Jeff Schumann wasn't trying to raise money.
His company, Aware, is on track to more than triple if not quadruple revenue this year over 2020. The startup hadn't even spent the capital from a $12 million Series B in December.
"When I'm not fundraising, I’m not in the mindset of wanting to have dozens of these conversations," said Schumann, co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity and sentiment analysis startup.
It took a few months, in fact, to notice a persistent standout among the flood of incoming investor inquiries.
"OK, it's Goldman Sachs, I need to pay attention," Schumann recalled thinking.
"Goldman doesn’t invest in companies unless they see a massive opportunity," he said. "When they get behind a company, they really get behind a company."
The investment bank's Growth Equity arm led a $60 million Series C this month and added two high-powered executives to Aware's board: David Campbell, Growth Equity managing director, and Bob Kelly, who joined Goldman as operating parter after a 20-year career at Microsoft.
They're making introductions and helping chart the path to meet Schumann's goal of an IPO within five years.
"You get a whole different level of thinking," Schumann said. "You start to pinch yourself."
The two flew to Columbus last week for their first board meeting, the morning after the last of several returning investors closed and the round was announced. Talk turned to how to hire in all areas – sales, operations, engineering, data science – to rapidly grow the 60-person business to 100 by year's end, and double that next year.
"The celebration is over; it’s time to get back to work. (Aware) can become something much, much larger than we are now, by orders of magnitude," said Bill Baumel, managing director of Columbus-based Ohio Innovation Fund, an investor from the beginning. "This company does have the potential to be a meaningful IPO. ... I hope it redefines the Columbus skyline."
Aware, the DBA of Nullable Inc., has more than doubled annual revenue each year since it was founded in 2017, although figures are not disclosed.
Its software detects risk and assesses overall employee engagement through real-time analysis of workplace collaboration platforms including Slack, Microsoft Teams and Facebook Workplace. Demand soared in the rapid shift to work-from-home in the pandemic, and has sustained as employers continue to embrace collaboration tools for in-office and hybrid work.
The insights are much more valuable than an occasional survey, Schumann said.
"People move the needle at every organization in the world," he said. "Caring about their opinion once a year will not help the future of the company. ... They want to be heard; they want to see change."
Although Aware has adopted a "work from anywhere" policy and is opening its first European office in London, it is still headquartered locally.
Other cybersecurity startups have been valued recently in the tens of billions: Proofpoint Inc. was acquired in August for $12.3 billion by a private equity firm a few years after going public, publicly traded Splunk Inc. has a nearly $27 billion market capitalization.
Breaking through in a highly competitive environment is why Schumann took on more investors instead of relying only on rapidly multiplying revenue.
"We've been really thoughtful about how we grow, and protecting our employees’ ownership," he said. "This allows us to grow in a much more accelerated fashion than we ever have before."
