Creating a cybersecurity startup with LimaCharlie

LimaCharlie takes a radically different approach to cybersecurity, providing mature security capabilities and infrastructure in an on-demand, pay-per-use way. This opens up exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to create their own cybersecurity startup using LimaCharlie.

The challenges faced by cybersecurity startups

Before we talk about why LimaCharlie makes such a great foundation for a cybersecurity business, it will be helpful to review the challenges faced by startups in the space.

Cybersecurity startups have to solve the same problems that all fledgling companies do—plus a few that are unique to the industry:

The difficulty of staking out space in a competitive—and crowded—marketplace: There are thousands of cybersecurity companies today, and organizations are sensitive to the problem of cybersecurity vendor sprawl. For a cybersecurity startup, differentiating yourself, or convincing a company to add you to their burgeoning list of security vendors, is a major hurdle.

The need to deliver value while controlling costs: It’s a universal quandary for new businesses: How do you offer enterprise-class products and services on a ramen budget? There’s no easy answer—and that leads to overspending or, perhaps just as harmful, accepting investor funding with too many strings attached. Unfortunately, this often results in insolvency and/or the loss of control of one’s vision.

A low tolerance for failure: Cybersecurity is an unusually unforgiving environment for startups because the stakes are so high. The cost of a cyber incident at a large company can be staggering. And at a small one, it can be fatal: Statistics show that 60% of small businesses close within six months of a cyber attack. This has two effects. First, if you ask a company to trust you with their security, you’re essentially asking them to trust you with their business. Initial sales are more challenging in cybersecurity. In addition, the reputational damage to cybersecurity startups from a single failure or mistake can be catastrophic. Vendors in other spaces are given second chances. Security providers, not so much.

The need to find a fit when the clock is ticking: Like any new company, a cybersecurity startup needs to go to market, get feedback, and begin to iterate as quickly as possible—hopefully in time to develop a profitable product or service with strong demand and  good growth potential. But for the majority of startups, the race to find that elusive product-market fit ends in failure, either because they run out of cash or fail to secure funding before they do.

The opportunities for cybersecurity startups

It’s not all doom and gloom for cybersecurity startups, however. There are some excellent opportunities in the security space—some of which aren’t found in other industries:

A trend toward products that scale: When you’re dealing with security technologies and software, it’s significantly easier to scale. Physical infrastructure, for example, is not as much of an issue as it is manufacturing. Security products delivered on an SaaS model are almost infinitely scalable, as long as your infrastructure is robust and your hiring keeps pace with the needs of your users.

Customers who are receptive to innovation: Some industries are notoriously hidebound, and insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done. But when it comes to cybersecurity, almost every company is looking for innovative new security technologies—because they’ve seen that cyber threats are growing worse, and that legacy tools don’t seem to be helping much. Innovative cybersecurity companies that can demonstrate their value will receive a warm welcome in most businesses. 

A marked preference for automation: Startups in every sector face the challenge of delivering outsized performance with just a handful of employees. The good news for cybersecurity startups is that their potential customers are already looking for solutions that incorporate automation. That confers a dual advantage to cybersecurity startups, because the use of automation technology answers two needs at the same time: It makes it possible to deliver high-performance products and services with a small team—and it offers buyers what they’re already asking for.

Why LimaCharlie is a game-changer for startups

In light of the above, it’s easy to see how LimaCharlie’s unique approach to security provides massive benefits to cybersecurity startups. Here are the most important ones:

LimaCharlie speeds time to market. LimaCharlie provides mature cybersecurity capabilities and infrastructure in a modular way. Similar to what AWS does for IT, LimaCharlie gives startups the abstract ability to “do cybersecurity,” rather than attempting to sell them a prepackaged product. LimaCharlie is built on a powerful Detection, Automation, and Response Engine, giving security teams a solid foundation on which to build a product or service offering.

LimaCharlie makes it easier for startups to differentiate themselves. LimaCharlie is not just some product for startups to white-label. Rather, our platform is an ecosystem of advanced security technologies and infrastructure, delivered on-demand and via an open API, that can be used, rearranged, or modified as needed to deliver a truly customized product or service offering. It’s why we sometimes compare LimaCharlie to a box full of Lego blocks for cybersecurity professionals—and why the platform is built for customization and differentiation.

Predictable pricing, cost savings, and flexibility. Everything in LimaCharlie is pay-per-use and on-demand, with no contracts, price modeling, or capacity planning. Pricing is transparent and easy to understand—and also happens to be extremely competitive when compared with other vendors. All of this makes it easier for startups to plan ahead, stay within their budget, and scale up or down as needed without worry. We even offer a full-featured free tier, making it possible to begin your initial research and development work at zero cost.

An engineering-centric approach. LimaCharlie takes an engineering approach to cybersecurity. For established security teams, this makes it easier to practice advanced cybersecurity disciplines like detection engineering. But for startups, the point to remember is that our platform is built with iteration in mind. This greatly speeds development work, allowing you to pivot quickly in order to address customer feedback and improve your offerings.

A vendor that is invested in your success. To quote our founder and CEO Maxime Lamothe-Brassard, “We are 100% a technology company and do not compete with the people and companies we provide tools and infrastructure for. We are vendor-neutral providers of tools and infrastructure for security professionals.” No other company in the cybersecurity industry today can make that claim. Because of this unique model, we are 100% invested in the success of the companies that we serve. We offer open access to our extensive documentation and education and training modules, regular office hours, and a public community Slack channel. Startups that use LimaCharlie have access to our development and support teams as well. We believe that LimaCharlie is hands down the best platform for builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity space—so much so that we started a Cybersecurity Infrastructure Grant program: a $1000 credit to help qualified businesses and individuals develop any project they want with LimaCharlie.

Taking the first step with LimaCharlie

To learn more about how you can create a cybersecurity startup with LimaCharlie, stop by our office hours this week for a chat, join our community Slack, book a demo, or begin using our full-featured free tier today.