We recently had the opportunity to interview Isabelle Meyer, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at ZENDATA Cybersecurity. With a focus on Threat Intelligence and OT Environment, Isabelle Meyer is apt at handling and guiding panel discussions and keynote speeches with some of the most prominent people in her sector.
As the Co-CEO, Isabelle has been playing a pivotal role in shaping the company’s current position and growth amidst all adversities. In this interview, Isabelle Meyer speaks about her professional journey, major motivation behind joining the Cybersecurity space, challenges, services of her company, and positive work environment, along with offering effective tips for beginners.
The Beginning
We started the interview by asking, “Could you start by telling us about your career path?”
Isabelle responds, “I started as a lawyer, where I graduated from 3 different universities and obtained my last LLM in Canada. I worked in major law firms before becoming General Counsel for an engineering company where I focused primarily on Oil & Gas, Shipping, and Civil Engineering. 12 years ago, I decided to follow Steven Meyer’s dream at the time, to open a Cyber Security Company out of Geneva, where our HQ is still based. Steven is a genius in this field, whatever he predicted happened and with my clients, expertise in growth, and curiosity in cyber, I thought we had the perfect recipe.
After more than a decade, we have multiple offices and work with all major governments and international organizations. I focused more on Threat Intelligence and OT Environment, but challenging myself in the field, and always pushing to know more, made it so that now, I can handle and guide panel discussions and keynote speeches with some of the most prominent people in the sector.”
Spark Behind ZENDATA
To learn more about the driving forces behind the decision of Isabelle Meyer to start her company, we asked, “What inspired you to develop the idea of your company?”
She replied, “Twelve years back, cybersecurity was not a very popular subject back in Geneva and there was a lack of this sector. We knew that the ecosystem needed the same protection that the physical world had, and we created one of the first security operation centers that was completely product-agnostic and focused on custom-made solutions that were easy to understand for any board or C-level.
We also were the pioneers in many aspects of cyber security in Switzerland, which made a very big difference. The idea has never been to make quick money, but to ensure a long-lasting collaboration with our clients, and they are still with us today.”
Changing Priorities
After years of operating, businesses tend to change their goals adapting to the latest trends. So, we asked, “How have your priorities in business evolved since you first started?”
Isabelle replied, “A lot to be precise; mainly in terms of territories, we expanded a lot. We started working in the GCC 2 years ago. As well as sales and marketing are a new focus, since before we used a lot of ears to mouth. We have a lot of mentorships in the company and training for the employees. We focus on having them feel like they are in ZENDATA’s family.”
Adaptability Amidst Adversities
Challenging phases are an inevitable part of any business journey. To learn how Isabelle Meyer overcomes the same in her business, we inquired, “What are the most challenging situations that your company overcomes?”
Isabelle replied, “There is a lot of fakeness in cyber companies, a lot of sub-contracting, for example. It became a hot topic a few years ago and now a lot of companies are pretending to do cyber security and to have knowledge. It created a lot of insecurity in our sector and a lack of trust. This makes sense, companies are getting hacked on false promises of vendors. This is the biggest challenge, to overcome the nonsense spread around.”
“What’s the key strength to overcome it?”
She responds, “Patience, meeting clients, explaining and explaining again. We are very straightforward in our approach; honesty will always win, plus we combine this with 12 years of track record and satisfied clients that can talk on our behalf.”
Setting ZENDATA Apart
We were interested in finding out how Isabelle Meyer makes sure that her business provides services that set it apart from its competitors. So, we asked, “What makes your company stand out from other businesses in your industry?”
Isabelle replied, “Integrity and Honesty; we never overpromise, and we bring credibility to our project. However, the most important part is that we have our products that have been developed by us, and used for years. Those products are there to support tooling on each possible endpoint. With this, we can oversee staging attacks for example and we can monitor much more.”
Measuring Success
We further asked, “What KPIs do you use to measure your business growth?”
“RnD is key, we have many KPIs on this. Client’s happiness, and mainly the fact that we have 99% retention of clients. Then a lot of delivery, efficiency, and price.” She added.
Current Offerings
To learn more about the services offered by Isabelle Meyer’s organization, we inquired, “Tell us something about your services. What are you working on currently?”
Isabelle shared, “We have services, products, and special projects. We have MSSP services, threat intelligence, incident-response, auditing, pen-testing, red-teaming, consulting, vCISO, and OT MSSP services, but we build many white-labeled SOC and we have various projects with governments, especially a main one with the Cyber Security Counsel in Abu Dhabi.”
Promoting a Healthy Work Environment
To succeed in the long term, it is paramount to promote a healthy work environment and employee satisfaction. So, we asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
She shared, “We have very strict labor law, being a Swiss-based company and we apply this. Also, we have food served every day in offices for our employees, all of them. We have events every month and we have summer and winter parties. We have an HR person, we focus a lot on them.”
Acing The Trends
To maintain a competitive edge, it is essential to start updated with all the latest trends and technologies. We asked Isabelle Meyer, “How do you stay on top of the latest technologies and trends in your industry?”
She shared, “Always, every 18 months we review every tool we are using and also what is out there in the market. With this technology Due Diligence, if some tools are not as effective, we change them in our client’s infrastructure, without cost in our SOC. That way, we make sure clients always have a level one notch higher of what they should have, in terms of protection. We also can harden or soften their level of protection at any time, taking into account their threat actor’s landscape.”
Tips To Beginners
Addressing the aspiring entrepreneurs, we inquired, “What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
“Never give up. You will get the ‘no’; you will get people promising you the world, but you can only rely on hard work. That means no holidays, no weekends, and only constant work.” Isabelle concluded.
Follow Isabelle Meyer on LinkedIn.
Find ZENDATA Cybersecurity on LinkedIn and visit their website https://www.zendata.security.
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