Introduction to Guest

Andrew is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Qomplx, where he leads the development of next-generation operational risk management and situational awareness tools and information, sharing in multi-spatial, multi-temporal distributed systems. He is a thought leader in cyber and data management with specific expertise in large-scale heterogeneous network design, deep-web data extraction, and data theory.

Andrew was formerly a U.S. Air Force Senior Cyberspace Operations Officer who led enterprise network modernization and design efforts for the Air Force and large Dept. of Defense initiatives.

Andrew received his Bachelor of Science and Computer Science degree from the United States Air Force Academy and holds his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Oxford.

The Call to Action & Coming Up with The Idea

After a big opportunity to join the US Air Force and serve his country, Andrew fell in love with computers, cybersecurity, and machine learning. Upon leaving the Air Force, Andrew took an opportunity to go to graduate school at Oxford to learn more about computer science and study data extraction. It was at Oxford where he really dove into algorithm development, computational complexity, and other AI aspects. Andrew learned how to think about expert systems and how things can be automated to simulate human users, while at the same time learning about how we analyze heterogeneous data while dealing with inconsistencies and ambiguities.

During Andrew’s time at Oxford, he met his best friend and co-founder, Jason Crabtree, an incredible technologist, leader, and Artificial Intelligence enthusiast. Both Andrew and Jason knew how transformative AI is for our society yet were concerned as to why these technologies were not more accessible. Both military guys with leadership positions in cyber communities, Jason and Andrew decided to take on the challenging task of building a data driven decision system at scale. However, given the challenges working in this space in the US military, Andrew and Jason began talking more and more with people in the industry instead. Together, they made the decision that in order to have an impact on the world in a way they envisioned, it was not going to happen in uniform. Stepping out on their own was the best option. It was at this time where Qomplx was born.

Validating the Product

From Andrew’s time in the Air Force working on large projects, he really appreciated the central role that identity plays in cybersecurity. So, when it came to starting a company, Andrew knew they had to understand the cybersecurity market better. He ultimately made the decision that as much as the data factory is what the company is all about, it’s not just about the technology, it’s about productizing a lot of disparate technologies and making them interoperable with one another. Making them accessible so that customers can retain value and use their product with their data. It was a decision early on that in order to bring something back to market, they had to deeply understand the market, and it was better to build experiences on top of a platform as a means of understanding what the platform really needs to consist of. Given Andrew and Jason’s expertise in risk management and security, the first Qomplx products were related to cybersecurity and insurance, helping reinsurers reason about their underwriting risks. Automating underwriting so that underwriters have a better understanding of the risk accumulation of a new policy against their larger portfolio.

In cybersecurity, Qomplx built a product very centered around identity, using Active Directory data while looking at the underlying protocols by which authentication happens. From here, Andrew can help better assure that people are who they say they are, for example. This in itself is a very good representation of use cases for the larger vision that they are trying to promote. Cyber, as Andrew explains, is like the Wild West. There are sensors in different places all over the enterprise. Those sensors each have partial and very incomplete views of information. At times, they can be very inconsistent, even with each other.

Qomplx really began by finding market traction first, then built small products based on the market traction, products that were generalizable to greater domains.

Validating the Market

Qomplx took the approach of building the more prescriptive experiences first, with Q-Cyber being the first product that went into the market. Qomplx also had the best networking, too. Andrew was able to talk extensively with technology leaders in a plethora of firms that helped him understand the real need for potential customers. In fact, Andrew did not hire anyone specifically in sales until later on.

Cybersecurity: Finance, Insurance, Risk Management

Qomplx looked at the infrastructure they were building and wanted to showcase products that could gain market traction, with Finance, Insurance, and Risk Management the top three focuses. Andrew thought, if you do something three times, perhaps you can convince the market that it’s generalizable. Qomplx is not looking to build more verticals but proving that their company is generalizable. After this is completed, the right components are built underneath, allowing other businesses to build on top of the Qomplx platform. This is the ultimate direction for the company. Qomplx is not looking to be a product designer, but a technology provider for many different domains.

Pivoting Through COVID-19

Running a lean, agile product development shop, Qomplx has been able to pivot and gain traction during COVID, with the team working more closely together, productivity is enhanced. Qomplx is making sure their customers are taken care of, all while providing them the right value against their priorities. Andrew is pivoting through the challenges, while holding the reputation high that Qomplx is a responsible partner, even though the massive changes we are globally experiencing.

Vision for the Future

The future of Qomplx consists of not building more domain specific products but building and exploring more of the underlying operating systems. Andrew reiterates that the operating system is a bit of a metaphor. It’s an abstraction layer for tools and resources where one can find insights from data and enable data driven decision making. Andrew hopes to democratize those capabilities more and more, making them even more accessible. For it’s not just as simple as having a cool piece of technology but building a really great user experience that is accessible and valuable. Andrew and the employees at Qomplx plan to continue this journey.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

For an entrepreneur embarking on an AI startup, it’s important to understand that R and D is going to have to be continuous. As the market and technology changes, the competition will change too. It’s important that R and D investments are made. It is critical for AI startups to find the right investors, thought leaders and people that believe in your vision, who can help partner and support you in the appropriate way. Artificial Intelligence startups are not something that happen overnight. There’s a lot beyond the product market fit, for product refinement and experimentation is necessary, especially given the nature of these technologies. Make sure to find the right investors aligned with your execution plan.

Advice for Industry Leaders

Andrew’s advice for industry leaders is to understand the limits of your products/business. All decision making is highly contextual. When you start on this journey make sure your first several hires are not data scientists, but data engineers or vendors like Qomplx, that can help you wrangle, curate, and understand your data on a deeper level. Technology is constantly changing and transforming, so make sure to not become too dependent one one way of doing. If you have an infrastructure and data supply chain feeding what you know, your future Artificial Intelligence aspirations are going to be in alignment with your business and work.

As a whole, we must work on leveraging energy more effectively and efficiently, while using data and analytics to do so.

https://www.Qomplx.com/