Entrée Capital’s “Founder Spotlight” series is a collection of video and written blogs that aim to highlight some of the inspiring founders in our portfolio and to share some of the lessons that they’ve learned along the way.
In this Founder Spotlight, we spoke to Yaniv Nissenboim, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hexagate.
What does your company do and the problem it solves for your target audience in one sentence?
Hexagate prevents financial losses for blockchain companies caused by cyber and financial exploits and hacks.
How did you come up with Hexagate’s idea, and what inspired you to pursue it?
As big believers in the promise of blockchain technology and the transformation it will bring to value transfer and storage across financial markets and the tech sector in general, we identified a huge blocker for mass adoption: security, trust, and safety. In blockchain, everyone needs to trust the smart contract code, which can’t be trusted like any other software without proper security in place.
When we started Hexagate, blockchain companies and the entire ecosystem could only rely on smart contract auditors and bug bounty programs that often failed. We realized that with our past experience in traditional cybersecurity, we could bring trust and safety to the ecosystem, boost innovation, and drive user growth.
Did you ever think or feel that you would become an entrepreneur one day? Is there a reason for this?
Since I remember myself, I was the kind of kid who opened a business before the age of 14 – installing TV cables, phone lines, alarm systems, fixing computers, and providing tech support for households in my neighborhood. During my army service, I was part of a cyber unit, working in a high-stress environment, responsible for crucial tasks despite my young age.
The young me was determined to do everything I could to deliver products. That’s when I first learned that there’s nothing I can’t achieve and I wouldn’t accept failure as an option. This high-efficacy feeling stayed with me for a long time and grew stronger over the years. I finished the army with the conviction that no matter what, you always get back on your feet. This led me to start my entrepreneurial journey.
Can you pinpoint key milestones in your entrepreneurial journey and how they shaped your business?
I’ll keep it short and simple:
1. Finding the best partner
2. Finding the right VC
3. Finding design partners
4. Reaching product market fit
Seems like a short list but contains in it a lot of time and hard work.
What’s the best advice you’ve received on your journey?
Build a business and sales-driven company by identifying a pain or need that someone is willing to pay for and ensuring you can scale it. This advice continues to guide me in my current journey managing Hexagate.
We focus on what drives the business and sales in a scalable manner, which allowed us to grow from 0 to $1.5M ARR in just 12 months without burning a lot of cash. Being lean and sales-focused is crucial at these stages.
This advice also directs our R&D efforts and brings a lot of motivation, as we are building things that customers are actually using.
What was your toughest decision as an entrepreneur, and how did you handle it?
I would say it was the changing business focus. After 8 months of hard work and dedicating our efforts to one type of customer, we understood a shift was needed. We dropped all the 8 months of work to start selling to another type of customer with a different use case. It was frustrating and tough to decide, as we had invested a lot of time and resources, but it turned out to be the right business decision. Sometimes, this is part of the entrepreneurial path.
What is your vision for Hexagates’s future and any exciting developments?
Becoming the Palo Alto of Web3, but more importantly, driving adoption of Web3 and blockchain by elevating trust and safety in the ecosystem. We are now in the final phases of research that will result in a decentralized solution for Web3 security. This includes adapting to a crypto-native business model and introducing an intrusion detection system that will be an integral part of the blockchain stack.
Why Entrée?
The team at Entrée brings experience from various types of tech industries, connections and strong opinioned approach that allow me to check myself all the time and improve the company performance.
