Join us for a live “CyberSide Chat” with expert Kent Blomquist and explore how to use cybersecurity to support your company’s growth.
Workshop Overview
As the founder of a startup or scaling company, cybersecurity can be more than a way to protect your systems and data, it can help give your business a competitive edge. Building strong cybersecurity measures can build confidence with customers, strengthen relationships with partners, help you meet the expectations of larger organizations, and position your company for new opportunities. As cybersecurity becomes an increasingly important consideration in purchasing, partnership, and investment decisions, taking a proactive approach can become an important part of your growth strategy.
In this live “Cyberside Chat” conversation, you’ll hear from cybersecurity expert Kent Blomquist as we explore how you can approach cybersecurity as a business advantage rather than simply a technical requirement. Moving beyond technical jargon and fear-based scenarios, the conversation will focus on practical ways you can strengthen trust, demonstrate credibility, and use cybersecurity to support your company’s value proposition and growth.
You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of what cybersecurity means for your business, what customers and partners may expect from you, and practical steps you can take to strengthen your cybersecurity foundation. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to turn cybersecurity into greater trust, stronger business relationships, and a competitive advantage as you scale.
Learning Objectives
· Understand why cybersecurity is a business and growth consideration, not simply an IT issue.
– Identify the ways cybersecurity can influence customer confidence and purchasing decisions.
· Recognize what customers, partners, employees, and investors may expect from a trusted business.
· Identify opportunities to build security and trust into their business from an early stage.
· Understand how good cybersecurity practices can support growth, partnerships, and sales.
· Recognize common gaps that can undermine customer or partner confidence.
· Identify practical, affordable actions they can take to strengthen their company’s cybersecurity foundation.
· Understand how to communicate their approach to cybersecurity without creating unnecessary fear or complexity.
· Recognize how strong cybersecurity practices can help differentiate a business and contribute to competitive advantage.
Workshop Topics
The moderator will guide the conversation through a founder-focused progression: Strong Cybersecurity = Customer Trust = Competitive Advantage.
1. Cybersecurity as a Business Advantage
· Why should you think about cybersecurity as part of your business strategy, not just an IT responsibility?
· At what stage of growth does cybersecurity start to influence customers, partners, and business opportunities?
· What does being “cyber-ready” look like for a startup or scaling company?
· Where should you focus first when time, budget, and internal expertise are limited?
· How can a proactive approach to cybersecurity make your company stronger and more prepared to scale?
2. Building Trust with Customers and Partners
· What makes customers and partners confident that they can trust your company with their information?
· What cybersecurity questions might you encounter during a sales, partnership, procurement, or due diligence process?
· What do larger organizations increasingly expect from the startups and suppliers they work with?
· How can you demonstrate cybersecurity readiness without overwhelming customers with technical information?
· How can strong cybersecurity practices strengthen your credibility and business relationships?
3. Turning Trust into Competitive Advantage
· Can cybersecurity help differentiate your company from competitors?
· When can security and trust become part of your value proposition?
· How can cybersecurity readiness help you pursue enterprise customers, partnerships, or new markets?
· Can being prepared help shorten or simplify procurement and due diligence conversations?
· How can you communicate cybersecurity as a business strength without overpromising?
· What does it look like when cybersecurity moves from a requirement to a growth asset?
4. Building the Right Cybersecurity Foundation
· What cybersecurity fundamentals should you have in place as your company grows?
· Which practices can have the greatest impact without requiring a large cybersecurity budget?
· How should you think about access, passwords, multi-factor authentication, backups, software updates, and sensitive information?
· What role do employees and contractors play in protecting customer and company information?
· What should you consider when using AI tools, cloud platforms, or third-party technology providers?
· When is it time to bring in professional cybersecurity expertise?
Live Audience Q&A
The final portion of the workshop will give you an opportunity to ask questions about cybersecurity in the context of your own company. Questions may be asked live or submitted anonymously in advance.
About the Speaker
With more than 36 years of experience within the IT/ Cybersecurity industry, Kent has a passion working with clients
as a cybersecurity advocate. Using a risk-based approach, he helps map the business needs to the technical security
requirements. He also has experience in business development with a focus on service enablement and sales growth.
Kent is driven by connecting with people and building trusted relationships, and holds the designations of CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CISM (Certified Information Security Manager).
