How Zscaler went to market

PrimarySupportingTried, then dropped

1. 2008 to 2016

   Cloud security instead of appliances, sold with carriers

   Incorporated in 2007 as SafeChannel and renamed Zscaler in 2008, the company sold security delivered from its cloud to large organizations, mostly through telecom carriers, integrators, and resellers.

   • Sales-led

     A sales force builds relationships with senior IT buyers in large organizations, in a joint model where a partner usually transacts the deal. The S-1 counts over 200 of the Forbes Global 2000 as customers.^[1]

   • Partner channel

     Carriers such as BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Verizon include Zscaler in network transformation projects, and integrators bring it into cloud migrations. The top five channel partners were 40% of fiscal 2015 revenue.^[1]

   • Category creation

     Zscaler pitched replacing the castle-and-moat stack of on-premises appliances with security as a cloud service, and says it pioneered that approach. The S-1 never uses the phrase zero trust.^[1],[23]

   • Brand narrative

     ThreatLabZ, an internal research team analyzing threats across Zscaler's cloud, is presented as a differentiator and publishes reports on emerging security issues.^[1]

2. 2016 to 2020

   Second product, land and expand, IPO

   Zscaler Private Access launched in April 2016 as a second product. The company went public in March 2018 and held its first Zenith Live user conference that June.

   • Land and expand

     Customers start with some users, then add users, upgrade to richer suites, and cross-buy ZIA or ZPA. Dollar-based net retention ran from 115% to 120% across fiscal 2017 to 2020.^[1],[18],[4]

   • Partner channel

     Most revenue comes through the channel, and the S-1 says the sales team is focused on increasing sales through partners rather than direct sales.^[1]

   • Sales-led

     Sales and marketing ran at 60% to 70% of revenue in fiscal 2015 to 2017, with account-based marketing aimed at new enterprise accounts, and FedRAMP authorization for ZPA-Government opened the U.S. federal market.^[1],[11]

   • Owned events

     Zenith Live, Zscaler's own user conference, started in June 2018 and was named as a driver of higher sales and marketing spend in fiscal 2020.^[11],[4]

3. 2020 to 2023

   The Zero Trust Exchange reframing

   The FY2020 10-K is the first Zscaler 10-K to use the phrase zero trust. The platform became the Zero Trust Exchange, a third product joined, and net retention peaked at 128% in fiscal 2021.

   • Brand narrative

     Zscaler renamed its platform the Zero Trust Exchange and moved its public story onto zero trust and away from castle-and-moat security, with ThreatLabz reports supplying the data. Its own pages credit the term zero trust to Forrester and analyst John Kindervag in 2010.^{[4],[12],[13],[14],[19],[20]}

   • Category creation

     Zscaler claims to have pioneered a cloud-delivered zero trust platform and the first cloud-delivered zero trust solution, not the zero trust term itself, which came from an analyst.^{[4],[20],[23]}

   • Land and expand

     Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) joined ZIA and ZPA, and dollar-based net retention rose to 128% in fiscal 2021 before easing to 121% in fiscal 2023.^[4],[5],[7]

   • Owned events

     Zenith Live ran as a virtual two-day summit across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific in 2021, built around training sessions to help organizations adopt zero trust.^[13]

   • Cloud marketplace

     Public cloud marketplaces first appear in the 10-K's list of channel partners in fiscal 2022.^[6]

   • Sales-led

     Sales and marketing stayed the largest cost, at 68% of revenue in fiscal 2021 and 59% in fiscal 2023, and the 10-K says Zscaler sells to enterprises of all sizes.^[5],[7]

4. 2023 to now

   Platform, flexible spend, and AI security

   Net retention fell to 114% by fiscal 2025, and the FY2026 10-K switched to ARR as its key expansion figure while leaning on Z-Flex, non-seat products, and marketplaces.

   • Land and expand

     Expansion now runs through more products, non-seat pricing, and Z-Flex, a pre-committed spend pool customers draw on for new products. Net retention was 114% in fiscal 2025, and the FY2026 10-K reports ARR of $3,771M instead of a net retention rate.^{[9],[10],[17]}

   • Partner channel

     Most revenue still comes through the channel. The top five partners went from 25% of revenue in fiscal 2024 to 31% in fiscal 2026, alongside joint go-to-market work with global systems integrators.^[10]

   • Sales-led

     The sales organization is account-centric, with dedicated sales and customer success resources, and sales and marketing fell to 45% of revenue in fiscal 2026.^[10]

   • Cloud marketplace

     AWS Marketplace passed $1B in cumulative Zscaler software sales, and public sector sales through it grew 68% in fiscal 2025.^[21],[10]

   • Owned events

     The 10-K names Zenith Live and a Public Sector Summit as programs to build the brand and engage new enterprise accounts. Zenith Live 2026 launched AI agent security products and carried partner sponsorship tiers.^[10],[22]

   • Brand narrative

     Annual ThreatLabz reports feature in earnings releases, and the FY2026 10-K points ThreatLabz research at risks from enterprise adoption of AI applications and AI agents.^{[15],[16],[10]}

“Reported” figures come from trade press, not the company, and are shown with their date.

• “Zscaler invented zero trust.”

  Not supported

  Zscaler's own pages credit the term to Forrester Research in 2010 and analyst John Kindervag. Its 2018 S-1 never uses the phrase zero trust; it sold security as a service replacing appliances, and the phrase enters its 10-K only in fiscal 2020 with the Zero Trust Exchange. What Zscaler claims is narrower: it pioneered a cloud-delivered zero trust platform and introduced the first cloud-delivered zero trust solution.^{[19],[20],[1],[4],[23]}

• “Zscaler sells only to the largest enterprises.”

  Partly true

  The focus on large organizations is filed: the S-1 stresses larger organizations and senior IT buyers, and over 40% of the Forbes Global 2000 are customers. But resellers were used to reach mid-market customers, every 10-K from fiscal 2021 says Zscaler sells to enterprises of all sizes, and only over 4,600 of about 11,000 customers are organizations with more than 1,500 employees.^[1],[5],[10]

• “Our sales team is focused on increasing sales through our channel partners and not through direct sales to customers.”

  Zscaler, S-1 registration statement^[1]

  Management's Discussion and Analysis

• “285 of the CXOs had bought Zscaler two times. Company A, then they went to company B, 84 had bought it three times”

  Jay Chaudhry, Founder, chairman and CEO, Zscaler^[23]

  Answer to Tom Gardner's question on partnering with Zscaler to align with the CEO

• “When I looked at the world of IT, I said, applications are changing, but nothing has changed the world of cybersecurity. Same old 30-year-old firewall technology. We need to do things differently.”

  Jay Chaudhry, Founder, chairman and CEO, Zscaler^[23]

  Answer on why he started Zscaler

• Borrow distribution from whoever already owns the network project.

  Works when: Your product replaces infrastructure bought as part of a bigger project someone else already sells (network, cloud migration, ERP), and those partners gain from attaching you.

  Backfires when: Buyers purchase you standalone or self-serve, or partner margin eats a low ACV. Channel concentration also becomes a risk the filing has to disclose.

  Based on: Cloud security instead of appliances, sold with carriers, Partner channel; Second product, land and expand, IPO, Partner channel; Platform, flexible spend, and AI security, Partner channel

• Sell the architecture change first, then adopt the market's name for it.

  Works when: An analyst or government term is gaining buyer pull, and your product genuinely implements it rather than touching one part of it.

  Backfires when: The term is already a crowded buzzword, which Zscaler's own blog says happened to zero trust, so the label adds no separation.

  Based on: Cloud security instead of appliances, sold with carriers, Category creation; The Zero Trust Exchange reframing, Brand narrative

• Land and expand needs new products once seats saturate.

  Works when: Customers are large and already standardized on your platform, so each new product sells to the same buyer with no new procurement.

  Backfires when: Products are bolted on rather than sharing one policy engine and console, or the buyer has no budget pool to draw from.

  Based on: Second product, land and expand, IPO, Land and expand; The Zero Trust Exchange reframing, Land and expand; Platform, flexible spend, and AI security, Land and expand

• Your champions change jobs; let them take you with them.

  Works when: The buyer is a senior security or IT leader whose reputation rests on the architecture they install, and satisfaction is high.

  Backfires when: Procurement or a committee with no single owner buys the product, or the category churns faster than executive tenure.

  Based on: Cloud security instead of appliances, sold with carriers, Sales-led; Platform, flexible spend, and AI security, Sales-led

Compare with every other company on the GTM matrix.

1. [1]SEC filingZscaler, Inc. Form S-1 Registration Statement (February 16, 2018)
2. [2]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2018 (September 13, 2018)
3. [3]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2019 (September 18, 2019)
4. [4]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2020 (September 17, 2020)
5. [5]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2021 (September 16, 2021)
6. [6]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2022 (September 15, 2022)
7. [7]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2023 (September 14, 2023)
8. [8]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2024 (September 12, 2024)
9. [9]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2025 (September 11, 2025)
10. [10]SEC filingForm 10-K, fiscal year ended July 31, 2026 (September 3, 2026)
11. [11]EarningsZscaler Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2018 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 5, 2018)
12. [12]EarningsZscaler Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2020 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 9, 2020)
13. [13]EarningsZscaler Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2021 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 9, 2021)
14. [14]EarningsZscaler fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 results press release (8-K exhibit) (September 5, 2023)
15. [15]EarningsZscaler Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2024 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 3, 2024)
16. [16]EarningsZscaler Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2025 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 2, 2025)
17. [17]EarningsZscaler Announces Strong Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2026 Financial Results (8-K exhibit) (September 3, 2026)
18. [18]CompanyZscaler Private Access: Remote Access without the Security Risks of VPNs (April 26, 2016)
19. [19]CompanyWhy Is Zero Trust Cybersecurity So Essential Today? (Jacob Serpa) (September 16, 2024)
20. [20]CompanyA brief history of zero trust from the whiteboard to the White House (infographic) (2022)
21. [21]CompanyZscaler surpasses $1B in AWS Marketplace sales (David Garcia) (November 6, 2025)
22. [22]CompanyZenith Live 2026 Recap (2026)
23. [23]Founder interviewThe Motley Fool Interviews Zscaler Founder and CEO Jay Chaudhry (transcript, interviewer Tom Gardner) (Jay Chaudhry, January 22, 2026, at text transcript: answers on why he started Zscaler, on partnering with the CEO, and on AI threats)
24. [24]Trade pressZscaler soars 106% on first day of trading (TechCrunch, March 16, 2018)

Every phase, motion, and myth verdict cites a filing, the company's own pages, or a founder speaking on the record. See the methodology.