SeeMetrics is a Cybersecurity Performance Management (CPM) platform that transforms the way security leaders measure, track, and improve stack performance. Pulse 2.0 interviewed SeeMetrics CEO and co-founder Shirley Salzman to learn more about the company.
Shirley Salzman’s Background
What is Salzman’s background? Salzman said:
“It might be surprising for some readers to learn that I serve as the CEO of a cybersecurity startup. Traditionally, CEOs in the cyber industry often have a background in cyber-related fields, frequently having served in elite military units. This experience equips them with the expertise needed to excel in cybersecurity. However, I break from the norm as a woman without a direct cyber background. I believe my strength lies in this unique perspective. In my previous roles, I worked extensively with C-suite and senior government executives, specializing in conveying technical information to non-technical audiences. SeeMetrics continues this trend by simplifying the complexities of cybersecurity operations into a language understandable by business leaders. As cybersecurity becomes increasingly crucial to business management and risk management, aligning security with business objectives remains a critical challenge.”
“Drawing from my commercial marketing background and partnering with experts in security and data, we founded SeeMetrics to address the gap in consolidating security data for management purposes. We aim to provide security leaders with a simple, centralized platform to bridge the gap between intricate cybersecurity operations and the crucial insights required by management, boards, and business leaders. Today, the disparity between available data and leadership’s ability to derive insights remains a significant challenge.”
Formation Of SeeMetrics
How did the idea for the company come together? Salzman shared:
“When founding SeeMetrics, we sought to identify what was missing in the work of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). Recognizing the increasing pressure on CISOs to demonstrate value without a centralized source of performance insights, we focused on the interface of data and security. Unlike their peers in sales, marketing, and finance who benefit from centralized insights platforms, CISOs often lack such tools. Our goal is to provide them with real-time performance insights derived directly from their operational stack, enabling them to track, measure and communicate the performance of their security programs effectively.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Salzman reflected:
“My first proud moment was successfully concluding SeeMetrics’ seed funding round, securing $6 million. This not only validated SeeMetrics as a significant startup but also showcased our commitment to enhancing the security and business interface. Closing our first deals further validated our team’s contribution to the industry. The next proud moment I recall was signing our first multi-year contract with a major customer.
Core Products
What are SeeMetrics’ core products and features? Salzman explained:
“SeeMetrics is a Cybersecurity Performance Management (CPM) platform designed to enable security leaders to measure, track, and improve stack performance using real-time data. By translating complex cybersecurity operations into a language understandable by business leaders, SeeMetrics facilitates communication and alignment between security and business objectives. The platform provides a centralized view of measurements, metrics, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), empowering security leaders to make informed decisions based on historical trends and benchmarks. SeeMetrics addresses the challenge of the increasing amount of data and the lack of visibility into tool performance faced by CISOs.”
“Our Security Performance Boards offer out-of-the-box metrics for various security domains, providing a holistic view for security executives and operational teams. SeeMetrics’ customizable cybersecurity performance boards allow security leaders to tailor their narratives to different stakeholders, offering flexibility in selecting metrics that align with specific needs and goals.”
“We have also recently launched our Governance Boards, in correlation with NIST CSF 2.0 expansion including the Govern function. The three boards, CISO Lay of the Land Board ****(provides security decision-makers with a rapid and intuitive understanding of overall system performance, enabling informed and timely responses to safeguard the organization), CISO Policy Enforcement Board (A centralized dashboard designed to oversee and enforce a cohesive set of policies that are currently most important for the CISO to track on a daily basis) and NIST Functions Dedicated Board (corresponding with all of the NIST functions, providing a systematic approach to cybersecurity management) will allow security leaders to effectively govern and manage their policies, processes, and KPIs driven by organizational context, with a clear connection between risk and business strategy.
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Salzman and the team faced in building the company? Salzman acknowledged:
“During my tenure at Logic, I confronted challenges as the sole woman on a team of men, suspecting pay disparities. In 2015, I discovered a significant wage gap and, after careful consideration, took legal action. The five-year legal battle resulted in a victory, making me the first woman in Israel to win a court case regarding unequal wages in the high-tech sector. This experience reinforced my commitment to justice and highlighted the importance of addressing inequality.”
Evolution Of SeeMetrics’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Salzman noted:
“In July 2023, SeeMetrics launched Security Performance Boards, providing out-of-the-box metrics for various security domains. These boards offer a centralized and business-aligned view of measurements, metrics, and KPIs, aiding cybersecurity executives in proactive risk detection.”
“The next step was the introduction of Customizable Cybersecurity Performance Boards allowing security leaders to tailor their narratives using a library of ready-to-use metrics, offering flexibility at both the board and metric levels. The next step to these boards was customization: CISOs could reflect what mattered to them most, while filtering based on context, to be able to identify trends that are specific to a certain business unit or geography. The performance boards and the customization aspect allow CISOs to garner specific insights, which is simply impossible if they are working with spreadsheets.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Salzman cited:
“The cybersecurity world is undergoing a major transformation these days when NIST CSF is expanding its framework for the first time in a decade, since 2014. It has added the Govern function. We at SeeMetrics see how this expansion correlates with SeeMetrics’ approach to Cybersecurity Performance Management and launched a dedicated set of boards helping CISOs govern. They are focused on granting a panoramic oversight to the CISO and CISO’s team. With these boards, which are out-of-the-box (OOTB) collections of ready-to-use metrics, security leaders will manage their policies, processes, and KPIs driven by organizational context and a clear connection between risk and business strategy:
1.) CISO Lay of the Land Board – The primary purpose of this board is to provide security decision-makers with a rapid and intuitive understanding of overall system performance, enabling informed and timely responses to safeguard the organization.
2.) CISO Policy Enforcement Board ****– A centralized dashboard designed to oversee and enforce a cohesive set of policies that are currently most important for the CISO to track on a daily basis.
3.) NIST Functions Dedicated Board – This board corresponds with all of the NIST functions, providing a systematic approach to cybersecurity management.
Security Stack
What is an ideal security stack to deal with modern threats? Could you provide examples from your case studies and customer stories? Salzman emphasized:
“There is no ideal or modern security stack. Each company has its own needs and priorities. What is new and needs to be integrated into the management approach is the visibility across its operations. Siloed data narratives coming from each of the individual tools fail to convey a centralized or comprehensive message. Currently, for example, one customer shared that after introducing a code protection tool, there was no way to know how well it was deployed. It’s no longer good enough to have the tools, CISOs need to know how well they are performing.”
Funding
After asking Salzman about the company’s funding, she revealed:
“SeeMetrics, founded in 2021 by myself and Shay Haluba, CTO, raised $6 million from prominent venture capital firms such as Work-Bench, 8VC, AGP, Essence VC, K5 Global and Verissimo. SeeMetrics’ Advisory Committee includes well-known industry names such as Sounil Yu, CISO & Head of Research at JupiterOne; Jason Chan, Former CISO of Netflix; Rafael Franco, Former Deputy General of the Israeli Cyber Directorate; Julie Tsai, Six-time CISO/Head of InfoSec and DevOps(Sec) specialist; Frank Kim, CISO & Fellow at SANS Institute; and Susan Chiang, CISO at Cloudflare.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Salzman affirmed:
“CISOs are currently managing performance either by manually collecting data (heavily reliant on security SMEs and analysts, outsourcing to consultants (very expensive and unrealistic to do this more than once per year), or building their own in-house metrics programs which cost millions and years to build and maintain. SeeMetrics solves this problem by providing security leaders with real-time and continuous performance insights about their organization based on data driven directly from the stack. This positions SeeMetrics as an essential part of CISOs’ day-to-day management toolkit.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Salzman concluded:
“Our mission is to align analysts, engineers, and practitioners with senior leadership by offering a unified language for collaboration. SeeMetrics aims to continue providing insights that enable continuous improvement and progress in critical areas. Currently, our solution offers one centralized data hub to customize metrics for any need. Our roadmap features benchmarking against peers based on “inside perimeter” data, and fueling the community with a CISO chat to allow instant answers to questions. I envision a shared knowledge center for the CISO community.”
