Fortress Information Security LLC in 2021 landed on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the first time, but it was hardly the first time for the firm’s founders.
It’s the third of four companies founded by Peter Kassabov and Alex Santos to make the list. The Orlando-based cybersecurity company ranked No. 1,169 on the list with 414% revenue growth in the past four years.
Kassabov and Santos aim to replicate their past successes at Fortress.
Ventures where the two previously were co-founders, like Orlando-based Digital Risk and Orlando-based Connextions Health, were acquired last decade for hundreds of millions of dollars each. Kassabov said he views himself and Santos like Los Angeles Lakers star Lebron James, having to prove themselves with each business no matter how successful they were in the past.
The pair’s newest firm specializes in protecting supply chains and critical infrastructure, namely for utility organizations and Department of Defense clients. The growing digitalization of every industry and the increasing occurrence of cyber attacks means growing demand for cybersecurity services, and Kassabov said it’s likely Fortress will employ 1,000 people by 2024.
Fortress has opportunities to pick up clients in new sectors, as the company is in talks with satellite operators who may become customers, said Kassabov, executive chairman at Fortress. Fortress is willing to take clients in nearly any industry as long as its focus remains on protecting critical infrastructure in situations where lives are at stake, said Santos, CEO. That can mean providing cybersecurity services for pharmaceutical supply chains or water utilities.
Kassabov and Santos founded Fortress in 2015. The founders’ personal money, along with $12 million in outside investment, funded the launch and early growth of the company.
Currently, Fortress is on track to nearly double in size this year. The company started the year with 110 employees; it now employs 180 people and, with 28 job openings, it’s expected to reach the 200-employee mark imminently. Meanwhile, 2021 revenue is expected to double year-over-year, Santos said, though he declined to share a dollar amount.
Still, the company expects to kick its growth into a higher gear. Going forward, doubling in size is no longer the norm for the company. Instead, Fortress expects to triple in size or more each year, Kassabov said. “Our business is expanding virally.”
More growth at Fortress means the creation of jobs in the high-wage, high-demand cybersecurity sector. In metro Orlando, information security analyst jobs pay an average annual wage of $100,700, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s more than double the metro’s average annual wage of $48,530.
Of course, cybersecurity companies often face a challenge finding talent as technology disciplines, especially cyber, boast tight labor markets. That’s why Fortress emphasizes the grand scope of its mission — protecting critical infrastructure — and the range of skills workers can pick up while at the company when it seeks new hires, Santos said.
Those are points of emphasis for many cybersecurity firms, such as Command Post Technologies Inc., said CEO Scott Bisciotti. The Suffolk, Virginia-based cyber defense contractor in 2020 opened its first Orlando office. “For us, culture and retention are the highest priorities.”
It’s not just government clients creating big demand for cyber services. Cybersecurity is emerging as a priority in nearly every industry, which is one reason cybersecurity spending is expected to grow at a significant pace. In fact, market analysis firm Gartner Inc. projects the global information security market will be worth $170 billion by next year, up from $124 billion in 2019.
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