Cybersecurity is a critical aspect of any modern business or government, but the sophistication of hackers and other digital criminals is only growing. Washington, D.C.-based DataTribe wants to find and nurture the best of young cybersecurity startups, the ones who could protect governments and other groups in the future. But, DataTribe has its own twist on the usual accelerator format, looking to combine the kind data and security expertise found in government with the kind of umbrella operations usually associated with Silicon Valley.
"There's three and a half times more cybersecurity [experts] working for the government in the Beltway than the rest of the country," DataTribe co-founder Michael Janke told DC Inno in an interview. "Yet there's a seventieth of the [VC] money compared to Silicon Valley."
Janke has a deep knowledge of the importance and current state of international cybersecurity. He's the founder and former CEO of Silent Circle and spent twelve years as a member of SEAL Team 6. For DataTribe, he's teamed up with cybersecurity-focused venture capital firm Allegis Capital founder Robert Ackerman and former CIA officer and cybersecurity startup Onyara founder Steve Witt.
"I've developed a profound understanding of nation state capabilities [in cybersecurity] around the world," Janke said. "I've seen capabilities of government agencies, everything from the Australian Department of Energy to DARPA to Canadian intelligence."
"My 15-year-old daughter could have hacked OPM"
The three co-founders decided to build DataTribe into a very focused machine. Entrepreneurs and their ideas will join DataTribe, emerging after a year ready to scale a working product, supported by up to $1.5 million in seed funding potentially up to another $1.5 million from DataTribe leading a Series A round. And members of DataTribe's network will act as the 'Brain Trust,' as Janke put it to mentor and join the boards of the companies, as well as helping pick them to begin with. Each cohort will have only three startups, simply because of the need to not dilute focus.
"The Brain Trust helped us pick three out of 280 startups," Janke said. "It's not about volume. We're taking the sniper approach."
There's no denying that the kind of high-profile breaches of corporate and government digital security of the last few years have galvanized interest in cybersecurity companies, but both startups and government agencies have lagged behind in looking to fix them. For the Silicon Valley mindset, one issue is limited thinking in terms of time and the kind of big data needed, especially when it's frequently state-sponsored attacks, Janke explained.
"The problem is Silicon Valley is not close to what we call event horizon of cyber innovation," Janke said. "There's some reactive work but it has a low lifespan. We believe you need to be two to four years ahead [of current technology used by cyber criminals]."
Meanwhile, the government has an enormous amount of data but it's own limitations. Sometimes, the issue is how cybersecurity efforts are reactive rather than proactive. But, it can also just be a matter of bad security, the Office of Personnel Management hack last year being a prime example.
"My 15-year-old daughter could have hacked OPM," Janke said."[Government agencies have to] let go of the 'flavor of the month' of who got hacked way of thinking."
The companies in the first cohort bring their knowledge from places like the NSA and DARPA, and have a long-term way of planning for cyber threats, but will now have access to Silicon Valley-style company building help, not to mention the money, that Janke said will put them ahead, at least for a while. But, ultimately, it's not a war that can really be won outright.
"Can it stop? I don't think so," Janke said. ""It's cat and and mouse."
