A heartfelt thank you from the nest

I’ll never forget the moment things changed for me. I was the sitting chairperson for FS-ISAC’s Community Institution Council and the CIO of the world’s most awesome bank, FNB Bank. To be quite honest, I was a little upset with a technology partner of ours and their quirky but innovative CTO, Aharon Chernin.

The best I could tell, Aharon took a software platform that had tons of potential and was, to my knowledge, promised to be free forever and ripped the carpet right from under us by surprisingly demanding six figure support contracts out of nowhere.

I’m a nice guy. But I wasn’t super nice that day and I was pretty frustrated with Aharon and his underhanded deeds. We were at the Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee and I told Aharon I felt like we kinda got dealt an underhanded deal.

He wanted to talk to me privately, so I happily accommodated as he led me down many a dark hallway in the massive labyrinth that is the Nashville Opryland. This was either going to end in an alley fight or something interesting was about to happen. Maybe both. Good thing I brought my brass knuckles.

Once Aharon felt like we were far enough alone in the dark maze of the Opryland, he shared with me what had happened. Their company never really wanted to embrace the vision that Aharon had. One of community intelligence sharing, threat detection for the masses, augmenting and addressing the challenges that “the rest of us not named Bank of America” have.

Basically, Aharon was talking about Perch. Or what would become Perch. I loved his idea and his vision captured me. “Aharon, why didn’t you do this from the beginning?” I recall asking him.

Aharon basically told me he always wanted to, but there were deep divisions of interest and ideas between the company and himself and so he was going to start again, all by himself. I remember telling Aharon that I wanted in on that vision. I started out as his second customer ever and helped him build Perch on the customer end.

Aharon I talked often. About six months later, Aharon called me up one evening, as he often would, but this time asked me a new question. “Hey Wes, I need someone at Perch to do what I do. What do you think about coming on board at Perch as our CISO?”

So I began to think about it all. As anyone else might think, I began to list the pro’s and con’s:

Pros:

• Perch has an insane amount of potential
• Perch’s branding is second to none
• Aharon is a visionary, it’d be fun to work with him

Yep. That's about it.

Cons:

• Perch has about 3 months runway before it goes bankrupt
• Perch has zero paying customers
• Perch hasn’t really even proven product market fit
• Perch is a tiny company of less than 10 employees
• No one has heard of Aharon or Perch, let alone me. We’d be working from absolute scratch here.

As any wise banker might do, the risk considerations spoke for themselves. I’d be a fool to take this job. But something even greater began to speak up from deep inside me. A challenge. An insane challenge. One that I’d never have imagined doing ever before. And there was a reason why I decided to do it. I’ve never shared this publicly before, but I think now is a good time to do it.

Just years prior, I was diagnosed with a serious and very rare immune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome or GBS. These were the hardest times of my life. GBS is an immune disorder that causes your immune system to viciously and aggressively attack your nervous system. Within a matter of a few days from its onset, I was completely paralyzed, less than 24 hours away from a coma and death. Fortunately I found a good doctor who diagnosed me and began immediate treatment.

But the recovery was not fast. It was years. You can’t tell it anymore, but I still suffer from its affects. I endured many months of physical therapy through enduring pain. Recovery took years, but I got through it. Not by myself, but through the help and care of many friends, not least of these my wife.

And that experience taught me something. Life really is short. Health is a luxury that won’t be with us all forever. That’s an absolute truth. So take your life seriously and understand it is short. Take some risks, make your heart pound with excitement and even a little fear. Know that a story is best told when you break from the norm and do things different than the status quo.

And so, I took the Perch job. Against all risks. Against all wisdom. I still remember telling a friend about it and while I expected excitement and congratulations, instead all I got was “WHY?!?!” But I knew why. The excitement. The potential. And, what I learned through the journey: the fun.

Fast forward to today. We announced that we sold Perch. I’m insanely excited about it. I always knew this was an abstract possibility, but now that it’s occurred, it seems surreal. We grew a company from nothing into thousands of clients, millions of endpoints protected and I know for a fact we did some real good in this world.

I’m honored that ConnectWise saw that value and wanted to bring the whole thing into their fold. Perch’s journey does not end here. I’m beyond excited about what has happened for the company.

But more than that, Perch allowed me to build so many friendships that otherwise would never have been possible. I never would have had the opportunity to meet so many of you. If I met you through Perch, I want you to know that means something to me. To our clients: think you for taking a chance on us. To our partners: thank you for seeing the value in us. To my Perch colleagues: thank you for going down this awesome journey with us. And most of all to Big Bird (Aharon): Thanks for taking a chance on me.

I guess I just wanted to say thank you. Not good bye. Never good bye. Just a deep and heartfelt thank you to you all. And my advice to you? Go on an adventure. I don't care if it's a startup or anything else. Go do it, be brave and take a risk. You'll enjoy the journey.