As presented at Career Hacking Village at Def Con

1. @brysonbort
Entrepreneurial Adventures:
Starting Your Own Company

2. @brysonbort

3. @brysonbort
@brysonbort

4. @brysonbort
Me
I’m not a lawyer
This is not legal advice.
I’m not even one of the best
entrepreneurs out there.

5. @brysonbort
Product
● Spun out of GRIMM
in 2018 with a $3M
Seed Raise
● Wordpress for
malware
Services
● Founded in 2013
● By myself*
● Organically grew to
50 hackers
501(c3) Non Profit
● Co-Founded in 2017
● Education and
awareness around
critical infrastructure

6. @brysonbort
Why Do You Want to Do This (to yourself*)?
*

7. @brysonbort
Why Do You Want to Do This (to yourself*)?
https://images.app.goo.gl/RNFePNwEGwAdwKGs7

8. @brysonbort
To be an entrepreneur
1. Passion
2. Tolerance for Bullshit

9. @brysonbort
What is the Idea?
● Talk to people
● Talk to more people
● Have them introduce you to more people and talk to them
● And by talk, I mean listen
● The best technology doesn’t win
● Value Proposition
● Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

10. @brysonbort
Products vs Services
Services - 1 hour of effort = 1 hour of $
Products - 1 hour of effort = x $$$

11. @brysonbort
Incorporate!
● Legal Structure: LLC, S, C
○ Check name availability!
○ Doing Business As (DBA)
● IRS
○ EIN
● State
○ Local
○ “Clever” - Delaware, Nevada, Wyoming
● County
● US Government
○ SAM: CAGE Code
○ Dun and Bradstreet: DUNS Number

12. @brysonbort
Starting With Your BFF
https://images.app.goo.gl/Jzr8ytLi2FvDPfag8
● Role
● Expectations
● Equity
○ Why not… wait?
● What if things change?
● What does success look like?

13. @brysonbort
To Raise or Not To Raise
Ida Black https://www.deviantart.com/idablack/art/Shakespeare-ish-Loki-to-be-or-not-to-be-319197493
Company
Type
No
(probably)
Yes
(maybe)
Services Products

14. @brysonbort
To Raise or Not To Raise
Control vs Growth
Bootstrapping Ego by Haroon Meer
https://vimeo.com/274978116

15. @brysonbort
Types of Investors
● VC Types
○ Funds
○ Private Equity
● Angels
● Friends and Family
● Incubators
● SBIR - https://www.sbir.gov/

16. @brysonbort
Okay, so you’re going to raise
Pitch Deck
I. What - THE PROBLEM in ONE SLIDE
II. How - your solution
III.Proof - (beta) customers, examples
IV.Funding - how much $ and execution
V. Vision - schedule, milestones, MVP
* Your Team
Ron Gula - https://www.gula.tech/blog/files/five-slides.html

17. @brysonbort
The Process
“Everything cishet white male founders tell you probably will not work if you are
not in that group.”
-Katie Moussouris
It is an insular community.
● West Coast (Valley bias)
● “Tech Bros”
● Relationships

18. @brysonbort
Capital
You’re getting married!
● Pre-Nuptial
○ Convertible Note
○ Equity
● Who and why
● Board
○ Directors
○ Observers
○ Others

19. @brysonbort
Addressable Market
$
$
$
$

20. @brysonbort
Economics
Hourly Salary
Overhead
Fringe
G&A
Back Office

21. @brysonbort
Hiring
● Reference Model - you know people, right?
○ Friends
○ “Rank”
● Incentive
○ Equity
○ Options
○ Bonus

22. @brysonbort
Benefits
● Policies: Holidays, Vacation, Hiring (Firing), Timekeeping
● Health Insurance
● 401k
● Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

23. @brysonbort
Back Office
● Contracts
● Legal
● Human Resources
● Payroll
● Accounting
● Business Insurance

24. @brysonbort
The Actual Office
● Space
○ Dedicated
○ Shared
○ Incubator
● Remote / WFH
○ Culture
○ Scale
● Equipment / Software
● Storage

25. @brysonbort
Intellectual Property
● Patents
● Trade Secrets
● Trademarks
● Copyright
Talk to a lawyer. They’re
usually not this good looking.

26. @brysonbort
Clients
● Acquisition / Go To Market (GTM)
● Procurement/Contracts
○ Non Disclosure Agreement
○ Contract for The Work
● Types
● Execution - expectation management
● Who knew getting paid is the hard part

27. @brysonbort
Every Month
You will face a random existential crisis that no amount of
planning can prepare you for. You will get past it, you will
survive. And, at some point, they stop happening.
And you’re not alone.

28. @brysonbort
Resources
● Security Founders Slack - #FutureFounders channel,
contact for access
● Gusto.com - payroll, benefits, reporting all in one
● Pilot.com - easy, cheap accounting*
● Brex.com - credit card not tied to your personal credit
(best for funded product start-ups)
● ANY ENTREPRENEUR!

29. @brysonbort
“The Club”
“Becoming an entrepreneur is like joining an exclusive club
where the only requirement is the desire to join. Every
member will help you.”
--me

30. @brysonbort
In a downturn
Gray Hall, a BuildGroup managing director and co-investor at Cybrary shared a post
from his firm’s blog titled “How to Manage Your Business During the Coronavirus
Crisis”. The main points of the blog were:
● As an entrepreneur and business leader, your first responsibility is to keep your team
safe and healthy.
● You also need to take care of your business.
● If you are profitable, you want to stay profitable. If you are burning, you want to cut
your burn to give yourself more runway.
● Don’t panic, but take the opportunity as a mandate to build your business into
something leaner and more resilient!

31. @brysonbort
Ron Gula
● COVID made cyber and supply chain more important and created opportunities to compete with
companies like Zoom.
● Need to have two goals - what you are doing/selling/solving as a company and what are your
personal goals.
● This video has lots of stuff you can pull from: https://www.gula.tech/blog/files/fifth-domain.html it's
military focused, but I hit my major points like the 5 slide pitch deck
● It is easier if you can work a year on GTM or are a consultant who is close to the problem.
● The pitfalls blog has a lot of stuff you can pull from too: https://www.gula.tech/blog/files/cyber-
pitfalls.html
● If you think you are not doing this for money, then why are you not open sourcing this tech? If you
are doing this for money, then be prepared to live in a world of lawyers, tax advisors, family
planning, etc. and be prepared to help your founders and employees take advantage of this so you
help create more entrepreneurs and they will do this next after you do.

32. @brysonbort
Keenan Skelly
“Be Hungry. Hungry like you are living on ramen noodles (you might be). Be
Fearless. Unapologetically Fearless, as if you have 8 more lives after this one
(and plan to use them). Push back. Just because your ideas may be different
than the status quo, that doesn’t mean you are wrong.
Craft “your” time. I read, bake cakes, and ride 15 miles a day. No matter what.
What is “your” time? Most importantly, Inspire! Inspire yourself, your employees,
your community, investors, and especially those who will come after you. And,
seriously, don’t wear the black turtlenecks. Be you.”

33. @brysonbort
Casey Ellis
“A founder is someone who gets irrationally
pissed off about a problem they think they can
solve.”
Jake Williams
“The biggest thing I'd note is to find the thing you
do best and focus on that thing.”

34. @brysonbort
Tim Medin
● The technology part is easy. Acquiring clients is the hard part. The saying “Build a better mousetrap, and the world
will beat a path to your door” is malarkey. Can you make a better burger than McDonalds?
● Get an accountant. They are way better at the tax game than you are. It will save you way more money then you
spend. (I still ado QuickBooks myself, but I took an accounting class years ago).
● Don’t do everything yourself. Yes, you can save money, but do it right (website, marketing, logo design).
● Your most critical resource will soon become time (not money). Be very careful with it. Also, see the point above.
● Don’t be afraid to ask others for help or ask questions. Be aware, their time is valuable so keep it to the point.
● Your first few hires are critical. They will define your company and the culture.
● Let people do their jobs. That’s why you hired them. You don’t have time to micromanage.
● The customer is not always right. Your people come first. You can get new clients, but if you your culture is toxic
you’ll die.
● Feedback (positive and constructive criticism) is a gift. It also means employees never have to question where they
stand. Give feedback early and often.

35. @brysonbort
Dan Tentler
Mostly as it pertains to things like getting a PO box first since the UPS store
doesn’t require you to furnish any actual evidence that you own a company,
because if you put your home address and phone number on articles of
incorporation you get bombarded with spam, and things like complete strangers
who decide they want to invest in you or buy your company and butter you up are
scammers of some variety who after 3 minutes on the phone, sound incredibly
shady, but I have no idea what their end game is because I never let them finish
their bullshit before punching out.

36. @brysonbort
Chris Truncer
● Get a good lawyer – you’ll want to spend the money to make sure you are covered. Have them draft up all the
documentation you need for sales, signing contracts, NDAs (or mutual NDAs), basically everything that you will need
to hit the ground running. Do this up front before you launch/go public.
● Build your website – Work with a company (or do it yourself if you can) to build your company’s website so that when
you launch/go public people can see it immediately.
● Figure out what you want to/need to do for insurance (business insurance requirements, health insurance, etc.)
● Prep for the software/hardware you need immediately and that you can wait to purchase until work arrives
○ Server(s)
○ Laptop(s)
○ Office 365
○ MSDN
○ Etc.
● Prep for a minimum of 6 months where you might not receive a paycheck.
● Prep marketing (blog posts, etc.) so that once you are public you have a steady stream of content your company can
publish to get your company out there and known

37. @brysonbort
John Strand
1. Don’t.
2. Don’t.
3. Don’t.
4. You still here? Ok, lets talk.