Bob Johnson, CEO of SecureWave, was in Luxembourg to participate in the opening of the Atrium Business Park, the new premises for Luxembourg's latest rising star tech firm.

Just when you thought it was safe... it looks like we might be inundated with even more press about Luxembourg"s Venture Capital heroes - Mangrove Capital Partners. After the much-lauded sale of the ubiquitous Skype, now their IT security solution company, SecureWave, is in play.

CEO Bob Johnson was in Luxembourg 18 May for the opening of the Atrium Business Park in Bertrange, the new premises for SecureWave - "a young facility for a young company". "We continue to hit milestones," he said. "We have just completed the largest deal in Continental Europe - 43,000 licences for the Dutch Police," a deal that was assisted by their partner, Crypsys. "It took us four years to get to the one million licence mark, but just six months to reach another half million."

Venture capital is about investing with the ultimate objective of exiting - of taking the profit back out, and SecureWave currently is ripe for the picking. Johnson explains that, "Tech companies go through phases. In the early stage before a company is really established, if there is a technology grab, companies will get bought quickly for a fairly low price. In the second stage, as the company develops, if it has great products, if it is grabbing market attention, and if it does something better, faster and cheaper, they will get acquired for more." (which is where SecureWave is). At the third stage, when a company has become established, "that exit is generally through a flotation of a company or it could be a trade sale."

With the help of local incubator Technoport, and two injections of capital from Mangrove, SecureWave has expanded globally with 190 reseller channel partnerships and, "technology and marketing partnerships with leading technology firms including Microsoft, Novell, Citrix and Lexar", and is increasingly attractive to potential buyers.

Operating in virtual mode

The company employs Luxembourgers, English, French, Belgians, Russians and Germans with English as the working language. "We are nationally neutral. The market we address - technology - is English." Their prime markets are continental Europe, the UK, and the US, Johnson's home.

Does technology allow a CEO to be remote? Johnson comes to Luxembourg every month. He says it is the nature of the job in any organisation. "We have so much activity going on. We have to keep on top of it. You can't just face the US market."

Digital communications helps. "All of our systems are interconnected. It is amazing what you can do with technology." He does say that having a virtual organisation today is a lot more effective and useful than at any other time, but it requires discipline, a certain mindset and the commitment of the entire team. "After an initial period of six to eight months we have been operating in a virtual mode. In 2002, 2003, we brought our first hired workers from the States," and they did not have one office. "You couldn't just say "hey you" to people." And it almost goes without saying, but naturally, they used Skype a lot.

Bob is bullish about Luxembourg and hesitates when asked to pinpoint drawbacks. He does say, "It is expensive to get here," yet softens this by saying, "it"s the cost of business. It"s a seller"s market."

One challenge for Luxembourg that he sees is that, "there is not yet a good incubator for the right tech talent here." He feels Luxembourg needs to draw from and breed a talent pool. "What made Silicon Valley great are Stanford and Berkeley. What you need here is for businesses to work hand in hand with schools. Luxembourg has the ability to attract IT people from all over the Grande Région."

Johnson puts a great deal of the success down to the Luxembourg environment that allows firms to grow. "We are a good example of how it has worked," he says, adding, "we"re not here for the VAT." (But don't they all say that?) He points to SecureWave"s local product engineering and support as evidence of the company"s firm Luxembourg presence.

"This company is a simple tech solution for business - a model for growing a company. This is a very replicable case," Johnson says. "Work hard and be smart. Focus on customers. Don't spend stupid money." He also emphasises, "We had success because we had a very good start."

Stay tuned. SecureWave is red hot. A sale has to be just around the corner.