SourceClear Diary of a Startup (May)
First off you will notice this is the Diary entry for May and not weeks six to ten. Weekly entries were simply becoming onerous. Secondly you will notice I am still late. Nothing changes!
Bootstrapping Was Yesterday - I Want to Move Faster!
It has been a frustrating month to say the least. If I look at the big picture we are in an unbelievably good position but I am finding myself having to remind myself of those facts. The strategy has always been to take up to a year and build a prototype by boot strapping; use that prototype to get interest and then use that interest to secure “the right” funding. The “right” funding being the key.
Through my contacts I went out to a decent number of folks and tested/validated the market with the general product design plans. You always hope people will “get it” and share your vision but from previous experiences with product companies and customers I had set my own expectations that some people would need to be sold. What happened was quite the opposite of what I expected. Everyone’s feedback was either “build it and well buy it” or ”if you build that people will definitely buy it”. Most encouraging was the fact that everyone without fail reiterated to me why our approach is the right one especially compared to the current information security management vendors. Two companies have even offered potential paid design and build engagements which we are obviously pursing with interest. This is of course tremendous feedback and very encouraging indeed.
So why the frustration? When we “aced” the first milestone (getting interest) it’s suddenly dawned on me that that what I really should have done was get this funded way back when. I had been operating under the belief that we needed a real prototype to get that interest and I now know that was wrong. While I am tracking with where I expected to be a few months into this thing (market validation and early adopters feeding us requirements) I now have probably 6 months of finding a CEO and funding ahead of me. In hindsight I could have started this process 5 months ago. Of course its easy to look back in hindsight and forget what a great position this still is.
I have always known that what we need to build is enterprise software and all that it entails. There is no way that a boot strapping model will allow us to build the quality and size of the platform and applications we have designed in a reasonable time. This means that instead of needing a developer who could pull together a prototype we now need highly experienced team of engineers and engineering managers who can build large enterprise software; sadly things with Alex didn’t work out. We have just about finished the first rev of the corporate site at www.sourceclear.com and SecurityLinkUp will now be open sourced (hopefully this week). Many thanks to the friend who is helping finish up Security LinkUp. I will repay him someway, somehow. While on the topic of hiring I did have the pleasure of an old friend visiting last week. He is a chief scientist type guy with a really impressive pedigree. More on that when the time is right!
The Search for a CEO Starts in Earnest
So the search for a CEO has started in earnest. Why search for a CEO prior to funding? My personal aim all along has to become the CTO of this company and be responsible for technology and marketing. I have run operations at Foundstone and while I think I did a good job, it is not what excites me. I want to find a CEO who is interested and excited in sales and operations and I want that persons first task to raise money. After all most of his/her job will be managing the operations including the investors and so it seems sensible to make those things interlock form day one. In short I want a founder CEO and not a hired one. Plus I can get an early read on how good this guy will be so its a win-win for me!
You may well be asking a valid question “surely the VC’s will see it as a huge benefit to put in their own man?” It seems this is true, in the US, but not true in Europe and as I will discuss in Location, Location Location below, I have decided being HQ’ d in London is the best for the company. In the US it seems as a general rule VC’s will welcome a founder who is looking for a CEO. In the EU as a general rule they tend to prefer complete management teams. I am off to London next week to meet with two people, one of which I have worked with before and have very high hopes for. I want to work with personal recommendations or previous colleagues. Of course if anyone reading this blog has any introductions, please feel free to mail me.
Ticking Over While We Find the Right Funding
Of course design and requirements will never be finished and there is plenty to be doing, but in reality it may take six months to find the “right” CEO and the “right” funding and as my wife reminds me, the savings account doesn’t look like it used to. It makes sense to offer some services that are directly related to the company vision and if you are interested you will now see on the corporate web site a services section www.sourceclear.com/services The services are very much specialist services including design and build of bespoke ISM applications and process engineering. Of course I know a bit about secure software and information security management as well and it goes without saying, “once a consultant, always a consultant”.
Location, Location, Location
I lived in the States for the last 7 years and have really fond memories of it. It was really good to me and especially for my career. Almost all of my business contacts are in the States and the market for information security is great. It was always the intention to come back to my holiday house in France for a year while we bootstrapped and then move back to the States. The UK changed a great deal since I moved away in 1999 and you see a different side of it from the other side of the pond. I have been pleasantly surprised how the UK and London in particular has become a real global location of choice for business. I read in a newspaper the other day that the City of London is now moving more money than New York. Taxation is low, the skilled workforce is at an all time high, infrastructure is superb and generally it seems like a great place to do business. The US will still remain the primary sales market for us and I still expect to open an office there ASAP but the intent at this stage is to seek funding from an EU source and open our main operations and engineering in the UK. There are a ton of talented developers and the security market is thriving with deep cultural roots. We are a nation obsessed by spies after all!
Next month ……..will be busy as always!
