CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) CEO George Kurtz once revealed that the company's rise to a cybersecurity giant began with decisions that, at the time, most of the industry thought were reckless.
Banks Didn't Trust The Cloud
In a November 2022 conversation, Kurtz told Ryan Limaye, from Goldman Sachs, that when he founded CrowdStrike in 2011, the idea of delivering security from the cloud was viewed as risky, especially by major banks.
He recalled walking into firms like Goldman Sachs and hearing immediate pushback.
Back then, "the cloud was pretty scary for a lot of folks, including the banks," he said, noting that banks repeatedly demanded an on-premises version of CrowdStrike's platform.
One Swiss bank even praised the product but insisted it would never go to the cloud.
Kurtz pushed back, reminding them they once made similar claims about virtualizing data centers and adopting Linux—both of which they eventually embraced.
Two years later, that same bank became a major CrowdStrike customer, he stated.
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Early Competitors Won Deals Because CrowdStrike Wouldn't Bend
Sticking to a cloud-only model came at a cost. Limaye mentioned said CrowdStrike watched competitors win business simply because they offered traditional on-prem tools.
Losing those deals was difficult, Kurtz admitted, but the company played "the long game," convinced cloud adoption was inevitable and foundational to its crowdsourced threat-detection approach.
Asking Big Banks To Install Another Agent Was A Tough Sell
CrowdStrike also faced resistance to deploying its endpoint agent—a lightweight piece of software that runs on every device. Many IT teams were already frustrated with heavy antivirus agents that slowed machines.
No one wants yet another agent, Kurtz said. But CrowdStrike's AI-driven, low-impact design helped build trust, even though asking firms like Goldman Sachs to install it across critical systems was a significant hurdle for an unknown startup.
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CrowdStrike To Report Q3 Revenue On Tuesday
CrowdStrike is set to release its fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on Dec. 2, 2025.
In the previous quarter, the company posted revenue of $1.17 billion, topping analyst expectations of $1.15 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. Adjusted earnings came in at 93 cents per share, also exceeding the consensus estimate of 83 cents per share.
For the third quarter, CrowdStrike projected revenue between $1.208 billion and $1.218 billion. The company expects adjusted earnings of 93 cents to 95 cents per share.
CrowdStrike currently has a market cap of $127.78 billion.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings show that although CRWD's short-term price trend has eased, its medium and long-term growth outlook remains strong. Click here to see how the company stacks up against its peers.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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