Duo Security is a cloud-based access security provider founded in 2010 that offers two-factor authentication and device insight and analysis products to over 5,000 organizations worldwide. It has raised $49 million in total funding and has experienced fast growth, doubling its customer base and tripling its employee headcount to over 100 people. Duo Security's "secret sauce" includes addressing 95% of breaches involving stolen credentials through two-factor authentication and varying authentication methods that are simple to use, manage, and deploy within 15 minutes. The presenter predicts Duo Security will succeed due to the large $35B security market, increasing importance of security, and ability to get their product into organizations initially.
2. History & Overview
• Cloud-based access security provider
• Founded in 2010 in Ann Arbor
o Co-founders: John Oberheide & Dug Song
o University of Michigan Computer Science alumni
• Today
o 5000 organizations worldwide, including…
3. Financial Info
• Funding: $49M Total
o Most recent: Apr, 2015 - $30M/Series C
• Fast growing:
o 2x number of customers
o 3x employee headcount (100+)
o 200% increase in revenue
4. Sample Products
• Two-Factor Authentication
o Security password, SMS message, Biometric
• Duo Platform Edition
o Device Insight & Analysis
5. Secret Sauce
• Two-Factor Authentication
o 95% of breaches -> stolen credentials
• Varying Authentication Methods
• Simple
o Easy to use and manage
o Deploy in just 15 minutes
Hey everyone, my name is Carl Scheller and I’m here to tell you about a fast-growing technology company that is also a hometown hero, Duo Security. Uniqname = here
Duo Security is a cloud-based access security provider that helps companies protect their internal networks from malicious attacks. The company was founded in 2010 right here in Ann Arbor, where it is still headquartered. Duo was founded by two alumni of the University of Michigan Computer Science Department, John Oberheide & Dug Song.
Though the company is relatively young, it has quickly grown into a global force in the security industry and today provides security services to over 5000 organizations worldwide including Facebook, Etsy, Yelp, and NASA.
Today, it is quickly growing to become a global force in the security industry. In the past calendar year alone, Duo security has doubled it’s number of customers and tripled its employee headcount.
The company is privately owned and therefore we do not know too much about it’s financials. Here is what we do know.
Duo Security has raised nearly $50M in funding from firms including Benchmark, Google Ventures, and Redpoint. The company’s most recent round of funding took place earlier this year and brought in $30M in a Series C round.
What’s hot about Duo Security is how fast it is growing. The company is expanding both physically and financially. In the past year alone, Duo Security has doubled its number of customers, tripled its employee headcount to over 100 employees, and seen a 200% increase in revenue. Talk about a company headed in the right direction.
When it comes to products, Duo Security does one thing and they do it really well – two-factor authentication.
Two-Factor Authentication provides a second layer or authenticity to any type of login, requiring extra information or a physical device to log in, in addition to your password. We’ve all had experience with two-factor authentication before, whether it was in the form of a security question, a text message with a secret passcode, or even biometric.
Duo ties together its two-factor authentication into Duo Platform Edition, which allows companies to offer secure access to systems and applications as well as monitor all devices, or endpoints, across their network for analytics and vulnerability checks. Duo Platform Edition makes it simple for enterprises to identify when a device/endpoint in their network is at risk and deal with the risk appropriately.
The first thing that sets Duo Security apart from other security companies is it’s focus on two-factor authentication. A recent study by Verizon (Data Breach Investigations Report) reported that 95% of breaches involve the exploitation of stolen credentials. Two-factor authentication is one of the best ways to protect against remote attacks such as phishing because attackers don’t have access to your physical device.
Of course, Duo Security isn’t the only company using two-factor authentication. Duo Security’s secret sauce to differentiate themselves from other companies who also use two-factor authentication are its variability and simplicity. Duo Security offers a variety of different authentication methods that can operate both online and offline including hardware tokens, text passcodes, mobile passcodes, push notifications, and phone callbacks. Duo Security utilizes these methods to construct the best solutions for different companies with different scenarios.
Finally, Duo Security sets itself apart by its simplicity. The service is considered easy to use, easy to manage, and easy to deploy, needing only 15 minutes to start protecting data.
Now, lets talk about one of Duo Security’s success stories and specifically how Duo Security became a trusted security provider for the world’s largest social media site, Facebook. Facebook’s mission was daunting: protect and manage the personal data for its 1.2 billion active users, without sacrificing versatility or efficiency. They needed a solution that allowed them to maintain their fast-paced environment while simultaneously shielding their developers from malicious attacks while they were accessing Facebook’s internal networks. So Facebook turned to Duo Security. Duo Security solved Facebook’s security needs by utilizing two-factor authentication, giving Facebook flexibility, fast deployment, and a lot of powerful authentication options with minimal overhead support. Today, Facebook is expanding Duo’s two-factor to their entire organization, supporting more than 10,000 employees. With Duo Security, Facebook was able to realize their goal of protecting their developers and data from hackers without adding any extra hassle to their user or administrative workflow.
In the competitive and lucrative security market, Duo Security faces competition from numerous security companies including Zscaler, Fortinet, and Veracode that do everything from mobile security to internet security to cloud security. Despite the competitive market, Duo Security has created an innovative solution that appears to appears to be able to accomplish widespread implementation. Therefore…
I predict that Duo Security is headed for sustained success in the future, and here’s why.
First, the security market is extremely lucrative, with with some estimates valuing it as a $35B industry.
Next, we are in an age of technological reliability. Individually, not only does everyone have multiple devices, but these devices are being asked to protect increasing amounts of sensitive user data. And in the business world, data breaches can be absolutely detrimental to a company and its image, as we have seen multiple times recently in the news. It is clear that security is more important than ever.
Finally, and most importantly, Duo Security already has its foot in the door, providing its services to 5000 organizations including huge names like Facebook and NASA. If these companies trust Duo Security with their sensitive data, it seems logical that other companies will soon follow suit.