2 minute read
MANUFACTURING EXPERIENCE
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Debbie Gordon’s latest venture takes aim at an urgent cybersecurity need
BY GEERT DE LOMBAERDE
survey published last year by the International Infor
A mation System Security Certi cation Consortium, an industry group better known as (ISC)2, featured some stark statistics: e number of people employed in cybersecurity jobs around the world stands at around 2.9 million — but the estimated shortfall is a whopping 4.1 million and growing, with nearly one in seven of those in North America.
“It’s a big ask,” the (ISC)2 report says rather understatedly.
Local entrepreneur Debbie Gordon is helping provide some answers. Launched nearly two years ago, Cloud Range markets a simulation platform that helps companies recreate their tech platforms to train on cybersecurity scenarios much as pilots train in ight simulators. e goal is to boost the experience of security analysts and other tech operations pros as they chase and anticipate the threats posed by so-called black hats and other hackers.
“People can’t keep up with the types and number of threats out there,” says Gordon, who previously built Snappy Auctions and S3 Asset Management. “We manufacture experience […] People can’t practice in real time.”
Many organizations appear to understand their need in this regard: Gordon says 90 percent of her team’s leads are inbound. Cloud Range’s client base includes big employers — two of the Big Four accounting rms and several Fortune 500 names — in nance, travel, technology and education and spans the globe. So far this year, Cyber Range teamed up with Global Secure Solutions in Ghana to expand its reach across Africa and signed a distribution deal in the Middle East.
Now at about 10 people — including former Post publisher Tori Hughes in Nashville and a technical team in Toronto — Gordon expects to at least double her sales and marketing squad in the coming six months with the help of some funding from two investors.
Jumping into the cybersecurity sphere has been an interesting change of pace for Gordon in terms of strategy and leadership. Snappy Auction grew quickly in the mid-2000s — from being bootstrapped to an $18 million business with a network of franchisees in just a few years — but there’s an extra urgency that comes with running Cloud Range.
“Other things I’ve done in the past were truly organic,” she says. “I have to move really fast here. ere’s not a lot of time.”
