Ranked 18th in Oxygen Fast-Growth 50, cyber security specialist Saepio has gone from zero to 60 staff inside eight years. This is only the start, co-founder Robert Pooley tells IT Channel Oxygen
You founded Saepio in 2016 with Andy Pitt, after you both left Softcat. How would you characterise the dynamic between the two of you?
Andy’s the heart, and I’m the brains. A lot of people are curious and go ‘how can you two run a business together – you’re kind of Yin and Yang’? But he’s got what I want and what I’ve got he kind of wants – so we gel really well. Andy’s the king of culture and the way he makes an environment for people to thrive is a big part of why Saepio continues to grow.
What explains your fast growth?
When we started the company, we had a mission of being the UK’s number-one partner for cybersecurity in the mid-market private sector.
The best case was it going really well. The next best would have been failing altogether. But the worst case was to be average. That same mission and mindset remains today. That’s why we’ve had that continuous growth, and we’ve done it all organically.
We’ve stayed focused on cybersecurity. We didn’t diversify. We said ‘no’ to lots of opportunities, and continue to say ‘no’, because we want to pursue that original mission, which is being the UK’s number one cybersecurity partner.
We look at that through three lenses. If a company in the corporate midmarket needs some cybersecurity advice, would they pick up the phone and call Saepio? That’s one. The second lens is if a vendor like Crowdstrike or Mimecast wants to break into that market, would they pick up the phone to Saepio? And the third is, if you’re a person in the local area who’s looking for a job in the world of cybersecurity, would you call Saepio?
We’re probably furthest ahead on the vendors. We’re second on the customer metric. The weakest bit, funnily enough, is the candidate bit, which is what we’re talking about now. It sounds like we’re not doing horrendously, but I guess we haven’t invested as much into that awareness on the candidate side.
We’re about 60 people at the moment and we will be 80 by mid-May if all goes to plan.
Who are your key vendors?
People like Rapid7 and Crowdstrike. Then there’s Abnormal and Secureworks. We do a bit with Druva, Rubrik and Varonis. We’ve got about 12 key partners. We tend to pick the leaders in the space and go deep, rather than shallow with loads. This was a purposeful mindset shift, because we feel the cyber security space is about knowledge, not flogging stuff.
Where’s the biggest opportunity for cyber players like Saepio?
It’s companies not doing cybersecurity properly. You can’t just give it to the IT manager to go and fix cyber security. This is the Board’s responsibility.
There’s still tonnes of businesses not doing cyber risk management properly. The World Economic Forum put a report together in January that clearly indicates the cyber gap is getting wider. It’s the midmarket that’s lagging behind. So we’re here to bridge that gap and that’s the opportunity we’ve got.
Is there an exit strategy?
We are approached by buyers more than once a week. It’s a constant conveyor belt of offers. We seem to be doing a record quarter each quarter, and it’s just on that trajectory. So there’s definitely interest in what we’re doing. But if an event does happen, it wouldn’t change our mission – it would only allow us to carry on with our mission. We won’t want to stop until we’ve got to that goal of being the UK’s number one cyber security partner.
Saepio ranked 18th in Oxygen Fast-Growth 50 2024, which was produced in partnership with Giacom
