What Are VPN Makers Really Selling?

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At the former site of a Soviet-era sock factory in Vilnius, the old-world capital of Lithuania, NordSec BV’s new headquarters is rising in a clatter of construction workers and scaffolding. Soon the startup’s roughly 2,000 employees will gather near the remains of a brick smokestack for basketball and rooftop barbecues at a sleek complex that wouldn’t look out of place in San Francisco. When co-founders Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas invested in the factory property four years ago, it was still making hosiery. Now the sign at the bus stop out front reads Vienaragiu, the Lithuanian word for “unicorn.” The Silicon Valley-style conspicuousness is new for Okman and Sabaliauskas, who spent close to a decade developing NordSec and its principal brand, Nord Security, while keeping a low profile. It’s also a little unusual for a company that is, after all, in the privacy business.