Risk is a word well known to entrepreneurs, so it has been a natural evolution from founding Lynx in 2009 to becoming the risk-based security partner we are today. When my co-founders, Gina Mahin and David Elcock, and I took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship to form a different kind of technology services company focused on helping Fortune 500 select, implement, staff and improve innovative security and risk management projects, we needed a name that embodied our key strengths.
As entrepreneurs, we too know the struggles CISO’s face with IT security and risk management, internal and external threats, creating a global Cyberthreat Security Operations Center, audits, and regulatory requirements. We really dug deep to determine our best attributes such as our ability to listen, see opportunities and threats that others miss, keep secrets, move fast, and adapt to changing environments. Lynx Technology Partners was born.
According to Native American Legend, the Lynx is a spiritual cat that has supersonic hearing, keen vision, and acrobatic agility. Its success as a hunter is due to its ability to adapt, learn new surroundings, and listen intently to anticipate changes in its environment.
These stealthy cats have great hearing due to tufts on their ears and keen eyesight that can see a tiny mouse more than 80 yards away and have been rumored to hear people’s thoughts.
With this inaugural blog post, I am excited to share the next chapter in our journey as we celebrate our rapid growth, experienced leadership and commitment to evolve and raise the curtain on our new identity, website, Lynx Listening Sessions, and the Lynx Blog: Conversations in Risk-Based Security.
Rapid Growth and Expansion
As the Founder, Chairman and Chief Revenue Officer of Lynx Technology Partners, I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the past seven years. From our bootstrapped beginnings, we focused on solving problems by providing the top experts in emerging security technologies like Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Cyber Threat Intelligence and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). As we built partnerships with our clients, we began to earn the trust of CISOs with successful execution of IT risk assessments, strategic compliance programs, security engineering, penetration testing and employing creative solutions to compliance emergencies. This execution has enabled us to evolve into the trusted full-lifecycle risk-based security and IT-GRC solutions partner to highly regulated Fortune 500, Federal Agencies, Higher Education Systems, Nuclear Power Plants and enterprises.
Last year, we were honored with the INC 5000 as the 80th fastest growing company in the US, along with being named #1 in Security and the Fastest Growing company with an African-American CEO. We also expanded our security expertise with industry veteran Bobby Dominguez as our Chief Security and Strategy Officer. We further expanded the team by bringing on experienced CEO, Rich Hlvaka and CTO, Steve Brewer, who was the creator of our Award Winning IT-GRC Solution, Lynx Risk Manager.
Just recently, we shared the exciting news of our incredibly fast growth so far in 2016. We were humbled by our 25% revenue growth and even surprised ourselves by outpacing our EBITDA projections by nearly 500 percent. 
We’ve expanded our executive and marketing teams and opened new offices including our Pittsburgh home office and satellite office in Arizona. The Pittsburgh office was opened to extend stronger support into regional banking and healthcare industries. The new office will also support company expansion across sales, technical support, security operations, and risk and compliance consulting services. The Arizona office will handle operations in the Western United States.
We were recognized by the NMBC for “outstanding” work Bank of New York Mellon and awarded our inaugural Lynx Endowment Scholarship for Minority Students and Professionals in Cybersecurity at the Information Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP) annual conference. Our new Lynx Risk Manager® IT-GRC platform has been instrumental in our rapid success, allowing us to gain 10 new clients and garner almost $1 million in new bookings in Q1 2016.
What to Expect from our Blog
Our commitment to flawless execution, adaptability, and fiercely protecting our partners remains as we grow. In fact, we were thrilled to announce last week that our Management Team was honored as the IT World Gold “Management Team of The Year” award.
We will be sharing with you our knowledge, insights and perspectives on the exciting and ever-changing worlds of risk management, cybersecurity, and IT-GRC Software (information technology governance, risk, and compliance).
We’ll bring you fresh storytelling, insights and commentary from thought leaders in Lynx and the industry through our Lynx Listening Sessions. You’ll meet thought leaders in our company and in the industry, learn new ways to solve problems, discover the next wave of young cybersecurity leaders ready to make their mark, and join us as we give back to the community.
High Level Categories:
- Listening- Introducing Lynx Listening Sessions, conversations with security, risk and compliance thought leaders
- Learning- Key insights, lessons learned and resources from around the web
- Leading- Leadership development and soft skills advice, resources and stories
- Living-Stories from the front lines of life and adventure in security, risk, compliance and entrepreneurship
- Loving- Giving back to support the next generation of cyber security professionals, women in security, supporting the community and raising awareness for personal and business cyber security
Commitment to Becoming Your First Call Risk-Based Security Advisor
Our goal is to become your first call when you need leading expertise from your trusted advisor. Think of us as your information security, risk and compliance S.W.A.T. team that can both lead complex strategy development and execute ‘feats of strength’ in cyber security, risk management, penetration testing, social engineering, security architecture, security engineering, and IT-GRC software solutions. We specialize in solving IT risk management, compliance, and cybersecurity problems with people, process and technology for innovative, high-growth companies that operate in highly regulated industries.
To our team, Lynx is more than just a name. It is a symbol of who we are at the core: loyal, agile, adaptable, flexible and highly trusted. We listen closely to your needs and concerns, constantly evaluate the environment for potential threats and fiercely protect you at all times.
Our new look is a reflection of our constant commitment to you as a client, our desire to continually bring you the latest technology in the industry and our zeal to provide unparalleled support from the time we begin a project to its implementation and beyond.
Thank you for joining us on this journey, and please sign up for blog updates to keep up with us along the way.
Don’t be afraid to tell us what you think.
Join the conversation, and enjoy the ride!