Tell Us About Open Raven. What Does The Company Do And What Is Your Mission?

If data is the new oil, we’re doing a pretty lousy job taking care of the oil rigs.  There’s been so many data breaches and leaks that we’ve become desensitized to the news of yet another incident. With the explosive growth of data, the number of people handling it, and the dynamic nature of the public cloud, it’s simply too hard to protect data today. Our problems are futuristic, yet our tools are Jurassic. Customers deserve better products to understand and control their data. Open Raven’s mission is to reinvent data security for a modern era and put an end to data exposure. When we're successful, we'll have also laid the foundation for real privacy-- which we believe is a fundamental right for all.

We believe the security industry is currently going through a difficult phase. Maybe it’s our messy adolescence, but there's a trust deficit within the community that has a lot to do with shady behavior on behalf of solution providers. It's fixable and it starts with us. We think the best way to stand apart is to focus on radical transparency & authenticity. And we're not the only ones-- we are part of a small and hopefully growing group of security vendors who believe we can help get the industry back on track by setting & following a higher standard. At the heart of this is our commitment to open source, but it extends all the way to how we build, market & sell our products.

What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company? And How Did You Choose This Space?

I’ve worked in cyber security since ‘96, starting as a consultant for Deloitte and moving into products in ‘99. Starting with a role as the first product person at a startup (Foundstone), I went on to run the Norton line of consumer security products, serve as the first Chief Product Officer (CPO) of CrowdStrike and recently guided Tenable through their IPO.

After years of running (and fixing) other people’s products, I wanted to start a product business from scratch. My longtime friend Mark Curphey had just wrapped up selling his source code security business. The timing was right for both of us and the fit was perfect: he no longer wanted to be a CEO having just done it and I felt the same about being CPO. As we looked out across the industry to determine what market to go after, every security leader we spoke to was uncomfortable with how their data was being protected. In fact, too few felt they could reliably answer the foundational question of “Where’s my data?”  We believe the next generation of security solutions will emphasize deep knowledge of and strong controls around the data itself. We intend to lead this transition.

What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-Liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?

The best moments center on customer feedback. The breakthroughs where someone says “Whoa!” and leans in deep to the product in a way we had not seen before. Or an insight that compels them to immediate action. This is our fuel as a team and it never gets old. We love it. 

Alongside customer success, seeing the people grow during the startup journey is just as rewarding. No one walks away unchanged- it’s simply too intense.  People push past limits personally and as a team simply because they have to. The feeling afterward is elation, both for the person and the team who shares it. 

Some of the hardest moments happened while raising the Seed round.  Dealing with investors for the first time-- and with so much ambiguity still in the business-- was unnerving.  As a founder you only negotiate for financing infrequently but you’re working with an investor on the other side of the table who does it all the time. It’s like a high schooler vs. a pro athlete. The stakes are high and you’re stuck with the consequences, good or bad, for a very long time. Raising the next round was much easier.

What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us About Your Investors And What You Use The Money You’ve Raised For.

Both rounds were very different. Our Seed round early last year was targeted at investors we already knew and liked. It was not an easy round, as I mentioned before, but we knew we would find funding and a partner that we liked for a long haul. Kara Nortman of Upfront and I had met the previous Summer and had been social ever since. After my cofounder Mark met Kara, we knew she was the right fit for us. The deal ended up being straightforward and we could not be happier with her as our partner. She pushes us in all the right ways and allows us plenty of degrees of freedom otherwise.  As a former founder, empathy is her strong suit and she’s often at her best when you’re having a rough day.

The Series A round was entirely different. We had a couple preemptive offers that were not quite right on either side and we had planned to run a process in the late Spring. COVID-19 hit and Kara pushed us to lock in funding ASAP given the uncertain economic climate. We had done considerable diligence already with several investors and Kleiner Perkins moved the most quickly and decisively when things got hairy.  In fact, our partner meeting in March was scheduled for the same day trading was halted due to the crash. For the first time in Kleiner Perkins history, it was held over Zoom versus an in-person meeting.  Bucky Moore handled the unusual situation with grace and we went from term sheet to cash in the bank within 2 weeks. It’s worked out extraordinarily well by all accounts in spite of the mayhem. We feel very fortunate- Kleiner and Bucky have been incredibly hard working as a partner.

Anything Exciting That Will Be Launching Soon?

Our first paid product launches in November.

What Was The Inspiration Behind The Company Name?

It’s a story in 2 parts. Open stands for our commitment to both an open source core and a spirit of transparency.

For the other part of the name, a “birds-eye” view affords you a speedy picture of everything around. And no bird is better at finding things than a raven. In Norse mythology, Odin’s fabled ravens, Huginn & Muninn, brought him the important news daily from their tireless travels across Midgard. Wouldn’t it be great if someone did the same for you, sweeping across all areas and finding the essential stuff to tell you about your most critical asset, your data? Our aim is to be as vital to our customers as Huginn and Muninn were to Odin. If you look closely, you’ll notice a distinct scandinavian influence on our branding and product component naming. We’ve had a lot of fun with this.

Can You Walk Us Through A Work Day? What Does A Typical Day For You Look Like From When You Wake Up Till You Go To Sleep?

I get up during the week around 4:20am or a little sooner. Everything is set out the night before so I can simply go through my morning routine. I do about 30-40 minutes of work, making sure everything is ready for the day ahead and I try to start on a single, hard problem. Even if it’s just a rough plan or jotting down notes. I do this to prime my subconscious before I step away from my work so that my brain knows what I want it to solve for while I’m doing something else.

Then I bike over to work out with my trainer nearby who has set up an excellent outdoor gym. A mix of dynamic stretching, cardio, core and weight training. By the time I’m done, I usually have an idea or two to make note of when I get home. I fit in another 15-20 minutes of work before I make my son breakfast and read with him (currently Phillip Pullman’s Amber Spyglass) before he starts school.  

At around 8:30am or sooner, I start into a combination of internal and external meetings for the day along with the occasional block of time I set aside to get “heads down” work done. After 3pm, I only do “easy stuff” since I’ve used up all of my high quality cognitive minutes earlier in the day. So email, expenses, low risk conversations, etc. The days are often packed, quickly moving from one thing to the next with a few breaks. I do a combination of video meetings interspersed with phone only walking meetings around the block to keep my sanity (and my Apple Watch activity monitor happy).

I wrap things up between 5:30-6:30pm on most days and have dinner with my family. I try not to check email or Slack (and often fail) after this point as I need evenings to wind down and reflect. I read fiction before bedtime to make absolutely sure I won’t wake up at 2am with my head spinning on a work problem. I’m usually in bed by 8:30pm and asleep by 9pm. I know I’m done reading when my iPad (fully dim, white text on black) hits my face.

What Are The Top Three Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful?

The ability to see around corners, or prescience. Ultimately you’re best if you can spot trends, problems and opportunities before they arrive. The alternative is to be stuck reacting to unforeseen events, which is exhausting and stress-inducing.  Things that can be predictably seen and avoided I consider “synthetic stress” and actively work to eliminate. For me, this means a combination of taking notes, reflecting, reading, interviewing people, etc. I always want to know who has solved the problem before and had great results. If I can read off Hermione Granger’s notebook, I’ll do it every time in order to avoid future problems and save precious time. 

Skepticism. My cofounder and I beat on ideas obsessively until we’re certain we have a winner. Even then, the nuances and details are a frequent topic of discussion.  As we progress, if the ideas connect even further and reveal more opportunity than we saw at the beginning, we feel great and pursue as quickly as possible. If instead the idea starts to “flatten out” over time, or the value vs. effort equation is worse than expected, we reconsider.  There’s precious few things that are beyond scrutiny.

Rejection or resilience in the face of rejection. I had always been told that as an entrepreneur you have to become accustomed to rejection and I nodded my head.  I thought I understood this, but I didn’t until we started Open Raven. Investors, prospective hires, potential customers, partners… you name it. More “no’s” or ghostings than I had ever experienced in my life. I began to think of it as my necessary “rejection calluses” that needed to build up over time to handle the weight. The rejections would keep coming, so how do you handle it? I choose to think of it as being similar to the skin toughening up on your hands when you lift weights. It’s both necessary and useful. Push past it. None of it is personal and countless people before you have done the same.

Tell Us Something About Data- It Could Be An Industry Trend Or Statistic- That Would Surprise Us.

For seemingly the last 2 decades, cyber security teams have a 30% staffing shortage. Our teams are understaffed every year. There’s not enough people, not enough training and most of all, not enough time.  

If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous Who Is Alive, Who Would It Be And Why?

Neil Gaiman. I love a good story and I regard Neil as one of the most compelling storytellers of our time.  

What Do You Do In Your Free Time?

I exercise, run & play tennis with my son. I’m a fantasy & science fiction geek. I like to garden and maintain a small backyard plot of veggies and fruit year round here in LA. When I can, I like to SCUBA dive and surf.

Who Is Your Role Model?

Teddy Roosevelt

What Are Your Top Three Favorite Books?

1. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

2. Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman

3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

What Does Success Mean To You?

That we’ve left a meteor sized impact on the data breach problem & along with it, helped the security industry itself arrive at a better place.  That our customers are so happy that our main source of marketing is their word of mouth. And that our team is so happy that internal referrals fill our pipeline of potential new teammates to bursting.