In 2015, Twistlock was founded on the premise of securing the nascent cloud native computing environment. This forward-thinking approach seemed ahead of its time, but it ultimately led to a successful acquisition by Palo Alto Networks in 2019 for $410 million. However, the founding team didn’t stop there. They regrouped and began working on Gutsy, applying process mining to security. After emerging from stealth mode, Gutsy has secured an enormous $51 million seed round led by YL Ventures and Mayfield.
The Founding Team’s Vision
The core of the founding team consists of CEO Ben Bernstein, VP of R&D Dima Stopel, and CTO John Morello. They are the same individuals who formed the foundation of Twistlock. Morello emphasizes that security has traditionally focused on detection and settings, examining misconfigurations or past incidents. However, he claims that Gutsy is based on the idea that systems are interconnected processes. To truly understand any incident, one must grasp how these processes combine to produce a specific outcome.
"We’re saying that if you have a process-centric view of the world and consider your organization as a series of interconnected systems and events delivering outcomes, you can gain a more realistic understanding of how things work," Morello explained. "You can identify problems hindering or delaying desired outcomes."
Process Mining: A New Approach to Security
Gutsy utilizes process mining, a data science technique also employed by Celonis in examining generic business processes. This innovative approach is applied to cybersecurity for the first time, allowing users to visualize connections between systems and analyze variations of processes. By doing so, organizations can pinpoint areas where staff offboarding or other processes are breaking down, taking corrective actions to enhance security.
"What we provide as customers/users is a high-resolution Google map of all process variations with the ability to analyze data and identify factors impacting security objectives," Morello stated.
Stealth Mode to Broad Exposure
Prior to emerging from stealth mode, Gutsy had been refining its concept through partnerships with several design companies. With its current $51 million seed round, the company is now ready to expand its reach to a broader set of organizations. According to Morello, this approach aims to capitalize on being first-to-market while acknowledging that eventual competitors will arise.
"We’re in stealth mode not just because we don’t want to tell our competitors what we’re doing, but also because we want to make sure we get it right," Morello said.
Building a Diverse Organization
Gutsy’s CEO, Ben Bernstein, emphasizes the importance of diversity beyond buzzword status. To achieve this, the company deliberately chose not to concentrate its employees in the Bay Area, spreading talent across different regions instead.
"We’re building an organization that reflects the diverse perspectives and backgrounds of our customers," Bernstein said.
Conclusion
Gutsy’s emergence with a substantial seed round marks a significant milestone for the team behind Twistlock. By applying process mining to security, they aim to revolutionize how organizations address cybersecurity challenges. As Gutsy expands its reach, it will be interesting to see how this innovative approach transforms the security landscape.
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