A Conversation with the Fortanix Founders

Anand and I have known each other for nearly half our lives as we were together as undergrads. We lost touch for quite a while and then when we came together in the bay area, the ideas and discussions naturally began. We had both coincidentally in the security space, with me focused more on encryption and he on systems security and software. We were both curious, first-principle-driven based people and debated about how to secure data which in our mind was a top-order problem to solve when everyone else was focused on securing infrastructure. We thought we could boil down security hacks into simpler equations and get to the point of exclusivity. For example, if we took the operating system and root users out of the trust equation, then perhaps we could keep data secure even if everything else fell apart. Founders have to have inherent trust in each other. Starting a company can have its fair share of setbacks and having someone that you can trust without having to watch your back is a big deal. That came naturally to both of us.

There were several lessons. Founders often try to convince investors, who sometimes back companies based on what some analysts, social media or newspapers say. Nobody other than the founder has the fundamental insight into their idea. Raising money cannot be a substitute for the fundamental validation of an idea. This is where Anand and I worked from first principles. Our goal was to make sure that the problems we were solving and the solutions we created were all meaningful and differentiated. Once we went through this exercise deeply, we made the usual Silicon Valley road trip connecting with investors via friends and getting referral introductions. As a first-time founder, we probably had to pitch to 50 investors before the 51st decided to place a bet on us.

The first step was to raise a small seed round of funding, which would allow us to build the product and hit the milestones to raise the next round of funding. We leveraged our network of friends, advisers, ex-colleagues, and alumni to reach out to VCs who invest in early-stage startups. Our pitch was quite bold and unique, and that helped us in attracting interest from multiple VCs. After a few (or quite a few) investor pitches, we got a few investors interested in us, and we chose the one we liked the best!

This was never explicitly discussed between us. During the entire ideation process, and later the fund-raising process, we were very clear on who will take on the CEO and CTO roles. I believe this was due to the natural inclination that each of us had towards the responsibilities of each role. In the initial stages, the CEO takes the primary responsibility of managing investor relations and laying the groundwork for GTM activities, while the CTO takes the primary responsibility of product development and engineering. Product management and hiring of early technical employees was a shared responsibility of both founders.

Hiring at an early stage is quite tough, but I also recall it being a fun phase. There is no product, nor customers. The Equity is worthless. Yet, our expectations are high – to attract world-class talented engineers to join us. For first time founders – this is tough, but we had high standards, and it took us almost three months to hire our first engineer. We must kiss a lot of frogs before finding the prince. But fortunately, there are engineers out there who have equally high standards on the problems they want to work on and who share the vision of changing the world. Once we find that specific profile, magic happens.We have since kept a similar mindset in hiring our employees. Even as we have grown bigger as a company, I believe the bar to join Fortanix is still very hard.

As a startup, we must always hustle. We had hired our first BD person, and we were sending cold emails to prospects, meeting as many prospects as we could to tell them our story, and we were leveraging our network as well as the network of our VCs and advisers to get in front of as many potential customers as we could. Our hustle paid off and we got lucky. One of our cold emails landed in front of the CISO of one of the largest financial institutions in the world, who was running an RFP to select the next enterprise-wide data security solution.

She was at the final stages of the vendor selection process but wasn’t very happy with the choices presented to her. She liked the promise and the zest in our cold email and decided to give us a chance. She told her team to evaluate our product too as part of the RFP. When we received the RFP, our product didn’t satisfy most of the requirements being asked of. However, we again hustled. We worked day and night and implemented several features in a matter of days which made our product competitive compared to the other products. We then did a great presentation to show the vision and won them over. They have grown to be one of our largest customers, and we will eternally be grateful to them for the trust they placed in us early on.

Even when I wasn’t a founder, I used to bring work home. To a large extent, my personal and professional lives have always been intertwined. As a founder the days are longer, and the stress level can be higher. I’m certainly thankful to my family for coping with me. To maintain balance, I try to dedicate 100% of my weekdays to work and 100% of my weekends to the family.

The early stages of a startup are very demanding on time and are quite stressful. I’ve been blessed to have the support of my spouse and my two young children to keep me grounded and reduce the stress. My younger child is almost the same age as Fortanix, and it has been great to draw parallels between him and the company as they passed the stages of infancy to being a toddler, and now to be able to stand on their feet confidently. Building Fortanix would have been impossible to do without the constant support and numerous sacrifices made by my wife, and I am eternally grateful to her for that.

Our trait for culture is excellence. We like working with people who have a great sense of ownership, and like creating things that are superior to anything else that has been created before. These are the people that feel the universe requires a new solution and are itching to make a dent in it. We foster such an environment and instil that in our co-workers.

Most Fortanix employees indeed have turned down several offers elsewhere. They certainly have a choice. Fortanix can become a multi-generational company, and many have the opportunity to do some of the best work of their career here. Working with some of the best people around, can also be incredibly uplifting in terms of ideas and discussions, defining new possibilities for individuals and the company at large. So, my invitation to prospective employees is to come and experience the challenge and benefit from the incredible opportunity.

Prospective employees should do their independent research on Fortanix. Then they should talk to some of our employees and if possible, talk to some of our customers or partners. Great employees want to work at great companies with great colleagues. They want to learn from their peers, and they want them to be the best. I believe Fortanix gives them that platform. Some of our best hires came from referrals.

I would like for us to become a household name, at least in the businesses we are relevant to. Data security should be mainstream, and no one should be asking if they need to secure infrastructure to secure data. Anyone should be able to secure data, wherever it is.

Fortanix in 5 years will be a large, independent, and meaningful security company, and It would be recognized as the de-facto platform for data security in any enterprise.