By Diana K. MurphyMike Wiacek has been at the forefront of cybersecurity since the 1990s. But his career actually began while he was still in high school. When the small startup he moonlighted at had a data breach, the CEO asked the then 16-year-old for guidance. He’s come a long way since. After a successful nine-year career at Google, he decided it was time for a break, but the top brass at the company wouldn’t hear it.
It was nuts. I had a pager after that to help that company. And we weren’t supposed to have communication devices in schools at the time. I remember telling the high school principal that I’m working, and it’s just me doing this sort of work right now. I would be in the middle of calculus class and my pager would start buzzing. It was a lot of fun.I had been at Google for like nine years. In 2015 I was tired and wanted to take a break. I took a sabbatical. I thought about what I wanted to do.
You launched Inception after Stairwell’s $20 milion Series A funding in September. Can you explain what it does?