Jeff Hussey already helped build one multi-billion dollar tech giant in the Seattle area.
Now, the co-founder and former CEO of F5 Networks is looking to do it again with Tempered Networks, a Seattle startup formerly known as Asguard Networks that today is announcing $2 million in funding.
“I think retirement is overrated,” said Hussey, who is taking over the CEO post at the startup. It marks the first full-time executive role for Hussey since he left F5 in 2002.
Why did Hussey want to jump back into a startup?
For one, he thinks there’s a huge opportunity in front of Tempered Networks, a security company that was initially started in 2012 with technology from Boeing.
“My goal is to make it F6,” says Hussey. “To have a very, very fast -growing network technology company.”
Hussey is already reassembling part of the band, with more than half of Tempered Networks’ 15-person staff hailing from F5.
“When I saw the technology, and where it was being deployed, to me there were a number of similarities … to F5 in the very early stages,” said Hussey. “The difference being F5 did very similar things based on appliances at the core of the network, and similar things are now being done at the perimeter of the network.”
Tempered Networks’ technology is designed to protect industrial control systems equipment and industrial Internet of Things — shielding them from targeted attacks and unintended vulnerabilities. That could be everything from electricity to city water systems, including pumps at reservoirs or control systems on oil & gas equipment.
Because those systems are increasingly becoming connected devices, Hussey said that they are now susceptible to “all sorts of mischief.”
“Our technology allows an operator to basically … apply the Harry Potter cloaking device equivalent onto that network,” he said. “Using our solution, when it is installed in line between the critical infrastructure and a data center, it becomes invisible to any sort of hacking attempts or malware insertions or anything like that.”
Tempered Networks has 15 customers in manufacturing, oil & gas and utilities, but Hussey declined to name who is using the technology. The product starts at a price of $9,995.
The company was originally started by David Mattes, a former Boeing research engineer. He’s still involved in the company as CTO, noting that critical infrastructure requires specific security solutions that differ from those used for servers, laptops and mobile devices.
“Unlike these traditional devices, industrial devices usually do not have the compute power to protect themselves, and they often reside in remote locations that lack secure connectivity, which amplifies their vulnerability,” said Mattes. “Our products are purpose built with this in mind and designed to help ICS network operators — who often must be self-reliant from IT — maintain operational integrity and availability.”
