Mark Curphey – SecurityBuddha.com

Its official, SourceClear is born. Despite the plan to take at least a year off, I am strapping in and ready for the ride of my life. There are quite a few things that have inspired me to take the plunge and start-up the company;

• Belief in What We are Doing
• Market Demand
• Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• The Desire to Create a Company I have Always Wanted to Work For
• Microsoft
• Virgin/ Richard Branson
• Crossing the Chasm
• IT Doesn’t Matter, by Nicholas Carr

Belief in What We Are Doing – I have a firm belief that what information security needs is not more technology or more widgets but a platform that connects people, process and technology, allowing corporations to manage information security as they would any other critical business function. Good security can facilitate new business models, reduce costs and improve time to market. It is important to get right and will play an increasingly critical role in business as the world evolves. I am passionate about solving this challenge and ways in which we can improve the business of information security. As a company we will be making meaning and not just money (although we intend to make lots of that as well) which will make it all the more rewarding.

Market Demand – I have spent a lot of time with business executives understanding their problems and analysts and consultants understanding their clients’ needs and challenges. We intend to spend a lot more on the coming years. The system that SourceClear is building is the system that meets these aggregated requirements, collated from an international range of CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s, CSO’s, auditors (internal and external), technologists, consultants, analysts and business owners.

The Art of the Start – I first read the Art of the Start about 18 months ago (ironically about the time we sold Foundstone to McAfee). I was not in at the very start of Foundstone and have long had a fascination with the concept of building a company from the ground up. Guy Kawasaki’s book is a no-nonsense, straight talking, pragmatic set of prescriptive guidance for anyone starting anything. It is a work of pure genius and has played a large part in inspiring us to go create something great.

Desire to Create a Company I Always Wanted to Work For – To date the earlier days of Foundstone came pretty close to be the sort of company I would create from scratch. There was certainly a fantastic team of likeminded people doing great things. I have learnt a lot over the years about what drives people to be the best they can (and sadly about what stifles innovation and drives teams apart) and I want to create a company that facilitates people producing the best they can. I believe that is intrinsically linked to people being the happiest they can be and being proud of what they are building.

Microsoft – I have had the pleasure of working with some of the team at Microsoft and am also honored to be a Microsoft MVP. The company has some of the smartest and most passionate people I have come across (J.D Meier for example) and I think this ultimately shows in their products. Our technology will be built on the Microsoft .NET 3.0 platform and leverages many Microsoft products such as BizTalk, SharePoint, SQL Server and Exchange.

Virgin / Richard Branson – Sir Richard Branson first created a humble student magazine and has since gone on to create a global brand of companies including airlines, soft drinks, Vodka, trains and of course Virgin records. He even has a space travel company, Virgin Galactic. Every company is created with style, fun and finesse and of course makes a lot of money. Sir Richard is an inspiring down to earth leader who is not afraid to do things his own way and change the world. He has recently diverted the profits of his transport business to invest in environmental transport initiatives such as clean airline fuel. Smart and ethical business at its very finest.

Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore wrote a seminal book called Crossing the Chasm that describes technology adoption. It is a great piece of work that brings clarity to a complex topic of how humans adopt technology and ultimately how by understanding this adoption you can market and sell products to them.

IT Doesn’t Matter – Nicholas Carr wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Press in 2002 that sparked debate all over the world. His thesis was that as technology matures it seizes to become a competitive advantage and becomes a commodity. The essay lead to many follow up books and articles especially on the topic of aligning technology to the needs of business. I drew a lot of inspiration from both Carr’s initial work and follow on work from the likes of Pete Finegar, “IT Doesn’t Matter – Business Processes Do”.

And of course behind every good man is a good woman and my wife has been encouraging me to do this for several years. “If you don’t do this now you’ll regret it for the rest of your life” is a common phrase in our house.