From the outside, Upwind Security looks like it’s had a smooth journey so far. Just four years in, the cloud security startup is now worth $1.5 billion and boasts the likes of Siemens, Peloton, Roku, Wix, Nextdoor, and Nubank among its clientele. “After joining NetApp post the Spot acquisition, I experienced firsthand how difficult cloud security really is,” Shachar said. But selling their new take on cloud security proved challenging, as security teams often lack permission to deploy software internally and default to more traditional tools. Security teams were already overwhelmed by the number of tools, and customers didn’t want multiple products just to manage cloud security.