Joe Boyle of Salt Communications.
Tell us about yourself?
I am one of the founding members of Salt Communications and I have transitioned into CEO of the company over the years.
I have been located in many parts of the globe for work in my past.
I have had the opportunity to work with many great leaders who I have been able to learn a lot from over the past 26 years of experience in the telecoms, networking and secure communications industry.
What do you think is the single biggest misconception people have when it comes to startups?
This may be one of the most widely held misconceptions: startups are simple – this is far from the truth.
One thing is for sure, it takes a lot of factors to line up for companies to get off the ground.
However, it’s even more difficult than people realise to create a product, hire staff, and stay afloat as an entrepreneur in today’s hostile market.
If you could go back in time to any moment from your journey, and give yourself one tip, what would it be?
It would be for me to grow my network more early on. It can be too simple to become tangled in the weeds when you’re busy building your startup.
Your function as a founder should be strategic.
Yes, you should delve deeper when necessary, but your main attention should be on the big picture.
You’ll be better able to realise your incredible vision if you establish a network of other entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, coaches, and advisors.
What makes you stand out as an entrepreneur?
I would like to say my ability to take calculated, significant risks.
I always try to push the boundaries with myself and look for opportunities in what we, collectively, can be even better at. Ensuring that I never give up is essential to both the team and the company.
Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?
Salt Communications was formed in 2013 by a group of tech entrepreneurs with a shared history in enterprise security, telecoms, network optimisation and app development.
After Blackberry’s years of dominance in the enterprise space it was very obvious around 2012 that Blackberry was losing its position as the leader enterprise mobility space.
It simply did not move fast enough after the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and then Android in 2009. The new ecosystem being offered by iOS and Android meant that the Blackberry offering suddenly seemed very limited.
These new mobile ecosystems resulted in global communications quickly switching from through-the-telecoms-network to over-the-top (OTT) of the network.
The vast majority of these new “apps” were consumer based and offered very little assurances from a privacy perspective. These same consumer apps began to brand themselves as “secure” because they started offering some form of encryption within their technology.
In Salt Communications, we understood that encryption alone will not suffice to make a communication app secure, and we saw the opportunity to build a system which offered all of the engaging elements of the consumer apps, while focusing on an organsiations’ security, allowed them to have full control of the system, remain compliant and, of course, keep their private communications secure.
Salt Communications is the best armour organisations have to protect trade secrets and other sensitive, strategic and proprietary information when communicating on mobile devices.
It is a software solution that is more than a secure mobile app: it has a web-based management platform for dynamic provisioning of secure mobile voice and text communications.
Where do you see your business in five years?
Salt Communications are focussed on becoming the standout leader in secure communications. We have significant growth aspirations as a company, be it revenue, customer base, global expansion and further product development.
We have plans in place for all of these growth strategies and the expertise to execute.
What do you think the biggest challenge will be for you in getting there?
Educating the world on the risks of using consumer messaging apps can be a difficult task when it’s what they’re used to.
However, we will do our best to continue putting out educational content out there for all to see and no doubt this will happen alongside global stories of consumer systems being breached.
Our solution requires proactive cyber experts who understand the cyber and mobile threat landscape, and the importance of secure communications in protecting sensitive information and protecting their reputation.
By solidifying ourselves as experts in confidence and secure communications, organisations will take the right step in regards to contacting us to help.
Talk to us about your biggest success story so far?
Due to a lot of our work being confidential I can’t state specifics. However, in a general sense I would say looking back over the past nine years of business and seeing the product and team we have built.
Our solution is being deployed and relied upon by some of the biggest organisations across the globe as well as for critical infrastructure for some of the world’s largest government organisations.
To see our solution used in these environments is highly motivating for our team to continue to exceed expectations and excel in our field.
How do clients and customers find you? Are you much of a salesperson for yourself?
We meet a lot of our customers when travelling across the globe whether that be to meet with our current customers or attending tech events.
I would be heavily involved in the sales side of things and love to get out meeting new people and shaking hands to see where we can help.
What one tip would you give to fellow startup founders?
Do it alongside a coworker, a partner, or an associate who shares your aspirations. I did it alongside three other founders and it is what made it a success today.
The start-ups with the highest chances of surviving the first two to five years typically have a team. That’s crucial since you require the challenge of your thoughts.
Build a founding team with different expertise and spread responsibilities accordingly.
And finally, what do you hope the future brings both you personally, and your business?
I hope that in the future we can protect as many organisations as possible across the world and their confidential communications.
If we can protect as many people from coming under attack that’s all we can ask for as a business and we will have achieved our mission, which we’re very confident we can and will do.
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