![]() We had this very unique approach to solving this problem that didn't exist back then, and it aligned pretty well with the things that we do at Sookasa, so we ended up building and launching a product at Barracuda. We got a carte blanche to “go and do something exciting it can be whatever you want.” We were thinking, “What are some adjacent fields where we can really build something even bigger and even more exciting?” It was the time when various types of highly personalized phishing attacks and account takeover attacks and other forms of e-mail fraud were growing really fast, and we realized that the industry was lagging behind in addressing it. When we joined Barracuda, we were fortunate to work with some really great leaders. What did you do there?īarracuda acquired Sookasa. Like, where do you get your passion? Where do you see customers getting excited? Where are things moving and changing quickly? It worked for me.Īt Barracuda, you were senior vice president of engineering with email protection. That’s something I would tell anyone thinking of starting a company: it's worthwhile looking through several different teams, if you can, and several different spaces and ideas and see where things stick. ![]() It ended up being the right opportunity for me among several that I explored. What I ended up doing with my co-founder back then just ended up feeling right. You go between different projects and different ideas. It was just too exciting to pass up, and I actually worked with a handful of people. I think I made a decision independently that I wanted to start a company. When was the moment you decided to start this together? Were you always talking about putting a company together or did you have an idea first and then join forces? We partnered together to start Sookasa in the cybersecurity space. I dabbled with thinking I might do non-tech stuff or semi-tech stuff like VC but ended up deciding I wanted to do the thing I love best, which is startups and engineering. It brings together general business and leadership training along with an environment that's very tech-oriented and startup-oriented. That’s what inspired me to come to Stanford. I worked for a couple of startups in Israel in my 20s, and at some point, I wanted a new adventure to learn things beyond engineering and maybe try a different place as well. Tell me a little bit about the journey that you took and some of the decisions that you made. But I'm still hoping that one day I'll get to get back to writing code all day long. I did find myself spending a lot of time on non-engineering stuff because I have spent a lot of time in an early-stage startup where you get to do a lot of different things. I'm definitely an engineer by training, and this is where my heart is at. I've been going back and forth about that. Tell me a little bit about who you are, Lior. He says in a larger organization, one of the best ways to have an impact is to hire the right people and set the culture for your team. In between startups, he worked at Barracuda after they acquired Sookasa. ![]() Now as the co-founder of Monte Carlo, which helps teams manage the reliability of their data, he is keeping his eyes open for opportunities to become a category-building company. His cybersecurity company, Sookasa, was too focused on a small part of the market, and Gavish says they missed opportunities to expand. It provides companies with an encryption and compliance solution that enables their employees to natively use their cloud services, such as Dropbox and Gmail, and mobile devices, while transparently encrypting sensitive data and addressing regulations such as HIPAA and FERPA.Even though he founded a successful startup, Lior Gavish realizes he made some mistakes there that he is working to avoid on his new endeavor. The company intends to use the funds for continued development and expansion of traction in key regulated industries such as healthcare, education, legal and finance.Ĭo-founded in 2012 by CEO Asaf Cidon (formerly of Google and Israeli Intelligence), Israel Cidon (formerly founder of Actona Technologies and Dean of Electrical Engineering at the Technion), Madan Gopal (formerly of Cisco and IBM), and Lior Gavish (formerly of Paypal), Sookasa emerged from stealth mode to simplify the protection of sensitive files across cloud services and mobile devices. In addition, Kirk Bowman, who formerly held executive positions at VMware and Equallogic, joined as an independent board member. In conjunction with the funding, Sameer Gandhi from Accel Partners joined Sookasa’s board of directors. The round was led by Accel Partners, with participation from existing investors First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel and other vcs and angel investors. Sookasa, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of compliance solutions for cloud applications and mobile devices, raised a Series A funding round of undisclosed amount.
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