Startup of the Day - Envault Corporation

The BizSpark startup of the day is Envault Corporation, based in Finland. You will find below an interview with Tuukka Autio, Product Manager of Envault Corporation. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.envaultcorp.com.

Interview with Tuukka Autio, Product Manager of Envault Corporation

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

I’m Tuukka Autio, Product Manager of Envault Corporation; my role is to oversee that our product delivers all the right qualities that our customers expect, and to manage our technology roadmap together with the rest of our management team. I’m also responsible for the creation of Envault marketing materials.

What did you do before creating your company?

Just before joining Envault in August 2007, I worked for the Networking Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology, researching the techno-economics of new broadcasting networks. Prior to that, my employers have been large organizations such as Nokia and KONE Corporation, so I would say that I had some knowledge about how technology and enterprise IT is managed, but it’s still a steep learning curve each day!

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

We are very excited about the recognition! We are building something completely different in the enterprise encryption market and to be noticed by a key player like Microsoft is both an honor and an encouragement for us.

What is your company’s mission?

Envault’s simple mission is to commercialize the envaulting technology -- in other words, to offer ultra-simple and easy to use data protection products that anyone can use and which eliminate the need for passwords in your daily life. We are in the business of helping our enterprise and government customers to protect their information assets against accidental or deliberate data leaks.

How did you get the idea for your company?

I’m not one of the original founders, although when I joined the company it had only existed a couple of months and actually changed its focus to enterprise security at the time I started – and you could say that I have had a large stake in building the company into what it is today. The original founders had the idea of using Envault technology to protect commercial mobile television broadcasts, kind of like DRM – but it was soon clear that there is much more potential for the technology in the enterprise encryption market. The idea of using our technology to protect enterprise data on the move was born when one of our founders discussed it with a large airline. The airline had plans to provide their desktop environment on a USB stick – but none of the existing solutions would provide the needed security.. and that’s where it all began.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

Since 2007, we have raised the needed funding from business angels. Currently we are not planning to raise further money, as our internal income is expected to support us from 2010 onwards.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

We have roundabout 20 employees, of which 50% are developers.

Are you hiring? If yes, what are you hiring and where?

Yes we are in fact – we are looking for technical staff locally here in Helsinki region. Open positions range from junior and senior developers to test and support engineers, please check our website for all current and future job openings!

Which platform are you building on? Why?

Windows, Linux, Mac OS X – we build on all major platforms as our customers have heterogeneous environments.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet area?

Cloud computing is creating new data loss risks for organizations -- and opportunities for security related software – but still the traditional endpoint security such as laptop protection is inadequately answered by traditional technologies and there is big demand for an enterprise-oriented approach such as Envaulting.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

It’s a great way for us to adopt Microsoft products in our daily work and to get assistance in integrating our product with the Microsoft enterprise systems. Definitely worth joining for any startup.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Talk with potential customers to understand what their needs are and what they see as valuable.

Who’s your role model?

I would say anyone who has the guts to become an entrepreneur and build something new that helps others in their business or daily life.. And especially the people who can create a healthy balance between work and family and friends.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

Forget passwords and user-based security decisions – choose Envault to protect your company data! Cheers.