How Do We Sell Safety?

When Bear first started, the focus was simple – an invisible, adaptable layer of protection that ran over IoT devices, scaled effortlessly and did not get in the way of applications, systems of networks.  We spent months going down innumerable rabbit holes and tried offering secure smart buildings, critical infrastructure defense, and energy grid security.  People loved to discuss how we were better than other options in terms of running over all types of communications, requiring significantly fewer resources (and no certificates) and not locking customers into one security solution…

But nobody was interested in buying said security.

So we “evolved” our offering into a VDM (Visual Device management) product that provides the ability to visually manage devices at scale.  See the health, version and configuration of devices in one location.  Change how those devices function, how they communicate and how they are protected through a single visual interface without requiring deep technical knowledge – the Active Directory for the IoT.

Then Marai happened.

Now people (mainly government) are asking us why we are not pushing security first and foremost and why we are focusing on device management when our security is so advanced, enables embedded systems to adapt over time and truly solves the IoT security issues plaguing the world today.

We find this change in attitude to be intriguing and, while we are not interested in pivoting away from our VDM solution for industrial/energy customers, we are now considering adding a new security-centric product for government/military.

What do you think?  Should we continue to promote our secure VDM solution or devote time/energy to fulfill the needs of this growing number of government customers clamoring for a security-first product?