Building a Mid-Market Security SaaS Company from Canada: J. Paul Haynes, CEO of eSentire (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Where did you raise money? You said you worked with some investors that you had prior relationships with and who wanted to get in early. Are these Canadian investors?

J. Paul Haynes: The first investor was Venture Link, which was Toronto-based. They came in fairly early. They have another affiliate firm. The government put a program in place that encourages venture investment. We were able to take advantage of an interest-free loan that was non-dilutive. There’s a window of eligibility that we just happened to take advantage of. The first round was in June of 2011.

Sramana Mitra: You said something which is a bit unusual. I want to explain that to the people who are reading >>>

Building a Mid-Market Security SaaS Company from Canada: J. Paul Haynes, CEO of eSentire (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: For the Series A investors, what did you tell them you were going to do? What problem were you going to solve?

J. Paul Haynes: I described to them the problem of solving cyber security in the mid-market. Everybody in the industry at that time appeared to be focused on the enterprise. We just have to sell to 50 of the Fortune 500 and the company is exit-ready is the standard business plan I was later told. The thing that drew them our way is we said, “That’s not who we’re selling to. Instead of the Fortune 500, we’re going after the 10,000 mid-sized enterprises in America and other parts of the world that have the same >>>

Building a Mid-Market Security SaaS Company from Canada: J. Paul Haynes, CEO of eSentire (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Before all this, it sounds like you started doing companies in ’76. I don’t think we have enough time to cover that long a story. It sounds like you have a background in enterprise security software. Could you give us a little bit of an idea about what you did before?

J. Paul Haynes: I did a Bachelors in Engineering and a Master’s in SCADA. During that, I started my first business. Upon finishing my Master’s, I already had a full customer roster working in the utility energy market. I basically went right into a job that I created for myself. I haven’t looked back. I think I graduated in 1991 from the Master’s. >>>

Building a Mid-Market Security SaaS Company from Canada: J. Paul Haynes, CEO of eSentire (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

There are opportunities of building cloud businesses focused on mid-market customers, and many entrepreneurs are leveraging those to build compelling businesses. eSentire’s strategy is one worth looking at closely.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

J. Paul Haynes: I was born in Toronto. I grew up in a suburb of Toronto called Oakville. I grew up in a family of people studying >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: From a revenue point of view, where are you? What kind of revenue and growth rate are you trying to raise money on?

Alexandre Cagnoni: Our revenue in 2016 was $7.5 million. We’re seeing a growth of approximately 30% year per year. I think if we get investment, we can accelerate this over 60% and reach some markets that today we’re not reaching. For example, we’re not doing anything in Europe. We have some conversations with potential partners but we don’t have activities in Europe. We don’t have too many activities now in the US. We believe that once we have everything set up here in the US, we’re going to be able to raise funding and then go to the other markets and even invest more in the US, >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Is that the reason why you’re in the US? If you’re selling in Brazil and Asia, being in the US doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Alexandre Cagnoni: There are a few reasons we came to the US. First of all, Brazil is quite complicated in terms of taxes and how they handle international businesses. We believe that the US is a better place to concentrate international sales. Another reason is we are planning, in the near future, to get an investment to accelerate the growth. As I told you, we’re a bootstrapped company. The biggest deals are still in Brazil. Those deals are providing the investment we need for Asia and the US. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Lastly, what about the e-commerce sector where you said you just started offering services?

Alexandre Cagnoni: It happens to everybody all the time. I was recently on a trip to Indonesia. My card was refused when checking into the hotel and it was locked. It was identified by the system as a potential fraud. It was me using it. At the same time, I went to Best Buy. After 15 minutes, I was out of the store. I received a call from the credit card company saying, “We’re calling just to make sure that you’re the one doing the transaction.” I confirmed but if it was somebody else, the products would have been stolen already. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Are your customers large enterprises or mid market? Where is the sweet spot of your audience?

Alexandre Cagnoni: I would say that it would be medium and large enterprises. In the financial sector, we have both medium and large banks that have millions of devices. We have customers with 10 to 20 users using our solution, and we also have customers with millions of tokens deployed.

Sramana Mitra: I would like to do three different sector-based discussions next. Let’s talk about banking. What is the competitive landscape around fraud prevention and authentication solutions in the banking industry that you play in and how do you compete? >>>