Lessons Going Zero to $40M ARR in Two Years | Dan Lorenc, Chainguard
The Peel with Turner Novak
Turner Novak
4.6 • 11 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2025
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dan Lorenc is the Co-founder and CEO of Chainguard, the safe source for open source.
The internet runs on free, open source software. But as its risen in popularity, its become the latest attack point targeted by hackers and nation states.
This conversation with Dan gets into the history of open source software, cloud computing, Linux, the software supply chain, how AI will impact it, and what the next big cyber attack will look like.
Dan is an engineer, but he also loves sales and go-to-market. We unpack how Chainguard went from zero to 150 customers and a $40m ARR in two years.
Chainguard just announced a $350 million Series D led by Kleiner and IVP, and Dan unpacks the round, plus shares his secret methodology for valuing the company.
A big thank you to Dan’s Co-founder Kim Lewandowski, to Clay Fisher @ Spark, Bogomil Balkansky & Andrew Reed @ Sequoia, and Tom Loverro @ IVP for their help brainstorming topics for Dan.
Thanks to Numeral for supporting this episode, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://bit.ly/NumeralThePeel
Timestamps:
(3:26) A safe source for open source
(4:57) The software supply chain
(7:19) Can you trust open source code with contributors in Russia?
(9:43) Malware attack that almost took down the entire internet
(12:40) What the next big cyber attack will look like
(15:12) How will AI impact the software supply chain
(17:53) The history of cloud computing
(21:42) Why all cloud computing runs on Linux
(23:16) How Linux + Linux distros work
(29:28) Automating open source security
(32:43) Chainguard roadmap: Libraries and VMs
(36:40) Focusing on FedRAMP
(42:44) Impact of DOGE
(44:06) Zero to $40m ARR in two years
(45:40) Learning to love sales as a technical founder
(47:24) Lessons from Frank Slootman
(51:15) How to create urgency in sales
(53:16) How to build a sales team
(58:23) Hiring Ryan Carlson from Wiz & Okta
(1:01:45) Inside Chainguard’s $350m Series D
(1:07:41) Vibe coding + Dan’s software stack
(1:09:51) Cutting his hair in front of the entire company
(1:10:27) Wearing a different suit to each board meeting
(1:12:32) Bogomil, world’s best SDR
Referenced
Check out Chainguard: https://www.chainguard.dev/
Jobs at Chainguard: https://www.chainguard.dev/careers
Prior episode with Dan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC4cOJ9n_Z8
Linux Origin Email: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mmmlh3/linux_has_a_interested_history_this_is_one_of/
The Qualified Sales Leader: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064
Julius, AI data analysis: https://julius.ai/
Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code
World’s best SDR: https://x.com/BogieBalkansky/status/1913269714882814350
2025 Chainguard Assemble Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfU9LJg3I0
Follow Dan
Twitter: https://x.com/lorenc_dan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlorenc/
Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Peel. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. |
| 0:04.1 | Today's guest is Dan Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Chainguard. |
| 0:07.2 | We're building a safe source for open source software. |
| 0:10.8 | The internet runs on open source software. |
| 0:13.0 | Linux is the most used operating system in the world. It runs on phones. It runs everywhere. |
| 0:17.8 | No one gets paid to work on it. It got started by one guy, 25 or 30 years ago |
| 0:22.1 | now, just as a side project, and it's turned into the most critical piece of software on the |
| 0:27.2 | internet. But because it got so popular, it's spoken about crucial vulnerability now targeted by |
| 0:32.4 | hackers and even nation states. Because it's free, people don't really keep careful track of it. |
| 0:37.3 | This conversation with Dan gets into the history of open source software, the software supply |
| 0:41.3 | chain, how AI will impact it, and what the next big cyber attack could look like. |
| 0:45.3 | It turned out that other person was just a pseudonym and was not a real person. |
| 0:48.3 | They put in this carefully orchestrated set of malware into it. |
| 0:52.3 | It was really hard to detect and no one noticed. |
| 0:55.0 | We also get into the history of cloud computing, how it works. |
| 0:57.0 | Getting servers was expensive and hard and you had to have a whole team. |
| 1:02.0 | So then all this software kind of appeared that would run on Linux. |
| 1:04.0 | You get your own free machine where everything was free and open source. |
| 1:08.0 | But there's none of the same kind of quality controls or checks or trust. |
| 1:12.9 | Dan is an engineer, but he loves sales and go to market. |
| 1:16.1 | We unpacked just how Changiard went from zero to 150 customers and a $40 million |
| 1:20.6 | revenue run rate in two years. |
... |
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