Ray Rothrock

Founder, FiftySix Investments · 3 appearances on the record.

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investorexecutiveengineerauthor@rayrothrock ↗LinkedIn ↗rayrothrock.com ↗

He spent 25 years as a partner at Venrock leading investments in cybersecurity and energy infrastructure before serving as CEO of RedSeal from 2014 to 2020. A former National Venture Capital Association chairman, he authored Digital Resilience and invests in seed-stage projects through FiftySix Investments.

43statements → 29claims → 5claims resolved → 60%fully supported → 3.81/5average certainty → 1.37/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

3 supported 0 partly supported 2 contradicted 24 not checkable as stated how the 29 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

5 predictions · 24 assertions · 3 insights · 11 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 29 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 24 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ray argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Rothrock: Symphony Technology Group acquired over 50% of RedSeal
“It's the, they bought more than 50%, yeah.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 12:25 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Rothrock: Average detection-to-remediation time is 200 days
“The average time from detection to remediation is 200 days.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 2:31 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
67% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ray Rothrock on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ray Rothrock said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
RedSeal's enterprise and government clients are experiencing foreign cyber interference
“I actually have customers that are dealing with some of this international interference and we're seeing it in their, they're seeing it in their networks commercial and government.”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 15:46 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Disclosure
Rothrock: RedSeal accepted majority takeover amid cash stress and employee attrition
“The stresses had to do with cash, cash flow we actually grew cash over the last year, but not without a lot of stress on the team. I'd had some attrition that I didn't like cause I couldn't afford things as much as I wanted to. And honestly growth rate was sa…”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 13:24 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Insight
Startups facing layoffs should cut engineering before sales, says Rothrock
“Well, I mean, there's only two things to do in a startup company. You make product or sell product. And to reduce either of those seems to me a little foolhardy. If you have to, I would actually reduce the engineering because you really do need that top line f…”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 11:01 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: Red Seal serves 240 clients, including all DoD and intel agencies
“About 240. Mostly all global 2000 and federal. We have every intel agency, all of the DOD, their services, and many of the civilian agencies are our customers.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 3:58 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: Red Seal achieved a 50% net margin in Q3
“I brought in twice in business in Q three that I spent on expenses two times. So if I made, yeah, if I made two dollars, I only had a dollar of expense and that's the bottom line, not the gross margin, but the net margin of the company.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 7:57 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: Bleeding-edge tech companies typically do not use RedSeal
“Interestingly, we're not people who have cutting edge capabilities and really are on the hairy bleeding edge of things. They don't typically use this.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 5:34 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Insight
Rothrock: RedSeal faces churn playing catch-up with vendor updates
“Literally, so sometimes configuration information for all the routing equipment, those routing equipment guys, Cisco, Palo Alto, Checkpoint, Fortinet, Juniper, all of them, they change their stuff all the time. And occasionally we get So they upgrade our softw…”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 11:37 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Assertion Supported
Rothrock: Symphony Technology Group acquired over 50% of RedSeal
“It's the, they bought more than 50%, yeah.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 12:25 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Assertion Not checkable as stated
RedSeal is deployed across all US intel agencies and military branches
“We're in all the intel agencies, all the military, and most of the civilian side of the government.”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 3:15 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Disclosure
RedSeal chose company-wide pay cuts over furloughs to preserve jobs
“Well, no furlough, just reduction in pay. Part of my strategy was to keep everybody employed, Keep everybody working on the problems to keep supporting our customer base.”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 5:30 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Assertion Not checkable as stated
RedSeal implemented uniform, across-the-board pay cuts with zero executive exemptions
“No, everybody took the same. My goal was that we're gonna, we're all gonna sacrifice a little bit in order to survive. There are no special dispensations.”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 8:06 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Assertion Supported
Foreign attackers are deploying observation malware and routing backdoors
“What they're doing, they are putting in observers malware that sits and observes primarily being able to alter routing, for example just like what Sony did, you know, at the Sony situation, they put in malware that was, had a back door that was shipping every …”
Ray Rothrock Apr 7, 2020 ▶ 16:35 1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more from RedSeal
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: Most cyber attacks are already inside enterprise networks
“In fact, most attacks are inside now. They're already happening as we speak.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 2:13 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Assertion Contradicted
Rothrock: Average detection-to-remediation time is 200 days
“The average time from detection to remediation is 200 days.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 2:31 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Disclosure
Rothrock: RedSeal spent $2.5M–$3M acquiring $31M DISA contract
“So that customer is DISA and it is a five year deal. So 31,000,005 years. We probably spent two and a half, three million dollars to get that deal over two, three years.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 12:33 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Disclosure
Rothrock: RedSeal is willing to spend first-year ACV on customer acquisition
“Probably on average, I'm willing to spend it when the first years yeah, I'll say yes.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 13:52 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Insight
Rothrock: Deep network integration creates the greatest friction in cyber software deployment
“The biggest friction to deployment is how embedded is the technology. There's a lot of soft, there's a lot of cyber software that just sits in front of things. That's easy to install very quick. You download it, put it on a device and off you go.”
Ray Rothrock Feb 6, 2018 ▶ 14:45 927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line
Disclosure
Rothrock: RedSeal's typical entry contract generates $200,000 to $300,000
“Most people start small and expand over time. So a typical entry point would be 500 routers. And so that'll, you know, that'll generate, I don't know three, two or 300,000 dollars, and then as it expands, it gets bigger, and that's the way it works.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 3:16 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: RedSeal has surpassed $50 million in annual revenue
“And now we've grown to about, well, we're over fifty million now.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 7:22 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: RedSeal customer cohorts expand 20% to 30% annually
“Well, some of them doubled. Some of them, on average, probably, I'd say, 20 or 30%.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 10:11 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Assertion Supported
Rothrock: RedSeal raised $75 million prior to its Symphony transaction
“Total at that time was about seventy five million.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 12:12 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Rothrock: RedSeal will achieve full-year profitability
“It depends on the quarter. We will be profitable this year. Last quarter, we're a little under this quarter. We'll be way up. And then Q four will be about a break even.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 14:32 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Rothrock: RedSeal expects to reach $100 million ARR within three years
“That's our goal would be, you know, in that zone, a hundred million. We think we can do that in the next two to three years.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 17:34 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space
Disclosure
Rothrock denies being in acquisition talks with CrowdStrike
“No, none. I'm building a company, building a business.”
Ray Rothrock Dec 5, 2020 ▶ 17:54 RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space

Show 19statements(19 left)

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
RedSeal Sold 50%+ For $60m This Year doing $50m in Revenues in CyberSecurity Space Dec 5, 2020 10m
1718 CyberSecurity CEO: US Election Interference Happening Right Now, Virus Plans and more Apr 7, 2020 9m
927 SaaS Security Company Hits $40m in ARR, $.50c on $1 to Bottom Line Feb 6, 2018 8m
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