While modern technology is advancing rapidly, so are cyberthreats and the damage they do to the digital ecosystem. Glasswall, a UK-based company, delivers protection against these sophisticated threats, using its unique file-cleansing technology. Glasswall’s CEO, Danny Lopez, talks to Intelligent SME.tech about his extensive business experience, his approach to management and the extensive clientele Glasswall serves.
- Tell us a bit more about your business and how it started.
Glasswall is a UK-based file security company that keeps businesses moving with proactive and instant file protection. Our leading Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) technology cleans and rebuilds files to match their ‘known good’ industry spec – automatically removing potential threats. This simple approach ensures every document entering an organisation is safe, helping prevent future unknown or ‘Zero Day’ attacks.
Prior to gaining solid traction in the commercial space, Glasswall’s technology has been adopted widely by the intelligence and defense community. Glasswall has grown to become a global leader in CDR technology, launching a new suite of cloud-hosted products just last year.
- How has the business grown since it started and how did you ensure growth?
Glasswall’s technology has been tested rigorously and successfully by specialised intelligence agencies. Following this success, Glasswall has partnered with leading defence contractors including Forcepoint and BAE Systems.
In 2019, Michael Spencer, former ICAP and NEX group founder, invested in Glasswall through his fund, IPGL, and subsequently became the company’s chairman. Over the last two years, Glasswall has attracted world-class talent to its leadership team and become a global leader in CDR technology.
In 2020, Glasswall launched a new suite of cloud-hosted products and completed a successful £18 million equity capital raise to fund further expansion.
We will continue to focus on the defence and intelligence space, building on our success to date. We will however have an equal amount of focus on the commercial sector, especially through relationships with channel partners. Adoption of CDR technology in sectors including financial services, healthcare and media, to name a few, is growing strongly and we are well-positioned to be a key player driving this growth.
- What’s the business’ approach to management?
Glasswall’s leadership team have a shared passion for helping to protect businesses against the most advanced file-based threats. It is crucial that we all have this drive and motivation and are working towards the same goal.
At Glasswall, we also encourage our leaders and employees alike to practice mindfulness. By cultivating focus and clarity, a mindful leader is able to bring prime creativity and compassion to the workplace. This ensures the best business results as well as building strong relationships with co-workers.
We have quite a flat structure at Glasswall as well as strong communication and transparency. The sense of ownership of both successes and challenges is high. Our staff are invested in collective success and with that comes strong commitment. It also means that people challenge and raise their voice when they think something is not right and that is very important to us all.
- What is your company’s vision and goal?
Glasswall’s main mission is to help organisations trust every file. We believe people should be free to open their files without fear and click on anything without the risk of catastrophe. Our technology protects businesses against the most advanced file-based threats, but we continue to strive for better and raise the bar on file security. Ultimately, we are on a mission to make Glasswall the most trusted name in CDR.
- What kind of clients and markets do you serve?
The intelligence, military and defence world has high confidence in Glasswall and our ability to protect users against file-based threats. A large proportion of our customers are from the defence and intelligence sectors, and we remain heavily invested in this market. However, we are also expanding in the commercial field, with a growing base of customers in the financial services, legal, infrastructure and healthcare industries. As the frequency and severity of cyberattacks targeting these sectors continues to grow, CDR technology can provide a proactive approach to cybersecurity and prevent these attempts to penetrate their systems.
- What has your career looked like so far?
My career so far has covered financial services, government and technology. For the first 10 years, I worked in banking at Barclays, holding a variety of roles including Director of Business Banking in New York, Head of Inward Investment in London, and New Business Director in Mumbai.
Over the next decade, I worked in the UK’s public sector. I was the inaugural CEO of London and Partners, the UK capital’s official promotional agency and for 5 years was the British Consul General to New York and Director-General for trade and investment across North America.
I spent much of my time in government supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups and decided I would join them in my next move, which led to me ultimately joining Glasswall as CEO in 2019.
- How do you equip your staff with skills and knowledge?
I’m a big believer that collaboration is a healthy way to share knowledge.
Learning from each other and showcasing both individual and collective skills and successes are key. As a company, we learn together from our successes and from projects or processes that don’t go so well. We also stay abreast of what our competitors are doing and take client feedback extremely seriously. Where training is needed, we will invest in that and utilise learning resources from multiple sources. Our ambition is to be the leading CDR player in the world and that means having best-in-class talent, as well as investing in that talent to stay ahead of the curve.
- How do you work with other executives within the C-suite to make sure your voice is heard?
For me, it always comes down to the basics. It is critical that egos are left outside the door or Teams screen. As a team, we respect each other and know that we all play an important role in realising the simple but highly important vision we have as a company. Strong and regular communication, purpose, a shared belief in our vision and ambition and a healthy degree of humility are all very important to us as a team.
- How do you ensure different teams in your organisation work together?
I think it is extremely important that every employee, regardless of role and seniority understands our vision and feels committed to bringing that vision to reality. If that is the case, it paves the way for different teams to work together effectively as ultimately everyone is trying to achieve the same goals. Good communication across the company is also key as is providing individuals and teams the platform to showcase learnings and results for all employees.