Danny Jenkins was $150,000 in credit card debt with zero paying customers 18 months into building his bootstrapped startup. An accelerator told him to quit. He ignored the advice and built ThreatLocker into a cybersecurity company approaching $200M in revenue.

In this episode, Danny Jenkins shares how he grew a bootstrapped startup from $150K in debt to nearly $200M in revenue. You'll hear how he turned a tiny market into a $10 billion category, why he was shaking when he asked for his first sale, and how a bootstrapped startup can win against an entire industry.

ThreatLocker now protects 70,000 companies worldwide. Danny explains the zero trust approach behind the bootstrapped startup, how MSPs became his distribution wedge into small business, and the founder mindset that carried his self-funded company through near-bankruptcy. It is a candid look at bootstrapping a profitable company without losing your nerve.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Create a new category instead of fighting for a small market
• For a bootstrapped startup, sales is asking for the order, not a magic pitch
• Money changes your problems, it does not solve them
• Use MSPs as a distribution wedge into small business
• A real product and buyers knowing it exists are the only things that matter early

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:04 What ThreatLocker does
• 01:56 Danny's background in cybersecurity
• 05:15 The ransomware recovery that sparked the idea
• 08:00 WannaCry and creating a category
• 10:02 The 18-month grind to the first customer
• 13:12 Shaking to ask for the first sale
• 16:03 Surviving debt, a hurricane, and near-bankruptcy
• 21:15 The founder mindset that kept the bootstrapped startup alive
• 23:00 The only two things that matter early
• 24:56 Hiring the right salesperson
• 30:02 Trade shows, COVID, and scaling
• 35:30 MSPs as a distribution wedge
• 38:27 The Kaseya attack and overnight growth
• 41:12 Why zero trust is controversial
• 45:39 Lightning round

Resources

Full show notes: saasclub.io/486

Join 5,000+ SaaS founders and get the best SaaS content every week: saasclub.io/email

ThreatLocker: threatlocker.com

Danny Jenkins on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dannyjenkins