| | SEPTEMBER - 20188OPINIONShould you sell your cybersecurity startup?M&A vs. IPOBy Kareem Aly, Investor, Thomvest VenturesAs an entrepreneur, you need a lot of things to go right. You need a novel idea, an effective go-to-market strategy, a robust team, funding -- the list goes on.The rationale behind becoming an entrepreneur, pursuing a path where you are statistically more likely to fail, varies from individual to individual.Perhaps the basic premise of your startup is altruistic, with financial incentives bearing no influence. Perhaps you'd like to develop a lifestyle business, accumulating a steady, predictable income stream. Maybe the idea of taking your company public and ringing the opening bell on Wall Street consumes you. Or perhaps you dream of selling your startup for millions.In Silicon Valley, these latter two reign supreme, and this is especially true in cybersecurity.So which do you target -- M&A or IPO? Ultimately, no one can answer that except you, the founder. But there are a few things to consider along the way.Allow me to elaborate. Let's assume you take the plunge and become the founder of a hot cloud security startup. You get a knock on the door. It's a $50 million acquisition offer from Palo Alto Networks. $50 million? You scoff. It's too low for you, you say. Your company is going to the moon.A year later, as your customer logos continue to multiply, you receive a $100 million offer to sell your company to McAfee. Again, it's too low for you. Top-line growth has been remarkable. You decline.Shift time forward a couple years. You've just raised a sizable Series D, you have a large booth at all the major conferences (RSA, Black Hat, etc.), you're interacting with customers and research analysts -- you're gaining meaningful traction.Not only that, but people are genuinely beginning to recognize your brand. One of these people happens to be the CISO of a large Fortune 500 -- let's call it Boeing.Several emails back and forth with Boeing's CISO, and you find yourself in the midst of a cloud security bake-off against two other vendors. One of these vendors is smaller than you, having only just raised a Series A. IN MY
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