Buying back a declining company
“We bought it back when it was declining precipitously month over month and year over year, and we put a plan together to bring it back to life and grow it through acquisitions.”
Founder conversationUnicorn $50m+
How RealDefense Grew From $7M to $70M After Buying Back CyberDefender
Gary Guseinov explains how he bought back his old company for under $10M in 2017 and grew it through six acquisitions funded by bank debt.
Gary Guseinov · RealDefense
Published March 14, 2026About this resource
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What you’ll learn
Gary Guseinov, CEO of RealDefense, explains how he bought back his old company CyberDefender in 2017 for under $10M when it was doing about $7M a year, and has since grown it through six acquisitions. He covers how the first company reached $70M and a Nasdaq listing, why he funds deals with bank debt rather than equity, and where RealDefense stands today at roughly $60M to $70M of revenue and $20M to $25M of EBITDA.
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Asking for more money
“And we found that their elasticities is material. You can go from $20 to a thousand dollars if you just ask.”
Debt capacity in EBITDA turns
“if a company is doing $4,000,000 with EBITDA, you can probably get loan between two times to four times of the total EBITDA. So 8,000,000 to $12,000,000, you should be able to get that loan for that amount.”
Why equity beats debt
“Because I value the equity far more than I value the debts. It's simple.”
Integrating acquired products
“We buy it, generally it's a product and technology that we're buying in consumers, and then we take them and integrate them into what we already have.”
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Gary Guseinov
CEO · RealDefense
- Company revenue
- $70M
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