Women founders – Meet Sandra Tobler of Futurae
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As phishing becomes ever more sophisticated, two-factor authentication is essential ¬– but it’s widely hated. Authentication-as-a-service provider Futurae aims to remove the annoyance factor for a seamless user experience. Its technology has impressed market watchers and now the company has raised CHF 2 million in a financing round.
With the funds, Futurae wants to accelerate its market expansion. The round was led by AXA Venture Partners and DIventures, with participation from Zürcher Kantonalbank and Stefan Muehlemann, founder and CEO of Loanboox.Co-founder Sandra Tobler brings experience as a trade commissioner in San Francisco – perhaps not the usual Silicon Valley background, but a very useful one!
Tell us about Futurae in your own words. How did you first get started with this project?
The three founders met in the US and we instantly clicked, sharing a passion for privacy matters and idea on how cybersecurity and IT, in general, could become more human-centric. My two co-founders graduated with specializations in mobile and online security, as well as cryptography and machine learning. With my IT business background, it’s a very strong combination of skills and characters!
The team and board members of Futurae
At Futurae, we make every type of login seamless and secure, by using sensor signals and context, plus a lot of other authentication and transaction confirmation technologies. Instead of taking sensitive personal information like biometric traits, we work with the context. We offer plug-and-play strong authentication options in a modular way for any web platforms or mobile applications, even with devices like Alexa.
What do you love about your job? Why do you do what you do?
It’s great to run a company together with great people. Although it can be a challenge at times to constantly have the responsibility for the company, it is also very liberating to choose who you work with and create the environment you work in.
We love the cybersecurity space because there is so much we can improve on in putting the human in the center. With increasing digitalization, there is a huge need for specialists who understand how to protect the privacy and security of complex structures. This can happen without jeopardizing the user experience. And it should happen! This is what I am passionate about.
What’s been your experience as a woman in infosec? What are your experiences in that context?
Unfortunately, there is a super small handful of women in IT, less in leadership positions in IT, and even less in cybersecurity. At times it can be a bit tiring to still talk about this mismatch. However, I am convinced it is in the interest of the quality of projects that overall diversity in the industry increases. I am confident though that there is a new generation of leadership growing that is more and more diverse.
How could that mismatch be addressed?
It is definitely very important to provide kids with role models early on. Also, I see a lot of value in close exchange between entrepreneurs to benefit from one another’s learning.
What advice do you have for women who want to launch their company in high-tech?
Go for it, but go all in. Being an entrepreneur is something you commit to in the long haul. As an entrepreneur you need to be able to keep getting up, motivating yourself and the team, sometimes against the odds, and just continue. You also need to be able to deal with hundreds of different opinions about what you do. On the other side, there is all the excitement you share in a team for an accomplishment you reached together.
Depending on the subject in tech, you need to be able to cope with largely engineer-driven male environments. This can be reflected in the way things are communicated. It’s important to be aware of potential misunderstandings and always be able to take things with a lot of humor.
How was the Venture Kick experience?
Venture Kick does an important job in Switzerland as it bridges the initial phase. It gave a basis for our initial, pre-revenue months, from refining our prototype and working on our go-to-market strategy to winning our first customers. All our team members are based in Switzerland – it is a challenge to cover salaries that offer a decent standard of living here. All founders give so much to their startups, and to the growing community. Venture Kick is highly beneficial to all of this, yet we always expect more. Lobbying to make corporate law and taxation fairer and more pragmatic for startups should be on the priority list of every single association, accelerator program or law firm working with startups!
