The startup that pays people to legally hack companies like Nintendo and Uber is adding an industry veteran as a new board member
- HackerOne announced Thursday that it will add Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, venture partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), to its board of directors.
- HackerOne helps connect customers like Uber or Twitter with ethical hackers, who get paid out a so-called bug bounty for finding security vulnerabilities or other flaws.
- This cybersecurity startup, which closed $40 million in funding last February, is growing fast — so HackerOne is turning to Hilarie Koplow-McAdams to help it stay ahead of the curve.
When Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, venture investor with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) learned about HackerOne's business model, she was fascinated.
HackerOne has made a name for itself as one of the premiere places for ethical hackers to get paid out bug bounties for finding security vulnerabilities or other flaws in software. It's a big business — HackerOne counts companies like Nintendo, Starbucks, and Uber as customers, relying on these freelance bug hunters to keep customers safe. Just last year, HackerOne awarded more than $19 million in bounties.
And now, Koplow-McAdams will be joining HackerOne's board of directors, the company announced on Thursday.
"In my mind it's a necessity that they have an ongoing approach in looking for vulnerabilities," Koplow-McAdams told Business Insider. "It's kind of like fresh eyes, understanding what's really going on."
Koplow-McAdams has worked in enterprise tech for three decades, including stints at Oracle and Salesforce. Before working as a venture partner at NEA, she served as chief revenue officer and president at software analytics provider New Relic. Since last February, she has served as a board member at Duo Security, where she was learning the ins and outs of the security industry.
Koplow-McAdams has known HackerOne CEO Mårten Mickos for years, and says that they often seek each others' business advice. So when HackerOne started on a quest to grow its board, Mickos had a good idea who to call.
"You can say the relationship has been building over a number of years," Mickos told Business Insider. "In 2018, we decided it's time to expand the board….I think there were many things that were a good fit and we sort of tried it out over a number of months to make sure there was a good fit, good chemistry, good alignment of strategy, good alignment of what we're trying to do."
Soon enough, Koplow-McAdams got on board. As a board member, she sees potential challenges in execution, scaling and convincing people to change their ways when it comes to cybersecurity. That's an especially big problem for HackerOne, which largely deals with big, sometimes slow-moving companies.
"The fallback position is, people are fearful. They'll do nothing and that will create bigger problems for them. That will be the number one think I think we'll have to overcome," Koplow-McAdams said. "The hygiene of helping people through change management is always challenging because you're asking people to change how they work."
That being said, Mickos believes Koplow-McAdams will be able to bring her strength in growth strategy to HackerOne's board; specifically her experience in go-to-market, sales, and marketing, as well as how to expand a company, sell to larger business customers, and form customer relationships.
In the coming year, HackerOne plans to expand its presence throughout the U.S., in Asia and in Europe, as well as selling to large corporations.
"My focus will be scaling our approaches at HackerOne while providing a consistent experience for customers," Koplow-McAdams said. "I'll be able to help steer the company and add some wisdom to the strategic thinking."
As a member of HackerOne's board, as well as other tech startups, Koplow-McAdams says she wants to be a role model for women in tech.
"I have two daughters who will enter the workforce in the next five years," Koplow-McAdams said. "I want to be a role model for women who want to comfortably be part of the tech market."
HackerOne closed $40 million in funding last February, giving it a valuation of $198.39 million. More than 1,200 organizations use HackerOne to find security weaknesses, including the U.S. Department of Defense, Twitter, Dropbox, Uber, and more.
"Appointing Hilarie to our board is amazing, astonishing, fantastic," Mickos said. "We are in a very strong growth phase and there is nobody who understands go-to-market in that growth phase like Hilarie."
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