LEADING OFF

FIELD NOTES

NORTH TEXAS BUSINESS ADVICE, ANALYSIS, and COMMENTARY

STRATEGIC MOVES Foregoing Funding

Sachin Nayyar, CEO

SECURONIX

“we are different from the typical startup in that we bootstrapped our company and funded it personally for the first five or six years. Until this last round of funding, we had raised just $42 million, which is very low compared to any other company in our space for the level of maturity that we’re at. But this allowed us to make the right decisions because we weren’t worried—and still aren’t—about quarter-over-quarter pressure from the investment community. We could focus on doing the right thing for our customers, and we will never lose that mindset. Now that we are more mature and have grown revenue exponentially, in addition to having plenty of investment money (we raised more than $1 billion in this last round), we can truly invest in R&D and the very best talent from around the world, which will help us move the needle at scale. Today, we have a company of more than 1,000 people focused solely on cybersecurity with a billion dollars in capital available to solve a problem.” —As told to Ben Swanger