CyberWire Daily - 2025 DataTribe Challenge: Forging the future of cyber. [Special Edition]

Episode Date: October 5, 2025

The DataTribe Challenge is a launchpad for elite cybersecurity and cyber-adjacent startups ready to break out. 2025 marks the 8th annual edition of the event with a change in venue and some exciting new updates. We take you on a journey from inception with Leo Scott, Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer at DataTribe, and 3 past DataTribe Challenge winners at different levels on their growth tracks following their participation in the event. You'll meet Anita D'Amico, former CEO of Code DX (acquired by Synopsis in 2021) and 2019 winner; Greg Baker, Co-Founder of Balance Theory and 2022 winner; and Brian Proctor, Founder and CEO of Frenos and 2024 winner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Dave Bittner. Now, full disclosure up front, the Cyberwire is a Data Tribe company, so yes, we'll admit we're tooting our own horn a bit in this episode, but with good reason. The Data Tribe Challenge has become one of the most. important stages for cybersecurity startups, helping bright ideas grow into industry leaders. In this CyberWire special edition, we're taking a closer look at the Data Tribe Challenge, a competition that's launched some of cybersecurity's most promising startups.

We'll hear from Brian Proctor of Fresnos, last year's winner, about what it takes to capture the top prize. Greg Baker from Balance Theory shares his experience inside the Data Tribe Foundry and what it means to prepare for the next big leap. And Anita D'Amico of Code Dax reflects on the full journey from challenge winner to a successful acquisition by synopsis. And since the Data Tribe challenge is the reason we're here, it's only fitting we hear from Leo Scott, chief innovation officer at Data Tribe. He's at the center of this program, guiding founders through the highs, the hurdles, and the big wins.

Well, Leo, let's start with some high-level stuff here. I mean, can you give us a little bit of the history of the Data Tribe Challenge of how it began and what led you to where we are today? Yes, so the Data Tribe Challenge, we've been running for now. This will be the eighth year. We started eight years ago in building an event that took place here in the Data Tribe office. In many of the years after that, we've run the data tribe. Data Tribe Challenge in the office, in our Maple Lawn office. And this year, we've decided to go

much larger and have moved down to a much larger venue down in the Washington, D.C. area, in the Navy Yard area, and have expanded to have an all-day event. Historically, the event was an afternoon event, mostly local and a few people would come in from out of town. But this year we've expanded to have an all-day event pushing to have a lot more people come in from out of town. And the event, it's not just the event, but it's become almost a whole program at this point where we will boil down to now five finalists and will then work with the finalists. We'll assign a coach from Data Tribe, a data tribe member for each of the five finalists. We'll coach them over a two to three week period, working on helping them to build out their messaging,

refine their messaging, all that goes into their pitch, and then they present live at the actual Data Tribe Challenge pitch competition. And why a competition? Why that format for this? Well, it's twofold. It gives opportunity for the actual startups to be able to get in front of a relatively large audience in a live situation. They're all out working on raising money, and so it's very important in that process for them to build relationships and get in front of as many venture firms as possible. The competition format will add excitement to the actual event and makes it an interesting event and can be a fun time for all to participate when they're actually watching the event. Tell me about the judges. It's quite an esteemed panel that I've seen you.

assemble year after year. Yes, yes. Each year we have a panel of five esteemed judges who are generally very senior cyber executive, cyber visionaries. This year is no exception. We have five great judges this year. The judges are Bob Ackerman, who's a co-founder at Data Tribe. Jason Clinton, who is the CISO and Anthropic. You can't really go a day without talking about AI. and Jason is right in the thick of things there at Anthropic and worrying about the security aspects of AI. We have Marty Roche, who's based in the area, a founder at SourceFire and now a founder and CEO at Netography.

We have Harry Coker, who was previously a national cyber director and is now at the Maryland Commerce Secretary at the state of Maryland. And then finally we have John Bruins who has been CISO in many different positions that started at actually this Howard County, moved to be the CISO at State of Maryland and then CISO at Anomily and is now working on a very interesting startup helping smaller organizations with cyber needs with the Cyber Ready Clinic that he's working on. Hmm. So what can we expect from the day itself? What's sort of, what's the flow of that day? Yeah. So this year, we will, the all-day agenda will start in the morning with networking breakfast, going into a keynote and a number of interesting panels in the morning talking about how innovation that is happening in a digital world impacts cybersecurity.

So cybersecurity is very interesting. that it's kind of the tail of the dog or the wake of a boat, and that as you have all the innovation going on in the digital world being the boat, and then cybersecurity is everybody running around trying to figure out how to deal with the wake. And so that's kind of a theme this year. And we cover that type of theme in these panels. We then have a lunch. And then in the afternoon. We have another very interesting panel, the Tech Podcast Host Showdown, which, Dave, you are going to be moderating that one. That should be an excellent time. And we'll go into really the main attraction of the afternoon is the Data Tribe Challenge pitch competition. And then finish it

off with cocktails, bourbon tasting, and a reception dinner. In terms of the companies who are applying for the competition, what is the sweet spot there? Who are you looking to attract? Yeah, we are looking for companies at the precede seed stage where they're looking to raise money, their really first institutional money. They'll generally have a product. They may or may not have their first customers. That's the type of company we're looking for. So really kind of just getting started in their journey and then they're looking to solve really over the horizon interesting really big problems and if you're at that stage and really working on big interesting over the horizon problems in the area of cybersecurity online trust digital privacy anything in the

general cyber arena tell me about some of the winners i mean they've gone on to success yes So every year, Datadribe has ended up investing in at least one of the finalists, mostly all the winners. And they have done very interesting things. So we've had nine of our portfolio companies are from the Data Tribe Challenge. We've had one of the Data Tribe Challenge winners from 2019, Nita Damiko from CodeX. They had the full experience. They joined Data Tribe in the Data Tribe.

Foundry. They built the company and ended up selling the company to synopsis for a great outcome for that company. What are the actual prizes here? What's at stake? Each year we offer $25,000 in prize money to the finalists. And the way that is allocated, each finalist will get $5,000. And then in terms of the winner, really the winner gets bragging rights of the the winning the challenge not 100% guaranteed we have historically invested in in the winner each year and so it's a very likely chance that that we will end up investing in the winner this year one of the really great aspects about really expanding the data type challenge and the overall all day event is the number of very high quality cyber oriented venture firms that are

are joining us this year. We've always had some venture firms, but we have a list that is really a who's who of cyber venture firms. And they will all be at the event listening intently to the pitches. And so if it's not Data Tribe, it could be one of many, many other venture firms that could find what the winner or the finalist is doing and could end up investing. Yeah, I think it's a really good point that, you know, beyond what's at stake here with the prizes, this is really an opportunity for an up-and-coming cyber company to be seen. Exactly. Yes. I mean, I think that's one of the biggest opportunities. There's some of the value ad of coaching, but also just being able to get in front of all of these great venture firms at a time where most all of these companies

are looking to raise is super valuable for them. Who do you want to come to the event? itself, who you're looking for the attendees? Yeah, so we have four types, really, of attendees. It is the event overall is an invite-only event, but we keep somewhat of a control of who's coming. But the main set of attendees includes, obviously, all the early-stage cyber startups, and really any stage cyber startup we are inviting

and is more than welcome to join us. there's the cyber-oriented venture firms or if it's not 100% cyber-oriented venture, cyber-curious at least venture firms. We also have cyber executives, tech execs, tech and cyber visionaries. That's a third group. And then the final group this year,

we're really pushing on that early over-the-horizon view. And so we're inviting university researchers as well. And so we'll even have some of the university researchers participating in the event as well. Leo Scott is Chief Innovation Officer at Data Tribe. Anita D'emico led CodeDX from Challenge Winner to Foundry participant to successful acquisition by Synopsis. Anita has seen the full arc of what this program can deliver,

and she shares her perspective on how the challenge shape that journey. So today we're talking about the journey that you had with CodeDX and specifically how that interacted with the Data Tribe challenge. I'd love to start off with a little bit of the background here. What led you to the position where you were part of CodeDX? CodeX was a spinoff from another company that I was at where I was the director of a division.

That division was specifically focused on cybersecurity R&D. And for about 15 years, I had been pursuing mostly government-funded cybersecurity R&D. We would look at a hard problem in cybersecurity and do analyses and build prototypes of potentially groundbreaking technology. So I decided that it was important to take some of that research and apply it, turn it into operational solutions. And so I went on several efforts of trying to commercialize the results of various research projects. And each time I did it and failed or became a little bit more successful, I learned something through the process. And finally, when I had a research project that led to the CodeDX technology, I realized that we could no longer be part of a services company. We were doing software services and research services.

And instead, I needed a product company that would stand on its own. So we spun out a separate company, Code DX Incorporated, which was designed to commercialize the results of our DHS funded R&D. After that, I became the CEO of CodeDX and started commercializing the results. We already had the technology developed. We were fortunate to have that technology funded by a combination of DHS, R&D funding, as well as an investment from the owner of the company from which we were spun out of, which was Applied Visions Incorporated. So we had a technology we had about a dozen customers, and we needed more funding. With CODX, I was in an unusual position because we had about a dozen customers

and a little less than a million dollars in ARR and a renewal rate, a very nice 90% renewal rate. And so we weren't exactly positioned for early seed funding, but we were not big enough for Series A. And I went on a quest to find an investor that could see the value of what we were doing and put some money into it. And that wound up being Data Tribe. Yeah, what led you to finding Data Tribe

and ultimately the Data Tribe challenge? Data Tribe found me. I had been looking at various, VCs and wasn't having a lot of luck. And then I ran into John Funge at a Wall Street conference. I was actually pitching somebody else at the table further down. And John kind of sidled up and said, hey, you know anything about Data Tribe? And I said, no.

And he had heard the story about how we had worked on various government-funded R&D. and he said, well, we're situated right outside of Washington, D.C., and we're very interested in the kinds of technology that companies like you develop. And it's turned out that the following week, I was going to be at NSA for another reason, and you know the Data Tribe sits not very far from NSA. So I wound up going down there and talking to John. and what ultimately led you to participating in the data tribe challenge a great opportunity to put code dx in front of a lot of people uh not only a data tribe but other investors and and other consultants and to actually tell our story i was also really interested in participating

because I thought the process of doing the challenge itself, even if we didn't win, would be very valuable. The kind of structure that the Data Tribe challenge imposes on a startup requires you to be able to tell your story succinctly and to really in a very short period of time show the value of not only the technology, but the business. So that's what I thought would be very beneficial for us. Can you take us through that experience?

I mean, from heading up to get up on that stage and presenting your story, what was that like for you? I think that doing the actual presentation was probably the least nerve-wracking experience. It was the two days prior to that that was very difficult and challenging. That was the real Data Tribe challenge was to have what I thought was a really good pitch, basically get taken apart by the Data Tribe Challenge team. And they said, you know, it's not making the point here. It's not making the point there.

This is good. That's not good. and just doing this constant iteration of the pitch. So doing all that before I actually got on the stage was, I think, the most difficult part. I'm one of those people that I'm very nervous before I present, but once I'm in there for about 60 seconds, I just roll with it. And so the experience of presenting our story to the esteemed panel of judges, I'm couldn't believe the quality of the judges that I was briefing, as well as the audience,

it was really exciting and invigorating and just gave me an incredible amount of energy. I was, as I said, initially nervous, but once the judges started asking questions, I just got really excited and felt like, bring it on. This is good. Now, you weren't the only one presenting that day, that this is a competition for funding. After all the groups had presented and you were waiting to see who ultimately was going to be the winner,

what was that moment like? Once I got off the stage, quite honestly, what I really wanted to do was get something to eat. I listened a bit to the other pitches, but once you have that level of excitement and you get all I was all revved up and now I was hungry and and I just wanted to sit back and whatever happened happened it was like it was just like a lot of relaxation afterwards and and and I had to get something to eat I know that's not the example, the response you probably were thinking about. It's authentic. Well, let's

go to the actual moment. What was the announcement like for you? It was very exciting to have the announcement made. All of the judges agreed. It was a consensus. There was no, no judge that didn't agree with the other ones. And so it was very exciting that it was a unanimous decision. that I think was one of the most exciting things was the unanimous decision and it didn't take them too long to make that decision and then when I got up there I was just so happy for my team and I wanted the director of sales to come up Curtis Bragnan and I wanted our CTO up there Ken Pearl and the person who helped invest in the fund and it initially Frank Singini who was was the CEO of the company from which we respond out, it just seemed like this shared dream

come true. And it also felt like the beginning of another chapter. There was both the excitement of winning, but then the excitement of knowing that we were about to get involved in something even bigger. Well, let's continue the journey. I mean, you take on this funding from Data Tribe and ultimately that led to an exit, an acquisition, take us through what happened next. You win the money? What's day two look like? So we win the money. I remember looking at the screen of the bank account and having the bank account go from like $100,000 to $2,100,000, taking screenshots of it. very exciting. But here's the thing. After you win the Data Tribe Challenge, for us, there was a lot more work to do. And that had to do with really building out the company. Now, I was already

somewhat more mature than some of the other companies that win the Data Tribe Challenge. Codex was spun out from another business. We already had customers. we already had ARR, we already had technical staff. And we had, we were buying services for HR and for accounting and bookkeeping, those types of things. So we had that built out. But what we didn't have, which Data Tribe helped us with incredibly, was the structure for a product company that was going to grow rapidly. And we needed help with our financials, setting up the financials for a subscription business,

for setting up financials that would appeal to Series A investors or, as it turned out, to acquirers. We needed help in recruiting the next level of staff. We needed somebody who was a director of marketing, a vice president of sales, all those things that make a product company successful far away above and beyond what the technology is. Because the technology could be great. But if you don't have all those other things in place, your company's not going to grow. And that's what happened in the first two to three months after winning the Data Tribe Challenge was filling out those pieces of the company's structure and the talent pool. What was it like for you on the day when you signed things over when ultimately the company

got sold? The months leading up to the sale of the company were very exciting. They were anxiety-provoking, but very exciting. We were in the hunt for a series A, and it was still just, during COVID, so it was a little bit tough. I had had two prior Series A offers in tentative offers, verbals, which I didn't like and turned down. And so I was really thought that we were, our valuation should be higher. And so we went back, retooled, and we're really looking for a good series A. So that was in about January of 2021. I retooled my retooled my,

deck for Series A and started going after other Series A investors. And we got a call from Synopsis Software Integrity Group, actually a LinkedIn, a LinkedIn message from Synopsis Software Integrity Group that said, hey, we're kind of interested in your technology. And I actually knew the general manager there from prior business relationships for years before. And so I said, well, sure, we could show you the technology, but just so you know, we are on the hunt for Series A, and that train has left the station. So I'm not exactly sure what your intentions are, but if you're thinking, he said, are you interested in acquisition? I said, well, it wasn't on my radar. We're pursuing Series A, but if you want to put it on my radar,

well, fine, you should just know that as soon as I get a good series A evaluation, I'm going to take it. And so what happened was that there actually became a race. It was from about February and March, February and March was, who was going to come in first? Was it going to be an acquirer or a Series A investor? There was about one week in March of 2021 when I had three verbal offers on the table, two series A and one acquisition. Now, probably the most anxiety-provoking part of all this

was to turn down two series A verbals in order to go with an acquisition with the risk that if we did not pass the due diligence, I was right back at square one. So the due diligence was really critical. But at the time we got to the day of acquisition, which was in June of 2021, we were exhausted from the due diligence.

But I would imagine that that was something that the folks at Data Tribe had helped, helped you prepare for along the way. Like you were saying, all that financial stuff probably put you in a much better position than you would have been on your own. Is it fair to say that? Absolutely.

Being part of the Data Tribe Foundry really helped prepare us for the due diligence. Because as Bob Ackerman and Mike Shanky had told me a long time before, whatever you do for a Series A is going to prepare you for an acquisition. So you don't think that it's a different path. You still have to show the same type of financials, the same value prop,

the same customer stickiness, those types of things. And so the kinds of preparations that Data Trived helped us with in preparing our financials was really key to due diligence. I'd say there were two big things that helped us in two diligence, Number one was Data Tribe's advice. Number two was the history of having prepared countless number of government proposals in response to a government RFP. If you've worked government RFPs for a decade, you know that whatever they ask you for, you give them. You don't ask why.

you put it in the most clear and succinct form possible and exactly in the format that they wanted. And that's what due diligence requires. It's not a time for creativity. No, and in fact, the acquirer synopsis said to us that we had done our due diligence, the first stage of our due diligence, faster than any company they had ever acquired.

I remember receiving on a Friday night something like 1,700 data items and having a majority of them fulfilled within two weeks. It's quite a success story. Did you ever pinch yourself? Yeah, it's like a Cinderella story. It is, I tell people that this is a Cinderella story. This is the story that, to me, almost every cybersecurity researcher wishes that they could live, the journey that they wish that they could do, that you start with a research idea, some concept, and you think, I wonder what that would be like when it grows up. and you actually go through the whole growth of that research idea into a business idea

and then into funding it and then growing it and then seeing it and get incorporated into another company and become something bigger and then see all of the staff on your team grow and blossom into other roles. It's just like the perfect arc for anybody who is doing research and wants to see their research eventually get into operations. And Data Tribe was a key component of that. And Data Tribe was absolutely essential to that journey. That's Anita Domingo from Code DX.

We'll be right back. Next up is Greg Baker, co-founder of balance theory. His team came through the challenge and joined the Data Tribe Foundry, where they've been building momentum toward their next stage of growth. Greg walks us through that experience and what it means to prepare for the leap into a series A. So before we dig into some of the details about the Data Tribe challenge and your involvement with that, can you give us a little description about balance theory and your part in that organization? Absolutely. Balance theory. So we're a seed stage startup, part of the Data Tribe investment portfolio.

It's myself and my two co-founders, Lisa and Nate, and we're part of the foundry. We actually, we're one of the past challenge winners and a little bit about what Balance Theory does. is we sit at the intersection of a security program's strategy and spend management. So we're really like FinOps for cybersecurity, where we go in and help CSOs align the components of their overall strategy when it comes to what controls do they need, how are they thinking about the forward-looking components of their roadmap, and then we rationalize their spend across achieving those areas from what products they're investing in. to what services they're consuming.

And what we do is we go help optimize that spend and allow CSOs to really extend what they're doing with their budget to drive better coverage for their cybersecurity program and maybe achieve things a little bit ahead of schedule on their cybersecurity strategy that they otherwise might not be able to. So it's a fully agentic approach, leveraging best-of-breed technology to really give time back to CSOs and not just time, but real dollars associated with it.

Well, let's go back in time together here. What's your recollection of when you first heard about the Data Tribe challenge and it caught your interest? Well, we've known about Data Tribe for a while. So myself and my co-founders, we actually come out of the intelligence community. And one of Data Tribe's big value propositions is they help folks transition out of intelligence into the commercial world and build scalable businesses around some of that technology. This is actually our second startup, and, you know, the first one we bootstrapped without venture

capital. But the second one, when we went to the table for venture capital, Data Tribe was top of our list. So myself and the co-founders, we sit here in Maryland. Data Tribe's Foundry is right here. We've known about them for a long time and had other friends and associates that had built companies as part of the Data Tribe. So kind of was all just, serendipitous timing when we were going to launch this new company it was getting you know it was really leading right up to when the challenge was going to run so we decided to apply and i i guess the rest is history well let's walk through that process together i mean once you applied and you found out you were accepted what was it like building your pitch well um you know times have

probably changed from back then to now in terms of what it looks like to build a pitch but But we had a core concept and a kind of band-back-together team, understanding that really the space we wanted to go in was a space that we had a lot of experience with and understood the pain points we were trying to go after. So for us, it was taking something that is kind of really a niche part of cybersecurity, which is where how the channel plays into it, how folks leverage VARs and SIs to help with spend management, with strategy management, and kind of bringing those things together. other. So, you know, I'm a rather verbose person, Dave. So being able to simplify that message and bring it down into a couple of people at points why we think this was going to work and really being able to demonstrate the technology was kind of step one. Data Tribe always really says, hey, pass the mom test, which is, can you explain this like you would what you're working on to your mom? And they didn't just help us after we applied, you know, get into the challenge and be

evaluated, but they give you really a set of expert coaches that partner with you in preparing that pitch. And I would say it's really an invaluable experience because, you know, ultimately that pitch we were used, you know, for a year after even entering into the challenge in terms of how we drove go to market, how we talk to investors, how we talk to clients, and informed a lot about it. But it really just comes through iteration and simplification. So being able to take all the things you want to say. And most founders have a lot of things they want to say about their company and simplifying it into really just a couple of key points. How about the day itself? As you were walking up there in that competitive environment to take the stage, what sort of things were going

through your mind? Well, other than, you know, did I wear the right stuff where I'm not going to be sweating through my shirt up there on stage? You know, it was really just excitement to get there and tell our story. I think that there's so much innovation happening in this space today. My experience so far is that has been less of a cutthroat mentality between companies. It's more kind of, you know, that tribe mentality of everybody's there to help each other do better to bring their products to market, to think about what's happening in the industry. And that was really the vibe of the challenge, getting to meet and build lasting relationships with some of the other folks that had entered, doing that in the spirit of,

you know, everybody wants to win, but you're kind of rooting for each other through that process. And then ultimately, when we ended up winning, being able to really help on the back of that kind of publicity promote others as well. So there was probably a lot more going through my head at the time. This was two years ago. But, you know, making sure that I hit the high points, I will tell you that we do a dry run rehearsal the night before. And I think my dry run rehearsal, I completely bombed my talking points. So while my co-founders went and took some of the CISOs we had invited into town out to dinner, I think I stayed back in our office at the time, which was a very small little startup office,

just rehearsing and rehearsing to make sure that I got it right the next day. And I think it turned out pretty well. Yeah. Well, ultimately, you won the day. So that, in a way, is just the beginning. So what can a company expect after they win? What happens next? We really like Data Tribe. We won. We weren't 100% sure which way that would go in terms of investment. I mean, you ultimately, you know, obviously on the back of winning, they were very interested in the team and what we were working on. So from there, it was, okay, well, what does this look like to get married to a set of a set of a company? investors because that's really what it's like. And Data Tribe was, you know, Data Tribe and Tedco were the first money into balance theory. So we went through the whole process of what it would look like, how would we form the board, you know, how to share options work and, you know,

what's the valuation, all those types of things. But we moved through that pretty quickly as a team. And then it really transitioned into outside in judgment to inside out co-building. So I can't recommend, you know, the data tribe itself more than really any other VC out there. And again, our experience is somewhat limited, but they don't just focus on, you know, we gave you money. Are you hitting performance goals? They really do take an invested approach and helping round out the rough edges of the team, think through what should be being built, even today, two years later. It's not just in board meetings that we're talking. It's on a weekly basis. They're helping us across product, across go-to-market, across positioning, fundraising,

really kind of across the board. So it's really like having another co-founder, but with extensive reach and experience being involved in the company. So for those that are at seed stage in a fast-moving environment, I couldn't recommend it more. Yeah, it's sort of my next question is for those folks who are considering entering the challenge, what would your words of wisdom be? Simplify that pitch, make sure that you feel really confident. Definitely don't do it live for the first time, practice, and make sure that you go through and kind of round out the rough edges.

But also be bullish on what your concept is. Be open. Everybody's going to have an opinion on what your business could look like and where it should go, so you get a lot of noise and a lot of signal, but you're starting your business for a reason, and you're trying to go solve a problem. So be bullish on the problem, be bullish on the solution, and apply with that level of confidence that you're the team and that can go execute on bringing it to market. So I will say that confidence above all is probably the best thing to try to lead with. And then from there, be open to that feedback and

criticism and the ability to fail fast and test ideas and refine and make sure the things that you're bullish on are proven and work. But yeah, just you don't know unless you put yourself out there. So you can definitely spend a lot of time on whiteboards with the team thinking through all the ways to be successful. The best way to really test that is to put it out there into the world, get that feedback, see how it resonates, and then move really quickly towards where the value is going to be. And the challenge is a great way to take founders that have either not done it before or want to go test that market and put them right in the center stage where you can get that feedback. So even if you're not raising money, but you're thinking about raising

money in the future, or you even just want the opportunity to get in front of some of the smartest minds out there in cybersecurity, you should definitely apply. What about the event itself for folks who just want to come and check out the competition, see what it's all about. Can you describe what that day is like? Oh, it's great. It's, you know, I think Data Tribe does a great job at making it, you know, that right hybrid of learning, but also networking and building connections. So, you know, the day's broken up very well, where you have the opportunity to meet other founders or investors or potential clients, kind of in all this mixing bowl type of environment where everybody's there to learn and everybody's there to have a conversation and

talk about what they're doing. And then you huddle up and you get a session, whether or not that's a pitch or an update on what's happening in the market or what the market's doing in terms of trends. You know, it's kind of like a fire hose of information and networking all kind of condensed into one event. But I do think this year, it's actually spread out with a bit more time. It's more of an all-day type of event than it is a kind of condensed way that it was previously. So I'm really looking forward to to the format kind of update this year because, you know, I joke

with the Data Tribe team that it would be great if we had the ability to do one of these challenges like every quarter versus once a year because myself as a founder and part of the Data Tribe actually take so much away from these events when they do happen. Yeah. And hold them in Hawaii. Yeah, Hawaii.

And all expenses paid, right? Well, there's a lot we can add to that list. Right. All right. Well, Greg, I think I have everything I need for our story here. Is there anything I missed, anything I haven't asked you that you think it's important to share? You know, probably not much. I think that great and perfect is the enemy of good. And, you know, make sure that even if you're thinking, is this a good idea to submit or not, you should err on the side of submitting because, you know, I will tell you,

if you go back and looked at what we talked about, we were going to be doing as a company, even when we won the Data Tribe event to where our product and, you know, what our client base looks like now, it just evolves. The market evolves, what you're working on evolves. So, you know, it's really just, it's not going to be perfect. Just put it out there, get the feedback, see how it resonates with the market and with these thought leaders that you only get an opportunity, you know, so many times in your life to get in front of and seize the day. That's Greg Baker, co-founder of Balance Theory. Brian Proctor is co-founder of Frenos.

Last year's winner of the Data Tribe Challenge, Frenos is building solutions to help defenders get ahead of fast-moving threats. And Brian joins us to share what it was like to take home the top prize and what comes next for his company. So we started Frenos in January of 2024. And like many startups, we went out. and tried to identify kind of seed investors to really fund our seed investment

and really start growing our company. So Franus, what we are, we are the first AI-O-T cybersecurity company out there really trying to help people understand their OT security posture and proactively defend against today's threats. So we were in early, early stage company, just coming out of stealth and obviously talking to a variety of venture capitalist firms and angel investors to see who wanted to kind of be part of our company

and fund the first step in our journey. And after talking to a variety of people and investors all across the country and world actually, we ran into the data drive challenge. actually someone in the community, in the O.T. Cybersecurity community, Rob M. Lee, CEO of Dregos, who's also an advisor for us. Actually, his company, Dregos was funded by Data Tribe.

Their seed investment was also funded by Data Tribe. And he said, hey, Data Tribe has an annual challenge. This might be something you want to participate in. And he connected us with the folks over at Data Tribe. and got to meet Leo and John and Mike Janky over there and kind of talked about it. And, yeah, so obviously challenges, pitch challenges and these kind of startup challenges is kind of a common thing.

There's a variety of VCs who do it. And obviously, Data Tribe's background and experience in cybersecurity, as well as in operational technology or OT, yeah, just kind of a perfect fit for us. us and made sense for us to apply and we were a finalist and had had uh got lucky enough to actually win so yeah well i mean tell us about that experience as you were once you made the decision that this is something you were going to go for uh what sort of ball gets rolling after that yeah so like many challenges there's certain um um criteria normally it's it's a pitch you get a

certain amount of time on stage in front of the audience and in front of the judges. So kind of what happens next is you kind of really kind of understand what the various constraints are. I think the Datatripe challenge, I think it was maybe 10 minutes of my memory serves me correctly. So it's really about putting together the best pitch. And part of that pitch, obviously, is a deck and a PowerPoint. And so, yeah, we've worked tirelessly with graphic artists and our team to really put together the most compelling pitch that really hits a variety of topics, not just what our technology is, but who we are, what our backgrounds are.

Because obviously, the founders and the initial team play a huge role, especially in early stages. because investors are investing in the team, mostly, and then what our vision is and what our progress has been over time. So we refined that pitch and that deck for a couple months to really, yeah, make sure that we go up there and give a impactful speech and talk. And then, of course, really hit those various areas that we thought, the judges and the audience members would like to hear. And so, yeah, just preparation of the presentation,

refining it, how we rehearsed the pitch, I can't tell you, probably 100 times. And my other co-founders and other team members critiqued it and a lot of late nights and don't say this word and say that word. So, yeah, fun and time stressful process because you want to go up there and make sure you give your best performance because that's what it is, right? It's you are on stage, all eyes on you, and yeah, you want to make sure you knock it out of the park. Yeah. Well, set the stage for us here.

I mean, it's, you know, it's the day of the challenge. You know you're going to be going on stage any moment now. The room is full of people. what sort of thoughts are going through your head? Great, great question. Yeah, so what's great about the challenge is there's kind of some talks before and you get to meet people before. It's an audience of LPs and Data Tribe as well as other investors in the community,

cybersecurity community, as well as representatives from the cybersecurity community as well. Knowing that, yeah, it's so there's talks and then kind of the highlight of the night is the pitch challenge. So we had four finalists and we were lucky enough to be the last one to go. So we had an opportunity to kind of see the first three. But we wanted to kind of spice it up a little bit. And instead of just walking on stage, we actually wanted. We're fans of Morgan Wallen, if you're into country music, actually, and what he's known for, B.A. for coming on stage is kind of walking up to a certain song

and kind of having a camera following backstage as he walks up to the stage. So we, Dave, actually, we re-enacted a Morgan Wallen walkout as part of our presentation to try to just kind of build some hype and build. some energy and walked right on stage and gave our talk. So yeah, it's it. And then the talk consisted of me, my co-founder and CTO Harry. And yeah, in front of the five judges. And after we gave our 10-minute pitch, the judges asked a variety of questions on a variety of topics. And so you kind of get grilled for a little bit. And then, yeah, you sit and wait. The judges debate who wins. And yeah, we were popping bottles of champagne once we heard our

name. So it was a great, great, great day for us at Freanos. And what is the day after like when you realize, you know, you have won, you're going to get this investment. It's got to be a feeling of excitement. But I would imagine also you got a lot of work to do now. Well, Dave, actually, to correct you a little bit. There's not a guarantee investment if you are a winner, actually. So we didn't have a term sheet. Obviously, at that time,

we were talking with in investors. We actually formally started officially raising probably about 30 days before the Data Tribe Challenge happened. To answer your question, we won the challenge. And obviously, we got a lot of great video.

shots and social media posts announcing that we won, which was fantastic. And that really, quite honestly, was a rocket ship for us to really gain awareness, not just within like social media and our connections in the community, but because a lot of investors, investors outside of Data Tribe were there, it really validated kind of our vision. and thoughts. So winning really helped us get some term sheets, one from Data Tribe, as everyone knows.

They are our lead seed investor, but we actually got other terms sheets from other investors as well outside of Data Tribe. So it really catapulted our and launched us and sped up kind of the fundraising process, which is obviously as an early stage startup who's looking to raise money, That's the overall goal.

So it was a great catalyst for us to really close our round and really get to work and really start building our company. And what's the last year or so been like for you and your colleagues there? Yeah, rapid growth. Absolutely rapid growth. So Franos was three of us. There's three founders, myself, Harry, and Eric. And so after we raised the money, we, we, formally became employees. So we didn't have any salaries or anything like that. So we officially

became employees, salary employees. And then we started hiring and really building the team. So your seed phase of your company is really focused on product market fit and ensuring you build a product in proving that your product is really meeting the needs of the verticals and industries that you're focusing on. So for us, that's operational security or operational technology or industrial control systems. And so, yeah, we immediately started building, really focusing on product first, right? So hiring developers and AI folks to come join our team and build on top of what we already had. And so, yeah, now, geez, we're eight full-time employees. We've probably

got seven full-time contractors. So we're about 15, 16 people currently. Yeah, we've got a good amount of customers and good revenues. So things really have taken off since we, yeah, closed around and got the money, which was in late January of this year. Yeah. What's your advice for an organization or a founder who's thinking about participating in the Data Tribe Challenge? I would say if you're looking to raise around, get exposure to a variety of venture capitalists and have a platform to really rocket launch you into kind of the later stage of the fundraising process, you 100% absolutely need to be part of the Data Tribe Challenge. So I would say definitely submit your application and get an opportunity to participate.

I couldn't recommend it more, just the exposure and the outcomes, not just for me and for us, but I think if you look at the other previous winners of the Day Tribe Challenge, there's been a variety of successful companies and even exits. So, yeah, for any founders out there that are looking to raise around, definitely would recommend participating and applying to be in the challenge. What about the event itself, you know, people who are not participating in the challenge, but just coming to be in the audience, to see what's being presented. And, you know, there's a social aspect as well. it's a worthwhile event in itself? Yes, absolutely. As I mentioned and touched upon earlier,

not just VCs, but CISOs, CISOs, as well as folks from the intelligence community, angel investors, a variety of folks who support startups as well from marketing to PR to design folks. So it's really an event that brings together a variety of different folks.

And it's just not about the challenge as well. As I mentioned, there are pre-sessions and talks from CISOs and CEOs and VCs on a variety of topics. So it's a fun pack day. And normally it ends in a bourbon, a bourbon tasting, which is always fun. So if you have a thing for bourbon, yeah, that's always a good way to end the night as well. That's our Cyberwire special edition. And yes, as a Data Tribe company, we know we've been singing our own praises here, but the track record speaks for itself. The challenge has helped companies like Franos, balance theory, and code DX move from big ideas to real impact.

We're excited to see what this year's innovations will bring. Thanks for listening.