Interview with Swimlane chief marketing officer Tony Thompson

Each month, BizWest asks a business leader to participate in a question and answer feature to help shed light on a business topic, an industry or add insight to a field of endeavor. This month, Swimlane LLC chief marketing officer Tony Thompson answers our questions. The Louisville-based cybersecurity firm is in global-growth mode following a $70 million fundraising round that closed this summer. This interview has been lightly edited for length, content and formatting.

BizWest: What’s the significance of the company’s name Swimlane? 

Thompson: When you’re building a SecOps, or security operations, team, there has to be some level of process definition before all the technology and hiring happen. While you’re building the policies, procedures, and checklists, at some point, you end up building a process diagram with decisions and actions, including who is responsible for each. This is typically done in a “swimlane diagram.”

Our name goes to the core of what we do: Helping teams be faster, more efficient and highly connected. The name Swimlane conveys our uniqueness in the market and helps us stand out by not being another “cyber” or “threat” named company. It’s not a made-up word, and it is easy to recognize for customers, partners and prospects.

BizWest: Swimlane specializes in security orchestration, automation and response software, often referred to as SOAR. How does this approach differ from more traditional methods of handling cybersecurity?

Thompson: Security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) technology is designed to help security operations teams automatically execute repetitive tasks like responding to phishing alerts, security information and event management or endpoint detection and response alert triage. It is typically used within the context of the security operations center (SOC). SOAR technologies have many benefits for SOC teams, including breach prevention, incident response, improved SecOps key performance indicators, and improved overall return on investment. A SOAR platform adapts to fit your people, security processes and technology, allowing security teams to handle more alerts faster without adding overhead, and better leverage their expertise to combat advanced threats.

A step beyond SOAR, low-code security automation solutions make it possible to extend automation beyond SOC use cases as the breadth of security operations expands to other areas of the organization. Low-code security automation enables security teams to overcome process and alert fatigue, and armed with the ability to develop automated security playbooks more quickly and effectively, teams can delegate repetitive and painfully manual tasks to the automation playbooks.

Swimlane has transcended traditional SOAR and risen to meet the growing need for a low-code approach to security automation. One that helps organizations quantify business value, overcome process and data fatigue, and combat chronic staffing shortages. 

BizWest: The company recently raised a $70-million funding round, which was by no means Swimlane’s first multi-million dollar fundraiser. What’s the plan for deploying that new capital? 

Thompson: Swimlane is on an aggressive growth trajectory and we now have more than 200 employees worldwide. We are very proud of our global traction and the results we have achieved. With our recent round of funding, we will look to accelerate our ongoing growth and operations on a global scale while continuing to further advance the innovations in our low-code security automation platform. 

BizWest: While Swimlane’s home base is in Louisville, the company has clients and employees across the globe. Do you expect that there will be additional overseas operations in the near future?

Thompson: Absolutely. Swimlane is accelerating the company’s go-to-market and channel growth plans across many regions worldwide. In September, we announced our expansion to the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, some of the fastest-growing cybersecurity markets in the world. In April we also announced the general availability of our platform in the Asia-Pacific-Japan region (AJP). We’re expecting an increase in channel business as Swimlane expands into Europe and APJ, and the new investment will help us accelerate our go-to-market efforts and the expansion of our global partner network in all major geographies.

BizWest: As the company continues to grow, is the plan to remain headquartered in Colorado? If so, how has the business environment in the state, and more specifically in the Boulder Valley region, helped foster Swimlane’s success?

Thompson: Swimlane is proud to be a Colorado-based cybersecurity company. For us, it’s more than just running a business but a diverse lifestyle that fosters some of the greatest innovations our industry has to offer. The region allows us to strike the perfect balance of working hard and playing hard. This is what keeps us headquartered in Colorado, and being based in the Boulder Valley region between the city of Boulder and the city of Denver helps us recruit the best talent from across the state. 

on Facebook on LinkedIn