Nicole Bucala
When you join an organization the size of Comcast, it’s easy for outsiders to see only “Fortune 29 Company!” or “huge enterprise!”. But tell that to the DataBee team – we’ve been in start-up land since October 2022. And it’s been an exciting ride!
DataBee® is a security, risk and compliance data fabric platform inspired by a platform created internally by Comcast’s global CISO, Noopur Davis, and her cybersecurity and GRC teams. They got such amazing results from the platform that they built and operated for 5 years—from cost savings to faster threat detection and compliance answers, to name a few—that Comcast executives saw the potential to create a business around this emerging technology space. What could provide a better product market fit than real business outcomes from a large, diversified global enterprise data point?
That was back in 2022, and the beginning of the DataBee business unit, which was built and created within Comcast Technology Solutions to bring this security data fabric platform to market. Initially funded with just enough to begin testing the market, it didn’t take long to realize that the opportunity for DataBee was auspicious, and substantial additional financing was provided by Comcast’s CEO in May 2023. One year after raising substantial additional financing from Comcast, I’m proud to say that DataBee has passed the 100-team-member milestone (and growing). I believe it's one of the most exciting cybersecurity start-ups out there. Times ten. (Ok, that’s my enthusiasm spilling over 😉.)
As challenging as fundraising is, staffing a team as large and talent diverse as DataBee has been no small feat, and we’ve done it relatively quickly - across three continents and five countries, no-less. Part of that challenge has been overcoming preconceived notions of who and what Comcast is, especially when you’re recruiting people from the cybersecurity industry. “Wait, what??? Comcast is in the enterprise security business??!!” Yes!
Here's what I’ve learned about hiring on the scale-up journey:
- Focus on the mission. Your mission can be the most attractive thing about your business, especially when you’ve zeroed in on addressing an unmet need in the market. In the case of DataBee, our mission has been to connect security data so that it works for everyone. So many talents on the DataBee team have been compelled by the idea of solving the security data problem – too much data, too dispersed, in too many different formats to provide meaningful insights quickly to anyone who needs them. To play a role in fixing this problem? It’s intoxicating.
- Look for people who seek the opportunity for constant learning and creativity. “Curiosity” appears at the top of the list of essential qualities in a successful leader, and I understand why. I think of curiosity as a hunger for constant learning and creativity, as well as the courage to explore uncharted territory, and these have been qualities I’ve been looking for as I staff up the DataBee team. These traits aren’t reserved for leaders only; I see them in practice across the whole team, from individual contributors all the way up to department leaders, and I know it’s having a big impact on our ability to rapidly innovate and build solutions that matter. (High energy doesn’t hurt either!)
- Be a kind person. The number one thing I hear from my new hires is that they are taken aback by what a nice team I have. This makes me very happy and a little sad all at the same time: happy because I love knowing that the “be a kind person” rule is being put into practice across the DataBee team, but sad because it means that some of our new hires have not experienced kindness in previous jobs. Kindness and competency are not mutually exclusive things, and an environment of benevolence can foster creativity and success.
The funding we’ve received, and the strength, size, and rapid growth of the DataBee team is a testament to the fact that we’ve identified and are working to solve a very real problem being faced by many organizations – data chaos. It’s a problem that exists especially in security, but the rabid interest in artificial intelligence (AI) reminds us that we need to look beyond security data to all data, to ensure that good, clean, quality data is feeding AI systems. For AI to really work its magic, it needs quality data training so that it can deliver amazing experiences.
DataBee is 100 strong and growing, and our security data fabric platform, which is already helping customers manage costs and drive efficiencies, keeps evolving so it can help organizations continue the “shift left” to the very origins of their data. The goal is that quality data woven together, enriched, and delivered by DataBee will ultimately fuel AI systems and help business and technology leaders across the spectrum glean the insights they need for security, compliance, and long-term viability.
