Ep. 1: Under Twenty

On September 3, 2026 Zscaler printed a clean year: revenue up 25 percent, ARR of $3.77 billion, a record operating margin, and a fiscal 2027 guide that landed inside the 16 to 17 percent frame that had cost the stock a third of its value in May. Three weeks later the chief revenue officer stepped down, the third executive paid under a severance policy the board amended in November 2024, and the stock gave up 10 percent. Then on October 6, at its first investor day in more than five years, management published a long-term model with a compensation line in it: stock-based compensation from 25…