Strike Graph is a security operation and certification platform that helps companies design, operate, and measure security certifications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Strike Graph CEO and co-founder Justin Beals to learn more about the company.
Justin Beals’ Background
What is Beals’ background? Beals said:
“I started as a programmer in grade school. I was fascinated by computers and networks. In college, I majored in theater, and I enjoyed the excitement of staging productions and collaborating with a team that brought various skills. After college, I struggled in the media industry due to the slow pace of innovation. My programming skills were in high demand and paid well, so I landed a job at British Telecom in their global telecom division. From there, I became very interested in startups. My technical skills and experience in staging plays would be perfect for launching new companies.”
Formation Of Strike Graph
How did the idea for Strike Graph come together? Beals shared:
“In 2017, I was the CTO at a startup in the Seattle area. We had developed an AI product that predicted the likelihood of an applicant being a high performer. To power our models we required very sensitive employment data from our customers. Our time-to-close metrics grew as potential customers became concerned about the security of shared data. We needed a fast way to communicate our security posture that our customers would trust. This problem really plagued our business and many of my peer’s businesses. Two goals inspired me; first, we could help customers develop a security posture that fits their business needs and meets a compliance standard to help them win deals. Secondly, having security as a competitive advantage would help ensure teams implement good security practices.”
Favorite Memory
What has Beals’ favorite memory working for the company been so far? Beals reflected:
“It’s definitely the people. Our Strike Graph team is absolutely brilliant. We’ve developed one of the most innovative GRC solutions in the marketplace. Yet, we are still a small team that believes in efficient resource utilization. Our performance is due largely to a fantastic collaborative environment that values creativity, craftsmanship and real customer value.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Beals explained:
“Strike Graph provides a SaaS-based GRC platform. It’s supported by a customer success team of industry experts. Included in our solution are several features:
- Risk scoring and mitigation tracking
- Security control management
- Evidence management and automated collection via integration to hundreds of systems.
- Cloud infrastructure integration via Terraform
- Completely configurable Risk <> Control <> Evidence mappings.
- Risk Mitigation reporting.
- Security Assistant AI will answer security questions based on customers’ security practices.
- Pre-mapped Standards for SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRamp, CMMC, HIPAA, GDPR, CCCP, CISv8, TISAX, ISO 27701, NIST and many others.
- Support for Federated Security Compliance across multiple teams in large enterprises”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Beal faced in building the company? Beal acknowledged:
“Our biggest challenge has been breaking through the noise of the marketing budget of adjacent solutions and traditional services companies. Recently, Strike Graph took over the hosting of Secure Talk (securetalkpodcast.com), which ranks in the top 2.5% of all podcasts, according to Listen Notes. This has allowed us to highlight other innovators in the security space and align our brand with leading experts. It’s also been a great opportunity to expand the brand presence of Strike Graph without competing for clicks and views. We believe that great companies turn investment into exponential revenue. It may seem common sense, but many recent tech startups have become more interested in growth at any cost. Secure Talk is a great way for us to make a finite investment that results in broad market access.”
Evolution Of Strike Graph’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Beal noted:
“Three years ago, Strike Graph recognized that our customers needed a more efficient audit. The traditional audit methodologies were error-prone, costly, and very time-consuming. Low-skill individuals without a background in technology or security were asked to click through massive spreadsheets reviewing evidence by hand. Strike Graph began developing machine learning solutions that would take the test requirements into the system and analyze incoming evidence to be sure they matched the requirements. Automating the testing portion of a security audit has dramatically increased testing accuracy and efficiency.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Beal about customer success stories, he cited:
“Strike Graph customers have accomplished over 150 security audits since we began offering that solution. We are incredibly proud of the technology that we’ve developed to ensure effective, repeatable and accurate testing of security practices.”
Funding
After asking Beal about the company’s funding information, he revealed:
“Strike Graph raised a Series A-1 round of $8.5 million in 2023. It was led by an amazing team at BAMCAP who specialize in scaling the GTM effort for teams. Exactly the expertise we were looking to add to our board. The round was filled in with our existing investors pro-rata, including Madrona, Information Venture Partners, and Rise of the Rest.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Strike Graph pursuing? Beal assessed:
“The non-financial audits and services sector was a $120 billion marketplace in 2021. Strike Graph is eliminating costly and error-prone services-based solutions with accurate and immediate technology.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Beal affirmed:
“Strike Graph helps its customers design a security posture, distribute security responsibility across your organization, verify the security operation took place and provide security audits or certifications. Three things make Strike Graph unique:
Right-Sized Security: Strike Graph helps customers design a security posture that fits your organization. The platform is easy to implement and infinitely configurable.
Organizational Autonomy: Our customers own their security compliance program. They can bring their existing risks, controls and technology architecture. The Strike Graph platform engages a customer’s staff to maintain and monitor progress.
Audits Without Hassle: We provide a tech-driven, AI-enabled path to efficient and qualified certifications.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Beal concluded:
“Strike Graph continues to be heavily focused on accelerating the growth of our company during the next three years. Included in that is better audit and assessment support. Tripling the number of standards we support in the next 12 months. We’ll also be releasing a new automated AI Internal Auditor. The technology tests security practices based on the unique characteristics of each customer’s security practices instead of a “one-size-fits-all” security recipe.”
