Hed Kovetz On Raising $222 Million To Launch A Unified Identity Protection Platform

In the realm of entrepreneurship, tales of success often overshadow the arduous journey of building a company from scratch. Hed Kovetz, the founder of Silverfort, a groundbreaking cybersecurity company, recently shared insights into his entrepreneurial journey in an exclusive interview.

Silverfort has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Acrew Capital, Greenfield Partners, Citi Ventures, and General Motors Ventures.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Hed Kovetz’s upbringing in a kibbutz fostered a sense of community, safety, and collaboration, influencing his approach to building a company.
• Hed’s military service in Unit 8200 imparted invaluable leadership skills and a deep understanding of cybersecurity, shaping his entrepreneurial journey.
• Recognizing the growing challenges in identity security, Hed founded Silverfort to address the gaps in existing solutions, starting a journey of innovation.
• The early days of fundraising were challenging, but Hed emphasizes the importance of perseverance, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from failures.
• Achieving product-market fit required active listening to customers, iterative product development, and a willingness to pivot based on real-world feedback.
• Drawing from his kibbutz experience, Hed prioritizes a positive company culture, promoting teamwork, transparency, and mutual support among Silverfort’s employees.
• Looking ahead, Hed envisions Silverfort as the leader in unifying identity security, creating a seamless layer of protection across diverse systems and solidifying the company’s position in the market.

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About Hed Kovetz:

Hed Kovetz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Silverfort, a provider of the Unified Identity Protection Platform. Prior to founding Silverfort, Hed served in product leadership positions at Verint, where he led the company’s nation-scale cybersecurity platform and won the company’s innovation competition for his patent-pending inventions.

Hed previously served as a Group Leader at the 8200 elite cyber unit of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, where he led 5 teams running cyber campaigns and received the unit’s excellence awards as well as the Chief of Intelligence Corps Award for Innovation.

Connect with Hed Kovetz:

• Forbes
• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• F6S

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Already hello everyone and welcome to the dealmakerr show. So today. We have a really exciting guest joining us you know from starupm nation. You know we’re gonna be talking a lot about building scaling financing all the good stuff that we like to hear. Some of the things that we’re going to be diving in today is challenges in the early days like for example, fundraising how to go about convincing people the stresses and pressures of being ah a founder you know of any company you know nobody really talks about that. There’s a lot you know of stress and a lot of pressure that I founder undertakes. Also going from the early stages to really grow stages where you’re thinking about scale as well as having a culture where employees are not leaving you know which is really amazing the teamwork and collaboration that this founder you know and his team are fostering as well as navigating the. Current environment so without further ado. Let’s welcome our guests today at koviz welcome to the show.

Hed Kovetz: Hey thank you for having me great to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born there in Israel you were born in akibbuts with no car. No not not not not nothing of that nature. So you also walked through memory lane. How was life growing up.

Hed Kovetz: Yes.

Hed Kovetz: Um, um, yeah so I go up in the kibbutz for those who don’t know what it is. It’s it’s like a small um village where where it’s really like a community. Everything is shared so believe it or not you know we didn’t own ah a house or or a cow or anything everything was you know, kind of belonged to everybody. Ah, which which sounds may sound pretty crazy to to some people but I can tell you as a child. It’s you know it’s actually great. The great environment to grow up in and you know super friendly and safe and and like a big ah family. Um, you know we did. We did move out of there at some point but it was a great ah childhood. Um, and then and they you know grew up with um, a dad who was an engineer and a mam was an artist so all my life was kind of on on a combination of out in the and and science or tech I guess. Which which still ah still today I feel like I like post. Um, yeah, overall and great childhood.

Alejandro Cremades: So tell us about the army because first of all going to the army the area in Israel is mandatory and I think this gives you also great ethic nondisciling I think now in your case do it also allowed you to learn about management.

Hed Kovetz: Um, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Because you were also learning. You know there about managing teamens and you were in fact, managing teams. So how was this experience for you as well.

Hed Kovetz: Um, yeah too. So you know in Israel when we are 18 You go to the military which obviously is is something that I wish wasn’t true, but it’s something that that we have to do and and as a country and.

Hed Kovetz: You know the the only upside to it is is yes when you’re 18 you actually get to to experience um to get an lot of responsibility. Um, you know, being in charge of of really important things and and managing people and and leading ah very critical projects I served in a unit called 8200 which is kind of like the the and nsa in the us you know it’s it’s ah places where we we focused on cyber security um cyber offense. Um I was there for a while. So I actually stayed there for extra time to become a manager or a commander. Um, eventually managed 5 teams that were doing these kind of you know cyber campaigns and research and it was it was great I got to you know, learn so much and and get amazing responsibility and and walk with some of the best people I ever met. So overall.

Hed Kovetz: Gave me a lot. Um, and and that’s where I actually met some of the people I walk with today.

Alejandro Cremades: Um, and how was that thing transitioned to into building your company because after you came out of the the army you know, Basically you got to work on government of security and and things of this nature which kind of like really gave you the. Exposure to what you want to build later on with identity Security. You know which is essentially you know some of the stuff that led you to what you’re doing ultimately at the silver for you know those sequence of events that needed to happen so give us some you know, walk through those sequences you know and how things unfolded. Towards say you becoming a founder ultimately and.

Hed Kovetz: Sure. So yeah, after after the the military I I went to work for for some governments as you mentioned um, worked with a few countries in in Europe and Asia and basically had to had had you know. Ah, guess the opportunity to design the national cybersecurity architecture for the entire country which was amazing experience and and and opportunity um and by doing that I got to see cyber security from a perspective that I think is is pretty rare.

Hed Kovetz: Because it wasn’t looking at organizations. It was looking at the entire internet communication of of a whole country. Um, and really understanding what what attacks look like in a much more kind of Zoom out ah view and what I saw there which correlated with what I learned. Being on the offense side in the military is that identity is really the almost the the go to attack vector for for cyber protectors. Um, because it’s just easy I mean if if I can um you know. Get someone in an organization to to tell me the password or I can somehow steal the credentials I can log in to the font door and why even wven battle doing anything else or any any more sophisticated attack if if that is such an easy blind spot for most companies. Um, so I I saw that but I think that what got me to to want to do something in this field is the understanding that there are already so many solutions out there for identity security and somehow that problem actually is just growing. So I really wanted to understand what is missing. You know what. Why is identity security not actually solving the problem. Um, and and you know I felt like I have some theories about it by the way one of the things I learned is as soon as you start actually building a product and meeting customers. All of those theories become irrelevant and you you.

Hed Kovetz: You know you learn what is actually missing. But but that was got but got me to wanting to start that Journey is the understanding that there is a huge problem and it’s not being solved.

Alejandro Cremades: So then for Silver Ford you know, obviously the company the way that it has evolved and what it has come today is is pretty remarkable but I know that the early days you know were not easy and they were full of challenges now before we go into those challenges that I like to ask you about. You know, specifically when it comes to fundraising for example, what is silver for delay. What is the business model and how do you guys make money for the people that are listening to get it.

Hed Kovetz: So silverboard is a company that um brings identity protection everywhere to every system every user every environment in in the the organization. Um, and I think that it’s something that. And we were able to to bring to places that identity security just couldn’t get to before what I mean is we built a product that can protect systems that couldn’t be protected until today. Um, a lot of critical systems. You know. Legacy systems non-human identities ah command line tools. All kinds of things that were just considered blind spots that you couldn’t secure we built a platform that can bring identity security to all these places we sell it to companies around the world. So we have teams in in 15 countries today that that. So we we operate in many markets and and we work with companies from very small ones to the largest companies in the world. We have sort of several of the fortune 25 companies even as customers. So um, it is ah it is becoming I think um. Very successful but it took a long time to get to this point and and again before we we go into the you know the beginning I’ll say yes after this this all this long road. We did get to a point where today.

Hed Kovetz: The company is doing very well you know we we are adding a hundred new customers every quarter at this point so the company is going really nicely. Um, we just completed our serious d funding of a $16000000 so so yeah I mean. Today. The company is really on a great direction to to lead the identity security market.

Alejandro Cremades: And why is Thetoman race today had.

Hed Kovetz: Ah, 222000000

Alejandro Cremades: So now bring us to the beginning of of raising you know all this money now for all these different financing cycles I know that the first financing cycle was very difficult. You know the early days of convincing people of being able to showcase.

Hed Kovetz: So.

Alejandro Cremades: That canvas with the same colors that you have in mind you know because obviously you don’t have something tangible yet. So how has it been the experience from that moment all the way up until they until today. How have those cycles you know, matured from one to the next.

Hed Kovetz: Um, yeah, you’re right? You know when when things are going well and this this stage It’s almost easy to forget the challenges of the beginning and I feel like when I got started and I talk to entrepreneurs to get their advice. A lot of times people. Um you know, tell these these. Amazing stories about how well everything is going and how easy it was and I think that that’s that timing that they actually I think is is not a good thing for us as an industry. The fact that people don’t don’t share the challenges and the know the stress that comes with it because then and the pano who who actually start building the comeedies feel like they. Ah, the problem or or they are you know, almost ah feeling like they’re they’re losers right? because it’s not easy for them. I think that the tools is now that I’m talking to so many ceos in in our stage. It’s not easy for anyone. Um, and especially in the beginning because you’re you’re coming with almost nothing right? You You don’t have any real. Um, pool for a product or customers or anything to show and you’re trying to um to convince investors that you’re going to build something amazing. Um, it is challenging for anyone and in in our case I mean I came with the O we me and my 2 counders your own and Maan. We came forward with the perfect background right? We we all came from Cyber Security military experience. Um in spiritot in the industry and still. It’s very hard because you know investors are seeing so many startups and and for them to decide to invest in someone requires so many styles to Align. Um.

Hed Kovetz: Think that one of the biggest challenges was and you know the fact that ah you need to convince someone that you’re going to build something something different in a market where they’re already a lot of players and and invests are comparing you to so many other companies and they’re trying to figure out why would you be more successful than them because. You know and and that is very how to enter in the beginning because um, you don’t have any proof and honestly the product. The idea that you have for the product is probably not the right one in the in the very beginning I know that ours wasn’t the right one.

Hed Kovetz: Only when you get started you you know you you meet customers. You talk to them you learn how to adjust I mean hopefully if you if you do it the right way I think you you are flexible enough so in the beginning all you have is is you I mean the team and and you know the the problem that you’re trying to address that that. Ideally should be a good problem that people understand in our case, um, 7 or almost eight years ago identity security was not a very attractive problem for investors I think today it is today people understand that identity I mean. Especially after covid right with people walking from anywhere. Um you know, using devices that maybe even be personal devices I think people understand that there’s no corporate network anymore and identity is almost the last line of defense. But in the beginning when we started identity security was not a hard topic. It almost was a boring old um topic. So it was very hard. We. We got a lot of Nos from tens of investors before we before we found someone who actually believed in us.

Alejandro Cremades: So what was that thing also that journey to getting to product Market fit and in that moment where you finally experienced that you were turning a corner with a business.

Hed Kovetz: So I think that the critical thing was us really listening to customers. It’s so easy as an because you’re so you’re so focused on convincing people that what you’re building is is is the right thing that you you almost fall in love with your own idea. And and the risk is that you may just hit a wall. You may just you know try to convince everybody that you are right and not actually listen and the thing that what what helped is that at some point we realized okay with customers. It’s not even about us pitching to them. We have to listen to what they actually want and when customers. Told us that the product we were trying to build is probably not the right one and it’s not solving the actual problem. Um, it took us time we did. We did spend a few months um fighting that uphill battle. But eventually we we started listening and and adjusted the product again and again and again until we got to to the right product.

Hed Kovetz: Um, Basically in our case, we believed that the problem with identity security was that the security measures were not were not secure enough right? like think about Multifactor Authentication. For example, we we thought that the problem is it’s probably not secure enough and this is why attackers are succeeding to. Breach organizations customers told us that’s not our problem. These solutions are secure our problem is that these great security controls are just not available for so many of our systems We have so many other systems that you cannot integrate modern identity security into. Now. It took us time um to to figure out that that is the actual problem and and shift our entire focus and and our product to that direction then it took us even more time to you know, find the right solution and I think that the point where we realize that we that we have It is only when the conversation started to become easy when we were. In front of customers and it it stopped feeling like an argument or like a battle and it started being. You know the the reaction from them was just so much better and they they really understood and they really agreed um and only then we started sensing. Okay this this is becoming real and and we can actually start. You know, um, selling this and then I think the the critical point that you get to at some point is where where not only you the founder can sell it but you can actually bring in more team members who are successful in selling it and that’s where I feel like you know there’s something here. Beyond you know some early stage product that does.

Alejandro Cremades: And obviously the to make that happen. Obviously the team is key in the culture that you guys have brought you know to the company there Timor collaboration. You know, almost no churn when it comes to employees.

Hed Kovetz: to be signs of product Market fit.

Alejandro Cremades: I’m wondering to like how you guys were able to go up about that. What were some of the critical pillars and the foundation. You know that sustained on and and I guess Also how the the experience of growing up in a kibbutz you know in that community you know, ah feeling an aspect. You know how you’ve gone About. We bring some aspects of that to to to that culture.

Hed Kovetz: Yeah I think that um I believe that in order for startup to be successful. It’s all about the teamwork because that is really your only advantage over the large companies. The large companies have more resources more customers The only thing you have is is ah a team that works better together because because it’s a little smaller because you know there’s something about the culture that that make the different departments actually partner instead of instead of being enemies like I think they are in some large organizations almost and to build that and. I became almost obsessed with um getting the different people to to walk as 1 team and not to not to fight inside the company which is such a natural thing to do with you know, politics and ego these these things are always you know trying to all starting to be created. And I think that I managed to not only focus on it myself a lot but find other managers that that share that mindset with me that that understand that in order for a company to succeed. We all need to be on 1 team. Um, and that requires a lot of a lot of different things right? It requires. Create a culture where if things go wrong. You don’t you don’t look at who to blame but you actually just focus on how how we all improve as a team but not not even care whose fault exactly it is because that creates a lot of a lot of toxic conversations or.

Hed Kovetz: You know, create a culture where everybody help each other even if it’s not exactly the responsibility but but it’s more about what do we need to achieve as a team and it’s about transparency and it’s about actually caring about employees where where they need you. You know, not not where everything is good but actually when things are bad and when an employee. Is in trouble. You know the the situations where too timor and too. Um, you know I don’t know a culture where people actually care about each other is really tested and I think that when you do that? Well then employees also care about about you about the company. Um.

Hed Kovetz: And I think that that’s what you you need? you need people to to be happy with where they are they like the the you know the people that they work with and and want to do something for them because my observation at least is that people don’t really I mean they they obviously come to work for celary. Um. But they don’t go above and beyond for that. They only do that for people they do that for for the people around them because they want you know the team to succeed and that’s where I mean you can you can see the same I think in sport teams people will go above and beyond for for their team to be successful. Much more than they will do for you know for those salary or for the the things that I think um I mean so some of didn’t even believe that they are motivated by I think that the the people element is the ko one so we were able to create that I feel and and we do have today a situation where you know. Very few people are leaving the company and I think people are generally um, doing amazing things together as as a team and I hope that we’ll be able to maintain that for as long as we can.

Alejandro Cremades: So think about the team here investors culture everything you know obviously vision is a big driver of that and in a world. Let’s say it where you were to go to sleep tonight and wake up and the vision of Silver Fort is fully realized what does that world look like so.

Hed Kovetz: Um, yeah.

Hed Kovetz: So when we look at the identity market today I think that the biggest problem is probably the fact that identity in most companies is built out of many silos. So lot of companies have 1 identity solution for the on-prem you know the legacy environment and 1 identity solution for for this cloud and one for that other cloud and all of these different identities I mean you may have 3 different identities but you’re the same person you’re you’re the same human that has these different identities. The way security works today is is as as ah, you know in in inch of these islands separately and my vision for civil forward is to be the company that finally creates that unified layer of security on top of all the silos of identity infrastructure. So I you know i.

Alejandro Cremades: So.

Hed Kovetz: We started this company from wanting to bring identity security to the places where it just doesn’t exist. You know, ah legacy applications and industrial systems and service accounts and all these blind spots but we are gradually evolving into something that I think is is a much bigger opportunity and that’s. Unification of identity security and the reason why I believe in that vision is if you look at adult categories of security. Let’s say endpoint protection. You don’t buy that from you know, Hp and Dell and Apple separately. You know you buy it from 1 vendor that can protect all. At the endpoint all all these islands and in identity. It’s not the case and I think it will be and I think that we can be the leaders of that we can be the the company that actually builds that um that connecting tissue that that’s unified layer of security on top. And I believe that we are in the right direction to do it with growing you know more than 100% year over year for several years now I think we are on the right direction. Um, but obviously yeah, you know we need to to keep doing it and not mess up. We talked earlier about all the challenges they still there are still to today I mean there’s still a lot of. Challenges every day still a lot of you know, pressure and stress that comes with the job. Still a lot of things that we need to solve. But overall I think that we have a great team. We have a great product. We have amazing customers and I think that we are on the direction to achieve it. So I’m actually more excited today.

Hed Kovetz: Ah, than I ever was at Silver fault about where it’s going.

Alejandro Cremades: So getting into that direction of growth and scale is not easy right? and and shifting from the early stages where you’re putting fires every day you know you’re doing everything yourself, you know it’s not a lot of people. So then all of a sudden you know like you have all the unit economics figured out. You know you have the right people. Um. What? what?? what? What does? What does it look like when you shift from early stage to growth Stage. What are some of the kings and in hurdles you know you need to overcome in order to get it to that direction. You know where things are Cruising. You know which is where you’re now.

Hed Kovetz: Um, yeah I think this is a great question and I think that I mean I’m I’m obviously still learning a lot of it. But I think there are 3 key elements for it and and it’s it’s you know product go to market and and people. Think that I mean we talked a bit about people right? and and I think that the challenge there is just how do you maintain that culture when the company is growing and there’s so many people and people don’t even know each other anymore in in some cases. Um and and and you know there’s a lot I think you can still do though and to to create that cordial to spread it. Um, which requires a lot of time in investment I spend a lot of my my personal time on that on on the people resolving a lot of issues myself working with the managers a lot of it is is really up to the managers because I can stand and and you know. Come to your ah you know to your show and and say all these things but they won’t even matter if the actual team leaders are not doing them in in in the reality. So the zo of folk with the management. But I think it’s it’s doable because we I think we we at least are still still filling that culture and I hope we’ll keep it. In terms of the product I think that the the big the big challenge though that we are we are in the process of today is how do you move from a single product to to an actual platform that has you know multiple product models only that each each has its own. You know product market fit and and.

Hed Kovetz: And ability to to solve a big problem for for customers while doing it. But it’s not just about innovation. It’s also about building your organization in the right way to support multiple products and to build multiple products. Um, and it’s about not not letting yourself become kind of um. You know, a lot of companies at certain size. They stop innovating. They just become kind of slow. They just support their existing product and and they lose that and then another startup comes comes from the you know from behind and and passes them so making sure that you still invest a lot of your resources in in new product and in innovation is critical and then go to market that. Maybe the you know the the biggest challenge in in scale I think that um there are a lot of things though I think to me one of the key strategies. There is is channel partnerships I think that you you can sell the product yourself in the early days and you you may hire more salespeople and get a bit more wins. But if you really want to scale. It’s all about partnerships to me. Um, and that can be the you know channel partners that that we invested in from from very early and we are. We are fully invested in that strategy. It can be the technology alliances. We partner also with cyber insurance companies who recommend our product to clients in order to get insured. A lot of partnerships we we invest in it a lot and that does I mean it takes time. That’s the challenging part you with every partnership you feel like the first year or 2 you’re just doing a lot of work and there’s no result I think that’s why a lot of people give up almost you know other founders I’m talking to our approach was always.

Hed Kovetz: You know if that happens you just lean in even more like you you invest even more and and at some point it happens at some point it’s starting to to bring results and then it just explodes. Um, the other thing is. I Found over time that one of the mistakes I did early on was was my message was very complex. We. We explained our technology which is a very complex technology in a way that we as founders could explain to someone but there was no chance. Chance for a salesperson to explain that or even to our customer to extend it to to to his own team Members. It was just a very complex technical story and and sharpening that message into something simple that people understand like we can bring identity security to these systems that don’t support it that you couldn’t protect before and and. And and not ah spending an hour explaining the the technology you know too early in the conversation that allowed the message to become a little easier to communicate and to spread um and and for the you know for the company to to scale Better. So a lot of these kind of things. Um. That you know obviously I’m still learning right? It’s it’s ah I think a big part of it is is knowing that you don’t know everything and and never never ever becoming too arrogant about hey I figured it out I feel like part of the thing that allowed us to continue to success is is knowing that we still have a lot to learn.

Alejandro Cremades: So it ah work work in progress always and so so let me ask you this. Let’s say I bring you back in time I put you into a time machine and I bring you back in time to 2016 to that moment where.

Hed Kovetz: Yeah, exactly.

Alejandro Cremades: You’re thinking about a world you know where you could bring something of your own. Let’s say you’re able to give a chat you know or or to have a chat with a younger self and you’re able to give that younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What will that be and why given what you know now.

Hed Kovetz: And I mean those’s all things I would say about specifically obviously the the product and the positioning and things like that. But if you have to give a more general advice to to to myself as an entrepreneur I think that it’s um I think that I would have told myself. Um. You know about the challenges and how hard it is and and and to know that that is just that’s just the way that it is and and to not feel frustrated about that and to not feel like something is wrong because because it’s hard I think that I know today that it’s just hard. It’s just a very hard thing to do to create. Something like this out of nothing and and.

Hed Kovetz: So I think that I would I would have told myself that you know it’s just it’s just a hard journey and to not be scared about the fact that there are challenges on the way you know it is difficult I think that um.

Hed Kovetz: Some of the frustation and the stress of of doing this of of building a company of building you know, something out of nothing is is the feeling that you know you’re strugglingggling and not knowing that it this is just the way it is. It’s it’s hard for anyone I know today talking to other entrepreneur entrepreneurs that this is just the way it is um but I think that in the. In the early days I felt um I felt like it’s just it’s it’s going it’s not you know it’s not going to walk out. It’s going. So so it’s so difficult it’s it’s so stressful. Things are not going the right way and obviously you know eventually we caused these challenges and we we were able to solve it I think that and. Part of the one of the most important thing I think for every entrepreneur is the ability to just you know, get back up after every after every failure after every challenge but that’s much how to do when you feel like these challenges are about you doing something wrong and not knowing that this is just the way it is. It’s just a very hard journey to build a company. So I think I would have. Told myself a bit about how it is and that it is normal and this is just the way it is and and to continue to you know, move forward I think that is probably the the most general advice I would give myself of course there are other advices I would give myself on on you know how to position correctly in the market and maybe save myself a couple of years on the way. But. But you know so much of this is just the the psychological aspect of of you know, continuing to push forward that I think that is probably the most important thing is is just knowing that that this is how it is and it’s hard and and it’s it’s going to walk out if you keep if you keep time and if you.

Alejandro Cremades: So for the people are listening head that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so.

Hed Kovetz: You know if if you believe.

Hed Kovetz: So further anyone is ah more than happy to talk to anyone who has you know any questions whether it’s you know obviously about a product but also just about you know running a company starting a company I’m happy to help you can reach out to me on on Linkedin. Head covidts ah head is ageed covid is K O V E T Z so feel free to reach out. Um, and again I feel like when I got started so many people helped me other entrepreneurs were kind enough to to give me advice and help me and introduce me to people and um. I’m happy to do the same for others and of course if anyone is listening and want to learn more about our product then definitely talk to me or or go to our website silverfo.com to learn more.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing, well hit. Well thank you so much for being on the deal maker show today. There has been an on earth to have you with us.

Hed Kovetz: Yeah, thank you? Great! Great to talk to you and again. Thank you for inviting me.

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