Aimetis Co-Founder Explains Why He Left The Security Industry

In my view, the Aimetis Symphony VMS platform stacks up extremely well against other enterprise class products in terms of features, ease of installation, ease of use, and pricing model. And they have always had a great support and management team. Yet they never have been able to get traction. It's been said they are "the best kept secret" in the VMS market. Contrast this with Exacq who came to market later, a great team but just an OK product, and they very quickly became a market leader and had a very profitable exit. Does this have something to do with the fact that the Exacq team came from Integral and already had the network where the Aimetis guys were outsiders? The Old Boy network? I don't think it is a matter of better marketing from Exacq. In other industries if you can build a better mousetrap you have a very strong chance of succeeding. In the security industry, people seem to care less, follow a trend, and do what everyone else is doing. For most users, video surveillance is just not considered a critical application like communications or network security. The products are only considered when they are purchased and if and when there is an incident. So innovation is not in such high demand or quickly adapted. For the most part, a company will go with their local integrators recommendation without the same scrutiny they put into products for other applications and the integrator often has a "go with what you know" approach. So I don't think it is a question of there not being a market but a market that often doesn't reward the best and most innovative. And this was probably enormously frustrating for Mr. Janzen.

The guy is pretty much dead on. The turn over on security installations is really long compared to most other product industries, thus even if a new entrant comes into market and is the leading product they are unlikely to get a large percentage of the overall pie even if they were to win 100% of new installations that year. It's way easier to build software and get traction for things that people switch more often like their service ticketing system than moving customers off their vms after it has been deployed and people are trained. The other side of it too is that until after the fact is that budgets normally don't allow for switching out the entire system, but they do allow staying with the incumbent and adding to the existing system versus a wholesale rip out. I think the adage that no one was ever fired for buying IBM is accurate here.

Thank for all the comments. I just want to clarify some things:

• The security industry is conservative in nature since acceptance of rapid change is not careful/secure. I don't view this as a problem that needs to be solved. It is something to be accepted and viewed as an opportunity.
• Therefore the technology used in the security space is almost always used in another industry first (one that accepted more rapid change). This gives an advantage to alert incumbents since they can apply synergistic technology from other industries to their products and move them through their well oiled channels.
• The two points above contribute to the "old boys club" advantage. However, I agree with John Honovich that an even bigger issue at Aimetis was lack of domain knowledge.
• The delay between tech popping up in one place and it being applied somewhere else is diminishing, therefore the rate of change in security will increase (but it will still lag other industries).
• What I learnt while at Aimetis: (1) Just because some tech seems cool (computer vision) doesn't mean a business can be built on it, (2) have people on-board with domain knowledge/experience, (3) pick a large or growing market, (4) usability matters, (5) fire fast, (6) patent or you'll get screwed, (7) it'll take longer and cost more than you think, (8) know when to hold and when to fold, (9) it is usually best to own the relationship with the customer.
• I'm not necessarily done with the security industry, but my next phase is in fintech.
• I did not go looking for another opportunity - an opportunity found me. I turned down the opportunity initially, but they were very persistent ("they" included a long standing friend from university). I view fintech as an opportunity to stretch myself in a new direction.
• I'm not trying to retire. That is no way to live. The security industry has taught me a lot. I'm very grateful.

In the end, I wasn't surprised by the deal price. But that is a discussion for beer, not for forums. Things are not always what they seem.