Lessons Going Zero to $40M ARR in Two Years | Dan Lorenc, Chainguard
Show notes
Dan Lorenc is the Co-founder and CEO of Chainguard, the safe source for open source. The internet runs on free, open source software. But as its risen in popularity, its become the latest attack point targeted by hackers and nation states. This conversation with Dan gets into the history of open source software, cloud computing, Linux, the software supply chain, how AI will impact it, and what the next big cyber attack will look like. Dan is an engineer, but he also loves sales and go-to-market. We unpack how Chainguard went from zero to 150 customers and a $40m ARR in two years. Chainguard just announced a $350 million Series D led by Kleiner and IVP, and Dan unpacks the round, plus shares his secret methodology for valuing the company. A big thank you to Dan’s Co-founder Kim Lewandowski, to Clay Fisher @ Spark, Bogomil Balkansky & Andrew Reed @ Sequoia, and Tom Loverro @ IVP for their help brainstorming topics for Dan. Thanks to Numeral for supporting this episode, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://bit.ly/NumeralThePeel Timestamps: (3:26) A safe source for open source (4:57) The software supply chain (7:19) Can you trust open source code with contributors in Russia? (9:43) Malware attack that almost took down the entire internet (12:40) What the next big cyber attack will look like (15:12) How will AI impact the software supply chain (17:53) The history of cloud computing (21:42) Why all cloud computing runs on Linux (23:16) How Linux + Linux distros work (29:28) Automating open source security (32:43) Chainguard roadmap: Libraries and VMs (36:40) Focusing on FedRAMP (42:44) Impact of DOGE (44:06) Zero to $40m ARR in two years (45:40) Learning to love sales as a technical founder (47:24) Lessons from Frank Slootman (51:15) How to create urgency in sales (53:16) How to build a sales team (58:23) Hiring Ryan Carlson from Wiz & Okta (1:01:45) Inside Chainguard’s $350m Series D (1:07:41) Vibe coding + Dan’s software stack (1:09:51) Cutting his hair in front of the entire company (1:10:27) Wearing a different suit to each board meeting (1:12:32) Bogomil, world’s best SDR Referenced Check out Chainguard: https://www.chainguard.dev/ Jobs at Chainguard: https://www.chainguard.dev/careers Prior episode with Dan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC4cOJ9n_Z8 Linux Origin Email: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mmmlh3/linux_has_a_interested_history_this_is_one_of/ The Qualified Sales Leader: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Julius, AI data analysis: https://julius.ai/ Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code World’s best SDR: https://x.com/BogieBalkansky/status/1913269714882814350 2025 Chainguard Assemble Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfU9LJg3I0 Follow Dan Twitter: https://x.com/lorenc_dan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlorenc/ Follow Turner Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
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