>> Narrator: Live from San Francisco. It's theCUBE. Covering RSA conference 2020 San Francisco. Brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media. (upbeat music) >> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Rick here with theCUBE. We're at RSA 2020, Moscone and beautiful San Francisco's day four I think Thursday already. This is a crazy conference Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I don't think we'll be here for tomorrow. It's been a pretty full slate. As it is, we're excited to have our next guest. She is Rose Ross, the founder and chief trailblazer, for Tech Trailblazers. Rose. Great to meet you. >> It's great to be here too. >> Absolutely. So what are the Tech Trailblazers? >> So the Tech Trailblazers are an awards lead platform, which recognizes the creme de la creme of the enterprise Tech startup landscape. >> Jeff: Okay. >> So we cover the categories from AI through to storage, but obviously security is a big part of that and we find that security and cloud are usually our most popular awards to be entered into. >> Okay, and I assume you're, really recognizing the individuals more than the companies, >> We do both. >> Or is it more of the companies? You do both. >> We do the Tech category so they can compare like for like apples with apples, pears with pears, security startups with security startups. And then we also acknowledge and recognize some of the key players in those startups. So we have a female trailblazers and a male trailblazer each year . >> Okay, and how long have you been doing this? >> This is our eighth edition. >> The eighth edition. >> Started for a while. 2012 was our first outing. >> Okay, And you said you just gave out this year's Awards on Monday? >> That's right. We announced it. Yeah, day one of RSA. >> Right, so give us some of the highlights. Who were some of the special people that you called out this year? >> Some of the special people, I actually sat down with one of the special people just now interviewed CEO of Shift-left who is our security trailblazer this year. Manish Gupta and yeah, we spent some time chatting about his journey and his challenges and his successes. And finding out more about the technology itself. So. >> And so what are the criteria to win? >> So we kind of look at a number of elements. We have an independent body of judges who are from the analyst community, from the blogger community from industry itself. So we have CSOs, CIOs, and just people who understand the Technology really, at both the technical level and what is needed by the marketplace. So we look at a number of things. One is obviously innovation. If you're looking at the startup world, you want to look at people who are bringing new and exciting things that are needed by companies, to either secure them or store their data or analyze their data. But we also look at how they're doing in the market. So, we'll be looking at what their go to market strategy is, how they're engaging with the end user community, that type of stuff. >> Okay. And at what stage in their growth are they generally you know, kind of coming into your radar? >> So we sort of do the cutoff for a start up as being having not celebrated their sixth birthday yet. >> Six birthday okay. >> Right, so and have not gone beyond Series C funding. >> Okay. >> So you wanted to keep it on the the newer end of the startup spectrum. We also have a special award for those that have not received any VC funding whatsoever. So they're either growing organically or privately funded. That could be seed capital, you know, crowdfunding, whatever that might be. And they have to be two years or younger, and they are all fire starters. >> And those are fire starters. So those are probably it's just really a function of life, 'cause I would imagine the vast majority of the companies that you recognize, eventually get VC funding if you're playing in this crazy technology space. >> It certainly helps to get to where you want to go. Accelerate, put a bit more fuel in the tank. >> So you also announced in your press release the incredible amount of money (laughs) your award winners have raised over time. Do you tell us a little bit more about that? >> Well, yeah, with RSA this week, we thought it'd be a great time to reflect back on what our security trailblazers had done over these eight editions. And obviously, it's a little bit early for expecting additional fundraising from Shift-left, 'cause they literally got the award on Monday. >> Great. >> But hopefully, if you look at the history of it all, we look at the people who've received the accolade over the last eight editions, nearly all of them have been within their first two years. Most of them have done at least one round of funding, but have usually gone on to do another significant round of funding within 12 months of having one, we'd love to take all the credit for that, but I think you really need to put that on the team. >> Jeff: Right. >> And acquisitions have also been quite prevalent. So we looked at the numbers just before RSA, and it was 72 722 million of the disclosed raised, and just in the security, >> Right. >> Space. Unfortunately, or very fortunately for one of our winners, ZeroFOX, they just peeped in with raising 74 million last Friday, which we didn't include. So if we put the undisclosed it would definitely over 800 million now. So well done to the ZeroFOX guys. >> Right, so how did you get involved in this? >> It was an idea that I had. My my other life is a Tech PR person. And we were working on a campaign for a show somewhat like RSA in the UK. And we thought it would be a great idea to run a startup competition to highlight some new entrants to the market. Unfortunately, they didn't think it was a fit for what they wanted to do, but it was such a compelling idea. I've worked with startups all my life and one of the challenges was always with them, particularly in the early stages to get recognition and to get coverage. So we thought we can do something about this. And I thought, well, nobody's going to listen to a PR person. They aren't interested in what I think. I'm not an expert on who's great in this space. So I spoke to Joe Bagley, who's the CTO of Amir for VMware, who's somebody I've worked with a lot over the years. And I said, Look, Joe, if I run something like this, would you come on board as a judge? And he said, Absolutely, I think it's a brilliant idea. And luckily, many other amazing judges has followed in his footsteps. So it's thanks to them, so. >> How many judges are there? >> We have around 40. I mean, we have a number of what a number of categories. So we want a specialist in those areas. Some cover multiple light cloud and security or Cloud and Storage. But obviously, when you look at AI and blockchain and all these other categories, you need people who really understand that space. >> And what's the process kind of how big is the top of the funnel when he started? And then how do you kind of whittle it down to the end when you said 1212 categories, so 12 winners per year about? >> Yeah. So we started off as obviously people enter usually through their PR team or their marketing team, or pull together the information that we request, which is quite a lengthy process, it's a big commitment of time. But not huge, but we do want to get to a certain amount of detail, to make a decision and give the judges something to work with. Then for that period, we then put out the judges to create the shortlist. So they will come back they will score on a number of elements, which are things like innovation and the maturity of the technology, then go to market attractiveness and their own personal view of how exciting and it is intuitive and how trailblazing it actually is. >> Right. >> Then we put it out to a public vote, but also the judges then take the shortlist and take another look at everybody. >> And it gets a public vote too? >> Yes, it does. >> It so does. Do the judges ever meet with the the nominees or is it all done based on the application the application packet that you put together and any other independent information they find on their own? >> Well, we still would encourage. I know the judges do like to reach out to people. And I know that obviously there are relationships because of the nature of the types of judges. >> Jeff: Sure. >> Obviously, we've got people in industry within the vendor community, analysts and bloggers, so they will have people that they know. So I always encourage people, if they say, you know, what would you do? I said, Well, if I was you, I would also reach out to the judges in your area, and just make them aware of who you are. And if they have other questions that they should you know, set up a briefing or something. >> Right. So it's really interesting concept to get the pub into the startup world because it's really, as you know, being in PR, you know, it's really hard to get elevated above the noise, if you will. And you know, we're sitting here surrounded by I don't even know how many thousands of vendors are in this hall. >> The early stage has 51 just as a starter. >> 51 in the early stage expo. >> Yes. >> Which hall is that? >> It's up on the second floor. >> On the second floor. Then there's little like corners of cubbies have of not even 10 by 10s. But you know the kind of the classic kiosks. So, when you're talking to two small companies, regardless of whether they go for the word, what do you tell them as a PR pro? What do you tell them as someone who's, you know, kind of seeing the challenges of trying to raise your profile as a small company? Do you stick to your knitting? Do you in a try to get a high profile? When you know, what are some of the tips and tricks that help little companies rise above the den, if you will, in this great space. >> Validation is always very important. Talk to the influencers in your space, talk to the analysts in your space, the bloggers in your space, and get that feedback and integrate it into your plan of how you create your message. And I think that's one of the hard things, a lot of startups particularly in the technology space, particularly enterprise Tech, they really in the weeds with what's amazing about their products and why they put it together. But you really have to put that into very simple terms. >> Jeff: Right. >> I mean, if you look at someone like RSA, we have got, you know, a lot of buzzwords kicking around here. You do have to try and put that into the deeds and requirements of the end user community. That's always got to be your lens on things >> Right. >> really. >> And you also you always have the vendor viability issues, you know, with your top and even if your Tech relatively inexpensive, maybe as a PLC or this or that, it still takes an investment from your potential customers to put it in and take that risk. And, you know, that's a much bigger hurdle to overcome often than simply the pricing or the structure of the deal. Not a easy, not an easy path. >> It has to be a partnership. I mean, one of the things we were advocating a couple years ago is that the bigger organizations really should have somebody who has a role of being a Chief Collaboration Officer for those smaller companies to engage with them. Because even the procurement process can obviously kill you. >> A little kill a little company, right? Even the pre sales, just having meetings and meetings and meetings and meetings and meetings and meetings to talk about the meetings that you're going to have to maybe eventually (laughs) get to somebody who can make a decision. >> Yeah, Its tough. >> Very cool. >> So, any kind of significant changes in the programme over time? Are you pretty much at the same place you were eight years ago? Or do you see this expanding into different categories? How do you see, you know, kind of the evolution of the Trailblazer? >> Well, we like to review everything and we listened to our judges, we listened to people in the marketplace. I mean, I had a great meeting yesterday with somebody in banking, who works with an awful lot of startups. And there is some really good news coming through that. The enterprise Tech VC community, there's a lot more of an appetite. They're starting to see the value more and more of investing in that type of longer longer term, because you can actually scale beyond where you can do sometimes with a consumer Technology. >> Right >> The potential unicorn sometimes don't quite make it. Those horses aren't always that reliable in the race. >> (laughs) Sometimes too much money is not a good thing that is for sure. >> Yeah. >> Or is good for you? It's a great way I know, I think the kind of the award format is a great way to shine a little bit of extra light on some of these companies that are really struggling to get noticed. It's a really difficult process for a startup, especially in such a deep Technology field. Something is so mission critical that people it's just not that easy for people to give you a try and give you a trial. Takes a lot of investment. So good work and look forward >> Thank you. to continuing to see the winners, raise lots of money and have success. >> Right, absolutely. Thank you, Jeff. >> All right Rose thanks again. She's Rose, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're at RSA 2020. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time. (upbeat music)