Why the Best Tech Startups Take Data Security Seriously
You need three types of ass to build a successful business: a kick-ass team, a kick-ass product, and a kick-ass market. There’s nothing about data security that’s required to build a business. But tech is ultra-competitive. Venture capital flows into every conceivable idea. ICO’s challenge the very concept of money itself. Not only do tech entrepreneurs need to disrupt the markets, but we need to protect our most valuable asset: data.
For those in regulated industries such as HealthCare, Defense, or Finance, data security is a barrier to entry. For everyone else, data security might be a “good problem to have.” Or maybe you’ve convinced yourself you’re not selling to a market that cares about data protection. So you rationalize: why invest in data-security mechanisms, unless you absolutely must, unless the markets demand it? Besides, you’ve already gotten this far without much effort in the data-security front.
So, what’s the ROI of adding data security to your product?
Well, don’t ask me, ask your sales team. Ask them if it’s easier to sell your product with full application-layer encryption as part of the standard offering.
Ask your marketing team how you’re going to cross the chasm from early adopter markets into the mainstream pragmatic majority markets without data security. The practical early majority enterprise markets buy nothing but the absolute best and proven technologies. So, when it comes down to the feature-to-feature comparison, who do you think customers will choose? The one with data security, or the one none?
Ask your investors how to keep a strategic marketplace position between both market alternatives (old competition) and product alternatives (new competition). It’s simple: trust. Maintain the trust of your customers, your investors, your engineers, and they will stick with you and your business.
Even if your market is security illiterate, they still trust you. Integrating application layer encryption demonstrates long-term commitment and responsibility. The odds are already against startups, including in the security front. And remember, everyone that bought a Ring knows full well they screwed up. Big time. No more trust. It’s every entrepreneur’s worst nightmare.
Ok, how do you do data security?
Read up on Application Layer Encryption Systems, such as Peacemakr. Using a managed service opens the doors to world-class encryption directly in your product without having to hire and retain a world-class product security team. Your time is given back to you and your engineers, for minimal cost. Your data has never been as safe and secure as it is when it’s encrypted. In the end, you and your teams can focus on your product, and not worry about the underlying data security.
