So, you’ve got this fancy new cybersecurity technology. Before a virus or cyberattack comes along, how do you know if it works?
Craig Stevenson grappled with the answer to that question while working at Raytheon. He found it effective to make a replica of the company’s network infrastructure, then hurl viruses at it and analyze the response. It worked, but it took weeks to set up just one clone, so the engineer set out on nights and weekends to find a faster solution.
After two years of development, he finally created super-speed cloning software that eventually became HyperQube. In fall 2017, Stevenson and his tech were accepted into local cybersecurity accelerator Mach37 (he quit his Raytheon job a day before starting the cohort!), and he officially launched the startup in January 2018.
Arlington-based HyperQube builds exact copies of a company’s IT infrastructure in minutes, allowing them to be modified, re-used and shared. Clients use it to unleash viruses and see exactly how their networks will respond, or beyond cybersecurity, they see how software updates, outages and hardware changes impact a system before deploying them.
Aside from testing environments, HyperQube’s products include platforms for remote collaboration and cybersecurity training.
Despite just getting started, it’s off to a red-hot start in 2019, already signing partnerships with the National Guard, Forrester, Cisco and a Department of Homeland Security agency.
“We had solved the problem of copying virtual infrastructure, but were figuring out, ‘How do I frame this in a way companies understand and are willing to pay for it?’” Stevenson told Inno. “We cracked that toward end of 2018 and it’s been an unbelievably wild ride in 2019 so far.”
To start fulfilling those contracts, HyperQube recently raised a $500,000 seed funding round to accelerate sales and development and add key hires to the executive team.
Investors included a who’s who of the local cybersecurity industry: Adam Ghetti of Ionic Security, Michael Wellman and Dmitry Dain of Virgil Security, the MACH37 cybersecurity accelerator, the CIT Gap Fund and local investor Kathryn Stewart. It currently has three full-time employees.
“It was easy to raise capital once the Forrester contract happened,” Stevenson said. “We figured out that through solving a $100,000 to $200,000 problem for educational institutions, we ended up solving a billion-dollar problem just trying to get enterprises to clone infrastructure.”
He said the company has about five current clients so far in 2019, with a projected seven-figure sales total by the end of the year.
