Day: December 4, 2025

• Cybersecurity firm ThreatLocker rewards its two most helpful employees with luxury cars each year.
• CEO Danny Jenkins said he values teamwork, given the company’s fast-paced nature.
• The company also selects 14-16 employees and rewards them with an all-expenses-paid group trip.

Companies are getting creative with rewarding standout workers, but few are giving out $170,000 luxury cars or cruises to the Bahamas.

ThreatLocker, an Orlando-based cybersecurity firm with about 700 employees, gives luxury cars to its two most collaborative workers at its annual holiday party, the company told Business Insider.

The firm, which also has offices in Dublin, Dubai, and Australia, receives hundreds of votes each month for the two most helpful employees — one in the US, and one abroad. It flies in its international workers in for the holiday party.

Additionally, every manager votes for the best performer on their team that month. At the end of the year, the total votes for the top performer and the most helpful employee are combined to determine the two car recipients, the company said.

The firm usually awards an electric model, but has also handed out a $125,000 Porsche Panamera. The company hasn’t announced its car for this year yet, but told Business Insider one of the models is worth $173,000.

The tradition began in 2021 as a prize for the top performer, but CEO Danny Jenkins said it created a “dog-eat-dog” work environment. In the cybersecurity industry, teamwork is crucial to the company’s success, he said. Jenkins said the firm operates 24 hours a day with an average pick-up time of 23 seconds for any customer support issue, and colleagues need to work together to achieve that.

“Everything we do is with this matter of urgency,” Jenkins said. “So if you don’t have this teamwork where people are willing to get on a call at 2 a.m. in the morning and help each other and collaborate, then it doesn’t work.”

Jenkins said he works about 100 hours a week, and he keeps his phone on 24/7 in case issues arise.

Retaining the top

AI development has led to a boom in the cybersecurity industry, resulting in heightened demand for qualified talent. Jenkins said the company has never done layoffs and is currently hiring 40 to 50 people a month.

“I’d like to be in a situation where I don’t feel like we’re drowning because we’re constantly struggling to hire and onboard people fast enough,” said Jenkins.

That makes it all the more worthwhile to retain top talent and those who contribute to a strong culture.

He said that before the car winners are announced, between 14 and 16 runner-ups are honored in front of the company, and then offered a spot on a fully paid long-weekend getaway.

Jenkins said the trip has included a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas, as well as trips to Boston or New York. The group typically includes employees from various departments, and they all receive a spending budget of $2,500 on their trip, he said.

ThreatLocker also offers other perks to standout employees. Jenkins said that most employees work 40-hour workweeks, but sometimes teams may have to put in 18 or 19 hours straight to address an issue. Jenkins said when workers push through tight deadlines or go above and beyond, the company may reward them with court-side seats at games in the Orlando Kia Center, where the company has a permanent box.

Jenkins said the trip and car giveaway have bolstered employee success and that no car recipient has ever left the company.

• Jensen Huang has been the CEO of Nvidia for more than 30 years.
• He guided Nvidia through near bankruptcy and now leads the world’s most valuable company.
• Huang said the “sense of uncertainty” while leading Nvidia never goes away.

Leading a multi-trillion-dollar company that has become a foundational pillar of the latest AI boom is a tall order. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO for more than three decades, is acutely aware of that.

In an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” published on Wednesday, Huang spoke frankly about the mental toll of steering his chip company out of near bankruptcy and ensuring Nvidia remains ahead of the curve in the AI race.

“The phrase ’30 days from going out of business’ I’ve used for 33 years,” Huang said in the interview. “The feeling doesn’t change. The sense of vulnerability, the sense of uncertainty, the sense of insecurity — it doesn’t leave you.”

Before Nvidia became one of the most valuable companies in the world — with a $4.4 trillion market cap as of Wednesday — the chipmaker was on the brink of bankruptcy at least three times in the ’90s.

Those days are far behind Nvidia, but that hasn’t allayed Huang’s fear of failure — nor does Nvidia’s latest success make him any less of a workaholic.

“I work a lot,” Huang said, adding that he’s running the company seven days a week.

Here’s what Huang had to say on leadership and what it’s like leading Nvidia.

A spokesperson for Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

Vulnerability and leadership can go together

Huang, one of the longest-serving tech CEOs in history, told Rogan that he believes vulnerability and leadership aren’t mutually exclusive qualities.

“I think there’s nothing inconsistent with being a leader and being vulnerable,” he said. “The company doesn’t need me to be a genius, right all along, right all the time, absolutely certain about what I’m trying to do and what I’m doing. The company doesn’t need that.”

The CEO said that being vulnerable allows him to be open to feedback from his peers and consider different strategies if he’s ever wrong.

“If we put ourselves into this superhuman capability, then it’s hard for us to pivot strategy — because we were supposed to be right all along,” he said. “And so if you’re always right, how can you possibly pivot? Because pivoting requires you to be wrong. And so I’ve got no trouble with being wrong.”

He’s in a constant ‘state of anxiety’

The Nvidia CEO said part of what drives him is a “fear of failure.”

“I have a greater drive from not wanting to fail than the drive of wanting to succeed,” Huang said, adding that he’s “always in a state of anxiety.”

He recalled some of the near-death experiences his company brushed with in the ’90s, including one of the first moments when Nvidia was unable to fulfill a contract with Sega, a Japanese video game company. The Sega CEO at the time, Shoichiro Irimajiri, decided to hand Huang a $5 million lifeline.

Those were formative experiences that gave Huang his mantra — “30 days from going out of business” — for the next three decades at Nvidia.

“I’m not ambitious, for example,” Huang said, facetiously, “I just want to stay alive.”

The Nvidia CEO also doesn’t hold any illusions about success.

“There’s long periods of suffering and loneliness and uncertainty and fear and embarrassment and humiliation,” he said. “All of the feelings that we most not love.”

Huang has previously emphasized the importance of “pain and suffering.” He reiterated the point to Rogan.

“I think it’s good that we pass that forward and let people know that — that it’s just part of the journey,” he said. “Suffering is part of the journey.”

Huang reads thousands of emails a day

Huang told Rogan that he typically wakes up early, checking his inbox for the first few hours of his day. And there are thousands of emails to read, according to the CEO.

It’s part of his routine to maintain what he called a “culture of staying super alert.”

“There’s no easy way of being alert except for paying attention,” he said. “I haven’t found a single way of being able to stay alert without paying attention. And so, you know, I probably read several thousand emails a day.”

There are no days off in the Huang family

Huang has previously revealed that he’s a workaholic, working 14-hour days and through holidays.

That relentless work ethic has apparently been passed down to his two kids, who are both employees at Nvidia.

“Both of my kids work at Nvidia,” Huang said. “They work every day. I’m very lucky.”