Cysurance: Safeguarding Small and Medium Businesses and their Partners Through Affordable Cyber Insurance

“Our comprehensive solution safeguards small businesses against privacy breaches, identity theft, system damage, and cybercrimes.”

Cyber insurance provides financial assistance to mitigate the costs of a data breach or cyber-attack and access to experienced experts to help businesses and organizations with incident response and regulatory and legal compliance. It can protect the insured from first-party and third-party exposures arising from Internet-based and general information technology risks as well as from potential lawsuits due to the loss of customer or vendor data.

Given the preceding, we’re delighted to present Cysurance.

Cysurance is the next-generation cyber insurance solution. The platform comes with a complete set of features to safeguard business continuity and insure against losses, protecting both revenue and recovery.

Cysurance was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in NewYork, with offices in Washington D.C. as well.

In Conversation with Kirsten Bay, Cysurance CEO and Co-Founder

Q. What is the reason behind the genesis of Cysurance? How did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

The Cysurance product was created to reduce the friction and complexity that small and medium-sized businesses experience when trying to adopt a cyber insurance program. The platform was designed to identify a breach, provide remediation, and supply a comprehensive insurance policy that covers the events that most impact SMBs, all without an application or underwriting. It is distributed by bundling with lenders’ and third-party service providers’ existing risk and technology offerings, providing them a competitive advantage via a complete cyber risk solution that complements their other products.

Q. A well-defined mission and vision is the secret behind the success of many firms.’ What is your company’s M&V statement?

Our mission is to provide the most accessible and comprehensive platform to protect small and medium-sized businesses–the lifeblood of our economy–from the ever-growing threats of cyber-attacks that could put them out of business.

Q. ‘It is difficult to start a venture, but far more difficult to maintain it’. How would you and your team interpret this saying?

In the early days of a venture, there are great challenges in developing a concept into a clearly articulated product offering that potential consumers and investors can understand. However, once the venture has gotten traction, maintaining the vision while adjusting to daily operating concerns can be one of the most difficult phases of a company’s lifecycle. Success

or failure in this period is often determined by the ability to adjust accordingly while remaining true to the original concept of the venture.

Q. What was your journey like to get where you are?

The idea of bundling cyber insurance with third-parties’ risk services is an innovative approach in the market-one that took a bit of time for potential investors to understand. Despite the early challenges, staying true to our vision and approach was essential because our partners’ market is evolving in such a way that our product fits seamlessly into their offerings while providing a competitive advantage.

Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful CEO?

Patience and curiosity are the most vital attributes. Patience helps one remain focused on the most important tasks to move a company forward. Curiosity is the fuel of an entrepreneur, as it represents the desire to understand the complexities of the world and make them simpler.

Q. What other CEOs do you look up to?

I admire CEOs who have the vision to see when a market is shifting and capitalize on it. I particularly admire those who run established organizations with a renewed vision and evolving strategies that propel their continued growth alongside their younger competitors.

Q. What are your biggest accomplishments?

Stepping out on my own to start Cysurance was a big moment in my career, as it was a great leap of faith to start a venture from a blank sheet of paper.

My philanthropic work in supporting disadvantaged children has also been an accomplishment and a privilege, as I have been part of programs where children’s lives truly have been changed.
Q. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

First, be very clear on what it means to be an entrepreneur. While it can be both personally and financially rewarding, it requires an incredible amount of sacrifice, hard work, resilience, and leadership in times of scarcity before prosperity becomes a reality (if ever). And most importantly, stay in front of customers and prospects as much as possible and listen to their feedback. The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is thinking they know better than the customer, which results in failure.

Q. What do you enjoy doing in your free leisure time?

Golf is a great passion of mine and I enjoy the process of honing my skills as I try to reach to a level achieved by only a very few.

Kirsten Bay – The Visionary  Behind Cysurance’s Innovative Approach

Kirsten Bay, Co-founder, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Cysurance. She created Cysurance to change how small businesses think about and mitigate against cyber threats. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of risk intelligence, information, and policy expertise across a variety of sectors.

She has developed recommendations for the White House energy policy in partnership with the Center for North American Studies (CNAS) and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and collaborated on information studies for MIT-Harvard and several federal agencies. She has gone before a parliamentary subcommittee on recreating trust in the global economy and presented national security and critical infrastructure concepts at conferences such as Black Hat, Secured Americas, Enterprise Architecture Institute, and many more.

“Our mission is to provide the most accessible and comprehensive way to protect small and medium-sized businesses – the lifeblood of our economy – from the ever-growing threats of cyber-attacks that could put them out of business.”