Q&A Wednesday :: SailPoint

Today’s Q&A Wednesday is with Mark McClain, the CEO of SailPoint.

Give us the elevator pitch for you company?
SailPoint provides identity governance software that helps organizations strengthen controls over user access to critical systems and data, streamline costly IT compliance processes, and reduce the risks of failed audits, fraud and corporate data loss or theft. Our software, IdentityIQ, helps Global 1000 companies proactively manage IT risk to prevent security breaches and ensure compliance with government regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).

How has your company grown/changed since we last spoke in 2007?
The last two years have been busy for us! In 2008, we shipped a ground breaking version of our product that helped us secure some of the world’s largest companies as customers and won a Global Product Excellence award from the Info Security Product Guide. We also doubled our headcount since then and have established key reseller partnerships across all of Europe and Australia. And finally, during those two years we’ve received strong industry validation, including being named a Gartner “Cool Vendor to Watch,” an InformationWeek “Startup 50” and (the award I’m most proud of), one of the “Best Companies to Work for in Texas.”

Has the company had any additional funding since then?
Last August we announced a $6.5 million Series C financing round with our existing investors (Austin Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Origin Partners and Silverton Partners). The timing was very fortuitous for us, as we were able to continue SailPoint’s growth despite the economy.

How has customer adoption been so far?
Customer adoption has been strong. In 2008 we more than doubled our customer base and we’re poised to do the same in 2009. At this point in time, I’m happy to report that 10 of the world’s largest 100 companies, including five of the largest banks and industry leaders in insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, energy and telecommunications are happy, successful SailPoint customers.

In this economy, what’s the leading business driver for your product?
In short – the economy! Corporate churn from accelerated mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and layoffs has increased the risk of insider fraud, sabotage and data breaches. This increased risk makes it imperative that companies govern and control user access to sensitive applications and data in a manner that protects the company from insider risk and ensures compliance with government regulations.

The typical Global 1000 organization has thousands of users accessing hundreds of systems and applications, all in different locations – making centralized control a very daunting task. Our identity governance software, SailPoint IdentityIQ, provides customers with a holistic view of their company’s identity data and enables them to manage user access privileges to proactively protect themselves from security breaches. IdentityIQ also helps companies ensure and prove compliance to government regulations, like SOX, Basel II, GLBA, etc.

What can we expect to see in the future from your company?
First and foremost, my goal is to make sure you continue to hear customer success stories and positive feedback from our employees and partners. I believe both are key to SailPoint’s growth in 2010. And, of course, our product management and engineering teams are working on some interesting product innovations to address new compliance-related problems – but it’s too soon for me to share specifics.

Posted by Amit Kooner I'm a recent MBA graduate and I'm passionate about startups - from the financing, to operations, to strategy, and to marketing. I have a background working as a consultant to startups or starting my own, and I hope to eventually get into business incubation or venture capital work. To read more posts click here.