How a former U.S. special forces officer raised $22 million for his cybersecurity startup

At property 46, startup laminitis Gene Yu seems to person lived respective lives successful one.

Before helium started his ain company, helium was a Division 1 tennis player, graduated with a machine subject grade from the United States Military Academy, commonly known arsenic West Point, served arsenic a "Green Beret" successful the U.S. Army Special Forces, led the rescue of a household person from a hostage concern and authored a book.

Today, helium is besides the co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup Blackpanda which has raised implicit $21 cardinal to date, according to an authoritative institution announcement.

While he's undergone highly rigorous subject training, served connected battlefields and led large counter-terrorism missions, helium said his hardest conflict was internal.

Yu was calved successful Concord, Massachusetts, wherever helium says helium was the lone Asian kid successful his town. He past moved to Cupertino, California erstwhile helium was 10.

His household inheritance is unsocial and, successful immoderate ways, high-profile: his uncle is Ma Ying-jeou who served arsenic the president of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016.

Growing up arsenic an Asian antheral successful America, helium says that helium often internalized the messages helium was told by nine that "you are inferior, you are unattractive, you are not desired, you are not equal." This took a toll connected Yu's self-esteem.

These feelings of inferiority were, astatine times, amplified astatine home. He learned aboriginal connected to prioritize achievement. "In Asian culture, what we larn is show equals love, right? Or adjacent amended yet, deficiency of show equals the lack of love," Yu told CNBC Make It.

Yu says his aboriginal experiences led him to pursuit accomplishment arsenic a mode of protecting a younger mentation of himself. "It's similar you are a wounded child, and you're wearing the Iron Man suit," helium said. "You're armoring yourself arsenic a traumatized person."

"I hated my ain identity, due to the fact that it was wounded, right? I wanted to make a caller one, and that's what the subject does for you," helium said.

So, astatine property 17 aft graduating from precocious school, helium near location and went consecutive to West Point, which is known to beryllium a highly prestigious and selective subject academy. After that, helium joined the U.S. Army Special Forces wherever helium served arsenic an serviceman and commander.

From his precocious schoolhouse years to his clip astatine West Point, helium was moving astir 16 to 20 hours a day. That strength shaped his enactment ethic which helium inactive carries today.

"At West Point, you're up astatine similar 5 a.m., and past you're down astatine similar [midnight] ... And it's six days a week of school, nary summertime breaks," helium said. "So I decidedly cognize however to enactment hard, that's for sure, which I deliberation [helped] astatine Blackpanda."

In 2009, Yu's subject vocation came to a crossroads erstwhile his uncle, Ma Ying-jeou, was elected arsenic the president of Taiwan.

"There was [an] probe astir ... the information that my uncle was the sitting president of Taiwan, which had occurred portion I was successful Special Forces," said Yu. This play prompted hard questions astir his future.

Ultimately, Yu made the determination to permission the army, which near him feeling disoriented and exiled.

"I had a monolithic nonaccomplishment of identity," helium said. "I had waves of heavy survivor's guilt, due to the fact that I knew that I was successful my premier arsenic 1 of the champion Special Forces captains the U.S. Army had, and that our boys were overseas, dying and fighting, and I was conscionable chilling out."

In the years that followed, helium struggled to find a caller consciousness of identity. He spent a fewer years studying Chinese and going backmost to postgraduate schoolhouse astatine Johns Hopkins University, wherever helium was recruited to enactment arsenic an equity trader astatine Credit Suisse.

Eventually, successful 2012, helium joined Palantir Technologies which helium grew to love, lone to get retrenched successful 2013. "After Palantir fto maine spell ... that was the hardest clip successful my life, by far. And I was besides broke...so financially stressed, and sofa surfing," helium said.

Then, a situation involving a household person named Evelyn Chang pulled him backmost into action.

In 2013, Chang was taken hostage overseas by violent radical Abu Sayyaf. Yu helped orchestrate the rescue: He enactment a squad together, went into the Philippines and rescued her aft 35 days.

Notably, this ngo was what helped animate the thought for Yu's institution today, Blackpanda.

He realized that companies oregon entities facing cyberattacks needed the aforesaid benignant of fast, 24/7 enactment that situation security and services supply during kidnappings and ransom situations.

"So the aforesaid models that are [used in] the carnal information and information satellite request to beryllium copied successful the integer world. That's what's missing successful cyber security," helium said. He teamed up with immoderate erstwhile Green Berets and they each went connected to physique Blackpanda, an thought shaped from Yu's unsocial background.

Today, successful reflection, Yu says that attaching individuality to accomplishments is "a rigged game."

"Because each clip that you strive for the adjacent achievement, you deliberation that ... Everything is going to beryllium each good, right? But the occupation is that if you ne'er heal the archetypal trauma wound, past anyone tin inactive travel wounded you from a antithetic angle," helium said.

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