CEO Reflections

Exciting times ahead

We recently announced a new round of funding lead by one of the best known VC firms on the planet - Kleiner Perkins. We have exciting, yet challenging times ahead, since now we have to smartly deploy the new funds to scale the solid foundation we laid in 2010. Given that this is my second start-up, I am intimately familiar with Sand Hill Road. I have been up and down it more times than I can remember. Raising funding at any time is not an easy task -- no matter what the "funding climate" seems to be. The VC community, in general, consists of some of the smartest money managers. Whether there is bubble 1.0 or bubble 2.0, as the press likes to call it, I do not believe that the metrics on how your business is judged ever change. Yes, indeed there are "flavors of the month" and if one firm has an investment in the current flavor, another firm would be more inclined to invest in a company that plays in that flavor.

Nonetheless, in my belief if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need two things in abundance. First and foremost, a level of "foolish optimism" and second, a thick skin to take all of the criticism, learn from it, get better and execute better and better. I am not being facetious. Analysis of all kinds -- market opportunity, competitive dynamics, etc is a must. However, I personally believe in having an unshakable faith in what you are doing, and then keep doing it.

Finally, you need to surround yourself with people smarter than you. I know this sounds trite, but we all have seen great companies identified with their star CEO or some star personality. What most people don't notice is that each of these stars actually have several other stars working in the background making it happen. The biggest challenge in building a great company is finding such people.

We at Egnyte have quite a few of those, but need lots more. Want to work with us?