The physical security industry is broken. Following major security incidents, we hear about the countless red flags that couldโve been used to anticipate the tragedy. But the pattern keeps repeating.
Advocates are trying to fix the industry by insisting that organizations conduct thorough risk assessments better allocate their resources. And assessing risk is unquestionably valuable.
But itโs a well known secret in the industry that risk assessments are hardly ever read by leadership. Thatโs because they are static, inflexible snapshots in time that lose relevance as soon as conditions change. Itโs like navigating a maze using a Polaroid picture of an arrow for directions.
Quill Security Technology emerged in 2018 when its three co-founders decided to change this by taking a different approach to helping building owners and managers understand and address risks. Hereโs the story of Quill Security Technology.
The Product
Quill Risk Maps are like a turn-by-turn directions for navigating institutional security risk. They solve the exponential computation problem that renders traditional assessments static and inflexible. Instead Quill has created an evergreen, digital model that reflects every new facility, asset, security measure and threat in real-time.
Chief security officers (CSOs), operations executives, and facility managers use Quill to back their security proposals with quantitative evidence. They can finally prove the value of their work in business terms and sit at the C-suite table with defensible ROI metrics.
Security Risk Maps can be useful in virtually any facility, though initial interest has been strongest in heathcare, higher ed, schools, manufacturing, and retail.
The Company
Year founded: 2018
Funding rounds: 100% Self-funded
Current size: Six team members. Though theyโreโ just getting startedโ theyโve built Risk Maps for 20+ facilities.
The Inspiration
Webbiquity:ย What inspired you to work on a solution to this particular problem?
Lewis Werner:ย Lindsay Woolward, one of my co-founders, spent years delivering traditional risk assessments.ย He came to appreciate that security is a dual state involving being safe and feeling safe.ย And that organizations can exist in any combination thereof.
Being safe requires objective capabilities. Feeling safe is all about communication, and thatโs where security departments seemed to be falling short.ย They werenโt able to communicate the value of their existing programs or justify budget increases to fund new initiatives.
They werenโt able to act as strategic advisors to corporate governance.ย In some cases, they werenโt even able to communicate the criticality of security compliance to the staff they were charged with protecting.
Though possessed of exceptional grit and resignation to doing things โthe hard way,โ security professionals are straining under a heavy load of stress and anxiety. Weโve created Quill to make their lives easier so they can make our lives safer.ย Our mission is to eliminate barriers to good security and communication is one of the big ones.
Thus far, we havenโtย encountered anyone else whoโs developing a solution to the exponential calculation problem that has limited security professionals in the past. We are unique.
We do, however, have competitors, our biggest being the status quo. Several start-ups in the last few years have developed the technology to host written assessments in the cloud and support mobile access but the information itself hasnโt changed.
The Launch
Webbiquity:ย What were the most effective channels or methods for you to get the word out to prospective customers when you first launched your product?
LW:ย Security is a trust industry, so we doubted that digital marketing or blog content would be effective in creating initial traction.ย Instead,we focused on joining conferences and professional associations where we heard the same things over and over: โI need more support from leadership.โ โI need better intelligence.โ โI need more budget.โ
Our most enthusiastic response was from the third-party security firms already helping organizations navigate these problems. Many consultants were well aware of the inherent insufficiencies ofย traditional risk assessments but felt constrained to use them for lack of a superior alternative.
Now, our channel partner program will get Quill Risk Maps in the hands of security departments faster than we ever could on our own.
The Lessons
Webbiquity:ย Finish this sentence: โKnowing what I know now, if I were starting over today, what I would do differently isโฆโ
LW: Immediately hire a professional coach who focuses on startups,.ย Iโve been working with Katherine Burton at Lacuna Coaching for the past year and sheโs had a profound impact on both me and Quill.
I also would have begun blogging earlier on. Though it wouldnโt have been effective for initial lead generation, it would have helped to back up our story, showcase our expertise, and build our content library.
I quickly learned that in the security world, nobody answers cold calls and shares their security programs or challenges thereto. No one evenย answers emails. Most security professionals screen for emails that have links or images so traditional digital marketing, outbound email in particular, just doesnโt generate traction.
However, once you have an audience, they look to you for updates and thought leadership. Weโre building that audience now, so it would be useful to have a ready collection of articles and advice to share with them.
Finally, I would spend more time talking to the professional community we aim to serve. I donโt think you can go wrong in doing that: in validating your ideas and plans with the people in your market.
The Takeaways
Webbiquity:ย Whatโs the most important advice you could offer to an entrepreneur starting out today?
LW:ย Continually validate your idea with people outside of the company,while staying true to your personal mission.ย Let their feedback modify how you get to your goal, but donโt let them modify the goal itself.
Quill was lucky to have a founding team that could afford to bootstrap it for a little while. I would encourage entrepreneursย to remain self-funded for as long as they can, working weekends or evenings as long as they possibly can. Iโd say not to look for outside funding until absolutely necessary.
The piece of advice that I end up sharing the most often is my validation tree, which consists of words, time, friends, and money.
Itโs really encouraging in the early days when people tell you, โWow! This is a great idea!โ However, itโs important to remember that words comprise the bottom boughs of the tree.
If they truly think you have a good idea, ask them to give you time or to introduce you to their friends or to buy your product from you now, โItโll be done in six months. If you preorder, and believe itโs valuable, thatโs certainly worthwhile, right?โ
Climbing that validation tree with everyone you talk to is a really good way to both get that nourishment and that encouragement out of the words, but also remember you need to find validation beyond the words.
You can connect with Lewis Werner on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Previous Posts in This Series
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #2: Scott Burns, Structural
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #3: Atif Siddiqi, Branch
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #4: Daren Klum, Secured2
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #5: Josh Fedie, SalesReach
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #6: Loring Kaveney, WorkOutLoud
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #7: Lief Larson, Salesfolks
The Founders Interview Series #8: John Sundberg, Kinetic Data
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #9: Amanda LaGrange, Tech Dump/Tech Discounts
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #10: Aba El Haddi, EnduraData
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #11: Michael McCarthy, Inkit
The Founders Interview Series #12: Mark Granovsky, G2Planet
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #13: Aric Bandy, Agosto
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #14: Amanuel Medhanie, Parsimony
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #15: Adam Hempenstall, Better Proposals
The Founders Interview Series #16: Tracy Fuller, InnovativEvents
The Founders Interview Series #17: Peter M. Vessenes, ProfitSee
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #18: Alex Wise, Netpeak Software
The Entrepreneur Interview Series #19: Mary Kay Ziniewicz, Bus Stop Mamas
The post The Entrepreneur Interview Series #20: Lewis Werner, Quill Security Technology appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog | Webbiquity.