Vision Statement
Start is a third-party, vendor risk and assessment management tool that unifies people and processes in order to make better risk decisions, faster.
Start Leadership
Steve Bono
Founder, CEO
Since he formed ISE in 2005, Steve has grown the Baltimore-based company into a cyber-threat mitigation and solutions entity widely recognized for its thought leadership, excellence, integrity, and dedication to its clients.
Steve's unique approach has defined a proprietary methodology that attracts and utilizes a team of leading scientists, academics, and experts who specialize in the mindset of hackers. "You need to think like an attacker to defend against him. And furthermore, we endeavor to understand the business process surrounding our clients' assets; to develop mitigation strategies that promote business continuity, save costs, and still get them secure as fast as possible. Know your enemy; know yourself."
Steve has also incubated a powerful research division within ISE, making it one of the few companies to execute technology security evaluation while simultaneously forwarding the state of the art in new attacks and attack defenses. ISE’s involvement in the research community helps our team anticipate threats to our clients' assets, and allows us to provide cutting-edge modern mitigation strategies.
Ted Harrington
Executive Partner
Ted Harrington is the #1 bestselling author of "Hackable", which led to his TED talk “Why You Need To Think Like a Hacker.” He’s the Executive Partner at ISE, the company of ethical hackers famous for hacking cars, medical devices, and web apps; he also co-founded Start, software which simplifies vendor risk management. His clients include Google, Amazon, and Netflix, and he has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Forbes. His team founded IoT Village, an event series whose hacking contest is a four-time DEF CON Black Badge winner, and he hosts the Tech Done Different podcast.
Tom Cullison
Director Of Software Development
As Director of the Software Development at ISE, Tom Cullison oversees a team of highly skilled developers, project managers, and support specialists. His team is responsible for the construction, monitoring, and maintenance of ISE's software solutions. Tom has 25 years of software development experience in healthcare, finance, and consulting.
Tom has an affinity for the rule of three.
About Us
Start was born out of ethical hacking. The company was founded by the same people behind Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), the elite group of hackers, penetration testers, and security researchers.
In the course of performing security assessments for our clients, we realized they were struggling to manage all of the reports they received from us and other sources. So we built Start to help simplify the chaotic mess of spreadsheets and emails they were dealing with.
Start was built by security professionals, for security professionals (and the many stakeholders they need to help, including procurement, legal, business owners, and more).
Start is headquarted in Baltimore, MD with offices in Los Angeles and San Diego, plus a number of fully remote staffers.