NYA FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT ‒ DAVID PRIMOR, CYNOMI FOUNDER & CEO
As the former technology director of Israel’s cyber authority and retired Israeli lieutenant colonel, Cynomi Founder & CEO David Primor spent decades managing state-level cyber threats. David shares his story how he met NYA Member Steve Snyder through a Temple University MBA project, how Cynomi grew to an almost $5 million ARR, and why NYA Members are more like family than investors.
How did you first meet New York Angels?
The first investor from New York Angels was Steve Snyder, although he was not an investor in the beginning. I started working with Temple University MBA students on a six-month project to understand Cynomi’s go-to-market in the U.S. Steve was the industry mentor, so we worked together for six months. It was a phenomenal relationship from the beginning.
When I told him I was raising a round, just after the seed round and looking for investors, he said Cynomi was very interesting to him because he had gone through the go-to-market process with us. He became the first to invest and introduced me to New York Angels, which I did not know about at the time. He also introduced me to other angels. Shortly after his investment, Edith Simchi-Levi joined after I met her in New York. We became close friends and met several times in New York and Philadelphia.
What were you looking for in investors when you were fundraising, and why did you choose to work with New York Angels?
Working with Steve and Edith was very personal. With New York Angels, you do not get some investment firm or venture capital, you get the investment, but you have individuals who try to help you with connections. For me, it was like friends, or real angels, helping Cynomi move to the next phase. New York Angels Members really try to help. They sent emails about trends they see and made connections with potential partners. I guess this is something I rarely see with other angels that invested in Cynomi.
What was the fundraising process like for you overall?
The overall process depends on the stage. In the seed round, fundraising was quite easy. It was 2021, and lots of companies seemed to be able to raise money.
Between the seed and Series A, it was more challenging because the market became more difficult. In that period, I had a lot of support from New York Angels. It was not as easy to secure investment, and I was trying to raise money to survive that complicated period when we did not have enough sales to reach Series A.
When Cynomi demonstrated strong traction, it became easier. We grew from several hundred thousand to over one million, about 5x growth, and then it was easier to raise investment from Canaan, a well-known venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.
Then for the B round, we grew 3x again, to almost $5 million ARR, and we secured investment from Insight Partners, together with Entrée, one of the best venture capital firms in Israel.
So when you are successful, it is much easier to fundraise. But New York Angels invested before we had strong traction, when they had belief in Cynomi and me. That connection, relationship, and trust is something extremely difficult to find.
What have you learned from New York Angels members?
I learned that the startup journey is not easy. It is a roller coaster. Sometimes you are happy, sometimes you are not. For example, at the end of the quarter, you are often very nervous. Sometimes you reach your goals, but sometimes you do not. It is very stressful. New York Angels Members helped me understand this is normal and that every company goes through it.
At that time, I did not have many advisors. Now we have investment from many from large funds, I have more advisors, but back then it was especially important, particularly with Steve. He was my friend, advisor, and the first angel who supported me. We did a lot of brainstorming together to find opportunities, especially since we sell to managed service providers. I remember his experience, professionalism, strong advice, and willingness to listen to my challenges and solve them together. That was powerful.
What have you enjoyed most about working with New York Angels?
New York Angels Members are like a family. They are not just investors. They are a family of investors. They are operators so they understand what I am going through. They are advisors who are very experienced and professional. New York Angels is not a bunch of young people investing; they have very experienced members that bring knowledge from one field to another.
I would like to thank New York Angels, and particularly Steve and Edith, for being able to invest in Cynomi in the difficult times, and for having the belief in Cynomi and seeing enough of the future from the investment.
I think it is more difficult to invest in a company when you only have belief in the idea and in the founders. So this is very personal for me, that they chose to invest in David, in Cynomi, but first in David.
What advice would you give other founders who are looking to fundraise?
First, I guess that it’s always a difficult process, a challenging process, and it depends where the company is. It’s never easy. Even if it’s easy, it’s never easy. So do it in a very structured way. Don’t be afraid to get no. I think it’s very important.
It’s also important to choose the right investors. However, in many cases you don’t have the privilege to choose, because sometimes you’re afraid not to find the next investor, so you are taking the ones that say yes. And investors, it’s like husband and wife, so it’s a marriage, and it’s a relationship for the long term, so you must understand that. Sometimes you don’t have a choice, but when you feel that it’s not a good match, don’t be afraid to say it’s not a good match.
Another thing is that in this process, because many of the founders, or mainly the first-time founders, it’s not an easy process, and you need help. The first time, maybe even the second time. If you’re a second-timer or third-timer, okay, you did it several times and you know how not to make mistakes.
So I think that if you’re talking about New York Angels, which has lots of experience, talk with them. Ask them, okay, what should I do now? How can I respond? I got the proposition. Should I negotiate? Is it common to negotiate with the VC or with the investors? What is the best practice?
So I think the key is not to be alone. Try not to do things for the first time without having a good advisor helping you take the right decision, because it’s a critical decision.
What advice would you give early-stage investors who are looking to invest in companies like yours?
It is always difficult to understand which company will be successful or not. Start with looking at the founder because the journey is so difficult. The founder must be resilient to changes and have the motivation and the capabilities to grow the company over many years. For example, we currently have a war in Israel. Cynomi is an Israeli company, so we need to be able to face the issues that have arisen and try to solve problems internally and externally.
If you do not know who the founder is, it makes it even more difficult. For example, when New York Angels are investing in Israeli companies, it is difficult to understand who the founder is. In Israel, everybody knows everybody, so investors can easily find information about the founder.
Investors also need to understand what the market really wants. Angel investors often do not know the space they invest in. They must trust the founder and learn about the industry by asking very difficult and challenging questions. If you are a cybersecurity investor, you will already know the trends in cybersecurity, but most angel investors are generalist investors.
In Cynomi’s case, I chose to develop a cybersecurity area that was not so well-known in Israel, although Israel is number two in cybersecurity investments after the U.S. It was difficult for me to secure investment from Israeli investors because they did not know the SMB and MSP space.
What has driven your company’s success?
Several things led to our success:
The market, the product-market fit, and understanding the trend and not being afraid of making changes: For example, at the beginning, we started by going directly to SMBs. As we evolved, we understood that we should go through the channel, so we pivoted, and I think that was very, very successful for us.
Building the right team and bringing the right people: I changed the go-to-market teams several times. Now, I have two very talented leaders, a Chief of Marketing and a Chief of Revenue, and they are phenomenal. I can trust them, and I think that this will give Cynomi the boost it needs.
Now that we have the right product, the right product-market fit, the right people, AI will change the whole market. Things that I was very certain about last year, are no longer certain, and we will have to change and be adaptable, and adaptability only works with the right talent in the company.
What is something interesting about you that you would like to share with founders or other investors?
I believe that every founder feels and breathes their company 24 hours per day. I also believe in order to maintain your sanity, you need to have something else to do.
I like to run every morning, almost every morning, in order to take all the bad energies out of the body. It clears my mind and helps me think clearly. Even when I travel for work to the U.S. or to the UK, I try to find spots where I can run each morning.
The second thing that I am trying, is that each Friday, which is a day off in Israel, I take a piano lesson. I do not have much time to practice, but learning piano help me do something completely different with my brain.
What motivates you?
I want to create something important, something big, something significant. I believe that Cynomi could be a great company. It is a challenge for me. I have been with Cynomi for about five years, and this is something that I invested so much in to bring something to the world that is a very powerful product that can make a change. Just being able to build a big company is a challenge.
