A Serial Entrepreneur’s Next Gig

Scott Suhy was one of the brains behind PointAbout, sold to Three Pillar Global in 2011, and Greenline, acquired by A-T Solutions two years ago. Now he’s onto his third venture, which he says will be his biggest yet.

Defensative’s business model is pretty simple: Sell a low-cost security-as-a-service platform to small- and medium-sized businesses. Scott says it's a segment that’s been ignored by the thousands of cybersecurity companies that have their sights set on bigger players. Its product offers continuous monitoring and alerts of real-time threats and potential weaknesses--like employees clicking on phishing e-mails, visiting exploited websites and running risky or outdated software.

The Reston company’s product has been out for a month and Scott says it could have millions of customers in a few years. (Development team above.) Existing cybersecurity players can’t lower their costs to a point where they can do business with SMBs, says Scott. Hackers are also focusing more now on SMBs, knowing they haven’t invested in protecting their systems. Many of the security breaches hitting companies like Target and federal agencies like OPM are coming through some of the small vendors they hire, Scott says. The most recent Target breach came through a small HVAC vendor’s unsuspecting malware, he adds.

The company is bootstrapped by Scott and CTO Ken Shelton (left), but he says there may be plans to raise a funding round. So why launch another company after two successful exits? Scott says he remembers hearing former SAIC exec Mike Daniels at a luncheon a few years ago tell the group of business people that everyone should do what they love 12 hours a day. The next day he quit his job at Microsoft and launched PointAbout a few months later.