DARE #5 - Laurent Hausermann - Co-Founder @CyGo Entrepreneurs

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“Cyber is like playing cops and robbers without ever stopping! We are constantly looking for solutions against people who are trying to find vulnerabilities.” 

Co-founder of CyGO Entrepreneurs, the first venture studio dedicated to cybersecurity in Europe, Laurent reflects on his journey, his strategies, and offers some introspection to provide you with concrete advice to implement in your business, starting tomorrow.

Laurent, let’s start from the beginning. How did you get into cybersecurity?

I like to say that I got into it when I was young because I have built my entire career around it. It goes back to a second-year internship at ELF in 1999. I was in a team managing firewalls, which were running on HP-UX stations at that time. The internship mainly focused on network supervision, to understand data flows. But what really hooked me was the technical aspect: understanding how a computer, a network works beneath all its layers. It’s still what drives me in Cyber today: it is incredibly broad AND deep. 

At the end of the program, most of my classmates were heading towards public works, but that was absolutely not for me. So, I specialized with a program that the École des Mines d'Alès launched with Telecom Paris. This allowed me to dive into IT, Telecom, Software, etc. We entered many security topics that at the time were around PKI certificate issues and strong authentication. I liked it. In fact, I even dedicated my final project to it before looking for a job in the field.

It was a different “Cyber” back then, I imagine?

Indeed, the sector has completely transformed. 

In the 2000s, it was very technical, very infrastructure-oriented. We protected computers. Today, we protect jobs, companies, values, democracy... 

We have gone from a purely intellectual topic to a survival issue for our Western model, making the subject even more exciting. 

Did you always know you would become an entrepreneur? How did you get there?

Not really. It happened quite organically and through meetings. 

I started as an engineer, then became a CTO and even a PM. You have to project yourself back to a time when the product function itself barely existed. It arrived in the 2010s in the United States, and we had to wait until 2013 to see it emerge in France. 

At the time, it was binary: either you sold, or you coded. There were only these two paths, plus a few administrative functions. I’m not exaggerating. (Laughter)

My path somewhat followed this transformation of the sector. I started from a purely technical base and gradually expanded into marketing - how we formulate messages - then to product - how we think about use cases and value for the customer. 

In parallel, I climbed the ranks in terms of responsibilities: individual contributor, manager, director, and finally entrepreneur.

So it’s really a step-by-step evolution, where each stage prepared me for the next, even though I didn’t necessarily know it at the time.

Was there a triggering event? 

It wasn’t really a moment, but rather a series of encounters that guided me towards entrepreneurship. 

I started in a small company that was quickly absorbed by a subsidiary of the EADS group (now Airbus). That’s where I landed at Arkoon, where I had the chance to work with an exceptional team. 

The culture was extremely entrepreneurial. Everyone developed their part of the business. Thierry, the CEO, was there to support us but encouraged us to go for it, in complete autonomy. These were very enriching years.

We experienced great victories before facing an industrial setback in 2009. The company lost product quality and consequently many clients. Nevertheless, we managed to get the machine running again. So much so that in 2011-2012, an opportunity arose through a strategic acquisition.

This is how we ironically found ourselves in the fold ... of Airbus. With my former colleagues. (Laughter) It was almost 10 years later, but I encountered people I had known a decade earlier. 

But I quickly felt that I needed more. Quite soon, I proposed to my boss, Thierry, if he would be willing to follow me into an idea I had. This is how Sentryo was born. 

So at this stage, you’ve already dabbled in quite a bit of entrepreneurship, especially with Arkoon. What are your strategic choices when launching Sentryo?

My main conviction is that we must be international, and quickly. We will succeed because we are international.

This is not only for image but especially to confront other viewpoints than the French one quickly. We need to understand how the world thinks about your problem, identify strong players, map distribution networks, etc. 

This is one of my significant lessons from the Arkoon era. 

For the record, Arkoon was created in the same year as Fortinet. In 2005-2006, we were well established in France, we had clients, we had raised several times, etc. In short, we felt solid. We set our sights on international.

But it was when we took the plunge, in Spain and Italy, that we had a bit of a harsh awakening. People were telling us: “Your solution is great. You are on the same level as Fortinet. But they have already been here for two years. I have trained my consultants, tested the product, and it is integrated into my infrastructure…”  The switching costs were so high that it was very complicated to get them to move. 

So with Sentryo, straight to international? 

Yes! It seemed insurmountable at first, but we decided to be pragmatic. Very concretely, we started blocking 2 days a month to spend abroad. So we began to go to Germany and often around Munich, etc. to start building our network. Sentryo was in the industrial cybersecurity field, so the German choice was evident.

Sometimes you have 10 meetings in 2 days, sometimes you have 2. You wander around events, you know no one, but little by little you start to know people. You become “the French guy doing cyber” (Laughter) and that’s how it starts to take off. 

We also went further by establishing or recruiting teams in the US or even in the Middle East (Qatar and UAE).

What timeframe do you think is necessary to establish yourself well in a market?

It’s hard to say, but in security, there is what is called “Time to Trust,” and it is particularly long. 

To gain a client’s trust, you need to demonstrate quality and accumulate certifications. In reality, the technical nature of the topics means that clients rely heavily on external sources of recognition. 

I don’t have a precise answer to your question except that it is necessary to accept that in Cyber, sales cycles are long. To give you an idea, we created Sentryo in June 2014, and it wasn’t until December 2017 that we signed our partnership with Siemens for global distribution. 

Three and a half years: it’s both very short and very long. 

I understand. Beyond international, do you see other issues that Cyber entrepreneurs are particularly confronted with?

There are two major challenges. The first is the UX of solutions. Even today, many cyber products are too complicated to integrate, use, and track. Our ecosystem is lagging considerably behind the rest of tech on this front.

The second challenge is a more fundamental strategic question: can one be an isolated player in an isolated segment? Or must one necessarily become a platform with a broader spectrum? The answer depends a lot on the end user.

We were quickly confronted with this question at Sentryo. 

In 2014, there was a procedure underway in France regarding detection probes for the LPM. Initially, we simply wanted to make a detection probe for the industrial sector. But in talking with our first clients, we realized they had many other issues. In the end, we opted for a broader positioning. It’s counterintuitive, but we gained a lot in simplicity and clarity by expanding the scope. 

Because ultimately, it’s a matter of common sense: a user, whether they are a SOC analyst, risk manager, or supply chain manager, cannot juggle between 50 different screens. 

We need to take into account the entire value chain, understand what the person is really doing daily, and provide them with a solution that meets 80% of their needs. 

Take Pennylane: it is THE product for accountants. Period. The accountant spends their life there because they find everything they need.

Imagine Payfit without managing meal vouchers. That would be nonsense: having to switch to an ancillary tool to manage something everyone needs. The result? Additional integration constraints and complex workflows to set up. 

In cyber, it’s exactly the same thing: we need to maintain a sufficiently panoramic view.

Indeed, product positioning is not always easy to find. I would like to talk about the human aspect now. What aspects of your personality do you think have served you the most on your journey?

I would say it is my ability to connect the dots. To link elements that, at first glance, seem unrelated. Someone talks to me about a topic on the left, I have a meeting that seems completely different on the right, and yet, I manage to see the connections and align things.

I think that is particularly valuable when you’re an entrepreneur. You can’t afford to follow 150 different threads; it’s impossible to manage. 

In contrast, by identifying connections and aligning initiatives that seem disparate, you can paradoxically be much more ambitious. 

It’s as if you’re transforming a tangle of threads into a single rope, stronger and easier to hold.

OK, so that’s the talent. On the other hand, what requires the most work or energy from you?

I am not excessively patient, shall we say. (Laughter)

I often have trouble accepting that not everyone moves at the same speed as I do. It’s not that things aren’t progressing; it’s just that some people need more time to let decisions settle and come to fruition. I had to learn, sometimes painfully, that it is often more productive not to rush things and to let decisions take their course.

It’s also quite characteristic of European culture. We often take our time here. I really realized this during my four years at Cisco working with Americans. It’s another world in terms of execution speed. 

Over there, if you haven’t responded within 48 hours, it’s already a problem. If you’re two minutes late to a call, you’ve already received 15 follow-up messages - as if something terrible has happened to you!

This cultural difference sums up quite well in the approach to problems: in Europe, we focus on the “what” or even the “why,” whereas in the United States, the first question is always “when?”. 

It’s just a different paradigm.

Interesting! Do you have a concrete example of a moment when you had to manage this dual timeline?

I would mention the integration of our small French company into a large American group like Cisco. 

The acquisition conditions stipulated that I commit to staying for at least 3 years. That’s Cisco’s approach. They buy “Technology & People”: the technology and the people who know how to evolve it. So you commit to staying for a while.

However, it was interesting because the challenge was not at all material. We had excellent working conditions, great equipment, good salaries. The subject was really a question of mindset. A striking example: when an American asks you a question, they do not need a complete and exhaustive answer; they want an immediate response. The time value is sacred. If you don’t know and ask for more time to look into the matter, you better respect that timeframe scrupulously.

It’s very different from the French approach, where we take the time to explore the subject in depth to find the “real” answer. But if it takes you two months, for an American, it is perceived as a lack of respect.

Imagine managing this type of daily tension on a large scale. As a founder, everything went through me. I had to bridge our 40 people and the 30,000 employees of the group, not to mention the thousands of contractors. 

You need to go gradually. You start delegating to two or three trusted people, but soon you have to broaden the circle. And then it’s up to you to ensure that everyone has fully grasped these cultural differences. If the teams do not understand these codes, it can’t work.

That must not be easy to manage every day. By the way, how do you manage your stress? What are the pillars of your resilience?

I try as much as possible to be in “backcasting” rather than “forecasting.” 

Instead of starting from my current situation and saying, “Here are the next steps,” I prefer to project myself into the desired future situation and ask myself how to get there. It may seem obvious, but this approach changes everything: clearly visualizing the final picture helps to remain calm and avoids getting caught up thinking about all the things that remain to be done.

After that, I think you can learn to see the glass half full. I remember that in the beginning, I was constantly stressed about having to raise funds to pay my employees’ salaries. But I learned to put things into perspective: we are in France, there’s a solid social safety net, my teams are on average under 35 years old and are all very “bankable,” we create jobs, etc.

Very actionable! And otherwise, any other productivity rituals or good practices you apply daily?

I have a ritual that is particularly dear to me: I block an entire day every six weeks solely to think about strategy. 

That day is sacred: no emails, no calls, we close the laptops. We truly ask ourselves the fundamental questions: where are we going? Why? What does that imply? I love those moments because I am convinced that it is through conversation that ideas are refined. 

I sometimes “create” these conversations with ChatGPT. I will walk in a park and throw all my ideas on a subject at it. I ask it to ask me questions, and I answer. It’s completely disjointed, but it provides a summary. It is often during these moments and while walking that topics crystallize or ideas emerge. So that’s something I would recommend. 

Finally, I had difficulty at the beginning in figuring out how to manage exploratory topics when launching a company. There was always this tension between the need for teams to stay focused while being open to new ideas. 

So we decided that to remain effective, more exploratory projects would be handled solely by the two founders. We incubate them on our side while the rest of the company stays focused on its main objectives.

This allows us to never say “no” to an opportunity. You always leave yourself a chance to be surprised.

I would like to talk a little about the team before we conclude: how would you describe your leadership style?

I would say demanding but benevolent. (Laughter) 

That doesn’t come from me. It’s feedback I’ve received in the past. I’ve often been criticized for being too demanding, and it’s true that I have this need to get to the bottom of subjects to create new, differentiating, comprehensive things. 

For the teams, this means that I challenge a lot, but never to call people into question. It’s really to delve into the topics.

By the way, one of my greatest prides is when former collaborators from Sentryo tell me how much they have grown in the company. 

I particularly remember a young graduate in UX and information research who wanted to code, to have a developer position. We gave her a chance, but with a clear framework: “Here is your training in JavaScript, here are the people who can help you, we will review at the end of your trial period. The condition is that in 3 months, your colleagues still want to work with you, and that you have gained enough autonomy.” She stayed with us for seven years. She completely rose to the challenge.

That’s what it means for me to be demanding but benevolent: I’m willing to bet on people when I see potential, but without ever compromising on the level of execution. 

By the way, it’s no coincidence that demand is part of the values of CyGO Entrepreneurs. It pushes us all to exceed ourselves and grow together.

Laurent, thank you very much! We conclude with my sending question: “What advice would you give to your ‘you’ from 10 years ago?”

I would tell him not to hesitate to simplify the offer even more and especially to start selling it as soon as possible. 

This is also something we emphasize with the companies we support at CyGO: combating that famous founder's impostor syndrome. You know, that moment when you tell yourself, “I’m not ready yet, I’m missing this, I’m missing that...”

In reality, one must make peace with this impression. First, because you risk very little - it’s a myth to think that if you fail, it’s all over. If you say intelligent things and make a good impression, your interlocutor will pick up the call next month.

And above all, the more you deploy, the more you learn. It’s a very simple but fundamental truth: it is by confronting the field, deploying as much as possible, that you truly progress. So don’t wait for perfection, go for it.