Gerstner: Altimeter Lost Money Investing in Cloud Security Startup Lacework
Brad Gerstner · NVDA GTC, M&A Wiz / Goog $32 B Deal, April 2 Tariff Uncertainty; Huawei Belt & Road; ChatGPT | BG2 · Bg2 Pod · Mar 21, 2025 · at 31:27
Brad Gerstner discusses Google's acquisition of cloud security firm Wiz and contrasts Wiz's success with Altimeter Capital's investment in competitor Lacework.
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“Altimeter was an investor with Sutter Hill in a company called Lacework. Right. Right. And it was competing in a very, very similar space. This was the thesis of Lacework. Lacework raised a lot of money, too much money, I would argue, you know, at the time. And they went hard at go to market, but they didn't have the product market fit and execution right relative to Wiz. And I remember when Wiz did that Series B and I said, we've got a product issue. They're killing us, you know, in terms of how fast they're growing on product. And so this was a case where we lost money betting in this space, and some of these great, great friends of ours made a lot of money betting on the competitors.”
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