Show notes
What if your company’s mission turned out to be bigger than you imagined?In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I speak with Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, now a $70 billion company defending 20% of all internet traffic. We trace how Cloudflare’s mission wasn’t declared at the start, but discovered through a series of principled decisions, from protecting journalists and activists to making encryption free for everyone.We also explore today’s urgent challenges: how AI’s shift from search engines to answer engines threatens the web’s business model, why creators must be compensated, and what a sustainable, human-centered internet could look like.This is a conversation about technology, power, and what it means to build with principle.—Where to find Mathew Prince: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mprince/• X: https://x.com/eastdakota—Where to find Eric:• Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow —In This Episode We Cover:(00:00) Intro(02:44) Cloudflare’s history of blogging (08:06) How Cloudflare got involved in safeguarding democracy (14:30) How Matthew learned Cloudflare would make enemies(16:42) Why Cloudflare stopped charging for encryption (18:36) How a series of principled decisions led to Cloudflare’s mission(26:24) Why a clear mission makes recruiting and building a company easier(32:00) Cloudflare’s culture of psychological safety around failure (34:18) Lessons from Cloudflare’s mission and scrappy early team(44:27) Why scale and valuation didn’t shake Cloudflare’s mission(50:12) How the shift from search to answers is reshaping the internet(1:01:00) Why we need a new business model to compensate content makers (1:03:48) Matthew’s vision for a sustainable future of creators and AI(1:06:26) How supporting creators sustains both the internet and Cloudflare’s mission(1:09:57) Lessons from Spotify on supporting creators(1:12:26) How Cloudflare handles its civic responsibility with transparency—You can find episode references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/—Production and marketing by Pen Name.Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.
