Summary
As founding CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin brought an entrepreneurial mindset to the heart of government. In this #Paladinexperts video, Ciaran shares his passion for the role of startups in meeting the cyber challenge and creating technologies that are of “dual use” – valuable to both government and the private sector.
As a specialist investor, Paladin can support startups with capital and, as Sir David Omand highlights, with advice, based on decades of experience, on how to build a trusted and valuable cybersecurity company.
Find out how we support leading cyber start-ups at our Cyber Entrepreneurs page.
Transcript
Here’s the full transcript of the video:
- Ciaran Martin: I’ve always been passionate, whether in government or outside it, about the role of innovation and startups in solving part of the cybersecurity problem, and that’s what led me to Paladin with its two decades of success in delivering really good entrepreneurship, creativity, and solutions in cybersecurity.
- David Omand: It’s a very broad spectrum of possibilities that is open to the investor, which I find hugely encouraging, particularly in the U.K. where we have an ecosystem of startups, of small companies, of innovation, and the universities are continuing to turn out people brimming over with ideas.
- Ciaran Martin: We want to make sure that when entrepreneurs, technical wizards are developing these ingenious solutions, that they’re developed responsibly… where they have very thorough and careful evaluations of emerging technology, of the fact that technology is dual-use.
- David Omand: What I think is very encouraging is that, in the cybersecurity world, there are companies that have really built up a track record of producing reliable products, and that, I think, is one of the things that Paladin can do, in helping those companies think about their reputations and their trustworthiness, in addition to their technical prowess and their commercial dealing.
- Ciaran Martin: If a cyber entrepreneur has a good idea with proven technology that fixes a problem, and has got wider use for the nation as a whole, then I think they will struggle to find a better investor than Paladin.