My Bird’s-eye View of This Year’s RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Competition

Events Posted Mar 5, 2019 by Doug De Orchis

In its fourteenth year, the RSA Conference’s Innovation Sandbox Contest has brought together the cybersecurity industry’s boldest new innovators, with the hopes of grabbing the spotlight for their groundbreaking security technologies. On Monday, March 4, 2019, CHEN PR was fortunate enough to see all of these gifted companies compete for the coveted crown—the “Most Innovative Startup.”

Full disclosure, I was slated to attend the Innovation Sandbox but thanks to a foot or more of snow falling in Boston, my flight to San Francisco was delayed and I missed it. CHEN PR Partner Kevin Kosh was there to represent, and he gave me a solid recap of the event. Luckily, thanks to the RSA Conference, I was also able to view many of the finalists present via videos that were posted after the competition.

Every year, someone from CHEN PR makes every effort to attend the Innovation Sandbox as many of our clients—past and present—have made the impressive cut. This year, one of our newest clients Capsule 8 was selected as one of the top ten finalists to present and showcase its pioneering approach to protecting Linux production environments. Check out all the finalists here.

The competition itself has a very organized format. The cybersecurity startup finalists square off against each other in a series of three-minute, venture capital-style elevator pitches. After all the finalists finish their pitches, a panel of distinguished judges, comprised of leading venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry veterans, ask each of the presenting companies several questions. After a brief deliberation by the judges, the winner is declared.

Over the last five years, the Innovation Sandbox Contest’s top 10 finalists, have together seen 14 acquisitions and have received over $2.2 billion in investments. Now that’s pretty impressive!

While Axonius edged out Capsule8 to win the competition this year, the event served as a very inspiring reminder of all the incredibly amazing work the security community is doing to minimize information security risk.

I wish all of the Innovation Sandbox participants the best of luck in their future endeavors, and here’s to a productive week ahead for all of us attending the RSA Conference! Explore, learn, collaborate and network.