Nick Bilogorskiy, Cybersecurity Strategist at Juniper Networks How to exit BIG Nick Bilogorskiy drives cybersecurity strategy at Juniper Networks. As a Founding Member at Cyphort, which was recently acquired by Juniper Networks, Bilogorskiy created and led the Cyphort Labs Threat Research team and played a critical role designing Cyphort’s malware detection logic and product user experience. Prior to Cyphort, Bilogorskiy was Chief Malware Expert at Facebook and also held security research leadership positions at Fortinet and Sonicwall. Bilogorskiy is fluent in reverse engineering, analysis, pattern writing and malware tracking. He holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science and philosophy from Simon Fraser University, a GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM) certification and multiple patents in computer security. Nick co-founded charity organization Nova Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid and increase awareness about Ukraine in the world.

1. How to exit BIG
Nick Bilogorskiy twitter.com/belogor

3. Founded
In 2011 by a team
of security experts.
Launched our
Advanced Threat
Defense Platform
product in Q3 2013
HQ
Located in the
heart of Silicon
Valley
Santa Clara, CA
80+ people
Acquired
In 2017

4. 408 Ventures
Balanced acquired by
Stripe
Slidepay acquired by
Rocket Lawyer
30 investments

5. 408 Ventures
Balanced acquired by
Stripe
Slidepay acquired by
Rocket Lawyer
30 investments

6. How to sell your company
1. Build valuable company with high annual revenue
2. Prepare for sale - get all your affairs in order
3. Have a backup plan
4. Time it right
5. Price it right
6. Get noticed by acquirers
7. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
8. Create urgency , multiple bids
9. Close.

7. When to sell
3 reasons founders sell:
tired, scared, greedy.
Don’t wait too long
“A the end of the day,
I sold my company,
I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”
–Brian Acton, co-founder of Whatsapp

8. Price it right
Source: my own research.
3 bands:
Acquihire Per person 1-3M
Business deals Per annual rev 4-8X
Strategic Deal Off the charts

9. Acquisition price multiples
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mXFKOwwWql6xCIQ71CEfr_tsNcu0-
77CMh7eLCrwl7I/edit#gid=0

10. How to tell your employees
- Identify who you need to close the deal and tell them first
- Your stockholders will get paperwork anyway to vote and approve the deal
- Tell your employees as early as you can and keep them in the loop
- Explain why you are selling and what other options have been tried
- Stress the secrecy of the deal

11. BIG exit takes a very long time
After six years of my own angel investing ~ thirty investments , I have seen results in only
17% of companies. Specifically:
- 10% of companies died (shutdown)
- 7% of companies exited (acquired)
- 83% are still alive and growing
It’s a long game, expect 6-10 years for a BIG exit.

12. CEO
Dog-eat-dog world.
Selling is the CEO’s job.
Bring in a professional CEO.
CEO.
Founder.

13. “Every relationship is potentially a
business relationship, and every good
business relationship lasts a lifetime.”

14. Be in Silicon Valley
● Americans buy
from Americans
● Touch builds trust
● Serendipity
● Valley culture

16. “Build a business. Not a startup.”

17. Communicate
Seek first to understand, then to be understood -Covey.
3 second rule
Do not judge
Do not give unsolicited advice
The E-word. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

18. Persuade
Cialdini mentions the six keys of influence aka CLASSR
● Consistency or Commitment – foot in the door
● Liking
● Authority – people follow the lead of credible experts
● Social Proof (Consensus) – look to the actions of others
● Scarcity – people want more of those things there are less of.
● Reciprocity – people tend to reciprocate when they receive value especially when its
unexpected and personalized.

19. Hustle
We are our own biggest obstacle
Our only limits are fear and your imagination.
Be a force of nature
Be shameless

20. Fire
put as much time and effort in picking your co-founders, investors and customers as you
would in picking your spouse. your success depends on your co-founders. you can't predict
how people will behave. judge them based on their actions and get rid of bad apples
quickly.
Fire Troublemakers, without delays or warnings.
no matter how good they are as workers.
You will learn what people are capable of over time.

21. Build teams
Diverse cross functional
Add mentors to scale

22. Problem > Sale > Product > Technology
Get your priorities right.
“In B2B, you need to first think about the problem, then about making a sale, then about
the product, and finally, last, about technology.”
- Michael Rumiancaŭ, CEO of FriendlyData

23. Top reasons companies fail
● Product market fit
● Co-founder
● Bad location
● Burn rate
● Make your own mistakes.
● It’s not failure if you learn from it.

24. Mistake #1 – Stealth
Don't make a "stealth" startup. In the beginning, competition is not your primary risk,
failing to build the right thing is. Tell everyone about what you are doing and get many
opinions.
Forget about NDAs
Build Relationships
Get a PR agency and spend some money to build some BUZZ. Increase your Share of
Voice.
Show it – sell it, hide it – keep it.

25. “Show it. Sell it. Hide it. Keep it.”
– Ben Horowitz

26. Mistake #2 – Hiring quickly
Hire people as slowly as possible
Try to keep teams smaller for efficient
communication and burn rate

27. 95%13 Unicorns went through YC, 262 did not. Y Combinator Unicorns:
Airbnb, Instacart, Dropbox, Zenefis, Stripe, MachineZone,
Reddit, Docker, Coinbase, Gusto,Cruise, Quora, DoorDash
Mistake #3 – Accelerators

28. 15 founders in 2005 294 founders in 2017
YC: Then and Now

29. Mistake #4 – Picking toxic VCs
Oligarch money
1 in 50
Ask portfolio founders
THEFUNDED

30. Mistake #5 – Blamestorming
group discussion regarding the assigning of
responsibility for a failure or mistake.
Waste of time
Never criticize an individual in public
Praise by name, criticize by category

31. “Praise by name. Criticize by category.”
- Warren Buffett

32. Mistake #6 – Overestimating the market
Founders are emotional about their product
Verify people want and will pay for your product
Or you will not survive your first 2 years.
Unless you PIVOT to something else.

33. Mistake #7 – Not closing
Always Be Closing.
Future.

34. Luck
Ways to increase own odds of being lucky:
1. Seek wisdom
2. Give and help for no reason
3. Always remember to say “Thank You”.
4. Follow my fathers 3 P’s: patience, practicality, persistence

35. Exit

36. Thank you!
Nick Bilogorskiy nick@novaukraine.org●
● Now please ask me 2 questions about this.

37. Tomorrow – 12:45 at Lviv Coffee Mining Manufacture

39. facebook.com/novaukraine.org
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