StrongDM is an American technology company that develops an infrastructure access platform.

StrongDM
IndustrySoftware
FoundersSchuyler Brown, Elizabeth Zalman, Justin McCarthy
Key people
  • Tim Prendergast (CEO)
  • Schuyler Brown (CCO)
  • Justin McCarthy (CTO)
ProductsPrivileged Access Manager
Number of employees
94
Websitestrongdm.com

History edit

StrongDM was founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Zalman, Justin McCarthy, and Schuyler Brown. The company was one of the first female led startups backed by Hearst's initiative to invest in women led startups.[1] The company received an early investment of $250,000 from HearstLabs.[2]

In 2018, the company released free open source software called Comply which allows smaller organizations to implement SOC 2 in an open source environment. Any organization can download a pre-authored library of 24 policies, edit directly in markdown, track versions with Github, assign compliance tasks through Jira and monitor progress in a unified dashboard.[3]

Elizabeth Zalman continued as CEO[4] until 2021 when Tim Prendergast was appointed new CEO.[citation needed]

As of 2023, the company had received investments from investors such as Bloomberg Beta and Tiger Global.[5][6][7] Douglas Leone joined the board as part of an investment by Sequoia Capital.[8]

Software edit

The software is a privileged access manager for aggregating secure access and permissions.[9][10] It centralizes backend infrastructure access for legacy or multi-cloud environments. The software also integrates with identity providers, secret stores, and SIEM tools.[11][12]

The platform provides and manages user access to backend infrastructure like serves and databases,[13][14] and logs user actions in video replay.[15][16]

Similar software is produced by CyberArk, Delinea, BeyondTrust, Teleport and Perimeter 81.[17][18]

Cedar Go edit

StrongDM has contributed a native port of the Cedar Policy Language to the Go language. This implementation of Cedar in Go simplifies tasks for Go developers to integrate strong authorization features into their applications. As opposed to language wrappers, this native implementation of Go using the Cedar Policy Language results in performance benefits, reliability, and better usability.[19]

Fundraising edit

Founding CEO, Elizabeth Zalman is one of the first woman CEOs in Silicon Valley to successfully raise over $100M in venture capital.[20] She successfully raised over $76M as CEO of StrongDM.

  • Seed - $800,000 in 2015 from Bloomberg Beta, Data Collective, SocialStarts, Jerry Neumann[21]
  • Seed II, $3,000,000 in 2016 from True Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Laconia Capital Group, Social Starts, Jerry Neumann[22]
  • Series A, $17,000,000 in 2020 from Sequoia[23]
  • Series B, $54,000,000 in 2021 from Tiger Global, Google Ventures, Sequoia, True Ventures, HearstLabs, and Bloomberg Beta.[24][25]

References edit

  1. ^ "The rise of the world's most valuable, female-led startup". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  2. ^ Kelly, Keith J. (2016-06-22). "Hearst is looking to spend money on women-led startups". NYPost.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  3. ^ https://www.inc.com/kenny-kline/how-this-new-tool-could-help-solve-one-of-startup-worlds-biggest-security-challenges.html
  4. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "The Cloud 100 Rising Stars 2020: Cloud Computing's Next Wave, From Resilia To Roam Research". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  5. ^ "StrongDM raises $800K to push a new tool for detecting data errors". VentureBeat. 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  6. ^ Lynley, Matthew (2016-12-05). "StrongDM raises $3M to keep database info from leaking out". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  7. ^ "Infrastructure access platform StrongDM raises $54M". VentureBeat. 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  8. ^ "strongDM Snares $17M in Series A". vcnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  9. ^ Sharma, Lakshman (2022-07-28). "Best Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solutions in 2023". Geekflare. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  10. ^ "The 3 Security Trends Impacting Engineering Workflows". Software Engineering Daily. 2021-12-11. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  11. ^ "strongDM Integrates with Okta and Azure AD". www.devopsdigest.com. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  12. ^ Bowen, Mark (2022-06-20). "Olive benefits from modern and scalable approach to infrastructure access with strongDM". Intelligent CIO North America. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  13. ^ Davis, Jessica (2016-04-03). "Microsoft Updates HDInsight, Kafka Training Gets A Boost: Big Data Rou". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  14. ^ "Olive Selects Strongdm to Secure Infrastructure Access". AiThority. 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  15. ^ Vizard, Mike (2022-07-05). "More Than Half of DevOps Pros Have Backdoor Access to IT Infrastructure". DevOps.com. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  16. ^ Sharma, Ray. "65% of Organisations Rely on Shared Logins, says strongDM". www.thefastmode.com. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  17. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (2022-05-03). "Teleport nabs $110M to provide identity-based infrastructure access". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  18. ^ Vizard, Mike (2020-11-16). "strongDM Extends Access Management as Code Efforts". DevOps.com. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  19. ^ Cecchetti, Sarah (2024-03-11). "Cedar on Fire". Authorize Clipping Service. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  20. ^ Zalman, Elizabeth Joy; Neumann, Jerry (2023-08-29). Founder Vs Investor: The Honest Truth about Venture Capital from Startup to IPO. HarperCollins Leadership. ISBN 978-1-4002-4276-4.
  21. ^ "StrongDM raises $800K to push a new tool for detecting data errors". VentureBeat. 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  22. ^ Lynley, Matthew (2016-12-05). "StrongDM raises $3M to keep database info from leaking out". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  23. ^ "strongDM Snares $17M in Series A". vcnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  24. ^ "strongDM". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  25. ^ "Infrastructure access platform StrongDM raises $54M". VentureBeat. 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2023-09-05.