Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Gryphon CEO John Wu (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me a bit about your company. Is it venture-funded?

John Wu: We’re a customer-funded company. We view our customers as our partners in this. We have done several successful equity crowdfunding rounds in the last few years. We raised over $11 million in past rounds. A lot of it came from our customers who believe in what we’re doing. When you talk about how you’re getting the word out, that’s one of the ways.

Sramana Mitra: Which equity crowdfunding platform did you work on?

John Wu: We used a platform called Seed Invest.

Sramana Mitra: $11 million from how many customers?

John Wu: Over 1,800 customers.

Sramana Mitra: You have 60,000 customers right now?

John Wu: It’s close to 40,000. Some customers have multiple units in their homes.

Sramana Mitra: 1,800 investors and about 40,000 customers. Can you talk a bit about when you started, and how long did it take you to pull together your first round of equity funding? How many units did you need to put out there to raise that round?

John Wu: We started with the friends and family round. Then we did a Kickstarter campaign as well. Right before we launched, we did an equity crowdfunding round.

Sramana Mitra: How many did you get on Kickstarter?

John Wu: We got about 500 units or so.

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to fulfill that order?

John Wu: About a year and a half.

Sramana Mitra: It takes time to build a product. This is a complicated product. So 500 units on Kickstarter. When you did the equity crowdfunding round, did some of Kickstarter come on and invest in the company?

John Wu: I believe so, yes.

Sramana Mitra: Awesome. You’re one of the best case studies that I’ve seen of leveraging a good crowdfunding campaign both from a product pre-order to leveraging and turning that into a successful equity crowdfunding campaign on a seed investment platform. Are there lessons that you’ve learned in managing that whole process?

John Wu: One of the things that is a must-do is having a good story and having a good product. Have a clear understanding of what pain points you’re solving with your products. The other thing is, a lot of it was about engaging with your audience and having that open and authentic dialogue. What’s the purpose behind it? If you can clearly articulate that, that helps a lot.

Sramana Mitra: Did you position around parental safety concerns?

John Wu: Yes, that was our number one priority.

Sramana Mitra: Clear and sharp positioning really helps. Trying to boil the ocean doesn’t help. Very interesting story. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Gryphon CEO John Wu
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