Haydn Brooks - Cybersecurity Start-up, accelerators & raising venture capital

Welcome to the latest episode of the ZeroHour Podcast and as I am starting a new podcast, your host today is one of the SC Magazines top 50 women in cybersecurity, its Karla Reffold. In today’s epsiode we are joined by Haydn Brooks. Haydn started in a big4 environment working in cyber risk mainly focusing on supply chain and third party security. The pain he saw and the difficulty clients were having drove him to co-found Risk Ledger. Now as CEO he developed the product through Cylon, the cybersecurity London accelerator and has now raised their initial venture capital investment to expand the product globally into the market. This exciting platform enables its customers to check security over their entire supply chains with minimal staff. In 2019, he was recognised as a Forbes 30 under 30 member. Key Minutes: 02:00 - Growing up in West London 02:40 - Education in biomedical science 03:55 - Risk Ledger 04:35 - Learning from KPMG and Deloitte 06:45 - The start-up and Venture Capital scene 07:55 - Using accelerators to progress 12:45 - Speak to your future customers 14:45 - Finding your co-founder 15:55 - Building trust with people 17:15 - Finding your hacking, hustler and hipster trio 20:15 - Raising your first round of investment 24:45 - What does the product solve? 29:15 - Future of supply chain security 34:05 - How do you reach c-suite level executives? 36:10 - Learning how to build a company 43:05 - Ten quick fire questions Key Takeaways: - 2/3 of data breaches happen through supply chains or third parties - Look for the right people with the right values - Practice your pitch more than you actually do your pitch - Learn as much as you can about running a business to provide confidence to investors - Don’t get a Titanic ringtone for a doorbell You can find Haydn at: LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/haydn-brooks Company Website: https://riskledger.com/company/about/ Follow us: Twitter: @zero_hourpod Instagram: @zerohourexperience Website: www.beechermadden.com This podcast is sponsored by: BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com