This week: F5 turns 30 years old this year, and the Seattle company has reinvented itself repeatedly to get here — starting, improbably, as a group of University of Washington students trying to build online video games.

On this week's GeekWire Podcast, recorded on location at F5 Tower, the company's chairman, president and CEO François Locoh-Donou joins us to trace that journey, from a 1990s internet load-balancing startup to a company that helps keep many of the world's biggest apps running and secure.

Today F5 is a publicly traded company with about 6,500 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, and it counts over 80% of the Fortune 500 among its customers.

Locoh-Donou discusses F5's expansion into AI security, including its acquisition of SurePath AI this week, and the company's broader M&A strategy. On a personal note, he reflects on his path from Togo to Seattle, his leadership philosophy, and his message to high school students from underrepresented backgrounds who visited F5 Tower before the company took them to a World Cup match.

Plus: his World Cup predictions, and a GeekWire trivia question that stumps the room.

With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton.

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