Thinkst Canary Hits $20M ARR, Bootstrapped for 10 Years

Thinkst Canary Achieves $20M ARR After 10 Years Bootstrapped

Cybersecurity company Thinkst Canary celebrates its 10th anniversary with a significant milestone: $20 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Remarkably, this achievement comes without any venture capital funding. The company's unique approach prioritizes customer needs and building a product that effectively detects breaches.

Focusing on Customers, Not Rapid Growth

Thinkst founder and CEO Haroon Meer attributes their success to a customer-centric philosophy. Instead of chasing rapid, VC-fueled growth, Thinkst focused on delivering a product that truly meets customer needs. This strategy has resulted in impressive customer retention, with 60% of first-year customers still using Canary today.

We're not artificially holding back growth, but we're also not doing any of the 'pour gasoline on the fire' growth-at-all-costs stuff. What you have to do is keep the promises that you make, and you'll grow into the people that are right for you.

Canary: A Digital Tripwire for Hackers

Thinkst Canary acts as a digital tripwire, alerting businesses to the presence of hackers on their network. Resembling a honeypot, Canary lures attackers into seemingly valuable resources. When accessed, Canary immediately alerts the company, enabling swift action.

This rapid detection significantly reduces the time hackers have to operate undetected. According to Verizon's data breach report, the average undetected hacker dwell time is 24 days. Canary aims to drastically shorten this window.

Free Canary Tokens Enhance Security

Thinkst also offers free Canary Tokens. These allow anyone to create seemingly valuable data, like passwords or documents. When accessed, an alert is triggered, revealing potential compromises.

Meer emphasizes the simplicity and effectiveness of Canary: "It's really hard to deploy a canary wrong. If you make it fit in, you catch attackers, and if you make it stick out, you catch attackers."

Organic Growth and Future Ambitions

Thinkst relies on organic growth fueled by customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth referrals. The company has no outbound sales team, demonstrating the power of a strong product and happy customers.

While bootstrapped, Meer acknowledges the value of the VC industry and maintains that Thinkst remains open to future investment opportunities. He believes focusing on product efficacy and customer happiness is fundamental to building a strong business.

Looking ahead, Thinkst aims to expand its reach. Meer believes every company should be running multiple Canaries. With a solid foundation and a proven strategy, Thinkst is poised for continued growth in the cybersecurity market.