Scale to sale: Recorded Future, Keyfactor, and Prevalent’s playbook for strategic exits

“Buying is easy. Selling is hard,” said Managing Director Thomas Krane, opening the CEO panel on strategic exits at RSA. It’s a truth that resonates with founders and investors alike — not just because successful exits are complex, but because the best outcomes are earned, not engineered.

Great companies aren’t built to sell. They’re built to last — and in doing so, they become businesses that others want to buy. The ones that command premium multiples, attract strategic interest, and retain flexibility are often the same ones that could have kept scaling on their own.

Three seasoned CEOs — Recorded Future’s Christopher Ahlberg, Prevalent’s Kevin Hickey, and Keyfactor’s Jordan Rackie — share how they built high-performing companies, navigated different exit paths, and prepared themselves long before a sale was on the table.

Build optionality through capital efficiency

In a startup landscape where raising capital is often mistaken for building momentum, Christopher Ahlberg’s experience with Recorded Future stands out. “Until we did our recap with Insight in 2019, we had raised maybe $50M, but we returned $25M at that time,” he shared. “We ran it very capital efficient, which I’m a huge believer in.”

Ahlberg’s disciplined approach allowed his team to maintain control and adaptability. “It creates a lot of optionality,” he emphasized. “You don’t have to return crazy sums. We got to a $2.7B in the end game. We sold to Insight in 2019 and restarted the clock — then sold it again to Mastercard. We could have probably done it a third time.”

The message was clear: Capital efficiency isn’t about frugality for its own sake. It’s about preserving control, attracting the right investors, and having the flexibility to pursue multiple strategic paths — whether that means a recap, a strategic acquisition, or continued independence.

“There was a gap, so I had to make a change”

Scaling a business demands a performance culture. Rackie, who joined Keyfactor as CEO in 2019, has been clear-eyed about the distinction between camaraderie and accountability. “We care about people, but we don’t coddle people,” he said. “Too often, organizations say, ‘We’re a family.’ But this is a professional relationship. If times aren’t great for a while, you have to make a change.”

That mindset shaped his leadership decisions — even when those decisions were difficult. After a successful growth year in which Keyfactor grew revenue 35% and maintained positive cash flow, Rackie let go of an executive. “There was a difference between what we achieved and the potential of our company. There was a gap, and so I had to make a change.”

Hickey echoed the importance of performance, adding that process and consistency build trust. “Everything in a company is about building a strong culture,” Hickey said. “You have a strong culture, you can retain people. We had this thing called E + R = O: Event plus response equals outcome. If you’re intentional about it, you’re going to be doing a lot better.”

Differentiate with durability, not novelty

In cybersecurity and enterprise software, competitive edges can fade quickly. Sustained differentiation — rooted in product, execution, and market alignment — is what enables companies to lead.

“At one level, all differentiators eventually run out of steam,” Ahlberg noted. “If it’s not sustainable…it’s probably not the differentiator you want.”

Rackie emphasized that differentiation isn’t just about the product. It’s about building the infrastructure to scale. “What I failed to do was give enough love and attention to the technology side of the house,” he explained. “I waited probably a year or two too long to make some top grading changes on the R&D side of the house. And those changes were to have great technologists — keep the technologists — but complement them with great R&D operators that could build scale.”

Use M&A to accelerate momentum, not distract from it

Acquisitions are a powerful tool, but only when aligned with strategic priorities and cultural fit. Keyfactor’s acquisition of PrimeKey was a masterclass in how to get it right.

“It was a very strategic acquisition for us. It was a great technology, it was a budding market opportunity, and it was also a really good culture fit for our organization,” Rackie explained. “They understood accountability and attainment. Today, of the $145M ARR that we’re at, they’re probably $65 to $67M of [that].”

Hickey noted that acquisitions can also be a response to customer demand. “Our customers made it clear: We needed to be part of something bigger. There was a lot of consolidation happening, and we saw the writing on the wall.” And in 2024, Miratech acquired Prevalent.

Always be ready, even when you’re not selling

Preparation is key, even if a sale isn’t imminent. Rackie shared Keyfactor’s disciplined approach to keeping the company ready. “So every single year, regardless of if we’re going through a cycle or not… we always refresh our fireside chat deck. We get new customer testimonials. We get new customer case studies.”

Rackie continued: “What we start with in our deck is not: ‘How do we build a deck?’ It’s: ‘What are the questions we think the private equity or strategic community is going to want an answer to in the first meeting they have with us?’ And we write down all those questions.”

Ahlberg offered a different but equally effective tactic: Keep the lines of communication open, but be selective. “I want to answer every email I get, but I always say, ‘Not now, maybe next year.”’ He encouraged keeping the door open without getting distracted.

When Insight invested in Recorded Future, it had been a multi-year courtship. “Thomas started emailing me in 2012 or 2013,” Ahlberg recalled. “When we finally did the deal in 2019, he pulled out that original email. [Thomas] kept track in a good, meaningful way.”

The end is just another beginning

A sale isn’t the finish line — it’s a transition. The best founders and CEOs approach it with the same discipline they bring to running their business.

“[After the sale to Mastercard], I knew I wanted to keep going,” Ahlberg said. “If you want to stick around and do this, you’re going to make sure that it’s a reasonable setup. And I think we ended up with a great setup.”

For Rackie, going through a recap process revealed which members of his team were aligned for the long term and which were not. “It was interesting to see when we had a couple of different things on the table — we had some minority deals, some majorities, some complete buyouts,” he explained. “I didn’t hide everything from my leadership team, so people saw kind of some of the things that were out there. It was just interesting for me to observe the way that some of my executives reacted to some of the different offers.”

In the end, the panelists all returned to a core truth: Great companies attract great outcomes. “Companies aren’t sold. They’re bought,” Rackie said. “We’re focused on building a very healthy organization. Because health creates attraction, and attraction creates options. And optionality is what we’re looking for, ultimately.”

Or, as Ahlberg put it: “Don’t be a situation. Be a company.”