Brian NeSmith's guest appearances

Brian NeSmith

Entrepreneur's M&A Journal

UberKnowledge

FUTR Podcast

Unusual Ventures Startup Field Guide

Matt Rose

Ben Johnson

Val Bercovici

Ravi Patel

Nick Tasler

Bryson Bort

Andrew Miller

Corey White

Joe Slowik

Ilan Rabinovitch

Malcolm Harkins

Mike Hamilton

Taylor Lehmann

Magda Chelly

John McGrath

OwlTail

Arctic Wolf

While some startups experiment and pivot their way into product-market fit, others have founders with a unique insight that needs persistence. After a rough  6 year start as a company between 2012-2018, Arctic Wolf hit a tipping point driven by market awareness. In the past 4 years, the growth rate of the business has been phenomenal. Founder Brian NeSmith joins us to discuss his conviction to keep going and how he kept his talented team together even when results weren't what they expected. Brian NeSmith is a cybersecurity industry veteran, having led three successful companies - the latest of which is Arctic Wolf Networks. Last valued at over $6BN, Arctic Wolf is the leader in the cybersecurity category known as MDR - Managed Detection and Response, provided as a service. In this episode, Sandhya is joined by co-host John Vrionis, her partner and founder of Unusual Ventures. John led the first venture investment in Arctic Wolf, a $7.5M round by Lightspeed when Brian first started the company. Join us as we discuss: The origin story of Arctic Wolf and why John backed Brian Brian’s framework for evaluating market demand and product-market fit Brian's approach to fundraising in 2017-18, when the 150+ investorshe pitched were concerned by AWN’s story as well as a market crash, and how John supported Brian during this time How Brian handled tough board conversations when times were hard, and what John saw Brian do well as a CEO managing the board Brian's advice for founders on quitting or pivoting away from an idea    To learn some of the skills Brian and John discussed, explore the Field Guide modules on: Raising a Seed or Series A round Managing a Series A board meeting CEO/Founder prioritization Leading through uncertainty  About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services.  Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness,  and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).

While some startups experiment and pivot their way into product-market fit, others have founders with a unique insight that needs persistence. After a rough  6 year start as a company between 2012-2018, Arctic Wolf hit a tipping point driven by market awareness. In the past 4 years, the growth rate of the business has been phenomenal. Founder Brian NeSmith joins us to discuss his conviction to keep going and how he kept his talented team together even when results weren't what they expected. Brian NeSmith is a cybersecurity industry veteran, having led three successful companies - the latest of which is <a href="https://arcticwolf.com/?utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=linkedin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arctic Wolf Networks</a>. Last valued at over $6BN, Arctic Wolf is the leader in the cybersecurity category known as MDR - Managed Detection and Response, provided as a service. In this episode, Sandhya is joined by co-host John Vrionis, her partner and founder of Unusual Ventures. John led the first venture investment in Arctic Wolf, a $7.5M round by Lightspeed when Brian first started the company. Join us as we discuss: <ul><li>The origin story of Arctic Wolf and why John backed Brian</li> <li>Brian’s framework for evaluating market demand and product-market fit</li> <li>Brian's approach to fundraising in 2017-18, when the 150+ investorshe pitched were concerned by AWN’s story as well as a market crash, and how John supported Brian during this time</li> <li>How Brian handled tough board conversations when times were hard, and what John saw Brian do well as a CEO managing the board</li> <li>Brian's advice for founders on quitting or pivoting away from an idea  </li> </ul> To learn some of the skills Brian and John discussed, explore the Field Guide modules on: <ul><li><a href="https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/fundraising-milestones-valuations" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raising a Seed or Series A round</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-managing-a-series-a-board-meeting" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Managing a Series A board meeting</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-ceo-and-founder-prioritization" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CEO/Founder prioritization</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-through-crisis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leading through uncertainty</a></li> </ul> About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness,  and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:sandhya@unusual.vc">sandhya@unusual.vc</a> and on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/sandhya" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/sandhya</a>) and LinkedIn (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/</a>).

How Arctic Wolf found product-market fit: Brian NeSmith on getting to the tipping point

Today we are going to be continuing our conversations about security by talking with Arctic Wolf CEO Brian NeSmith. Brian has been a fixture in the industry for quite a while. Prior to Arctic Wolf, Brian was CEO of Blue Coat Systems and Ipsolon Networks. Arctic Wolf is a rare venture backed services company that has raised $350 million and is solving security challenges for Small and mid sized businesses with an eye toward the Enterprise. We are going to talk about the changing security landscape and how his team of security professionals solves for today’s most difficult security challenges. https://arcticwolf.com

Today we are going to be continuing our conversations about security by talking with Arctic Wolf CEO Brian NeSmith. Brian has been a fixture in the industry for quite a while. Prior to Arctic Wolf, Brian was CEO of Blue Coat Systems and Ipsolon Networks. Arctic Wolf is a rare venture backed services company that has raised $350 million and is solving security challenges for Small and mid sized businesses with an eye toward the Enterprise. We are going to talk about the changing security landscape and how his team of security professionals solves for today’s most difficult security challenges. <a href="https://arcticwolf.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arcticwolf.com</a>

#31: Managing Your Security With Arctic Wolf CEO Brian NeSmith

The Right to Know Brian talks about the need for constant monitoring in security and argues that we should be able to ask the data collectors, like Google and the government, what they know about us.  05:09 The permissive culture the internet was built with is the reason we have so many security issues today 07:57 Blockchain is one potential way to improve the trust dynamic in cyberspace. 10:31 There is no mechanism for consumer to ask the data collectors —Google, Facebook, Carriers, the government — what they know about you, and there should be. Is it time for legislation? 16:25 You can buy security, but you can never stop monitoring.     Brian NeSmith Interview Transcript

The Right to Know Brian talks about the need for constant monitoring in security and argues that we should be able to ask the data collectors, like Google and the government, what they know about us. <ul> <li>05:09 The permissive culture the internet was built with is the reason we have so many security issues today</li> <li>07:57 Blockchain is one potential way to improve the trust dynamic in cyberspace.</li> <li>10:31 There is no mechanism for consumer to ask the data collectors —Google, Facebook, Carriers, the government — what they know about you, and there should be. Is it time for legislation?</li> <li>16:25 You can buy security, but you can never stop monitoring. </li> </ul> <a href="https://www.uberknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Brian-NeSmith.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brian NeSmith Interview Transcript</a>

#49 Brian NeSmith – CEO, Arctic Wolf