After doubling its size and pivoting to provide more cyber security services and software development in the past year, Jacksonville-based OnDefend is looking to continue growing, this time to a bigger office.
The company began in 2015 testing cyber defenses for mostly local companies, but due to a confluence of Covid-19's acceleration of remote work and an increasing computer literate C-Suite, OnDefend has never been more sought after. During the past two years, the firm has expanded to provide a suite of defense software that Co-founder and Managing Partner Chris Freedman said has the potential to vastly expand their operation.
Since growing its software-side of the business, the firm has come to market with two programs so far, including pioneering software that will allow businesses to utilize the relatively new concept of purple teaming -- a combination of a red team of attackers and blue team of defenders common in cyber security -- named BlindSpot.
"We started as a services and consulting firm but one of the largest security firms in the world wanted to private label us," Freedman said. "Because of our success we've pivoted and are focusing on partnering with other security firms to offer our services and software directly to their customers."
Another driver of success, Freedman said, has been the growing cyber knowledge of C-Suite executives and new regulations and compliance mandates aimed at making companies more accountable for data breaches and other infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Freedman said because of their success and rapid growth -- more than doubling its workforce in the past year -- the company is looking for more space for the operation, hopefully he said, closer to the St. Johns Town Center. He said aside from his consultants and testers, the rest of his staff -- software developers, managers, sales associated and the marketing team -- are all in Jacksonville.
One of the big reasons for the new office -- aside from more square footage to place workers -- is that OnDefend recently hired former WJXT anchor Lauren Verno Patrick as vice president of marketing and communications to produce high quality videos for clients and for software demonstrations. To do that, a full production studio was needed. But that is something Patrick and Freedman said makes their company unique: They don't just produce video for themselves, but also as a service for their partners to help them grow and create a larger client base.
But it's not just Patrick, a big part of the recent hires have been women, which Chloe Christie, OnDefend's client success manager, said is unique for their industry and field.
"We've been hiring the best candidates we can find, they've just happened to be mostly women recently."
