7MS #430: Interview with Dan DeCloss

Today we're thrilled to have our friend and PlexTrac CEO Dan DeCloss back to the program! (P.S. PlexTrac is launching runbooks as a feature - and you should definitely check out PlexTrac's upcoming Webinar about runbooks on September 9!). We also did a PlexTrac 101 Webinar with them recently! You may remember Dan from such podcasts as this one when we first talked to him in 2019. Dan and I have a lot in common in that we both started security companies about the same time, so I had a lot of questions for Dan around how business has been going since we last talked on the podcast. Today our topics/questions include: What are the (good) warning signs that a passion project you have could be a viable business? Why "having all the jobs there has ever been" is a great way to figure out it's time to start your own business :-) At what point does a side project have to become what you do for your day job? How do you safely prepare to quit a comfortable corporate life to life as a small biz owner? Do you go 100% on faith? Do you save your $ for a year so you can "float" your business for a while? Some combination of the two? How important is it to have the support of your friends/family when starting a new biz? Once you start a biz what are the best/worst things about wearing all the hats (engineering, sales, marketing, accounting, HR, etc.)? When is it time to hire additional resources or raise additional money to support your growing business? What marketing efforts are fruitful for a new security biz to spend time/money on? How do you decide what bells/whistles to add to PlexTrac? Follow your own roadmap? Let the customers drive your direction? Some combo of both? What new bells and whistles are coming to PlexTrac in the Webinar on September 9?! (Spoiler alert: RUNBOOKS!)