ThreatLocker
Danny Jenkins was drowning in $150,000 of credit card debt 18 months into building ThreatLocker with zero paying customers. An accelerator told him to quit. But the spark for ThreatLocker came from a real ransomware recovery incident that showed him a gap in the market—companies needed better protection against threats. The WannaCry ransomware attack validated his vision and convinced him he was onto something real.
Danny spent 18 months grinding in bootstrap mode, building the product without revenue or external funding. This wasn't a leisurely development phase—it was survival mode. He was burning through credit card debt, watching his savings disappear, and questioning whether he'd made a catastrophic mistake. The founder mindset that kept him alive was simple: focus on the only two things that matter early—a real product and buyers knowing it exists.
Getting the first customer required Danny to overcome paralyzing fear. He was shaking when he asked for the first sale, but he did it anyway. Once that first customer came through, he realized the path forward: MSPs (Managed Service Providers) became his distribution wedge into small business. Instead of going direct-to-enterprise, he partnered with MSPs who already had relationships with thousands of small companies. This strategic choice transformed his go-to-market from impossible to viable.
Trade shows and partnerships with MSPs became the growth engines. But the real inflection point came during the Kaseya attack—a major supply chain compromise that overnight validated the need for zero-trust security. Companies that had ignored ThreatLocker suddenly understood the risk. Growth accelerated rapidly as the category he'd been building became undeniable.
The founder mindset was critical. Danny survived debt, a hurricane, and near-bankruptcy by refusing to give up. Money changes your problems, it doesn't solve them—a lesson he learned the hard way.
ThreatLocker now protects 70,000 companies worldwide and is approaching $200M in annual revenue. Danny transformed a tiny market into what he calls a "$10 billion category" by creating something new rather than fighting for scraps in an existing space.
- •Danny created a new category instead of fighting for a small slice of an existing market, which allowed a bootstrapped startup to compete against entrenched players.
- •The Kaseya attack provided unexpected validation and overnight demand, but only because ThreatLocker was already positioned and visible—timing meets preparation.
- •Using MSPs as a distribution wedge meant he didn't have to build a massive sales team; he leveraged existing relationships and trust to scale into thousands of customers.
- •The founder's willingness to bootstrap through $150K in debt and near-bankruptcy created a lean, efficient company culture that didn't waste money on vanity—every dollar had to count.
- •Focus on solving the actual problem (zero-trust security) rather than chasing hype meant the product remained relevant even before the category exploded, giving ThreatLocker first-mover advantage.
- 1.Identify a market gap tied to a real pain point or emerging threat (in this case, ransomware), and validate it before you start—don't build in a vacuum for 18 months without customer feedback.
- 2.Instead of selling direct to enterprise, find a distribution partner (like MSPs) that already has trusted relationships with your target customers, and make the partnership so valuable they have incentive to sell for you.
- 3.Build a lean, bootstrapped company culture where every expense is questioned; avoid raising capital if it means losing financial discipline, because constraints force efficiency and profitability.
- 4.Create a new category rather than competing in an existing one by positioning your product around a problem that isn't yet widely recognized as a category (zero-trust wasn't mainstream until later).
- 5.Prepare your messaging and product roadmap for the moment a major industry event validates your category—the Kaseya attack happened, but ThreatLocker was already ready to capitalize on it because Danny had been building the narrative.
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