KnowBe4 founder Stu Sjouwerman discusses the cybersecurity training company's financial growth with Nathan Latka.
Disclosure
Sjouwerman gave hacker Kevin Mitnick 50% equity for his expertise
“Anyway four years ago, I said, listen, I can own A hundred percent of a muffin or I can own 50% of a really big pie. So I got in touch with Kevin and I said, I'll give you half the company in exchange for your 30 years of hacking experience. So we did that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
KnowBe4 claims a 7x ratio of customer lifetime value to CAC
“If you look at CAC over lifetime value, it is, the ratio is seven.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
KnowBe4 makes $2,000 upfront on day one of every new sale
“The CAC is 2600 bucks, the ASP is 4600 bucks, so we make two grand on every sale right at day one.”
Opinion
Putin wages asymmetrical cyber warfare due to a low defense budget
“Vladimir Putin is essentially waging a sort of a low-grade
cyber war against the U.S., which is, in his perspective, asymmetrical warfare, because they only have 10% of the defense budget that we do, and so he's harassing U.S., you know, both profits and non-…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
KnowBe4 booked $1M in a single day and $12M in Q1
“March 31st was the best day of my professional career. We did a million bucks that day. We did five mil that month, and we did 12 mil in the quarter.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sjouwerman estimates competitor revenues: PhishMe at $50M-$60M, Wombat at $30M-$40M
“Fish Me is in the 50, sixty-ish, and Wombats is 30, forty-ish, but that's guesswork.”