Spotlight

We believe in the saying-innocent till proven guilty

DQC News Bureau

31 Dec 2009 00:00 IST

Updated On 31 Dec 2009 06:23 IST

New Update

With the number of legitimate e-mails getting classified as spam, BoxSentry's
solutions are aimed at complimenting Internet security solutions of enterprises
to ensure business continuity. Goel on the opportunities he sees in India

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What is your strategy for the Indian market?

E-mail integrity is our focus as opposed to the traditional anti-spam
solutions. While we have primarily been going direct, we have recently started
working with major partners like Tata Communications to tap the enterprise
market in India. We are in the process of appointing a national distributor in
the country. Q1-Q2 next year is when we are looking to announce our distribution
partnership. Our global model is that we work with one national distributor in a
country and that is what we are considering for India as well.

Currently we have an office in Bengaluru and staff to support our customers
here. As the market grows, we will expand our business in the country.

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What is the technology you offer?

Over 200 billion e-mails are sent and received daily, of which 90 percent
are spam. E-mail doesn't work as well as people think it does. Spam has got so
aggressive that the probability of legitimate e-mail being classified as spam is
very high. Around 100,000,000 legitimate e-mails globally are misclassified
every day. This impacts the integrity of a business process, and this is where
our technology comes in. Our focus is not content or reputation-based. We
believe in the saying 'innocent till proven guilty'. We identify the senders on
three factors-identity, authentication and reputation.

On a personal note

How do you
like to unwind?

Fine dining and cooking are my hobbies. Preparing food together is a
great way for my wife and me to spend quality time together and zone out
from the rest of the world-at least for a short time. Visiting restaurants
around the world also gives me a chance to sample different chef's flavors
and styles. I try to take these ideas and make my own creations for the
dinner parties we enjoy hosting.

When was the last time you went on a vacation and where was it?

I don't get to take vacations much these days-only occasional two or
three-day city breaks. Over the past few years, however, memorable vacations
have included mountain climbing in the Adirondacks in the US and enjoying a
private few days of solitude by the lake in Udaipur.

How did you come up with the name of your company?

We were brainstorming different terms that captured the increasingly
serious problems being faced by businesses. The companies usually look for
securing genuine e-mail communication, and the inherent power on the one
hand and vulnerability of the 'inbox' on the other. An image of what our
solution would provide as a communication 'protector' brought 'sentry' to
mind-hence BoxSentry.

What were you doing before starting BoxSentry?

I co-founded Greenoak Capital Partners, a technology-focused private
equity firm. Prior to that I was an Investment Director with PwC Venture
Partners in London, the Venture Capital investment arm of
PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Our technology helps deliver legitimate e-mail while keeping spam out. We
integrate spam-filters with anti-malware solutions. We have developed this
technology for 3.5 years and have a patent on it. We use our global reputation
base to fast track e-mail.

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How are your solutions competing with others in the market?

We have two solutions to cater to the enterprise and government customers-RealMail
and LogiQ. While LogiQ deals with e-mail integrity, RealMail focuses on
anti-spam and anti-virus. The solutions have been developed to mitigate business
risk, while ensuring business continuity and technology optimization. LogiQ is
an infrastructure technology, so we are not competing with other Internet
security solutions in the market. Rather, we compliment them. There are no other
players offering the solutions we have.

Why was your entry into India delayed?

Our value proposition has been to handle e-mail security in the non-English
speaking markets. In India, English is the language primarily used when
e-mailing, so the value proposition was not very compelling. But the response to
our solutions has been good. Our discussions with major players has been
excellent. We are seeing an opportunity as India is becoming a sophisticated
enterprise market.

What sort of partners are you looking to take on?

System integrators who have a trusted relationship with enterprises and
government customers would be our preference, also they should have a focus on
security.

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What other opportunities do you see here?

We are working with SingTel for cloud computing solutions. As India starts
to move towards cloud computing, we see a trend, especially in the SMB segment.
So we want to take advantage of that.

Our focus-e-mail integrity, is unique and we are looking at bundling with OEM
partners like filter vendors.

Ruth Samson

ruths@cybermedia.co.in