Cybersecurity executives Amit Bareket and Sagi Gidali met in 2012 as computer science students at Tel Aviv University. That’s where they discovered their mutual passion for networking security—envisioning the vast potential to help businesses and organizations protect their data. “Even before COVID-19, we saw an increase in companies adopting cloud and mobile computing, with employees working remotely,” Sagi said. “We wanted to take the legacy network security market by storm and create a more user-friendly solution.”

They launched their first startup, SaferVPN, in 2013 and sold it in 2019. A year before that sale in 2018, they founded Perimeter 81, which offers 1,000 organizations–from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies—a single secure network regardless of where their employees, data centers, cloud storage, or offices are located.

The pair of founders credits their experiences at Google for Startups Campus Tel Aviv for helping them mature and position their business. “Startups depicted in the movies or on TV show a company starting in a café or garage—then fast-forwarding into success in a glamorous office,” Sagi said. “What TV doesn’t show is the planning, hard work, and early growth stages of a startup. Google’s accelerator program helped us map out our ideas to make them reality.”

As part of the Google for Startups Accelerator program, Amit and Sagi—along with other promising early-stage startup founders—received daily Google mentoring on product strategy, business development, user experience, technology, and marketing over a period of two weeks. Regional accelerators are tailored specifically to their startups’ local markets and provide access to Google people, products, and best practices. The program sets realistic expectations for founders and offers practical advice and networking opportunities. In fact, Amit and Sagi met their first customer while participating in the program.

Perimeter 81 relies on a number of Google products in their day-to-day operations. They use Google Ads to grow the company’s customer base and have experienced 400-percent year-over-year growth since inception. “When we started out, we had a small budget for Google Ads,” said Sagi. “Now, we make a large monthly investment as the program delivers growth for our business.” As a business intelligence-driven company, they also use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools for organic growth analysis. They also use Google Workspace in their day-to-day operations, including Gmail and Google Drive, as well as Google Cloud Single Sign-on, which provides one-click access to company applications on-premises as well as in the Cloud.

Now, with more and more businesses seeking networking security solutions to work remotely, Perimeter 81’s services are in high demand. They have more than 85 employees across their Tel Aviv and New York offices, and many other full-time staff who rely on the company’s own products to work remotely.

“For a startup, the path to success can take on many forms, whether it be supportive friends and family, a strong team, experienced investors and advisors, or the place where the founders got their start,” Sagi said. “Google for Startups was the first building block in our entrepreneurial journey. We credit the program with helping us achieve this level of success.”

"Google Workspace was formerly known as G Suite prior to Oct. 6, 2020."