Axonius CEO steps back as IPO nears, citing family and need to scale
Dean Sysman to shift to executive chairman while Joe Diamond takes interim CEO role at the cybersecurity unicorn.
Dean Sysman, the co-founder who helped turn Axonius into one of cybersecurity’s fastest-growing companies, is stepping back from day-to-day leadership.
In a blog post published Monday titled “The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short,” Sysman announced that he will move from CEO to executive chairman, handing operational control to Joe Diamond, the company’s president, who will serve as interim CEO. The change comes as Axonius, previously valued at $2.6 billion and backed by roughly $700 million in venture funding, prepares for life in the public markets.
“Building a business requires one mindset. Scaling a business requires another,” Sysman wrote. “To go to the next level, we need dedicated focus on both our long-term vision and the operational execution.”
The post was striking for its personal tone. Sysman intertwined the company’s evolution with his own family life, recounting how a medical crisis involving his newborn son coincided with Axonius’s first acquisition and a major overhaul of its go-to-market strategy. The experience, he said, gave him “the gift of clarity” about the need to rethink his role.
“In our house, Axonius is another family member,” he wrote. “When the company needed us, there was no lack of support and dedication from my family to grow Axonius to all it can be.”
Founded nine years ago by Sysman, Ofri Shur, and Avidor Bartov, all alumni of the IDF’s elite cyber units, Axonius built its reputation on helping organizations gain visibility into sprawling networks of devices and digital assets. Sysman described the company as “one of the fastest cyber companies in history to hit $100 million in ARR,” crediting its technology with protecting hospitals during the pandemic and helping defense agencies block nation-state attacks.
But the path has not been without turbulence. Last November the company laid off around 100 of its roughly 900 employees across Israel and the United States. Months earlier, Axonius acquired Cynerio, an Israeli cybersecurity company focused on protecting medical devices in hospitals, in a $180 million deal that marked its largest push into healthcare security.
“Dean and the founding team have built Axonius into a category-defining market leader with exceptional fundamentals,” said Amit Karp, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and a board member. “As the company prepares for an IPO, this evolution in leadership allows us to leverage our most significant strengths.”
Karp described the shift as more than cosmetic. “This is not just a change of titles, but a deliberate step by the board and management to build a leading, enduring company with a long-term vision.”
Sysman’s message read less like a corporate announcement and more like a founder wrestling with the limits of his own skill set. “The challenges ahead are bigger, but the prize is infinitely larger,” he wrote. “To capture this limitless potential, we need to level up.”
He emphasized that the transition should not be viewed as a retreat. “This isn’t a departure. It’s an evolution,” he said, adding that he will continue to shape strategy, represent the company publicly, and work closely with Diamond and the founding team.
