Earlier this month, we announced the acquisition of Cyber Algorithms by Thycotic. Given this is the first exit from the Mach37 portfolio, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on its significance to us and our investment strategy.Mach37’s investment in Cyber Algorithms is a perfect example of our unapologetic bias toward investing in technical founders who embody world-class cybersecurity talent. As I articulated in my July 30, 2014 blog, Why Mach37 Loves the Hacker Community,
“the dirty little secret in start-updom is that while it can take years of technical and analytical experience to inspire truly disruptive security innovation, technical founders can buy, borrow, partner with or be taught the second set of target skills within a few months.”
When we first met Tim Brennan, we knew immediately he had that world-class talent. Together, Tim and his co-founder Josiah Smith could deliver their advanced capabilities to address a large-scale problem.Tim and Josiah did an incredible job of conceiving, developing, and validating a security analytic product from concept through acquisition. And, for them, getting it done didn’t mean they needed millions in investment capital and a large team of executives. Rather, they diligently embedded an advanced capability into a software product and engaged their target market to demonstrate product-market fit. By executing basic blocking and tackling, good things came to them – very quickly.Thycotic is one of the most promising and rapidly growing strategic acquirors of cybersecurity capabilities in our region and we are excited that Cyber Algorithms has become part of their team. Congratulations Tim and Josiah.