Paul and Michael discuss why some companies are hiring before training, the science behind contribution margin, sales lessons from successful entrepreneurs, battling from idea to launch, and why the future will be won by the scientist!
Startup & Security News You Need to Know
Synopsys acquires Black Duck for $565M
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/125611/black-duck-company-profile
- Owler estimates $55M in revenue, $75.5M in funding since 2002
- http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2017/11/02/black-duck-software-to-be-acquired-by-synopsys-for-565m/
WatchGuard files for IPO
- http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/10/prweb14827389.htm
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/117327/watchguard-company-profile
- ‘’WatchGuard provides unified threat management solutions that combine firewall, Virtual Private Network security services to protect business networks.’’
- https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/watchguard
- Interesting history; IPO in 1999, delisted in 2006
Sailpoint plans for $100M IPO
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/117603/sailpoint-company-profile
- http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2017/10/23/sailpoint-files-raise-100-million-public-offering/
- Raise roughly $26M in funding (since 2005)
- Identity remains a hot field
Forescout does well in first day of trading
- https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/27/forescout-technologies-pops-16-in-first-day-of-trading/
- ‘’The Internet of Things security company also increased the size of its IPO and raised about $116 million after selling 5.3 million shares.’’
- ‘’ForeScout had $167 million in sales last year, compared to $126 million for 2015. Losses grew to $75 million last year, up from $27 million in 2015. “We are on a path towards profitability,” said DeCesare.’’
Booz Allen acquires Morphick (Undisclosed)
- https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2017/10/20/booz-morphick-acquisition.aspx
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/12015164/morphick-company-profile
- ‘’Morphick is a cybersecurity platform that offers managed detection, incident response, threat intelligence and reverse engineering for enterprises.’’
- At least $10M in funding (on record) - Series A in Sept. 2015
Intezer raised $8M Series A
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/12297241/intezer-company-profile
- $10M in funding since Dec 2016
- ‘’Intezer is a cybersecurity company that specializes in offering biological immune system based malware analysis and detection to address threats.’’
- http://www.intezer.com
KnowBe4 raised $30 Million Series B
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/176298/knowbe4-company-profile
- $8M series A in Jan 2016, followed by $5.2M equity in Feb 2017 for a total raise of $43.2M
- ‘’KnowBe4 is a security awareness training platform that manages social engineering, spear phishing and ransomware attacks’’
Recorded Future Raised $25M Series E
- https://www.owler.com/iaApp/123791/recorded-future-company-profile
- ‘’Recorded Future helps to identify real-time online risks by collecting and analyzing sources on the web.’’
- $57.9M raised over 5 rounds since 2009
Startup Journey Updates
Michael's Straight Talk Journey
- Launched the new workshop; now the sole focus
- 3 spots left for 2017
- It's the starting point, and it's exciting to see the results for the teams I'm working with
- Overdue website update up next
- Straight Talk Framework - and Straight Talk the Value Proposition resource updates due before year-end
