A CEO's Journey

I hate self-promotion.  I particularly hate it on LinkedIn.  I was ambivalent about sharing this post but decided to do so.  For me, the short story below brings me back to something Bob Metcalfe, the principal inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, for whom I worked many years ago, advocated time and time again.

The combination of an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist is powerful!

These days we’re reading about unicorn valuations, layoffs, stupid business models and melt-downs. Some of them at high profile startups in the security space.  What I’ve shared below is a thank you and very short story about the journey of Vormetric, a data security company with a long history.  Maybe this story will provide some encouragement to CEO’s leading teams on their own journey.  I sometimes say being a CEO can be a little bit like being an airline pilot.  There can be many hours of near boredom with the periodic interrupt of abject terror.  These often occur around board meetings and funding events!  O.k. so to counter the headlines we’re reading about (problems with venture capital and Silicon Valley), here’s one CEO’s thank you and one company’s story …

We just closed the sale of Vormetric to Thales for $400M.  So very grateful to have had the opportunity to lead the Vormetric team for the past ~ 3.5 years.  A 15 year old company, our success is built on the talent of our team, the support from our customers, and, the vision and accomplishments of those who preceded us. Our founders escaped disruption following the Vietnam War. They had an idea.  This place called Silicon Valley found VCs who believed in them, and, continued to support our journey for more than a decade.  It is a profound gift to see how our success will benefit so many people in so many ways.  Today will change the lives of many, touching those who took the risk to strive to achieve the American Dream.  Not only for them, but more importantly, for their families. Feeling very blessed.

I’m excited to lead the team forward as the CEO of Thales e-Security.  To my existing team, I say thank you.  To my new team, our customers and prospects, I look forward to our future together. We have much, much, more to accomplish!

Alan