Ep 360: The CHIPS Act and Investing in Early-Stage Technologies with Yanev Suissa

If you're intrigued by the intersection of technology and business growth, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom. Join Elzie in an engaging conversation with Yanev Suissa, Managing Partner and Founder at SineWave Ventures, a leading firm that invests in early-stage commercial technologies with a unique focus on the public sector.

Apply the wisdom Yanev shares to make informed decisions in your entrepreneurial journey. Assess the potential of your tech innovations and focus on meeting customer needs for sustainable growth. Emphasize relationship-building to foster a strong team culture and align with strategic investors. Leverage your strengths to overcome challenges and remain persistent in achieving your goals.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into the world of revolutionary tech, customer dynamics, and market leverage. Uncover Yanev's expert advice on team building, strategic planning, and navigating the ever-evolving business landscape. Learn from his experiences as he shares the secrets of identifying revolutionary tech, diversifying customer bases, and leveraging market dynamics. So, whether you're a startup founder, investor, or business leader, these insights will transform your approach to technology, customer relationships, and strategic planning.

Episode Highlights:

06:03 - I think one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do early on is find a design partner. So, you always have customers, but there are customers who will put in the sweat equity with you because they see what you're doing is so important to their business and could drive so much value for them that they're willing to give you feedback and spend time with you, and try different things. I think that's really important for understanding what you're building and building it the right way. Caveat being, you need to have your own vision. You don't want to build just for one customer. You have to remember this has to be a platform or a technology that applies to many. But often one customer will give you enough of a framework that it'll apply to many different folks.

12:22 - In the venture world and in the startup world and the entrepreneur's world, we sell what could be the vision. But a customer wants what they can use now that drives ROI now that brings them a return and value now for the problem that they're experiencing. And so, I think that that's a really important thing. When you're going into a customer, you could sell a vision. You could sell a tool set that they could do a million things with, but they're not going to think for you. So, at the end of the day, you want to be able to say, "I know you have this pain point. I can solve this now."

16:55 - Make sure that it's not as valuable to them or not useful to them, whoever the attacker is. And so, that was really where we came to Endpoint Security, which will be the next revolution. Basically, taking that paradigm and realizing this is the new paradigm. Let's think about it this way and build the best solution for that. And so, that's why we invested at SineWave and Sentinel One, which ended up being the biggest cyber IPO ever. They did great. And then what's the next revolution? Not just we can Whack-A-Mole this new bug, or we can add a nice feature onto what Sentinel One can do in Endpoint. What is the next paradigm shift that requires people to architect their systems or think about the industry differently?

26:24 - It's a marriage. I'm going to be around longer than some of your wives and husbands are going to be, especially if you build a second company after the first decade, first company. And so, you want to make sure that you're really working with the people you want to work with. I say that at SineWave all the time. We are a team that has a particular culture that works for us. We care about each other, and that's our model. And other firms work well with very different models. So, find the place you fit, find the people you fit with, and I think that's the most important thing. I think it actually makes you more effective at the end of the day. And the most important thing, if it doesn't go well, you still feel realized and you still feel like you did something worthwhile.

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