Security Businesses with Steve Herrod

General Catalyst new logo (PRNewsfoto/General Catalyst)

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Steve Herrod was the CTO at VMware and now works as a managing director at General Catalyst, where he focuses on investments relating to security.

Large enterprises are difficult to secure. An enterprise has sprawling infrastructure, with both on-prem and cloud infrastructure. Identity management systems, vulnerability scanning, secure network infrastructure, and policy management tools are just a few example areas where enterprises spend billions of dollars on security software.

Threats often make their way into an enterprise by way of social engineering. This can result in phishing attacks, corporate espionage, and ransomware. Protecting against social engineering is very difficult, as there are so many channels to communicate through–Facebook Messenger, Linkedin, email, and ad networks can all be used to perform social engineering attacks.

Enterprise security software is a very different business from other types of software companies. Unlike developer tools or cloud infrastructure, security software is usually not self-serve. Security solutions usually require a longer sales and integration process with a customer.

Steve Herrod joins the show to talk about the enterprise security world, the go-to-market strategy for successful security companies, and his perspective on what makes for a viable venture capital investment.

Transcript

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