How Arik and Yahav Started a Successful SaaS Business from the Garage

Cypago is an innovative SaaS company helping companies achieve greater security through automation. In this interview, the co-founder and CEO shares the story of Cypago’s growth, plus the keys to success.

How much revenue and profit does the business generate?

We’re running at a pace where our average sales price (ASP) has doubled itself quarter-over-quarter in the last three quarters, thanks to our unique value proposition and amazing technology.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I’m a proud parent to five children and have been happily married for over 25 years. In addition to these amazing achievements, I’ve been in the tech and cybersecurity industry for almost three decades now. After spending years as a technology manager in various positions and organizations, I assumed the role of CTO for E&Y’s cybersecurity center.

This is where the idea for Cypago started to shape up, while I was working with large US enterprises and helping their CISOs [Chief Information Security Officers] undergo complex security assessments. However, this idea needed a couple more years to come to life. Only after I joined forces with Yahav Peri, my Co-Founder and our CTO/VP of R&D, whom I knew from our time in Israeli intelligence, were we ready to rock.

How does your business make money?

Cypago is the only enterprise-ready cyber GRC [Governance, Risk, and Compliance] automation platform. With an easy-to-use SaaS solution, we help CISOs and cyber GRC leaders transform their manual processes into automated ones.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

Back when I had the opportunity to work with large enterprises as an executive consultant, I could see how difficult it was for them to gain the visibility they needed to properly manage and maintain their security programs.

Based mostly on spreadsheets and other manual tools, it was almost impossible to scale to the required levels, even with huge budgets and large teams. Later on, with Yahav’s deep perspective on cybersecurity challenges and expertise in cutting-edge technologies, we could translate the idea of cyber GRC automation into a full customer experience.

How and when did you launch the business?

Yahav and I started the company like many other startup companies, in the garage. Only in our case, these were the early days of COVID, and the entire business world was still trying to figure out if it was the end of the world as we know it.

Luckily for us, the need that our product serves is omnipresent and clear, so even with everything going into Zoom, we still managed to hire our first team members, build an MVP and even acquire our first design partners. Later on, and quite rapidly, the momentum picked up, and we started to see a significant increase in traction.

How is the business funded? 

We feel privileged to be backed by amazing investors, both angel investors and VCs. These investors are not only a source of funding but also a team of experts who advise, support, and counsel us as we grow the company.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

Right from the get-go, it was clear to us that fast-growing technology companies, especially the unicorns of the world, are our most likely potential customers. Therefore, we focused our efforts on our network of people working for these companies and successfully built relationships with their CISOs and other security leaders.

What was your first year in business like?

A surprising mixture of fun, hard work, excitement, and at times, frustration.

As the saying goes, the life of an entrepreneur is like a roller coaster. One moment you’re on top of the world, only to be down (or upside down) a moment later.

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

When you have a strong product-market fit and a clear and immediate need in the marketplace, it’s only a matter of how wide and fast you can put yourself and the team in front of the relevant customers. 

We started off with direct sales, and while we’re still focused on this channel, we do nurture some additional significant opportunities working with channel partners.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

Being a disruptive player in the market comes with great advantages and some challenges, too. Alongside innovative technology and original solutions for difficult problems, it also required us, as a startup company, to help our customers appreciate the transformative value of our solution. 

The technology we built can take a process that used to be run manually for years and turn it into an automated flow overnight. However, we have found that it also requires adapting decision-making processes and stakeholder interactions. With this reasoning, we were able to improve the adoption rate and shorten the time to value for our customers.

What have been the most significant keys to your business’ success?

Innovation, daring to challenge conventions, teamwork, team spirit, and tons of optimism.

Tell us about your team.

We’re about 30 people on the team, with Engineering mostly based in Tel Aviv, and GTM team in the US. Our primary market is the US, so as CEO, I find myself stateside almost every month.

🌮🥑🎉 Check out the delicious photos from our last monthly company lunch featuring mouth-watering Mexican food! 📸 Want to join in on the fun? If you're passionate about what you do and love good food, we'd love to hear from you! >> https://t.co/xs9YQvjbCS #HiringNow pic.twitter.com/38fwTHtswN

— Cypago (@CypagoSec) May 26, 2024

What was the turning point when you knew your business was successful?

The first time a customer shared that our product truly changed the way they were running their security program and transformed their internal processes. 

This is a moment when you understand that that crazy idea you had and were toying with in the garage is now a real thing that has the potential to improve people’s lives.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

That there’s always room for learning. Even if you start your company after a long career, having served in multiple roles, you still don’t know more than you know. 

This lesson is best applied by assembling a team of smart and experienced people you can talk to and consult with. Always remember that today is the last day you knew so little, and the first day for learning something new.

What separates your business from your competitors?

The unique combination of deep domain expertise and innovative technology.

Very few startup companies out there have what it takes to transform existing processes and truly solve a difficult problem. 

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Keep pushing forward, no matter how challenging and sometimes even impossible the task seems. After a day with some disappointments, there always comes a sunlight day with successes!

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

I like history books, especially medieval or WWII history. I prefer a good biography over fiction and usually prefer actual reading to audiobooks. I have no specific podcast I listen to regularly, but every time I find one that hosts someone who shares their experiences and real-life challenges, I add it to my favorites.