Imperial Capital Security Investor Conference Review

By: Brian Karas, Published on Dec 08, 2017

Investment bank Imperial Capital holds an annual Security Investor Conference where 60+ companies present, including this year:

IPVM bought a ticket and attended the 2017 event.

In this note, we review the key themes of the event, what investors were most interested in, the themes companies were most typically focusing on and our assessment of who would (or would not) benefit from attending this conference.

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Event *******

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Lunch *******

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Themes/Trends *****

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Investors ****** ******* *********** *********

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Comments (10)

John Honovich

IPVM | 12/08/17 03:02pm

Brian, how about deep learning / AI / video analytics? Were any investors talking about that or interested in that space?

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to John Honovich | 12/08/17 03:08pm

It was one of the last topics mentioned in the "Key Trends" section:

It came up in a few discussions, general consensus was that we were still a few years away from seeing reliable analytics as a mainstream offering, but that it was likely to happen "soon".

For the investors at this event, the focus was more on established or proven companies and business models vs. upcoming technologies like analytics. Analytics was most commonly discussed in the context of video monitoring, and a technology that could enable growth or scalability of monitoring (which has a strong RMR component).

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

12/08/17 03:39pm

"startups looks for early-stage funding would be less likely to find eligible investors at the Imperial Capital event" Would Barnes Buchanan Security Conference be the better one for startups seeking for funding? Any others?

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 12/08/17 03:47pm

I do not think Barnes Buchanan would be a good source of startup investors eitehr.

These events would probably be best for a startup to discuss/refine their business idea with industry-knowledgeable people, and possibly get references to VCs.

With the relatively low amount of VC investment in the security industry, I am not sure there is an event that is geared towards industry startups seeking funding. For that, optimizing your pitch and attending more traditional startup "demo days" and general-purpose investor events would probably be best. I think if had a really solid idea, a good proof of concept, and a founder or two with domain expertise you might even manage to stand out among some of the more mainstream-oriented startups at these kinds of events.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Brian Karas | 12/08/17 04:05pm

I attended Barnes Buchanan this year and it was definitely focused on established operators/providers, e.g., debt funding for RMR / contracts. No startup presented.

It's a good question #1, but I don't know of any event or VC that truly focuses on the physical security market. Obviously, investments are made periodically but generally by broader players.

John Honovich

IPVM | 12/08/17 10:57pm

Brian, how are investors looking to make money off of cyber security? Are they looking at companies selling cybersecurity services or? Any noteworthy companies?

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to John Honovich | 12/09/17 12:07am

Typically through cyber security service providers, companies offering automated scans, automated recurring penetration tests, and then response/mitigation/cleanup services.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

12/09/17 01:41am

There’s not much point in covering/attending capital conferences other than Barnes and the main stat everyone cares about at is deal/rmr multiples. If you want big boy money you need to be basically in the sdm 100 mark which benchmarks around that 200k rmr for entry. That’s the TLDR of all the off shoot VC/Cap presentations. The larger industry niche lender like cap1 won’t touch a deal unless it is a minimum deal size of around 10mm which equates close to that 200-250k rmr. Integrator shops with less rmr but strong enterprise focus can nab 5-6 ebitda multiple.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 12/09/17 11:14pm

There’s not much point in covering/attending capital conferences other than Barnes

The Imperial and Barnes conferences have different focuses. For us covering primarily product developers / manufacturers, Imperial has value as Barnes is focused more on service providers.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

12/09/17 02:27am

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