Lessons in Venture Capital: Building a Cybersecurity Company, with Marcus Bartram

Guest: Marcus Bartram, General Partner at Telstra Ventures
Telstra Ventures’ Marcus Bartram understands the growing pains inherent in building a business. Working at high-growth companies early in his career helped him build wisdom and resilience and foster a sense of empathy towards entrepreneurs. As a venture capitalist, Marcus understands how to use capital as a tool for building a business, and he and his team have led successful investments in companies like CrowdStrike, Auth0, Corvus Insurance, Elastica, and vArmour, among many others.
In this episode, Marcus joins Jonathan to discuss the ins-and-outs of evaluating potential investment opportunities, the company profiles that attract venture capitalists, and the excitement that comes with building partnerships. “Who’s the team?” Marcus asks. “Do you believe in the vision they’re trying to paint? Do you trust them to want to give them literally millions of dollars of money? And do you think they can execute on the vision?”
Marcus recounts stories of navigating the turbulent dotcom boom of the late-1990s, reflects on the role it played in his career, and shares his views on the future of cybersecurity and technology. “For my sins, I really like the cybersecurity market, which is a huge, vibrant market with lots of opportunity,” he remarks. “What’s their unique view on that, and why are they different to the other thousands of cybersecurity startups that are in the market today? Are they solving a big problem, or are they solving for a feature in cybersecurity?”
Click here to read the transcript: https://www.attackiq.com/podcasts/how-to-build-and-scale-a-successful-cybersecurity-company/#transcript