Co-founder and COO @Remediant / Geekdad / Scoutdad / Photographer / Cyclist / Hiker Type also at: @planzi@infosec.exchange
San Francisco, CA
Joined March 2009
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This has to be the strangest security mechanism I've ever heard of. I thought @Carvana was in the business of selling cars? To people who want to buy them? And have the money to pay for them? I'll be fasincated to learn more about this new business model of, well, not doing that.
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Big fan of these guys - @riskybusiness and Andy Boyd (and stealth @DAlperovitch)
Paul Lanzi retweeted
The cybersecurity industry shouldn’t exist. We built the internet wrong, and we can solve most of our cybersecurity problems at their root by rearchitecting technology platforms to be safe-by-default instead of buying security products.
Paul Lanzi retweeted
My @delta flight got canceled from JFK. The customer service line was huge, so I google a Delta JFK phone number. The number was 1888-571-4869 Thinking I reached Delta, I started telling them about getting me on a new flight.
Wherever I’ve lived or worked, I’ve always sought places that have long site lines. It’s always been really important to me. Tig’s podcast gave me a “why” — the big space makes me put my immediate problems into the right frame: they’re not that big. dontasktig.org/episode/2023/…
Paul Lanzi retweeted
We had SUCH a great time today. @GGACBSA extends a HUGE thank you to @SFFDPIO, @UCSFHospitals, @CHP_GoldenGate, @ClearyBikes, @SFPD, @UCSF_Police, @BORP_org, @SF_EMSA, @StopTheBleed, @thebikehut1 and everyone else who made today's event a huge success. @boyscouts @thecubscouts
We had SUCH a great time today. @GGACBSA extends a HUGE thank you to @SFFDPIO, @UCSFHospitals, @CHP_GoldenGate, @ClearyBikes, @SFPD, @UCSF_Police, @BORP_org, @SF_EMSA, @StopTheBleed, @thebikehut1 and everyone else who made today's event a huge success. @boyscouts @thecubscouts
Paul Lanzi retweeted
10) On the way home, I put my window down for some fresh air.
I, of course, hear the screeching.
My first inclination is to roll the window back up, as to somehow pretend it wasn't there.
So many of us love SF, but it's getting increasingly harder to drown out all the noise.
I’ve felt for a long time that consolidation in the infosec solution space is coming - just like it did in the pre-ERP space ahead of Y2K. The collapse he discusses will be a part of that consolidation.
Lots of cyber security companies are going to fail this year. They will close their doors from running out of money or go to private equity asset sales. This is going to suck in the near term but be a good thing for the industry in the mid to long term. Many of these businesses *deserve* to die, but have subsisted on cheap/free outside capital since money has been free for a while and the new wave of more naive VCs are incredibly inexperienced at diligencing cybersecurity technologies.
The companies that will fail will be the companies that are hemorrhaging cash and not providing enough customer security value to justify their existence. High marketing spend, low customer logo count, low renewal rate.
All of those companies at the RSA and Blackhat vendor hall with gigantic booths that claim to solve problems that you as a security person ask constantly yourself: "is this really a problem???" have the largest targets on them and will represent the majority of companies that fail. The failures will start in earnest approximately 12 months after it became clear that money was expensive again (12 months from summer of 2022, which puts the crunch time at this summer). The failures will likely continue for at least one full year and slow down around summer of '24.
If you are a founder or executive at one of these companies, my unsolicited guidance is as follows:
- Get onto a cashflow break-even glide path with whatever money you have in the bank as soon as humanly possible. Stop tracking against future fundraises and start tracking against break-even. Do it now.
- Revisit first-principles on your business (what problem are you solving, how are you solving it, what is the alternative to your technology). If what you're doing now isn't working, evaluate all other options. Evolve or die.
- If you haven't found product market fit, give your product away for free and interview all of the users to figure out a new strategy for monetizing that you may not have considered. The security community will literally tell you what they want and don't want. All you have to do is listen.
- Seriously consider consolidating with a partner, competitor, or larger technology provider.
Paul Lanzi retweeted
Lots of cyber security companies are going to fail this year. They will close their doors from running out of money or go to private equity asset sales. This is going to suck in the near term but be a good thing for the industry in the mid to long term. Many of these businesses *deserve* to die, but have subsisted on cheap/free outside capital since money has been free for a while and the new wave of more naive VCs are incredibly inexperienced at diligencing cybersecurity technologies.
The companies that will fail will be the companies that are hemorrhaging cash and not providing enough customer security value to justify their existence. High marketing spend, low customer logo count, low renewal rate.
All of those companies at the RSA and Blackhat vendor hall with gigantic booths that claim to solve problems that you as a security person ask constantly yourself: "is this really a problem???" have the largest targets on them and will represent the majority of companies that fail. The failures will start in earnest approximately 12 months after it became clear that money was expensive again (12 months from summer of 2022, which puts the crunch time at this summer). The failures will likely continue for at least one full year and slow down around summer of '24.
If you are a founder or executive at one of these companies, my unsolicited guidance is as follows:
- Get onto a cashflow break-even glide path with whatever money you have in the bank as soon as humanly possible. Stop tracking against future fundraises and start tracking against break-even. Do it now.
- Revisit first-principles on your business (what problem are you solving, how are you solving it, what is the alternative to your technology). If what you're doing now isn't working, evaluate all other options. Evolve or die.
- If you haven't found product market fit, give your product away for free and interview all of the users to figure out a new strategy for monetizing that you may not have considered. The security community will literally tell you what they want and don't want. All you have to do is listen.
- Seriously consider consolidating with a partner, competitor, or larger technology provider.
Paul Lanzi retweeted
Can good comms save an otherwise bad situation? No, there's no amount of "going direct" that can make up for a bank not having enough money.
But bad comms can kill an otherwise salvageable situation.
Paul Lanzi retweeted
It’s tragic that Silicon Valley Bank could lose 80%+ of its value in a single day.
But what’s crazy is that the financial collapse was largely driven by a communication collapse.
Their storyline unraveled and their messaging went off the rails, in 4 big ways.
(continued below)
Paul Lanzi retweeted
Come see my talk at @sxsw this year: Life after the $1 Billion Valuation with @dugsong from @duosec and @joshluber from @stockx
schedule.sxsw.com/2023/event…
