Cyber Security for the Department of Defense w/ David Brumley (ForAllSecure)

David Brumley is the founder and CEO of ForAllSecure, a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, that has raised over $36 million.

The company provides cutting edge cybersecurity solutions to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, including the Department of Defense.

Straight out of college, David Brumley worked in IT at Stanford University fixing and securing issues with the university’s open network. His challenges motivated him to pursue towards a decade-long research quest to solve the problem of real-time, automated testing and security compliance.

This research led to the founding of ForAllSecure and their first product “MAYHEM”, which scans software for bugs, generates exploits, and fixes vulnerabilities.

In this episode, Aaron and David talk about selling security to the Department of Defense, how he raised millions of dollars from Tier 1 VCs, and how his startup is the culmination of more than a decade of academic research.

David Brumley’s Challenge: Look at what you’re good at and pay it forward.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Who is David Brumley
00:36 What is Static Application Security Testing
02:38 How did the Genesis of the Company happen?
05:23 What is your motivation?
07:50 Different stages of research
09:42 What worries the security people like David?
11:37 Benefits of Subscription-based business.
14:00 David Brumley's wake-up call.
18:00 David Brumley talking about Advisor Counsel
19:45 Sell it as a product or Sell it as a service
21:22 The Deal with the Department of Defense
24:50 The Focus of ForAllSecurity
25:30 What it's like being a professor and an entrepreneur at the same time
27:30 Misconceptions on being a professor and entrepreneur.
29:40 Everyone has their own framework in the industry.
31:15 Great things on having a start-up
33:20 The way society does cybersecurity has not been working
36:05 David Brumley's Advice