According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach is $4M. The importance of addressing vulnerabilities is critical but 53% of companies spend more time navigating the vulnerabilities rather than fixing them. RankedRight has built a triage platform that allows users to establish pre-set rules that can automate ranking the various vulnerabilities threats a company is facing, allowing them to tackle the most critical issues. The platform integrates vulnerability data and scanners from multiple sources to ensure that RankedRight can work in tandem with an organization’s existing cybersecurity infrastructure. The company’s launch plan costs £1500/mo.
London TechWatch caught up with CEO Thomas MacKenzie to learn more about the inspiration about the business, the state of the cybersecurity vulnerability market, and the company’s recent round of funding.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $500,000 in seed funding from a small group of private investors led by John Yeo, former CEO at Codebashing Ltd. Some notables are Armando Romeo, Founder and former CEO of eLearnSecurity, and John Griffin who was previously Head of Games, EMEA at Amazon Web Services.
Tell us about your product or service.
RankedRight is a triage tool that automatically ranks vulnerabilities based on the rules set by its user, factoring in what is critical to the business, and delegating it to the most appropriate person to resolve. This means teams spend less time on vulnerability administration and more time on keeping their companies safe.
What inspired the start of RankedRight?
There are many different vulnerability prioritisation methods available to organisations but we felt nothing really met the needs of the small/mid-sized customers who are often overwhelmed by the volume of vulnerabilities they are tasked with remediating. We started RankedRight to ensure that these companies had access to the help they needed.
How is it different?
Other prioritisation technologies have a secret algorithm that tells their customers what they should fix first. However, we believe that there is no one better to assign risk to a vulnerability than an organisation themselves.
Not every issue will be critical to every business, and several small issues combined could actually cause more damage than one “big one”. That’s why we’ve created technology that enables teams to work smarter. By providing our customers with the ability to build their own rules and prioritise using their own risk appetite, they can use their knowledge and expertise to tackle the vulnerabilities in order of impact.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
We are focused right now on the customers of Qualys, Rapid7, and Tenable and we estimate the market to be worth £9.3bn.
What’s your business model?
As of right now, we are providing fixed-priced vulnerability prioritisation technology at a low monthly cost. We are also partnering with MSSPs and will be announcing our first agreement in the coming weeks.
As of right now, we are providing fixed-priced vulnerability prioritisation technology at a low monthly cost. We are also partnering with MSSPs and will be announcing our first agreement in the coming weeks.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
Organisations are being forced to find ways to cut spend. We can help with this, allowing savings or investment into other areas of the business.
What was the funding process like?
We actually raised the money much quicker than we expected. It was definitely a slog, but enjoyable.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
It wasn’t so much a challenge but by the end of the round we were struggling to be as joyful about our pitch as we were at the start, it was just was too repetitive!
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We will be starting to bring customers onboard soon and will set up our customer advisory board. We also have a structured development roadmap that will provide a lot of benefit to our potential customers.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Keep it lean. We spent a lot of time fine-tuning our approach to ensure that our money would go as far as it possibly could.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
The focus right now is on the product and getting it in front of interested parties.
What’s your favourite outdoor activity in London?
I love the Tower of London, I use any excuse to go there and take tours.
