Founder's Playbook: 'Raise When Obvious'
Post-exit founder Itamar Golan shared a crisp playbook for early-stage fundraising: only raise when it's obvious, compress the process to 2-3 weeks, and prioritize trusted angels over associates. His advice: "Be confident and direct, never a douchebag."
Itamar Golan's "obvious" fundraising moment for his company, Prompt Security, was preceded by a two-to-three-year period of waiting on the sidelines. He knew that security for AI would be a necessary market but recognized that the timing wasn't right, as not enough AI was in production. The eventual catalyst was the explosion of generative AI, which signaled a clear and urgent market need. This patient yet decisive approach is characteristic of Golan, who has a deep background in the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. Before co-founding Prompt Security, he led AI initiatives at major cybersecurity firms like Check Point and Orca Security. His co-founder, Lior Drihem, also brings a wealth of experience from the same companies and the Israeli Defense Forces' elite Unit 8200. The "trusted angels" Golan prioritized in his seed round included Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from companies like Elastic and Dolby. This strategy of involving high-level industry professionals as early investors likely provided not just capital but also crucial early-stage validation and market access. This round, which raised $5 million, was led by Hetz Ventures with participation from Four Rivers. Prompt Security's fundraising process was notably compressed. The company was founded in August 2023 and announced its seed funding in January 2024. By November 2024, just 10 months after the seed round, the company raised an additional $18 million in a Series A round. This rapid succession of funding rounds underscores the "compress the process" element of Golan's playbook. The Series A round was led by Jump Capital and included participation from existing investor Hetz Ventures, alongside new investors Ridge Ventures and major tech companies Okta and F5. This quick and substantial follow-on funding, bringing the total raised to $23 million, reflected significant market traction. By this point, Prompt Security had already secured several Fortune 500 companies as clients. The culmination of this strategy came in August 2025, when Prompt Security was acquired by SentinelOne for a reported $250 million. This exit, just two years after the company's founding, provides a powerful case study for Golan's fundraising philosophy. His approach of waiting for the "obvious" market moment, leveraging trusted industry insiders, and executing a compressed fundraising timeline proved to be highly effective.
