In this video, Paul Paget, CEO of Black Kite, talks about the inception of the company and its journey to success. The company was co-founded by Candan Bolukbas, who is trailblazing cybersecurity avenues as a certified ethical hacker (CEH) for NATO.
Thanks to Candan’s expertise, NATO was able to uncover existing cybercriminal loopholes exposing member countries. Candan’s work led him to an epiphany: vulnerable third-party contractors were stepping stones to the primary target.
In 2016, realizing his insight had commercial implications, Candan and his team built a cyber risk rating platform that could identify, continuously monitor, and scale, sparking a revolution for what third-party cyber risk intelligence means to businesses today—and in the future.
Paget was connected with Candan through the early-stage investment community due to his passion for cybersecurity, specifically offensive security. They and Bob Maley, who had experience dealing with third-party risk at PayPal, identified a significant gap in the market and saw an opportunity to fill it.
Despite being significantly underfunded compared to their competition, they decided to focus on quantitative risk, differentiating themselves from other third-party vendor risk management systems that didn’t consider the cyber component. By partnering with industry players interested in their unique approach, they managed to secure a swift entry into the market, winning big brand name accounts and displacing incumbents who were not innovating or responsive to customer needs. The validation from these big accounts, two years into their operation, boosted their confidence and confirmed they were on the right track.
