to VARONIS SYSTEMS (VRNS) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski questioned the modeling of SaaS revenue, pointing out that a simple calculation based on SaaS ARR suggests a higher Q3 revenue than implied by guidance, and asked if this proxy is flawed.

    Answer

    CFO & COO Guy Melamed advised against focusing on specific revenue line items during the transition due to accounting noise. He reiterated that the company's three 'North Stars' are ARR, contribution margin, and free cash flow. He stated the P&L will normalize in 2027 and that ARR is the best metric to gauge business strength currently.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to VARONIS SYSTEMS (VRNS) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo questioned the company's confidence in being able to massively increase the volume of SaaS conversions in 2025, pointing out the significant amount of ARR ($362M implied) and the remaining two-thirds of customers that need to be converted.

    Answer

    CFO and COO Guy Melamed clarified that 'completing the transition' is defined as reaching 70-90% of total ARR from SaaS, not 100%. The 2025 guidance targets approximately $580 million in SaaS ARR, or 78% of the total, which implies adding $240 million in SaaS ARR. While this is a meaningful increase from the $215 million added in 2024, it is not as large as the question implied. CEO Yaki Faitelson added that automation built to streamline the migration process also increases their confidence in achieving this accelerated timeline.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to VARONIS SYSTEMS (VRNS) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski sought a better understanding of how Varonis defines a 'material impact' from Gen AI, asking if it's measured by new logos citing LLM support or if existing customers can also contribute to this impact.

    Answer

    CEO Yaki Faitelson explained they see the impact when customer purchasing processes are in lockstep with their intent to roll out Copilot to more knowledge workers. CFO & COO Guy Melamed clarified that materiality is quantified in dollar terms. While the stand-alone Copilot SKU did not have a material impact in Q3, the fact that deals closed specifically related to Copilot gives them increased confidence it will become a tailwind.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to SailPoint (SAIL) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to SailPoint (SAIL) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Inquired about the drivers of the 18% growth in non-SaaS ARR during Q1, especially given the company's target of 90% of net new business coming from SaaS.

    Answer

    The company experienced a strong quarter for term license business, which is non-SaaS. This was driven by both renewals and a couple of sizable new customers who specifically chose an on-premise solution to fit their environment. However, the forward-looking target remains a 90/10 mix of SaaS to term business.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to SailPoint (SAIL) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo inquired about the drivers of the 18% growth in non-SaaS ARR and why the on-premise business is still growing despite a 90% SaaS target for new business.

    Answer

    CFO Brian Carolan explained that Q1 saw unusually strong term license business from both renewals and a few large new customers who specifically chose an on-premise solution. He reiterated that the forward-looking target for net new business remains 90% SaaS.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo asked for details on the new identity resilience product, specifically whether the integration with Laminar (DSPM) is complete and if the new capability could replace point products from other identity security vendors.

    Answer

    Co-Founder, CEO & Chairman Bipul Sinha confirmed the Laminar DSPM product is now fully integrated into the Rubrik platform, noting its ARR was up over 300% year-over-year. He explained that Rubrik's strategy is to combine data context (from DSPM) with identity security to create a comprehensive solution that understands data sensitivity and user access. Sinha believes this unified approach creates more value than separate point products, positioning Rubrik to replace them and citing strong momentum with customer wins.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for clarification on the divergence between the guided revenue growth of approximately 30% and the subscription ARR growth of 24% for the upcoming fiscal year.

    Answer

    CFO Kiran Choudary explained that this divergence is a result of the company's cloud transformation journey. While revenue growth initially lagged subscription ARR, it is now catching up and benefiting as the transformation matures. He added that Q4 revenue growth was boosted by about four percentage points from non-recurring revenue related to material rights from the cloud transition, a tailwind expected to contribute a few points of growth in fiscal 2026 as well.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked if the strong demand for DSPM and cyber recovery is being driven by an inflection in generative AI rollouts and requested an update on the adoption rate of Rubrik's Enterprise Edition.

    Answer

    CEO Bipul Sinha confirmed that generative AI is a significant driver, as it forces enterprises to focus on data integrity, sensitivity, and security, which aligns directly with Rubrik's platform. He reiterated that Enterprise Edition adoption remains strong, with about half of new customers purchasing it initially and data security products contributing nearly one-third of the net retention rate.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked about the competitive implications of the pending Veritas-Cohesity merger and whether it would be harder to win over former Veritas customers.

    Answer

    CEO Bipul Sinha framed the merger as a "tremendous opportunity" for Rubrik. He argued that when a single-product vendor like Veritas is being replaced, customers will naturally evaluate the entire market, where Rubrik has very high win rates. He added that merger-related uncertainty around product roadmaps will likely prompt more Veritas customers to explore alternatives like Rubrik.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to MongoDB (MDB) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to MongoDB (MDB) leadership • Q1 2026

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo asked for more detail on Atlas consumption mechanics, questioning why a Q1 beat wouldn't imply a higher full-year trajectory. He also probed whether Postgres's popularity stems from MQL being harder to use than SQL.

    Answer

    CFO Mike Berry cited intra-quarter volatility, specifically a soft April followed by a May rebound, as the reason for maintaining a prudent full-year Atlas outlook. CEO Dev Ittycheria countered the MQL vs. SQL point by arguing that relational databases adding JSON support is a tacit admission that their core architecture is insufficient for modern data needs, reinforcing MongoDB's native advantage.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to MongoDB (MDB) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski inquired about a customer migration from Postgres, asking about the frequency of such transitions. He also asked for clarification on whether the EA business would still decline sequentially in Q4 after normalizing for the Q3 multiyear deal impact.

    Answer

    CEO Dev Ittycheria confirmed that migrations from Postgres are a recurring trend, driven by the inherent inflexibility and scaling challenges of older relational technology. He stated that educating developers on MongoDB's modern architecture is key to winning these workloads. CFO Michael Gordon declined to provide normalized guidance for EA but reiterated the Q3 strength was a key factor in the Q4 outlook.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Zscaler (ZS) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Zscaler (ZS) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo sought clarification on the new growth categories, asking what constitutes the ARR outside of the nearly $1 billion from these categories and questioning the growth rate of the core, non-emerging products.

    Answer

    CEO Jay Chaudhry clarified that the "Zero Trust Everywhere" metric refers to the 60% QoQ growth in the *number of customers* adopting the full platform, not an ARR figure. The other two categories, Data Security and Agentic Operations, have distinct ARR contributions that are growing significantly faster than the company average. The "approaching $1 billion" figure is the combined ARR of these three growth drivers, not a subset of total ARR.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Zscaler (ZS) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked about the data security opportunity with ZDX Copilot, specifically regarding the partnership with Microsoft to secure Microsoft Copilot and Zscaler's competitive positioning against vendors like Varonis.

    Answer

    CEO Jay Chaudhry explained that Zscaler's unique advantage stems from its inline position for all Office 365 traffic, combined with API-based data discovery capabilities. He highlighted a recent seven-figure deal driven by a customer's need to secure its Microsoft Copilot rollout and confirmed Zscaler is actively working with Microsoft's field organizations to help joint customers.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Palo Alto Networks (PANW) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Palo Alto Networks (PANW) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked about the 1,250 platformization customers, seeking to understand what percentage of ARR they represent and their importance in reaching the $15 billion ARR target.

    Answer

    CEO Nikesh Arora clarified the company's long-term model, stating that the goal is to reach 2,500 to 3,500 platformization customers. At that point, he expects these customers to account for 60% to 70% of the company's Next-Generation Security (NGS) ARR, which would put them on track to achieve their $15 billion target.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Palo Alto Networks (PANW) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski pointed out that net new ARR appeared to decline year-over-year for the past two quarters, excluding the QRadar contribution, and asked why strong platformization trends were not translating into growth on this metric.

    Answer

    CFO Dipak Golechha explained that the company is lapping a period of unusually high net new ARR growth from a transition to cloud-delivered subscriptions, making the year-over-year comparison difficult. CEO Nikesh Arora added that underlying drivers like SASE, XSIAM, and software firewalls remain strong, keeping the company on track for its long-term $15 billion NGS ARR target.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Palo Alto Networks (PANW) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for an update on Prisma SASE, specifically whether new customer wins were competitive displacements or greenfield opportunities.

    Answer

    Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora responded that it was 'all of the above.' He detailed that new SASE customers include network transformations replacing legacy VPNs, competitive takeaways, and a significant number of greenfield deployments, with 40% of SASE customers in the quarter being net new logos to Palo Alto Networks. He highlighted continuous innovation, like the Prisma Access Browser, as a key growth driver.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Dynatrace (DT) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Dynatrace (DT) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked about the Net Retention Rate (NRR), noting the distorting effect of on-demand consumption (ODC) revenue, and queried what the NRR would be if calculated differently and its expected trajectory.

    Answer

    CFO James Benson acknowledged that ODC is not included in the NRR calculation. He stated that while the reported NRR ticked down slightly to 110%, it would have shown a modest increase from Q3 to Q4 if the uncommitted ODC revenue, which he views as 'deferred ARR,' had been included in the calculation.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Dynatrace (DT) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski pointed out that new logo additions were down year-over-year despite positive business indicators and asked if this was related to weakness in the commercial segment.

    Answer

    CFO Jim Benson acknowledged the lower unit count but stressed the company's focus on the quality and size of initial deals. He highlighted that the trailing 12-month average ARR per new logo increased to over $140,000, a healthy sign. Benson confirmed that they aim to increase new logo volume, particularly within the commercial segment, as part of their ongoing go-to-market tuning.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to SentinelOne (S) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to SentinelOne (S) leadership • Q4 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked if the retiring deception product impacted the Q4 net retention rate (NRR) of 110% and requested a breakout of cloud and data analytics ARR.

    Answer

    Tomer Weingarten (CEO) stated that the company is not disclosing per-product ARR at this time. He clarified that the deception product retirement did not have a material impact on Q4 NRR but will be a headwind in Q1, after which NRR is expected to be in a 'more healthy place.'

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q3 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski sought to clarify if the new large GenAI customers were net new to Elastic or existing customers crossing the $100k threshold. He also asked if GenAI customers present a higher cross-sell opportunity for observability.

    Answer

    Interim CFO Eric Prengel clarified that the 270 GenAI customers spending over $100k are a subset of the total 1,460 large customers and could be either new or existing customers adopting GenAI. CEO Ash Kulkarni responded that while any strategic conversation about GenAI opens doors for cross-selling, he doesn't believe GenAI applications necessarily drive more monitoring needs than other mission-critical applications.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for a quantification of the deals that slipped from Q1 to better understand the potential recovery. He also questioned if the multi-quarter timeline to close these deals suggested a competitive issue rather than a self-inflicted one.

    Answer

    CFO and COO Janesh Moorjani declined to quantify the slipped deals but called the amount 'significant,' noting it would take more than a single quarter to close them all. CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni emphasized the issue was not competition, as the deals were not lost. He attributed the delay to the time required for new sales reps to re-establish relationships and rebuild momentum on transitioned accounts, which is the core execution issue being addressed.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CyberArk Software (CYBR) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to CyberArk Software (CYBR) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski asked for clarification on the 2025 growth outlook, questioning if the guidance implies approximately 22% growth for the core business when factoring out Venafi's contribution.

    Answer

    CFO Erica Smith confirmed that this is a good framework for thinking about the split. However, she cautioned that it is becoming increasingly difficult to disentangle Venafi's contribution from the core Secrets Management business, as they are now sold as a combined solution. She affirmed that framing the core business growth at over 20% is a reasonable approach.

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    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership

    Andrew Nowinski's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership • Q2 2024

    Question

    Andrew Nowinski of Wells Fargo asked about the durability of Informatica's strong cloud ARR growth, especially compared to recent weakness at a major hyperscaler, and questioned the trend in cloud ARR contribution from migrations.

    Answer

    CEO Amit Walia attributed the business's durability to its platform neutrality, serving as the 'Switzerland of data' across all hyperscalers and data platforms. CFO Mike McLaughlin clarified that the 26% TTM cloud ARR from migrations represents a steady increase from 17-18% at the Investor Day and 24% in Q4 2023.

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