From academic project to
an award-winning solution
Performance monitoring, visibility and security
in a single platform
Petr Špringl, Product Director
University projects as a start
University projects as a start
Liberouter
Goal achieved: dual
stack IPv4 IPv6
router using
commodity PC
and hardware
acceleration FPGA
card
SCAMPI
Goal achieved: first
10GE monitoring
board in academic
environment (based
on the FPGA cards)
GEÁNT2
Flowmon Probe +
NfSen collector
became officially
recommended
network monitoring
solution for EU
national research
networks
INVEA-TECH
Selling our technology design
failed hence we established our
company.
Starting capital 100 000 EUR,
no venture capital, 3 employees.
We won! At least we thought so.
2002 2002-5 2006 2007
Tough first 12 months
Tough first 12 months
 Academic expectations VS real commercial world
 NO NetFlow awareness on the market
 Actually very long way from prototype to product
 NO interest in expensive high-end equipment manufactured by new vendor
with no business history
 NO interest in product from resellers and distributors
• NO success stories
• NO references
 Pre-agreed businesses failed or was postponed
 Almost no profit and revenue, but employees, offices must be paid
 50% of our capital was away in 7 months..
Strong market focus – first successes
Product - Solution
(NetFlow probe - complete
network traffic monitoring
solution)
Many customer
meetings
to identify market needs
Downgrades
in both speed and price
to scale to an “average”
customer
Marketing
workshops, conferences introduction
of flow
monitoring and NBA to the
market
Customer Services
professional analysis of
network traffic, security and
configurations problems
First results
First 20 paying customers, official references
First partners (VARs/VADs) interested in the solution
Black numbers after 18 months from company founding
Growth on local market
 We educated market on flow monitoring and NBA
 With references and success stories we established channel
partners (tens of certified partners in CZ today)
 Profitable since the 2nd year, first abroad customers
 Incremental employees growth (up to 100 today)
 Expansion to first foreign countries
 Main target
 Going GLOBAL
700+ customers
30+ countries
Strong R&D
background
First 100G probes
in the world
European
origin
is an international vendor devoted to
innovative network traffic &
performance & security monitoring
Customer references
The only vendor recognized in both NetFlow related
Gartner reports – network visibility & security
MAGIC QUADRANT
Technology partner of
premium vendors
Lessons learned and tips
It is necessary to find
an investment company
- business angel
NO - INVEA has used just
stockholder’s equity
There is clear
legislation for the
technology transfer
NO - bunch of unclear
laws (in CZ)
There is huge gap
between academics
and industry people
YES - even worse than we
supposed
Industrial players are
looking for interesting
technologies
NO - industrial players are
looking for quick and effective
way ho to earn money in short
term interval
Lessons learned
Academic expectations vs. reality
Technology × Prototype
× Product × Successful
product
Lessons learned
The biggest misunderstandings
Market (customers)
understands up to date
technologies
Industrial players are
technology enthusiasts
Industrial players love to
accommodate academic
technology
To have the best
technology is a win
strategy
Good products don’t
need marketing
Key Factors
 Strong team of motivated people
 Cooperation with academia is critical for technology spin-offs
 Further R&D development and improvements
 Great environment for evaluation and testing
 Feedback to new products
 Potential new employees
 Be fair to customers and partners
 Meet as much people as possible – experience sharing
(business clubs, networking events, start-up events)
 Do not be afraid to take a risk
Building “your own” company is a hard work,
but it’s worth it.
If you have interesting idea/technology/prototype
think about its commercialization.
Flowmon Networks a.s.
Sochorova 3232/34
616 00 Brno, Czech Republic
www.flowmon.com
Thank you
Performance monitoring, visibility and security
with a single solution
Petr Špringl, Product Director
petr.springl@flowmon.com