The race is on for six teams of technologists and entrepreneurs from the Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, Northeast United States and Turkey to turn their ideas -- seeded by a $50,000 grant from the Virginia-based MACH37 Cyber Accelerator -- into thriving investable companies.
The teams were chosen from a pool of 61 applicants. “We were looking for management teams that include technology founders and first-term entrepreneurs who have vision and want to create something compelling,” says Rick Gordon, managing partner of MACH37. More specifically, information security and business leaders who:
- Are building a disruptive information security technology product
- Are delivering foundational security capabilities that enable entirely new products & markets
- Have the will and endurance to turn their labor into commercial success
- Have built a team of two- to four co-founders
- Need help with startup capital, introductions, and navigating pitfalls
- Are seeking rapid growth through venture capital
- Are willing to be in Virginia for the entire 90-day program and commit to the venture full-time
Gordon says this year’s spring cohort offers a diverse range of innovative solutions attacking problems ranging from phishing and attribution in threat intelligence, to “security as a service” and regulatory compliance, to the Internet of Things with an intrusion detection system for automotive infotainment systems.
Participants for the next 14 weeks will draw on the expertise of MACH37’s large network of successful security professionals, business experts, and entrepreneurs. The program will culminate in June with a “Demo Day” where the entrepreneurs pitch and demonstrate their technology to an audience of external mentors, investors, and stakeholders.
Find out more about security threats at Interop 2016, May 2-6, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas. Click here for pricing information and to register.