Startup Lessons from Wiz’s $32B Exit: Build It, Scale Value, Sell It

When Shardul Shah, on behalf of Index Ventures, initially invested in Wiz at its incorporation in 2020, little did he realize that it would yield a huge return. Over the years, Index Ventures invested further in Wiz—bringing its total investment to $245 million—resulting in a 12% stake now worth approximately $3.8 billion.

It’s any VC’s dream. Thanks to Google acquiring Wiz (subject to regulatory approvals) for a whopping $32 billion.

An Investment Powered by Foresight, Trust, and Friendship

But it is not luck, it is Shardul’s foresight and his trust in Wiz’s founders, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik, stemming from his earlier bet when they founded Adallom (In Hebrew, pronounced as Ad Halom, means a stopping point), a cloud security company in 2012. Adallom was acquired by Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. Yinon Costica one of the co-founders at Wiz was also part of the Adallom team and played a key role in its growth.

Shardul, while sharing his perspectives on this monumental acquisition writes on the Index Ventures website: “My journey with Wiz began when Assaf called me on my birthday in the winter of 2020 to tell me, “It’s time to do it again.” Ever since the team has wasted no time building a unique company. They chose an unconventional path: to create a global company with an enterprise-grade platform that expressed deep empathy for its customers’ needs. Index is so proud to have been at the table with Wiz, and word to the wise, buckle up because this is just the beginning. More magic is in the cards!”

A Playbook for Startup Success

One of the biggest pivots for Wiz from day one is the domain knowledge of all four founders. Looking at their careers, they have immersed themselves in the cloud and cybersecurity and have remained singularly focused on providing cloud security. Let’s look at how they created a perfect playbook for success.

Wiz founders- Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik- are seasoned security pros. Over the years, they gained key intelligence on how enterprises and major cloud platforms work and this helped them support major cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

There is no denial of the fact the expertise they gained from Microsoft post the acquisition of Adallom, they were able to see the very evolution of the cloud and its different manifestations of public, private and hybrid evolutions.

That Microsoft pedigree also acted as a pivot to attract VC funding for Wiz as they already had a track record selling Adallom to Microsoft and also drove their deep technical capabilities. They already had very known due diligence.  So when Wiz started, its value prop was more tangible than typical startup pitches. Its primed for great things, and it did not let down on the bets the VCs placed.

Forging Growth Through Relationships

What is the secret sauce for Wiz to build a niche, that companies in cybersecurity for decades could not do? They just did it in 5 years. How? Yet again, they took to clients the trust factor. Despite a start-up, the major cloud platform vendors believed their tech would boost their cloud security posture. A great lesson here for startups is how they can bring more VC funds through trust- as individuals and as credible tech partners, tuned for tangible business outcomes.

A Design Thinking Mindset

From the beginning, Wiz took a different path, they were way ahead of times when they took an agentless model, which made their offerings modular and relevant. As the cloud market evolved, together it brought with it a set of challenges, and Wiz was uniquely positioned to solve it- way ahead of the competition. They decoupled the layers of complexity and brought it simplicity and scalability, strategically blending to create a killer solution.

Five Key Lessons for Startups

• For an entrepreneur in tech, trust and talent are currency. If this is in place, funding happens like magic. Build your startup for value, not just for valuation.
• Find your niche, and build competencies that fill the gaps in an established and growing market. Wiz solutions acted like a glue, making cybersecurity seamlessly baked into major could platforms.
• Build a legacy and connections. This makes for VCs approaching you rather than you putting up a pitch.
• Build platform-agnostic solutions, that make for solution fluidity, not locked with one vendor. Wiz built solutions for the ‘Cloud Cybersecurity’ market, not just partnered with one vendor. The tech diversity pivoted to success.
• Strategic scaling with a problem-solving mindset. With customer success testimonials accelerating revenues rather than huge marketing spending. Build an outcome-driven tangible solution that’s agile and resonates with customers’ needs, wants, and aspirations. No pep sales talk.

Tracking the Billion-Dollar Journey

• 2020: Wiz was founded and quickly raised $100 million in Series A funding.
• 2021: Just in the year became a unicorn at a $1.7 billionn valuation
• 2023: Value shoots up to $10 billion.
• July 2024: Google evinces interest  to acquire it for $23 billion, but founders refuse- to retain identity and IPO aspirations.
• March 2025: Acquired by Google for $32 billion (biggest cybersecurity deal ever).

 Who Dares, Wins

Wiz’s march to fame is a classic case of cashing in on the technology inflection points by successfully blending expertise, trust, and entrepreneurship. It’s also a lesson on how to craft credibility, that’s built over the years and keep scaling that for greater things. And find your product niche, they took an agentless approach and filled the gaps. At the end of the day, what does this acquisition signal – it underscores a truth in tech: success often hinges not just on innovation and capital, rather it is your ability as founders to dirty your hands, power it with a clear vision with trust and transparency. The rest happens and falls into place.