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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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andre durand
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: What is the financing history beyond that $2 million Fidelity and General Catalyst round? Andre Durand: I would say after about two years roughly, in very traditional fashion, we started raising money to fuel our growth. I think we raised about $30 million in total between 2003 and 2012. In 2013, we made
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: With that General Catalyst money, you said 2006 was when you had the server? Andre Durand: 2005 was when it came out. We used the General Catalyst money, in essence, to build the first commercial product. The first one probably took us about 18 months. Sramana Mitra: When did American Express hit? Andre
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: Who were the customers you were going after? Were these enterprise customers? Andre Durand: We didn’t know at that time. The truth was it was big enterprises that had this problem. Sramana Mitra: Since your background was selling to bulletin board kind of people, you didn’t really have any enterprise software sales experience.
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 4)
Sramana Mitra: They were people who had made money off you before, so they had confidence in your ability. Andre Durand: Exactly. On January 4, I moved my computer from the corner office in Jabber. I think we had 50 people working at the company. I announced that I was going to start something new.
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: What happened to the Jabber project? Andre Durand: Jabber continued on even in my absence. I left in 2002 to start Ping. Sramana Mitra: When you left to sail around with your friend and wife, you quit Jabber? Andre Durand: No, I just took a sabbatical. I just said, “I’ve been at this
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 2)
Sramana Mitra: How long did this continue? Andre Durand: We actually did about $600,000 worth of business that first year. Sramana Mitra: That’s pretty significant. These were all from newsletter ads? Andre Durand: This all began with a black and white, half page advertisement that went into a little newsletter of 20 pages that shipped once
Building an IPO-Ready Identity Software Company from Colorado: Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. The identity space is heating up, especially because of the explosion in cloud services in the market. Ping Identity is at a $100 million annual run rate already. Read the story of Andre’s entrepreneurial journey. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey.
