From Bootstrap to Billions: How Nord Used How to Make “Milliquid” Mint VPN Customers Become Lithuanian Tech Lover
Nord Security began as a vague, bootstrapped company in part of the world, Lithuania, a part of a world where technology champions are rare.
However, it didn’t take long to become mainstream with niche (and sometimes expensive) cybersecurity and virtual private network (VPN) products.
Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas saw the opportunity in 2012 as they pursued their careers and decided it was worth exploring.
Nord applied simple logic to help with growth. People rely on the internet for everything. This means that the need for online security increases over time. Certainly, it did. We’ve found a big market among privacy-hungry internet surfers.
Okmanas admits that “no one cares” outside of some tech companies that took cybersecurity seriously when the company was founded.
As they continued to build the knoll, use cases and demand increased. It also meant that the founding duo had to become more skilled in more than just engineering.
“I had to learn now about the finances, the legal world, corporate governance, and how to run a team and a company,” Okmanas said. luck last year.
NORD is best known for its VPN software, allowing users to use the Internet while protecting their data and IP addresses. This means that the average user’s privacy when browsing the web is greater, but technology is also very controversial.
VPNs can be used to avoid Government restrictions On the web, attacked by Hollywood Movie Studio Use in copyright infringement and copyright infringement.
However, the Lithuania-based node is not plagued by these legal and ethical concerns. It focuses on enhancing key use cases of using the web and safe use. Company servers do not record user data that is part of the privacy spill. have Discussed That ad nausea and then he spoke luck People using VPNs to access blocked or unavailable streaming services are “outdated.”
Okmanas says Nord’s tools are rarely used for illegal or illegal purposes. The company also has systems in place to prevent security breaches and other online threats.
“Our goal is to connect as many people as possible to this node cloud network where people can use it in a very secure way,” he said.
The world of VPNs, etc.
The extensive strokes of node growth are amazing. It was achieved in 2022, 10 years after its establishment Unicorn statuswith over 15 million users worldwide, it is one of the most well-known companies in Lithuania (Vinted is another company).
Okmanas said Nord has seen “risky growth” over the years. In September 2023, the company raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation, almost double the amount it raised when it became a unicorn a year ago.
The company is shopping to help expand. Announced the merger Surf Shark and Purchase competitor ironwall this year in 2022 and help the node grow its influence Cybersecurity And after that. Most of Nord’s user base is concentrated in the US and spans a wide range of ages, but the rest of the customers are a mixed bag of average internet users and small businesses.
Nord felt its presence. It’s not uncommon to trip over ads while listening to podcasts or watching videos on YouTube or Tiktok (we found out that VPN is being used by rapper Drake. Bloomberg reported). Okmanas says this is a deliberate effort to educate more people about Nord’s online tools. This is just one of the many ways companies spend on attracting new customers as online threats continue to loom.
“We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on customer acquisition, and that works. Our users see the value and we are very happy,” says Okmanas.
Next Steps for a Node
Nord will see another building on Vilnius, where Vilnius continues to expand work. For a company that’s large enough like Nord, IPOs seem like a natural next step (at least that’s what Airbnb and Uber did, and that’s one of Avenues Companies I’ll be seduced).
But the node doesn’t see it that way. Their goal is to prepare for an IPO, but not necessarily to make it public anytime soon. This is because it is a good barometer where the company stands.
“We have great ambitions, but we don’t need that to do an IPO,” Okmanas said. Nord may have started small, but from the start it has made profits on a cash flow basis. Last year, I became EBITDA positive.
He wants to prepare the node to be ready for IPOs with no deadline but “button press”.
“But certainly, we don’t need it. We won’t do it in the next six months or years,” the CO-CEO said.
“We are in a very fortunate position where we are growing very fast and we are very profitable.”
This story version was originally released Fortune.com September 30, 2024.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com