Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to LA Tech, i p o podcast from London Stock Exchange. We'll be speaking to some of the smartest thinkers in tech and business about their journeys to this point, discussing the tough decisions made along the way, all whilst getting a behind the scenes view of the London markets. I'm your host, Stephen Kelly, chair of technician, and today I'm really excited to sit down with Ido Ekman, the chief executive of Cape Technologies. Cape Technologies joined the AIM market in September, 2014, and shortly after IDO joined Cape to help transform from an Israel based adtech startup into a leading provider of privacy and security solutions. Today, Cape is a cybersecurity company focused on providing consumers with online security, privacy, and a more optimal online experience. Since its relaunch in 2018, the business has grown to over 420 people across eight locations worldwide. IDO and his team have grown the business through a combination of organic growth and a number of acquisitions, including US-based private internet access in 2019 and more recently, Israel based web excellence in $149 million transaction. We are gonna hear from IDO about how AIM has created new opportunities for Cape, how companies can use their listing to grow organically. Cape's, big acquisition, and what's next for ido. So a warm welcome IDO to Tech i p o podcast.
Speaker 2 00:01:36 Thank you very much for hosting me. I'm very happy to join you today for, uh, this podcast. Um, my name is Ido Eman. I'm an Israeli. I moved to London, um, about 10 years ago. Initially, I was, uh, part of the private equity group of kpmg. This is, um, where I moved to London from the team in Israel in Tel Aviv. After seven years at KP m g, uh, I went to Cambridge to complete my mba. And after I graduated Cambridge, I started my journey with the private equity houses. Ended up in a big family office that is one of the main tech investors that came out of, uh, Israel. Uh, we invested in, uh, UK based company called Visual d n that developed a very unique approach of using alternative data sources to help insurers and banks to better underwrite their potential customers. After their investments in visual dna, I decided that this is the right time to do something.
Speaker 2 00:02:47 I planned a long time ago, even when I started my career, to move from the investment team to taking hands-on more operational role. And very quickly after the acquisition of, uh, visual d n A became the c e o of the business with a mandate from the investor to drive a significant change in strategy and take the business into a fast growth mode. Uh, lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, uh, ended up very, uh, very well. Um, visual DNA started to grow very rapidly. And about, uh, close to 18 months after I joined, we've been approached by, uh, uh, Nielsen to buy the business in a very successful exit to all stakeholders. After the sale of Visual d n a, the board of Cape or, or what back then was called Co side approached me, uh, to take the co EShip of, uh, of the business with a mandate to drive a significant change in strategy. Uh, so this is in a very high level my journey since I moved to London in 2012.
Speaker 1 00:04:02 And you've now been on the market, uh, for several years. Maybe just tell us about the good, the bad and the ugly about being a listed company in the uk.
Speaker 2 00:04:11 Sure. So first of all, if I go back, uh, the business, uh, was iPod in September, 2014. I joined in May, 2016. And one of the thing, and I always, uh, tell it to CEOs or entrepreneurs that, uh, considering taking their businesses public is that they need to be very certain that, uh, the business in ready is ready to make the transition from a private company to a listed entity that needs to work with the market. And, and I think that it, it's usually it takes time to adopt, eh, the, not the standards, but the ability to project the performance of the business more accurately as public markets expect. For cost Rider, we, my time with the company, I think that the change as from being a private business private, uh, and successful tech company to being a listed entity on the London Stock Exchange was, uh, was not, uh, so successful.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 And it created a lot of pressure both on the capital markets level, the engagement and the relationship between the company and the investor base and, and operationally, uh, to make the changes and make sure the business continuing to grow and deliver the numbers. When I joined, it was, uh, in a very challenging, uh, situation that the board decided to make a significant change in strategy. And, um, when I considered the opportunity, I thought that it's a very unique and interesting situation. And despite all the challenges that I'm happy to take you through, um, through them in the, in the different levels, I still thought that there is a very good chance that I will succeed to make a significant change in the strategy in the different levels, whether it will be on the capital markets level to restore the trust between the investors and the company operationally, that despite all the challenges, there was a very strong and talented team, uh, that, uh, weighted to a clear strategy and, uh, to change the dynamics between the board and the operation.
Speaker 2 00:06:38 And lastly, uh, which I saw as an advantage, but for investors, it was something that was a concern from them, that the money that was raised in the I P O Costa, they raised 75 million in the ipo. And, and except of a $6 million shell buyback scheme that was done throughout 2015, there was no deployment of the capital that was raised. And from my perspective as the new co it was an advantage because it always better to work, uh, with a company with a strong balance sheet and ability to execute on, uh, on strategical change, that you have the, the budgets and you have the money to drive the change, eh, compared to a situation that the balance sheet is very weak, and then it's very hard to, eh, make, uh, uh, quick and significant changes to the operation. So to summarize, I think that being a publicly traded business, there is a lot of advantages, uh, especially access to capital.
Speaker 2 00:07:41 Uh, the ability to remunerate and, uh, your team and to give them a true, uh, there is a very strong tool, the share to give to Grantham share options that they will share the success of the, and the, uh, and joy from the value we are all creating together alongside our investors, uh, as well as for acquisitions. And as you can see, Cape technology story in the last six years was a combination of a, of a very strong organic growth, uh, complimented by, uh, earning and enhancing acquisitions. And the fact that we are listed entity gives us, uh, a faster access to capital, especially after we build up the support, uh, with the investor base bought the UK based institution, the European and, and the US funds that, uh, backing us on all the acquisitions that we've done, uh, so far.
Speaker 1 00:08:36 Hey, do, it's a fascinating story. And maybe just pause, you, you talked about at the beginning there, what it was to go from a private company to a public company. What advice would you give to a board or a CEO looking at the public markets, sort of for the first time that they can't learn at either business school or in, in books out there? What's the one piece of advice?
Speaker 2 00:08:58 So, first of all, they need to decide very well if being publicly traded business serve, what they would like to achieve as a company. What are their goals? If they, they want to have greater access to capital, they want to raise the profile of the company in public market in, in, in global markets, it's great. If it's something that they are not certain, if being publicly traded business will necessarily help them to execute better on their strategy, they need to think twice. Secondly, and it's always difficult because co by definition needs to balance between different stakeholders. They need to really make sure that the business is IPO ready because you have one chance. It's very hard to gain the trust from public markets. It's very easy to lose the trust. So they need to run their business for at least two years as a publicly traded business in the same standards, and be very sure that they can give the market the forecast, the right forecast that the business can, can deliver.
Speaker 2 00:10:08 Can tell you that with Cape, even after I joined and we made a big change in the strategy, you, you need always to balance between short-term goals to more of a long-term strategic changes, because you always have the target, the, you know, the, the consensus and the analyst expectation for what you need to do for the first half of the year or the full year. And it's always a game that you need to balance between what the market expects you to deliver to the most strategical changes that will show results for the longer term. And for people that consider to go public, they need really to feel very strong that the business can at least know and project very accurately how they're going to perform, um, the two years following the I P O and avoid the volatility.
Speaker 1 00:10:57 Hey, do I think that that's great advice. And, and that gives you a platform to become, I guess you and the C F O, the, the beat and raises team that you're always consistently, uh, just ahead of expectations and bringing all your stakeholders with you. Uh, and it's just a fascinating story, uh, and a rare occurrence where you've got a company that's done such a significant transformation in the public markets, in the public spotlight, um, and many boards would sit there ito and say, wow, this, this is kind of a, a root and branch change for the company. Go from ad tech to cybersecurity. And we'd far prefer to do that sort of in the private markets. How, how did you find being in the spotlight and doing the transformation, you know, every day in terms of driving the business operationally, doing the acquisition, changing the brand, and I guess, you know, changing the positioning the customer best. You know, it was, it was a pretty significant change. When you look back at the six years, how did, how did you find that? Because, you know, it is unusual to have such a significant change in a company in the public spotlight.
Speaker 2 00:12:05 You are absolutely right. And if, if, I'll take you five and a half years ago when we, we decided to make this big change. So the view was that, one, we wanted to take the business up in the value chain mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we wanted to build up a business that will drive high quality of earnings and will have a strong value proposition to our customer base. And to change the revenue model to be a more recurring revenue based, essentially to build up a software as a service, a SaaS business model. When we started, we knew that we have a very important underlying asset of knowing to drive high volumes of digital traffic, which is always a very important part in any business to bring the demand to the door. But the, the challenge was what is the best way to utilize our ability to drive internet traffic?
Speaker 2 00:12:59 And we wanted gradually to build up strong portfolio of software solutions that will help people to gain back the control and the information they share online. What we identified back then, it's a combination of three things. First of all, regulators started to be much more active in the space. If it's the GDPR regulation in Europe, the growing criticism in the US about the use of consumer data, if it's Facebook or Google. And, and the mindset around consumers and enterprises started to change. Secondly, we've seen a trend that since then accelerated about the shift from premium to premium. It was the beginning of the consumer SaaS. The, the easiest examples are companies like Spotify, Netflix, that educated people that it's better to buy a subscription and get good quality of solution, rather getting something for free with very poor user experience and lose con losing control on your personal information.
Speaker 2 00:14:08 And thirdly, that the traditional internet security providers for consumers and SMEs were building their businesses on the free model. And our view was that it will be very difficult for them to make the transition to SaaS models making money, only selling the, the software. Most of them even today, uh, are dependent on revenues generated through selling the data of their customers or distribution of advertisements. And we wanted to be the first ones that build up a very strong trust with consumers around the world, on business that work in a very simple way. We only make money selling our software. We don't sell the data, we don't distribute advertisement. Our goal every morning that we come to the office is to protect the digital security of e each one of our customer in e in every touchpoint of the digital life. And this is how we started.
Speaker 2 00:15:09 Now at the beginning, it was staying a listed entity whilst making such a, a big change in the strategy was not easy, only because we had to manage the expectations with the market. And, and nobody gave us a break of heating the financial targets every quarter or every six month. And we had to balance between the changes in strategy that we knew that they're right and will, will create a lot of value, but it will take time to realize the full benefit and still manage the expectations with the analyst and making sure that the business deliver the financial targets, um, we set to ourself and, and, and the analyst or different stakeholders in the markets have to ourself. And it was not easy. And you are absolutely right it that it's a very rare situation of, of making such a big or significant pivot in the strategy while staying, uh, public, uh, publicly traded business.
Speaker 1 00:16:15 And just interestingly, YouDo, you know, great credit to you and the management team and the board, um, how many of the investors that you had back in 2014 kind of understood, um, the story and then have stuck with you and are still with the company in 2021?
Speaker 2 00:16:34 I think that I'm, I'm very pleased that there are a lot of investors that stayed throughout the journey, and obviously they are very happy with the results and there are a lot of great fund managers that, uh, identified the opportunity. Uh, after, uh, the new management came on board and communicated the change in strategy, uh, that, uh, made a very, very strong returns on, uh, on the investments that back then it was still with a lot of uncertainties because we, we joined, we came, you know, we wanted to roll up our sleeves, uh, develop a new strategy and walk out on the execution. And people that backed us back then, and, and I appreciate very much those fund managers and I'm very happy that, uh, not just myself, all the management team were able to help them to, uh, to get such significant returns on the investments.
Speaker 2 00:17:31 And the ones that joined already in the I p O and had the stomach and the, and the ability to go through all this, uh, uh, change are very happy as well. And of, of course, and this is natural. We had some, uh, fund managers that, uh, uh, decided to sell their position in some stage and, and didn't stay for the long journey. But the ones that stayed with us, eh, made a very good returns. And, and I'm, I will be the first one to, to be happy about that. And, and, and this is a significant part of my job as a c o for listed entity to make sure that we drive and help our investor to generate good returns on their investments.
Speaker 1 00:18:10 That's fantastic. And I, I know you make it sound so simple in terms of the business transition and transformation and kind of move into a SaaS model and move into that culture where you want to protect the digital security of all your customers and, and keep all the balls in the air and deliver kind of half year on half year. But you've got a fantastic business model and delivered on the organic growth story, and then very selective m and a, which has been powerful. So e everybody who's listening, you just can't believe how tough it is. So huge kind of hat tip to EDA and the team for doing that. And just looking back at the, uh, London stone market and the aim market, what, what's your experience you can share around liquidity and the ability to come back to the market to, to raise additional capital? Cause you did mention that it's a great way to, to go and secure growth capital.
Speaker 2 00:19:05 So first of all, I think that the aim market is, is a great platform for company. And doesn't matter if it's a tech business or different sectors that, uh, starting the growth, uh, stage, that it's already a very proven operational model, very strong business model, and they need to capital to accelerate growth. It doesn't matter if it's through, uh, only organic growth or like Cape, that it was a combination of organic, uh, growth story complimented by acquisitions. One of the thing that it's helped us, and I'm sure that a lot of other aim companies that, uh, being a listed entity on the aim market, which is part of the London Stock Chain group, uh, gives, uh, the company ability to raise the profile, uh, gain credibility with customers around the world. Uh, it, it's helping the business to be better with much more robust financial and operational controls.
Speaker 2 00:20:09 It gives us a new currency to do an acquisitions that we can, uh, share or issue shells to, uh, founders of companies that would, uh, we would like to add and merge into the Cape Group. And it's the best way to create a very strong alignment of interest between the sellers and, and Cape and our investors as buyers. It's true that the level of liquidity on the aim market is quite limited, but for companies that in the west, uh, growth mode, and I think that part of the LSC strategy is that they encourage companies to start as an aim company and then when they're ready and in the right size to make the shift, uh, to the main list. And I think that this is where the liquidity become much, uh, much broader and much deeper. Uh, but for companies that are in the go stage that needs to find a market that can help them to get access to capital, make a gradual change to being a fully listed, uh, entity, I think that the aim is the great market to be in. Great.
Speaker 1 00:21:16 You know, and I guess I gotta ask you the question cause I think you came to London for a year and 10 years later you're still here, you know, just building and growing a huge successful company. Uh, and there's lots of, um, chief executives and chairs out there across the European Union and out in Israel. Thinking about that same adventure in the journey, uh, what advice would you give to a chief executive out in Germany or France or Tel Aviv, uh, about where their destination of choice should be for a public listing, you know, but probably, obviously look at nasdaq, look at London. Uh, what, what advice would you give them? And, and I guess, you know, how's London kind of suited you?
Speaker 2 00:21:56 First of all, I think that if a company wants to play in, in, in global markets, uh, there are two alternatives. Whether you go to London or New York, both of them are great choices, by the way. It's not that, uh, the NASDAQ is better than the lsc and there are, the LS is better than nasdaq. It's very much depends on the markets and, and, and what suits the business better. My, my advice will be that making the decision to take your business public, it's a testament to the market. The different stakeholders that you are are ambitious ceo. It's an ambitious company that wants to realize the full growth potential, eh, being a publicly traded business, there's a lot of benefits, a lot of liabilities as well. It's not easy. It's a that there are weeks that I wake up in the morning and I say, wow, to be a c of, uh, list listed, the entity, uh, listed business.
Speaker 2 00:22:59 It just, it's, it's a, it's a massive headaches. You, you need to make sure that, uh, all stake stakeholders are happy. And at the end there is one important kpi, what is the share price? And it's not necessarily all dependent on you. So I think that ultimately, uh, as the business grow, it doesn't matter where it located in the wards, London or New York are great destinations to get access to capital to raise the profile of a business and enable the business to realize the full court potential with a very strong credibility and build up gradually a very strong profile with different, uh, different audiences.
Speaker 1 00:23:40 That's great Edo. And um, I noticed as well you've recently acquired an Israeli tech firm, uh, web excellence. And, uh, how did, how did being a public company help or support that acquisition?
Speaker 2 00:23:54 If you look back on all the six acquisitions, uh, we made since 2016, usually we like to buy businesses, uh, directly from the founders. And we would like them to stay with us and join the journey and realize the, the growth potential of the combined business. And Wessells was a similar story of a great business that, uh, grown very well as a private, uh, company owned by the two founders. And, uh, um, and the fact that we, we were able to build up or structure the transaction in a way that, uh, it was a combination of cash and shells and significant portion of the consideration was in Shells because the funders requested it. They wanted to be a significant shareholders going forward. They appreciated the value of merging the two businesses together, uh, gives them an hour, uh, and Cape Shareholders the ability to realize and enjoy from the value that, uh, we will create together.
Speaker 2 00:24:57 Web excellence is the last example with that. But if you look back on the acquisition we made at the end of 2019 with private internet access, it worked very, very well. And we couldn't be happier with the way that PIA was integrated into the group. And the way that web excellence is now integrated into the group and, and the fact that Cape is already established and successful, uh, public company gives us a lot of, uh, capabilities to execute on earning, announcing acquisitions. Uh, over the years, we build up a very strong track record of not just knowing to execute on acquisitions, but to integrate them very well. And just as an anecdote, I can tell you that when I joined the company in 2016, one of the most common questions investors asked me was on what I'm going to deploy the money. Cause I had 70 million on the balance sheet that was, uh, needed to be deployed.
Speaker 2 00:25:52 And I said that, uh, I will not rush to spend the money. I would prefer to fix the business first, build up the very strong use case and to demonstrate how we can be the best acquirer of successful and growing businesses that can add value, eh, one to each other. And only then I'm going to execute on acquisitions. And I think that, uh, looking back, uh, it worked out very well and we gradually increased the value and the size of the acquisitions that we are targeting. We build up a great knowledge and know-how in the team of what's the best way to integrate businesses that we acquired it. And it, so far, it worked out very, very well. And I'm very confident that, uh, it'll continue to work up to work. I am very well in the future as well.
Speaker 1 00:26:43 Yeah, that's, um, fantastic. Actually, very similar to what we put together when I was a public c e o back in, uh, the, the, when I came back from the us and having your strong organic growth as the engine room, uh, is very powerful. And I just thinking also rolling over significant equity from the founders is a great sense of alignment and commitment to, to the journey ahead and, and just looking at what we've had 16 months of, um, COVID and the Pandemic, which has been a human tragedy, but w how's it affected Cape and and how's it affected the growth rate of the business during this time?
Speaker 2 00:27:25 So, firstly, if, uh, Cape was lack in a sense that we're a global business and, uh, we, we are used to cooperate between the different locations. Cape now has, uh, eight locations around the world, and people in the team, uh, work on the same project, doesn't matter. Well if they're located in London, in our office, in, in Seattle, in the US or in Tel Avivo, Bucharest in Romania. So we had the platforms and the communication systems to continue work and, uh, um, as usual, despite the fact that, uh, overnight most of the offices around the water shifted, uh, to work remotely. Uh, and it worked out very, very well. And this is something that we are still today offer, uh, our employees, uh, more of a hybrid model, and they can choose whether they want to work from the office or work remotely. Um, in brackets, I can tell you that from the 420 or four 30 employees we have today, 9% of them work remotely on a permanent basis.
Speaker 2 00:28:31 So we offer this, uh, flexibility to our, uh, employees mm-hmm. <affirmative> business wise, uh, because of the sector and the fact that we help people to, um, walk in a, in a fully protected, uh, way remotely. Because one of our main products is helping, uh, people to protect unsecured wifi connections. So the pandemic, um, helped us to accelerate the growth even further because, uh, you know, all of us and a lot of, uh, people around the world, uh, spending much more time working remotely, spending much more time connecting, uh, through unsecured wifi connections. For example, our homes, uh, very few people have, uh, robust security over their home wifi connections. And this is exactly our targeted market. Another, uh, part of the market that I'm very pleased that we, we are, we are enabling people to continue their, um, their business routine is the freelancers. Uh, it's a very big market now. A lot of companies use freelancers as part of their, uh, workforce. And, uh, our ability to enable freelancers to work remotely, connect in a fully secured way to organizational, uh, um, networks is something that, uh, worked, uh, very well throughout the pandemic. And we see it, uh, even today as the world started to move, uh, out and go back to normal.
Speaker 1 00:30:04 That's amazing. And when I look back at you joining, what, 2016, you had a kind of a war chest of cash and a lot of anticipation, I guess, from investors to understand what you were gonna do and just, just the massive transformation of taking a company, as I said, from AgTech to protecting digital security and cybersecurity. How subtle was it about how much of the story you could share with the investors back in 2016 cuz kind of new c e o turns up and how much did you sort of unfold it, um, every half year when you shared with them a around, I guess, results and potentially road shows? How, how much did you, how much advice would you give if you were facing a tough transformation in your business? And, and I guess how much can you share with the shareholder community without scaring them getting their support, but, but making sure that they're brought along on the journey?
Speaker 2 00:31:00 So, first of all, and I'm, um, it's part of my management, uh, style. I'm, I'm very transparent and this is something that, uh, uh, is now part of the d n A across all the organization. And we, from the first day, uh, we communicated in a fully transparent way and, and we shared our concerns and opportunities with the different, uh, stakeholders in the, in the market. And, um, I think that it put to, to work out very well. Um, and when we made the, the changes, um, you know, we had a lot of uncertainties now looking six, six years back, you know, I think as well in a much better position compared to what I thought we would be after six years, and it's great. But when we were, were as, as you know, going through the change curve, uh, there were a lot of uncertainties and, and we communicated in a fully transparent way with our investors and they appreciated that.
Speaker 2 00:32:03 And one, one rule, and it's one of the, um, basic rules in the textbook is always, uh, over deliver and don't overpromise. And, and we always set up ambitious targets both strategically and financially. And, and we were able to over deliver and especially we did what we said we were going to do. You know, we were very consistent in our execution. And over time I think that investors, eh, learn to appreciate, uh, our approach and, and they felt very comfortable with the way we, we drove the changing strategy and executed on the new strategy. And we help them to, uh, understand what will be the next milestone, how we see the change in the industry, how we see the changes in the markets that we operate in, and why we think Cape is very well positions positioned to enjoy from the changes in the market and, and, and how we built our think on our future product strategy in order to make sure we have the best products with, to, um, to be one of the best first choices of customers looking to protect their digital lives. And, and, and that's, that's it. We, we just, uh, this was the approach all the time. This will be the approach in the future. Uh, we continue to be fully transparent and, and honest guys that, uh, would like to build up the best business we we can, we can do in order to, to realize our vision to help, uh, people to live more secure than private digital lives
Speaker 1 00:33:37 And Anto. Yeah, I think you said some great things there, you know, under promise overdeliver and uh, and obviously being a public company is sort a relentless treadmill of every half year reporting. So one of the subtleties that is very rarely talked about, and when I was public company c e o, we, we sort of had three different plans. We had the board plan, we had the management plan, which was more ambitious, and that was shooting for the stars, uh, as to, you know, exactly as you say. And then we had the external plan, the guidance, um, and that was obviously responsible conservative cuz the whole concept is you wanna be known as the management team that's sort of beat and raised. You're always consistently beating earnings and just gently kind of bring the market with you. How, how, what's the advice you give to CEOs coming into the public markets? A around how they sort of structure their board planning and their management plans, and then obviously their guidance to make sure that all the stakeholders are delighted with the delivery of the business and the growth and the, um, expectations management.
Speaker 2 00:34:48 So first of all, uh, it's very important to build up a board that, uh, of people that work very well together. And to try as much as possible to make sure that all the interests are aligned, uh, just make, uh, the life of everyone involved much easier. In addition to build up expectations in the market and to work with analysts, it's, uh, it's, it's a work of art. It take, it takes time to build up the experience of what are the how to, to, to build up the financial targets for, for the business. Uh, it's always hard to try and project what the business will make 3, 4, 5 years down the road. You know, there, there's things that we control and a a lot of things that is, is beyond our control and, um, especially with young tech entrepreneurs. And I experience, experience, experience it myself and a lot of my colleagues that we always set up high targets and we say, okay, e even if we will achieve 90% of this high target, it'll be still good enough.
Speaker 2 00:35:59 Yeah. But when you make the change to a publicly traded business environment, you, you can't do 90% of what you com you communicate to the market, even if it's much better than what you did last year. You need to make sure that you give ambitious targets, but you have strong level of confidence that you will be able to deliver and more. And it takes time to change this mindset as a, as a young or, or a tech entrepreneur or entrepreneur in general that we always, this is part of being entrepreneurs. You always want to achieve and, and push the business and push the organization to achieve much more than what they believe they can do. And to make this change in mindsets, uh, to, uh, to an environment that you, you need to manage expectations with the research analyst, it takes time and it's very, very important to understand it and make this, uh, change in mindset before you go public. And to realize the importance of, uh, managing the expectation and setting up, uh, financial targets that you have strong level of confidence the business will be able to deliver. That's
Speaker 1 00:37:10 Great. And, uh, such brilliant advice. And, uh, as you said, I think in your earlier comments, you know, trust takes many kind of half years of reporting to build, but sadly with one announcement, you know, the trust can disappear in a nanosecond. So it's just vital, uh, that that constant delivery and exceeding expectations is sort of embedded. But, and it's, it's, as you say, both data and science driven. But I love the, your phrase of it's a work of art, it is a true work of art, especially, uh, with the sales side analyst as well. So obviously you're a public c e o and, um, you have to, I guess be, be cautious about what you tell about the future and stargazing, but can you share with me what's in the public domain about what's next for Cape Technologies?
Speaker 2 00:37:59 I think that Cape today is in the best position we ever been. Uh, the market is growing dramatically, and Cape is very well positioned to enjoy from the growth in the market. And, um, the beauty is that, uh, we're not scratching the surface of what the business can, can do. We, we experienced very strong growth in the past, uh, few years and, uh, the got momentum continuing very strongly, and I'm very happy, um, from the fact that we now serve, uh, uh, more than 2.7 million subscribers globally. People that trust us to help them to gain back the control on the information they share online and live a more secured and private digital life. And this is, this is, this is just great. It's just we, we realize our dream of of being one of the global leaders in the new, uh, consumer cybersecurity space. And we want to continue doing what we are doing every day and continue build up pair cap and realize the full potential of the company.
Speaker 1 00:39:05 That's fantastic. And you, you've done this a couple of times, but you've just given such brilliant advice. I've gotta ask you, um, there'll be lots of listeners out there who are either aspiring CEOs or, or existing CEOs, and what, what, what are the golden nuggets that you've given? What advice would you give aspiring CEOs of tech companies
Speaker 2 00:39:24 Be brave, dream big, and, um, not, I think that one of, one of the main thing that I would say to a younger CEO o and it's very hard to execute is, is not to be overexcited when things go better than what you expected. And don't be devastated when things goes bad because this is a natural, you know, this is the nature of being a ceo, e and entrepreneur. You need to, you know, continue and build up the momentum and goes and build up the, the business gradually. And, and it takes time. And not all the time things goes exactly how you plan, they're going to go, but this is part of the journey
Speaker 1 00:40:07 <unk> the great advice, advice and uh, and I'm sure the listeners out there will, will ta that on board. Um, it'd be nice to have a a bit of fun. Now, you've obviously got an incredible personality, you're a fantastic business leader, but it'd be nice to know a a bit about the, the lighter side of Ito. So when you're not running, you know, global cybersecurity business, what do you like to get up to?
Speaker 2 00:40:31 I have young family. I have two young kids, uh, that takes a lot of my time. And when I'm not walking, I, I like to spend much more, as much as possible. Time with my kids means with my family as, and preferably not in the city. I like to go out on nature. That's
Speaker 1 00:40:47 Good, good time. Great special, special moments to create special memories. A and what's, what's your favorite book or or podcast that you could recommend?
Speaker 2 00:40:56 My, my most favorite book, it's, it's a book that was written by, uh, Shimon per, um, the previous, uh, president of Israel and one of the founders of, of the Israel, of the state of Israel. It's called No Room For Small Dreams. And I think that, uh, as a, as an entrepreneur and a ceo, e o you know, it's, it's it to dream big and shoot to the stars, it's something that, uh, it's one of the key, uh, things you need to do as a serial entrepreneur. And, and I think that, uh, Shimon per eh, did the same, but not with a business organization, with a country. And, and then I think that, uh, the way he captured the, the story and his ideas in the book, no Room For Small Dreams, it's something that is fascinating me.
Speaker 1 00:41:48 That's brilliant. And, um, yeah, shaman Perez did incredible things around the world, uh, driving peace and, uh, an amazing leader. Um, uh, and what, what do you like to do in terms of eating? What's your favorite cuisine
Speaker 2 00:42:03 Growing up in Israel? I'll always go back to a good place of hummus and falafel as ba basic as it sounds. But, uh, this is by far my favorite, uh, favorite cuisine.
Speaker 1 00:42:16 I love that. So if, if you could have the best falafel, uh, and hummus with anybody in the world, uh, dead or alive, who, who would the person that you'd sit down with be?
Speaker 2 00:42:26 Mr. Churchill? I think that, uh, there are not too many people that, um, impacted the history and had such a big impact on a global perspective. And I'm sure it'll be fun to spend an evening with, uh, Mr. Wi Winston Churchill and, and listening to his historian shell thoughts and, and it's, it just, uh, it was a, it was a great leader and, and the impact, he, he left the world. It is phenomenal.
Speaker 1 00:42:51 Yeah. And, um, someone who achieved his greatest moments in his sixties and seventies, so it gives us all hope for the future. Ito definitely. There's, uh, plenty of runway ahead, which is good news. So I ito any final thoughts or comments for, for the listeners out there, uh, before we close?
Speaker 2 00:43:11 Dream big, be brave and try to do things that matter and, and live good impact to the world. I think that, uh, we have, we have few years, you know, that we can do a lot of positive stuff and, you know, as business leaders, as community leaders, I think that, uh, spend the time of things that matter and, uh, I think that this is what at least I try to do every day. I woke up in, I wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1 00:43:38 Ida, that's absolutely brilliant. I think amazing applause for you having transformed a company in the public markets a and taken the business that you joined in 2016, to become a global leader in, in cybersecurity with Cape and as you say organically grow fast and do six acquisitions on the way and integrating them to build a fantastic culture, uh, with over 400 people. It takes a lot of hard work. It's easy to say, and it's easy, I guess, on a podcast just to reflect, uh, on the victories and the times in the trenches. But we all know how tough it is, uh, and your leadership should be absolutely applauded. So really appreciate that and your, your thoughts and comments have been inspiring. Uh, so thank you very much Ito Erman, and we've really enjoyed the conversation. Thank
Speaker 2 00:44:28 You. Thank you very much.
