Happy 8th Birthday, Exeon!

As we celebrate our company's eighth birthday, it's a perfect time to reflect on the journey we've taken together at Exeon. To mark this special occasion, we posed one question to each member of our management team, diving into their personal experiences, challenges faced, and vision for the future. Join us as we delve into their unique insights and celebrate the milestones we've achieved together. Happy birthday, Exeon!

What I am most proud of is the journey with our incredible team. Transforming an idea from my PhD thesis into a company with nearly 50 team members and a growing customer base is truly remarkable. I still remember the early days when just four or five of us were crammed into a small office at ETH Zürich, working on our prototype and our first customer project. We used to joke with the customer that our best engineer would handle their case. This was easy to guarantee because back then, there was only one person with the title "engineer" in our company.

Now, we have three technical teams, and while navigating the hurdles of growth is not always easy, it’s just incredible to see how far we’ve come. I am very proud of and grateful for our diverse team, and each member brings unique backgrounds and experiences that enrich our culture and drive our success. Together, we’ve built something special, and I look forward to what the future holds for Exeon.

We are a diverse team with a wide range of backgrounds and roles. However, what truly matters to me—and is essential for any thriving remote company—is that we share common values as a team. At Exeon, we approach our work with a results-driven, problem-solving mindset, which requires proactivity and the same sense of ownership from everyone.

To preserve our startup culture as much as we can, we seek people who are curious and ambitious and who embrace learning and experimentation (even if new approaches fail sometimes). We also look for qualities like openness, transparency, and genuine care for others. These traits foster an environment of trust and collaboration, regardless of one's role within the team.

During our last summer event, we organized a city hunt across Zürich, and while I was eager to clinch victory (as I always am in competitive games), the true highlight to me was seeing my colleagues interact with each other outside of work. My sales and developer colleagues were constantly cracking up about something they talked about, while they were following clues and trying to solve different puzzles.

I think this is how you build teams that make an impact in the long run. And it's these moments of genuine connection that lay a foundation for a resilient and effective team. Even though such teams don’t always win city hunts. 😉

As a company grows and matures, new technological challenges always come up. I started at Exeon 7 and a half years ago as Chief Research Officer, and one of my first big challenges was taking over the lead for the frontend development. In the early startup phase, we did not have dedicated front-end developers in the team, and I had to take over the main responsibility for a while. Given that my background and main strength were always in backend technologies and research, I found it difficult to extend the front end and solve tricky technical challenges. Luckily, I was not alone, and a full-stack developer supported me. Since then, we have hired great front-end developers who do a much better job at evolving the front-end than me.

A more contemporary challenge that I work on day-to-day as CTO is scaling our solution, ExeonTrace. Catering to our growing customer base, protecting bigger and more complex networks, and building a scalable and evolving product definitely brings new requirements and expectations. After all, for a cyber security company, it is not enough to keep up with the new technological trends; we always have to be one step ahead. But this is an exciting challenge to which we have to respond with continuous innovation.

My vision is to advance with a team of fantastic and highly talented people who are united in pursuing an ambitious goal: to become the leading NDR provider in Europe. I believe that by harnessing our collective strengths and expertise, we can set new standards in the industry and deliver unparalleled value to our clients. Together, we will continue building our culture of innovation and excellence that drives us toward achieving this vision.

Furthermore, I aspire to expand our ecosystem of customers, partners and managed security service providers. Collaborating on large projects with customers and partners across various countries has already yielded invaluable experience. By strengthening these relationships and broadening our network, we can enhance our offerings and significantly increase our footprint across Europe. This growth and accumulated expertise will also enable us to better serve our clients and meet their evolving needs in an increasingly complex and demanding security landscape.

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