Another Merlin Safari. Another wild time.

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You may have seen the banners popping up on LinkedIn over the last few weeks – CISOs and startup founders posting banners with their picture in the mouth of a crocodile, sharing that they’d be attending Merlin Safari this year. Fear not – we didn’t feed any security leaders to crocodiles, and no one was chased by stampeding rhinoceroses. Instead, we once again brought folks out to beautiful Bailey, CO, where they had the opportunity to hike and fly fish along one of the most beautiful stretches of the South Platt River.

For those who read our write-up last year, you know why we call it Safari. So what changed from last year? Content, speakers and some amazing new attendees, but not the focus. Once again, Merlin Safari was all about building long-lasting relationships and making sure there are open lines of communication between CISOs and startups.

We had a lot of amazing conversations last year, but our team managed to outdo themselves with this year’s speakers. We kicked off Sunday night (after some networking activities to get everyone talking) with a conversation with Ofer Ben-Noon, CTO for SASE at Palo Alto Networks (and CEO of former Merlin portfolio company Talon). He spoke with us about his journey founding both Talon and Argus, two of Israel’s largest cybersecurity acquisitions. Perhaps Ofer’s best advice to founders on how to achieve a great acquisition: don’t try to do it. Acquisitions will come, but if that’s your primary motivation, you are going to struggle. Instead, build a company for the right reasons, that can last and solve a real problem.