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Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

troyhunt.com

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Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#31

Post by mike_d »

I appreciate what HIBP does, but I believe it serves Troy's personal brand more than it would any corporate owner. The biggest issue is the data is super stale. Things regularly pop up in SpyCloud 6-12 months before HIBP, and as a result they are a much more attractive acquisition target.

There is also an unreasonable dependency on CloudFlare kool-aid for HIBP and his other services. I reached out to Troy about sponsoring Report-URI because it was a service I believed benefitted the internet. In response I received a snarky response about how I didn't understand how web-scale CloudFlare was, when I was effectively offering to cover all the companies infrastructure costs for the foreseeable future (multiple dozens of servers and XX Gbps of bandwidth).

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#32

Post by mark-r »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #28

> So we wrapped it up, I got the single largest bill I've ever received in my life and then I sat down and started writing this blog post. Where did the bill come from? Did he get billed by the prospective buying company for not purchasing him?

Just to cite one example, he says he was billed by the lawyers arguing whether he was legally considered a "sophisticated investor". I imagine there's not a single party in this process that works for free or on a commission. There's a lot of work done even when it doesn't result in a sale.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#33

Post by zelon88 »

TheFiend7 wrote: post #17
zelon88 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My takeaway is it kinda seems Troy wants to add A TON of people and still keep the same organization and responsibility. Sounds to me like he's window shopping for an investor that will basically replace his engineering role with a team, pay that team, give Troy a paycheck for work he's done in the past, and let him show up every couple weeks between jetsetting to bark his vision at the new team. I'm not shocked that…

I get the same impression to some extent, but I'd be hardpressed to say I wouldn't cave and do the same thing to be completely honest. Who wants to work a 9-5 their entire life? I personally don't.

I agree. I was on the fence about my wording while posting because I can't say that given the opportunity I wouldn't shoot for the same outcome.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#34

Post by johns »

michaelt wrote: post #29
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #28

> So we wrapped it up, I got the single largest bill I've ever received in my life and then I sat down and started writing this blog post. Where did the bill come from? Did he get billed by the prospective buying company for not purchasing him?

He hired KPMG to help him court possible buyers, I'm guessing it came from them. They talked to 141 companies, and I doubt their hourly rate is cheap.

They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale (or raise if you decide not to sell and raise money instead). The bill was almost certainly from his lawyers. I went through a failed M&A process and we were left with a 90K bill for it.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#35

Post by JumpCrisscross »

fphhotchips wrote: post #23
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm surprised anyone would contact KPMG for M&A at all, in that they're primarily an accountant They have other business lines. But they aren’t notable. If you’re a top M&A banker, or even the best in a small niche, you’re at a bulge bracket or a boutique. Not KPMG.

I think it's worth noting that Troy may have wanted a firm with a global presence given that he's based out of the Gold Coast. The firms with big M&A reps in the USA don't necessarily have that same rep or presence down here, particularly in Brisbane.

> Troy may have wanted a firm with a global presence

Troy is a deliberate thinker. I'm not second-guessing his choice.

The top M&A bankers in Australia are routinely one of a Swiss bank, an American bank and/or Macquarie [1]. The global banks are known as such because they have uniquely global reach. They're also uniquely expensive.

For a small deal, a boutique with global reach would be the default choice. They bring expertise with heavyweights who want a better work-life balance. They bring cost effectiveness with a reduced footprint.

The only reason to go with KPMG is because you know someone there you trust.

[1] https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/ubs-macquar...

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#36

Post by armitron »

illumin8 wrote: post #24
irjustin wrote: post #13

Thanks to Troy for HIBP and the story here. It may be because he cannot speak towards the specifics of the deal, but I truly hope there was a breakup clause. For those un-aware, M&A deals eventually go exclusive which, as this post points out, is very very time consuming, which means expensive. Those who are involved in the deal itself, very little work gets done that runs the business. So to protect against the down…

Yeah, all I can say is "ouch." I went through a very similar courtship process with a large tech unicorn and luckily my outcome was good, but halfway through the process I basically had to ask them to give me 5 figures in legal fees because I was paying a huge bill to attorneys and the power dynamics between single person startup and unicorn are huge. They were spending 6 figures on attorney fees and I was spending a…

It’s a database with public data. Let’s not get carried away.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#37

Post by JumpCrisscross »

johns wrote: post #34
michaelt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He hired KPMG to help him court possible buyers, I'm guessing it came from them. They talked to 141 companies, and I doubt their hourly rate is cheap.

They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale (or raise if you decide not to sell and raise money instead). The bill was almost certainly from his lawyers. I went through a failed M&A process and we were left with a 90K bill for it.

> They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale

This is true for most M&A. But with KPMG, last I saw, they charge a retainer that must be re-upped from time to time. (The joke was that's what you get when you hire accountants as bankers.)

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#38

Post by dewey »

cynusx wrote: post #15

I think that's good that he doesn't sell, having built a enormous marketing presence and gained market trust is only a minor step away from actually monetizing that. Selling what he has right now does indeed come with golden handcuffs (sucks), but also any purchase price would come in vastly under the projects' potential. He could easily leverage this marketing presence to build a security SaaS company, create a huge…

> He could easily leverage this marketing presence to build a security SaaS company, create a huge conference, launch a big consultancy,...

If it would be so easy it would've been done already.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#39

Post by samcrawford »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37
johns wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale (or raise if you decide not to sell and raise money instead). The bill was almost certainly from his lawyers. I went through a failed M&A process and we were left with a 90K bill for it.

> They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale This is true for most M&A. But with KPMG, last I saw, they charge a retainer that must be re-upped from time to time. (The joke was that's what you get when you hire accountants as bankers.)

Having been through a similar process with KPMG (that ended similarly), I can confirm that they operated on a retainer basis and it did need to be re-upped from time to time. The vast majority of their remuneration was a success fee though. This is pretty standard for the industry.

Re: Project Svalbard, Have I Been Pwned and its ongoing independence

#40

Post by harikb »

mike_d wrote: post #31

I appreciate what HIBP does, but I believe it serves Troy's personal brand more than it would any corporate owner. The biggest issue is the data is super stale. Things regularly pop up in SpyCloud 6-12 months before HIBP, and as a result they are a much more attractive acquisition target. There is also an unreasonable dependency on CloudFlare kool-aid for HIBP and his other services. I reached out to Troy about spons…

Edit: Retracted
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