Early Life
Michelle Zatlyn was born in July 1979, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. She grew up in Prince Albert, where she attended Ecole Holy Cross and Carlton Comprehensive High School, where she was captain of the basketball team. Zatlyn showed early ambition, even creating a board game in her junior achievement class, which was her first exposure to creating something people wanted.
Rise to Success
Zatlyn graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 2001. She then worked at Google and Toshiba before joining the founding team of I Love Rewards, an employee rewards program. In 2009, she co-founded Cloudflare with Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway, meeting them while attending Harvard Business School, where she earned her MBA. Cloudflare went public in 2019. She holds the positions of President and Co-chair at Cloudflare.
Key Business Strategies
Cloudflare's success is built on innovative cloud-based security solutions, making it a major player in cybersecurity. The company’s early adoption of a freemium model and a commitment to a powerful free tier has created a massive network effect, giving Cloudflare visibility into nearly 20% of the world’s websites by January 2025. This has allowed Cloudflare to offer robust security and performance services to a wide range of clients.
Philanthropy
While specific philanthropy amounts are difficult to ascertain, Zatlyn is actively involved in promoting diversity and supporting women in technology. Cloudflare has also provided free services, such as to election websites and vaccine distributors.