"SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sanctum, a Web application and security software provider, has established itself in the security application market and now is looking to expand its executive ranks. The company is seeking a chief financial officer to help take it to an IPO and grow internationally.

To find its executives but still keep costs low, CEO Peggy Weigle says the company is tapping into board-member contacts as well as working with the Financial Executives Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is a business partner that provides Sanctum's products to its clients.

The most important thing the company looks for in a candidate, says Ms. Weigle, is experience in taking a company through the IPO process, as well as international experience. Also, as the company adds more strategic partners, Ms. Weigle looks for someone who has helped put together business development deals that ended up in profitable relationships.

All this goes toward the company's main goals of an IPO, targeted for either the end of next year or early 2003. And having already signed distribution agreements with Hitachi Information Network and TechMatrix to distribute its products, AppShield and AppScan, to the Japanese market, Sanctum also expects to increase its overseas presence in Europe in the coming months through distribution partnerships.

But with 80 people, Ms. Weigle doesn't expect the company to increase its staff much more. "We did most of our growth at the beginning of this year, so we don't expect to dramatically staff up this year. We have our key team in place, so we're continuing to add on selectively," Ms. Weigle says. "Some of the additions we made this year were bringing on a new VP of sales, a senior director of business development, and we've been growing the sales organization according to plan."

Founded in May 1997 by senior VP Gil Raanan, formerly with Amdocs, Sanctum has managed to attract several big-name investors. On July 23, the company announced a $30-million round of funding from Dell Computer, Fidelity Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds, First Union eVentures Group, and Hitachi, bringing its total amount raised to $54 million. Other investors include the Sprout Group, Sequoia Capital, Mofet Israel Technology Fund, and Walden Israel.

With its fund-raising success, Ms. Weigle doesn't expect the company to raise another round and even expects to be profitable by next year. "We expect this last round to bring us way beyond profitability. This round was significantly oversubscribed and, given the economic market, we decided to take a bit more money than we originally planned on," Ms. Weigle says. "So we have a very comfortable cushion that will take us beyond profitability."

Ms. Weigle says she remains confident that Sanctum will continue to have a strong position in the security applications market, especially up against KaVaDo, a privately held company that recently launched its product. Ms. Weigle says the company's established track record is what makes it successful, pointing out that it has more than 100 customers. Although she says she can't name names due to disclosure agreements, Ms. Weigle says Sanctum has landed six of the top 10 financial institutions as clients. "We're delighted to have competition, but we believe there are lots of obstacles that anybody new to this market is going to run into that they have not anticipated," Ms. Weigle says.

After living and learning, younger companies may learn a thing or two from Sanctum."

http://www.sanctuminc.com