Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Assaf Rappaport, CEO of Adallom (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How did you fund the company?

Assaf Rappaport: The company started with an investment from Sequoia Capital.

Sramana Mitra: So you raised concept financing from Sequoia?

Assaf Rappaport: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: That’s very unusual. How did you manage to do that? That’s happening very rarely nowadays in the industry.

Assaf Rappaport: They truly believed in the founding team and in the background that we had. The second one is the huge gap in the market. The solution that we actually brought to the table is a very unique solution to one of the biggest gaps in the security world today, which will enable organizations to employ great security and at the same time, not affect the usability for employees.

Sramana Mitra: Did you present the architecture of the product? What did you have to show them for them to give you that financing?

Assaf Rappaport: It was the concept and bios of the team.

Sramana Mitra: That’s very unusual. Congratulations. That’s a major feat to pull off these days. You obviously came up with a very clear gap in the industry and you’ve been able to build a product and generate financing around that concept. On your horizon, what are some other areas that are open problems or gaps in the industry where you would suggest entrepreneurs go explore?

Assaf Rappaport: Before even talking about where to get the ideas, I would emphasize building the right team to solve a problem in security. It’s not probably as unique but in order to solve a problem in security, you need to come from the security background. The best way is talking and listening to security teams in enterprises. Security teams are usually a unique team inside the information technology organization that sees the world differently from other IT teams. The best way is to share the ideas with as many organizations as you can and listen. When you have a great team and are a listener, you will find the idea and will find the solution for the pain that the security teams are facing. That’s also what was happening in Adallom.

Sramana Mitra: Great. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Assaf Rappaport, CEO of Adallom
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