The Founders Sandbox
On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Chasity Lourde Wright. Chasity is inventor and founder of Infiltron operates in the cybersecurity space; a Service disabled-Veteran owned and women-owned small business. Infiltron offers quantum-resistant cybersecurity solutions for decentralized digital identity, digital assets, and AI governance, utilizing proprietary post-secure encryption. Its patented technology integrates AI, blockchain, and quantum-resistant encryption to provide advanced cyber resilience, compliance enforcement, and real-time threat mitigation across...
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Salvador Badillo Rios. Salvador is Founder and CEO of , a strategic consulting and advisory firm aimed at helping underserved and overlooked founders bring innovative and disruptive technologies to market. He is also Senior Associate and Portfolio Manager at , a component of the , aimed at accelerating early-stage dual-use deep tech startups toward commercialization At DIU and NSIC, Salvador supported 21 early-stage dual-use hardware startups across 12 states with ~$50M over three years leading to over $335M in...
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Jane Zhang, CEO and Founder of about Scalable AI in Pediatrics. Jane progressed through her professional career as Biomedical Engineer, PhD Adjunct Professor, Big Pharma and it was upon living a very personal situation that she wanted be become a “builder": entrepreneurship was calling her. Listen to Jane’s podcast, as she shares where this whole idea of building something for the people at home to be able to examine, share, and, in the future - get assistance in identifying ENT diseases- became very important to her....
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Tammy Alvarez, founder and CEO of . Tammy is also an author, professional keynote speaker, inspirational coach, trainer, and epic storyteller. After experiencing firsthand burn out in a corporate career she struck out and intentionally created a work /life balance that resulted in creating Career Winners Circle, a company offering career coaching, helping individuals figure out what you do that you love and organizations that want to ignite their employees. They speak about Tammy leaving corporate life in New York,...
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Martin Tobias. Managing Partner of Incisive Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of technology companies that reduce friction at scale. Martin is a 3X venture-funded CEO raising over $500M as CEO with two IPOs who has also invested in hundreds of companies and is a limited partner in over a dozen VC funds. They speak about Resilience: Why starting a company today is awesome. You can find out more about Martin at:
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Eli Farhood, Chief Executive Officer at Katsh Digital ID. Hailing from Greece, Eli is a prior financial services executive and, with Katsh, a second time Founder. After experiencing fraud first hand, he pivoted a business in the making to create Katsh; separating one’s device from the need for authentication. Katsh aspires to democratize identify protection. For the month of October, they speak about cybersecurity and how to structure resilience into your company. You can find out more about Eli at: You can subscribe to...
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On this episode, Brenda speaks about purpose with Allison Byers, founder of , a tech company driving innovation to equitable capital access by removing barriers to partnership among diverse founders, investors, and service providers. Scroobious is a platform that is working toward equitable capital access: In Allison’s words “ fair representation of all segments with the exclusion of none” - now into its fourth year – having served over 900 founders. “Finding the funding and the people are critical to early stage success of a company.“ Listen to...
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On todays episode, Brenda speaks with Marcia Dawood. Marcia is a passionate advocate for positive change in empowering and educating everyone on how to invest. Her book "Do Good While Doing Well – Invest For Change, Reap Financial Rewards and Increase Your Happiness", is due out in September 2024 and this episode provides previews to our listeners. Brenda and Marcia speak about Purpose: Doing Good While Doing Well. How Marcia lives her purpose is as an author, host of the podcast The Angel Next Door, Chair Emeritus of (ACA)Angel Capital Association, the global professional society...
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On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, our host Brenda McCabe speaks with Khalid Machchate; accomplished 3 x exit startup founder, operator of a startup studio, board of director positions and now in his “NEXT ACT,“ Khalid is a member of Morocco’s Royal Advisory Committee by nomination from His Majesty King Mohammed 6th, for the development of the Kingdom. According to Brenda, "Khalid checks many boxes as a guest to the Founders Sandbox. The topic we settled upon is Purpose, when we met for the first time his remark to me about after he found the podcast and later on the website of...
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's personal experience has contributed to the work at Next Act Advisors. The Growth Strategies of NAA clients are always informed by current regulations and the understanding of why things have evolved to where they are because of the regulations and how they might change in the future. Enjoy this special Founder's Sandbox Podcast episode of Brenda reading one of her published blogs, "Data, Data, Everywhere" ; Now that all our data – private and enterprise, is out there, how can enterprises uphold trust? You can read along to this blog with your NAA subscription at :...
info_outlineAs the CEO of Infiltron, Chasity Lourde Wright is also a former USAF Aerospace Engineer, Intel Officer, and Cybersecurity Instructor with extensive experience in cybersecurity, AI governance, and national security. She was part of the team that developed reconfiguration capabilities for the USAF C-130 and contributed to the creation of the CMMC framework since its inception in 2019. Additionally, she has engaged in high-level cybersecurity and AI governance initiatives, including industry collaborations, government advisory roles, and proprietary innovations in quantum-resistant encryption, AI security, and blockchain-based compliance solutions.
Her expertise extends beyond participating in NIST challenges, encompassing leading-edge cybersecurity development, policy influence, and defense sector innovations.
You can find out more about Chasity and Infiltron at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/infiltronsoftwaresuite/
Transcript:
00:04
Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke
00:32
corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors.
01:01
As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25% off your membership costs. Thank you.
01:19
Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host of this monthly podcast in which I bring entrepreneurs, founders, corporate directors, and professional service providers who, like me, want to effectuate change in the world by building resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven companies. I like to recreate a fun sandbox environment with my guests. And we will touch on not only their purpose,
01:47
and what has driven them to create their own businesses. But also we're going to touch upon topics such as resilience, purpose-driven, and scalable sustainable growth. Today, I am absolutely delighted to have as my guest Chasity Wright. Welcome, Chasity. Hey. Thank you for having me.
02:13
Super excited to talk about how Infiltron has evolved and the lessons learned and how we're preparing to relaunch in 2025. Excellent. And it's perfect timing because I've known you for a couple of years now. Yeah. Right. So Chasity is CEO and founder of Infiltron Software Suite, a company that's headquartered out of Atlanta.
02:40
She is oftentimes in Los Angeles because she's working largely in the defense market and cyber security. So I wanted to have you on my podcast because you have gone further in building your business. So you and I met, I want to say back in 2022, you came out of the Women Founders Network cohort.
03:08
kind of very early stage. One of the events that I was a host of was the Thai So Cal Women's Fund. And you weren't yet ready for investing, but we struck up, I would say a friendship and I admire many things about you as, and we'll get into it in the podcast here, but you touch.
03:35
quite a few or check of quite a few boxes for my podcast. You says, so you are a woman owned veteran and women owned business. You are a veteran of the Air Force. You're in deep tech and you're by park and queer. And so there's many many boxes that you check and it was difficult to kind of hone in on what I really wanted to bring into the podcast today, but we're going to we're going to start from here.
04:05
I always like to ask my guests to start with kind of their origin story. I, when I first met you, right, in private conversations, got to hear your origin story and why you do what you do, what your firsthand experience while on missions, right, that really informed your aha moments to create infiltrant.
04:33
as a cybersecurity company. So tell us a bit about your origin story, Chasity. So, I mean, my origin story has, if you can imagine all of these different paths kind of streamlining into one path. So one of those paths would be a little black girl born in Georgia, still seeing dirt roads and...
05:01
being able to go to the country and work on a farm and, you know, just still having that connection to the past, you know, and not necessarily the past in a bad way. So athletic, played ball in college, went to Clark Atlanta University, you know, the HBCUs are a big hurrah right now, but they've always been one.
05:29
I grew up with one in my backyard, Fort Valley State, which is in Fort Valley, Georgia. So, you know, roughed it with the boys, played in the backyard with the boys, always been a boys girl, cousins, neighbor. We're all still close. We all still play sports when we meet. So it's like an adult play date, so to speak. But also, you know,
05:58
raised religiously, you know, I'm in Southern Baptist Church, two parent household, maybe lower middle class, but middle school was very transformative for me because they decided to mix in everybody. So it was my first time, you know, being in a more diverse population in school.
06:25
And, you know, music is a big thing for me as well. I DJ, I make music. That's the creative part of me. And I found a lot of people in deep tech to do something with music. So, yeah, so, you know, that's my like early years background. And then coming through, I decided to go into the Air Force. I actually took off between my junior and senior year at Clark Atlanta.
06:52
Um, there I was majoring in global leadership and management. Okay. And went in and I was in for eight years. I was an aerospace engineer, uh, got deployed several times, uh, to different places, and that kind of brings us to why Infiltron exists and, um, on one of those deployments, I was a part of a network takedown.
07:21
And it was, whoo. I mean, I don't mean to quote the pitch deck story, but it is what it is. I wrote it because that's the way it felt. It was catastrophic. So just imagine the city of Los Angeles losing power out of nowhere. The rail stops working, Sinai has no power, so all of the medical equipment is no longer working.
07:49
The internet's completely gone and not rebooting like it normally would. Your energy grid is down. That is what I experienced in one of those deployments. And I was a part of Iraqi freedom and Afghanistan. I was a part of both of those wars. And when we came, you know, we got everything back. Thank God we were smart enough to ship.
08:19
brand new equipment. Okay, you know, so you know, we weren't able to get there. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that's part of our job. We're engineers. And when you're in the middle of nowhere, there's no calling HP. There's no calling Cisco. Like you got to know how to do what needs to be done. There was there was a lot of makeshifting. I can be I came out of Air Force, I could be a mechanical engineer to
08:45
because we had to figure out how to make components on the fly. It was just so many things. Innovation, right? Like you had to be innovative. You had to be adapt quickly while keeping the mission as a focus. So just imagine something that catastrophic and something similar has happened. I feel like Colonial Pipeline was something that is known now in the US for sure.
09:15
that had similar elements of what we experienced in being deployed. Yeah, and that was two years back. And SolarWinds is another one. I generally refer to those because people generally gasp, even non-technical people, because they know how damaging it was. So we can reuse. Normally, when the equipment goes down,
09:44
Unplug, right? Plug back in. Reboot. Yeah, reboot. But that was not happening. And what we found out in the debrief was that quantum was used. So quantum simplistically is about frequencies in this context. It's about frequencies. And frequencies matter in so many aspects of life, from spirituality all the way through tech like what Infotron has. So...
10:14
What they did was they basically zeroed out the frequencies of our satellite communications. And I believe that they created some frequencies that damaged other equipment. So these are things that again we found out in the debrief. And I wasn't really able to talk to that probably when we met because I wasn't sure if it was unclassified yet.
10:42
But as soon as Biden started talking about quantum initiative, which was back in 2022, when we were in, I was like, everything's hitting it the right time because we were literally in Techstars LA space. And Biden pushed the quantum initiative. And I'm like, see, told you, because a lot of people, a lot of people doubted what I was saying because of the year that I said it had happened. And as.
11:09
we started to grow out our team. There are other veterans on our team from different branches. And of course we war story swap all the time. And those other two people work for like NSA and they did kind of the same thing, telecommunications. And I'm telling the pitch desk story and they're sitting there like, yep, yep. That happened to us too. And I'm like, when?
11:38
And they're saying different years. So at that point, we understood it. It happened more than once. So that's why Infiltronic. So what's Infiltronic? So let's bring it back to, Yeah. So you leave, you leave service after eight years after also experiencing that. I still feel like I'm a part of it because I do consult them still. Right. So it'd be great. So.
12:08
And once in the Air Force forever? Always. Well, I really would have been in Space Force. Yes. Yeah. Well, you heard that here on the Founder Sandbox. The next, yes. So for my listeners, again, you check a lot of boxes. Deep tech, women in STEM. What is it exactly that?
12:37
your suite of services. All right. So Info-Trans software, right, has two patents now. And on your landing page, it says, our patented solutions, solutions utilize adaptive artificial intelligence, advanced quantum encryption and blockchain technology to deliver real-time cybersecurity for a wide array of applications. Later on, we'll get into smart cities, but
13:06
including the internet of things, smart devices, legacy systems, hybrid data, signals and devices. All pretty, pretty understandable, but what is it that Infiltrion software is able to do that others are not? So we're able to create a easier way for businesses to migrate their devices.
13:36
and their software, so their applications that they use, maybe they've developed them themselves, we provide a way for them to easily migrate those entities over into a more quantum-proofed infrastructure. So we created what we've trademarked as quantum encapsulation. So just imagine something being encapsulated. And basically we've created,
14:05
a brand new method of leveraging quantum, the AI, we leverage it for the pro-activeness. So in lieu of just waiting for threats to happen to our clients, we go look for the threat. So we want to go be where the bad guys are and find out and bring that information back and update the solution in real time to provide protection for all of our clients in real time.
14:33
That's how we leverage the AI. The blockchain is kind of leveraged to kind of make sure that people, things like devices, aren't on networks that shouldn't be. So it's kind of, I mean, we use it for what blockchain was pretty much basically developed for, and that's a ledger. So keeping up with the transactions of what's happening.
15:03
in a client's infrastructure. Fantastic. So it's largely a B2B business, yours, right? We do. We have B2B, but we've been approached several times here recently by consumers. Because now, because of the biometric protection aspect of our solution using the quantum encapsulation, we can protect, say,
15:32
Halle Berry from deep fake, being deep faked, or, you know, protecting her likeness from being used without her knowledge in movies, CGI'd into movies. So it's kind of getting a little bit more consumerish as we iterate, right? Yeah, and we were briefly speaking before the podcast recording, Chasity and I, and...
15:59
I've known her for years. She's a very private person, would not allow photographs. So I told my producer, I'm certain Whitney Chastity's not going to be sending us a picture, but you said yes, that you might, because you do have biometric, artificial intelligence, safeguards that can actually discover deep fakes, right? Yes, yes. Yep, if it didn't come from us, if it wasn't checked back from us,
16:29
It wasn't approved by the person. So it's kind of pretty much that simple. Amazing. Well, later on in the show notes, we will have how to contact you at Enfield Tron. So you are in the startup ecosystem. Again, you travel a lot. You're between Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and actually the Bay Area. Yeah, the Bay Area. Right. So.
16:58
Revenue can be elusive, right? How? Especially in tech, and especially in these really large markets that I call deep tech. Deep tech and leading edge, bleeding edge, right? People don't know what they're actually buying, right? Or what they don't even, they probably don't even know that they have a need, right? What's been your strategy at Infiltron to keep the revenue flowing while maintaining also a pretty playful, innovative culture?
17:27
You talked about your team and so talk, that's kind of two questions. So how have you kept revenue coming, right? While not going out for dilutive funding yet, but tell us a little bit about how, what's your business model? So the business model in itself is set up for B2B and we also have a licensing element there. So if they, for instance,
17:56
a Fortune 500 company who has a cyber team, right? They have an internal cyber team. If they want to license out the patents that we have and kind of customize it or create or build off of those, use it as a baseline for what they need for their systems, we offer that as well. But let me just put it out there. But back to your question, how do we keep it fun? So the team...
18:25
The original team members, should I say. So we met about seven years ago at a place called the Gathering Spot in Atlanta. So the Gathering Spot is a community and they just opened one in LA and I do go to the one in LA too when I'm there. But it's a community of people, creatives from creative people to deep tech people like myself and everything in between.
18:55
We went to a black tech event at the gathering spot and found ourselves not being able to get into the actual room. So we ended up, because they have a bar and everything at the gathering spot. It's a social club too. It has a club aspect to it too, but you can network there, have meetings there, meet all types of people. I mean known people, I mean it's a great
19:25
great concept, shout out to Ryan. But we found ourselves at the bar, and we're looking at each other. We knew each other because we had been introduced by the Hellbrella person, Tracy. Yes, yes. Because they had done some things for her with a previous startup that she had, development-wise. So we're all sitting at the bar, and we're looking at each other like, but we're the real tech people.
19:55
We do it. It's like we don't really take people. Um, we can't even get in there. We like, we know the organizers and personally and everything. So let's start a company. Well, what we did was we launched, um, what we launched kit labs. And it was literally right down the street from the
20:23
and connect to the community. So we had, it's not far from the AUC and the AUC is where Morris Brown, Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta are. Got it. So a lot of times you would come in there and find some of the founders, cause this was founded by myself and like six or seven other black tech founders. The ones that were outside. Drinking like, you know.
20:53
That's where we had that conversation. You know, the conversation started at the bar, being outside of that first Black Tech meetup, so to speak, with Joey Womack, who is a part of Goody Nation, who we did get a 50K grant from back in 2020 through Google for Startups. Let me just say this so much. We were so interconnected. I mean, Atlanta is Wakanda. Don't let anybody tell you anything different.
21:21
It's definitely Wakanda. But literally, not even a mile away from the Gathering Spot, we opened up Kit Labs. It's a smart lab where we can tinker with stuff. We're engineers. We're tech people. We need something. We need a makerspace. We don't necessarily need a space that is compared. The Gathering Spot was a little bit more buttoned up.
21:46
And then what we needed, we needed to be able to throw things and make things. We had everything from like 3d printers to, um, VR, AR headsets. I mean, you, anything in tech. Innovative fun. It was in, is in that lab. Um, but that's where around today. So we dissolved it. So it's been dissolved. What one of, one of the founders, he unfortunately transitioned. Um,
22:15
So, you know, and he was kind of like the pillar of it. And it kept going for a while, but it was just a lot of people like myself, it was two female founders, Dr. Nashley Cephas, who herself is from Jackson, Mississippi. I'm shouting out everybody, right? She's from Jackson, Mississippi, and she bought 10 acres in downtown Jackson, Mississippi and started a nonprofit called Bean Pad. And he basically took the concept of what we were doing at Kit Labs and brought it to our hometown. So.
22:44
Um, and it's so funny. She actually founded it on my birthday. So I was like, okay, I can dig that. Um, uh, but, but no, but we're still connected. Everybody still works with each other. You know, if I have to come in and do some things around cyber for a contract or, you know, commercial or whatever client that they have, I do like we, we all kind of still work together on each other's things. So that has allowed you to bring in some revenues, right?
23:14
through its service context. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Consultant wise, cause they're like, I think people may look at Infotron and think that there's not a human touch piece there, but if you're dealing with me, there's always gonna be a human touch point there because we have to consult the client. We can't assume, you know, we cannot assume.
23:41
what you need, we have to actually have a conversation with our clients throughout the process, even after we possibly have set up the platform for you, trained your people on it, there still needs to be an element of communication, human communication, right? But the team, we've been working together for about seven years. Yes.
24:10
Infiltron has been around for five, going on six years now. So, you know, I mean, respect, mutual respect, we're still kids at heart. I mean, we grew up wanting to be engineers. So, you really can't take the light of innovation out of an engineer unless they're just at the point of not wanting to do it anymore. So we're always, what I've found is most people in any engineering discipline are very,
24:39
curious and forward thinking. So we, and we kind of, we're kind of like a community. We are community and not kind of like, but we are community of folks that contribute to each other's, you know, projects. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And not just, not just business-wise, but personally, like we, I mean, we've been around each other for almost a decade, so.
25:04
there's been kids born and like I just said, one of our founders transitioned, like we've been through some things together that have brought us closer together. And you can, I believe when you have a team like that, and we're all diverse, you know, we have a team like that that cultivates innovation, for sure. You know, I've had a few guests to my podcast and I also write about this,
25:35
Creativity is only possible or it's greatly possible when you create a fun environment and make games out of things and have, right? And set up teams. So I think a shout out to you and what you've set up at Infiltron and in its earlier rendering at Kit Labs, just creating an environment that allows for what ifs, right? Is key. There are a lot of what ifs in cyber.
26:04
I bet you there. So I have a boatload of questions here. One is, before we get into your fundraising path, again, I mentioned earlier you have two patents that have been issued. What is post-quantum encryption technology in layman language? Post.
26:32
Quantum encryption technology. So there is definitely confusion out there that has been addressed. And because there is a difference between post secure quantum and encryption. There's a difference. So. Excellent.
27:02
Post quantum encryption, it is designed to protect data from quantum computers. So. And that's done through the encapsulation? For us, that is how we provide the protection, the encryption. That is the quantum encapsulation is a method of encryption with Involtron. So the current encryption. So you have things like RSA.
27:32
elliptical curve, which elliptical curve is more widely used and kind of being marketed as quantum encryption. It is, it is, it's on the list of quantum protections, right, or quantum methods of encryption protection. So companies like Okta use ECC a lot. But what's happening is that quantum computers are being built now. Yes. Like right now, there's no... Yeah, the cost is going down.
28:02
Yeah, there's no waiting five years from now. Like I urge anyone under the sound of my voice to prepare now for quantum computer attacks. The same thing that I describe happening to us when we were deployed, it's gonna happen. And again, I alluded to feeling like
28:33
situations like Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds were, I feel like they were tests because there were so many different elements of what we saw in the deployment that happened in those two cases. Yeah, because I'm sitting there and think it's like 2020, 2021, 2019 actually, it started. I think this didn't know, but.
28:59
And it's still going like 20, SolarWinds was still going, the last time I checked SolarWinds was still unraveling. Like it's still, still going. But back to the question. So for us, quantum encapsulation for us is breakthrough. So NIST has had these challenges, right? Where they put out bidding for companies,
29:27
researchers, because a lot of people that are in the quantum space, whether it's physics, mechanics, are generally found in academia. They're not at Infiltron. They're not at QED. They're just not there, right? It's very far in between, and we generally have to lure them. Or we have to do something like partner with them on...
29:53
grants, like the STTR grants. Like that's the only way, generally the only way that we can probably connect with the academia or pierce them and have them work with us. And they usually through that take all the funding, but it's, you're still. Exposed, right? You're exposed, but you're also getting the expertise that you possibly need and can't rightly find in the freelancing world. Yeah. So it generally works out in the long run.
30:23
Um, but so our encapsulation is a, is a breakthrough method because I look at it like this, NIST is holding these challenges and nothing against NIST. We're connected. I contribute to NIST and everything, but they are holding these challenges. And basically they're telling the hackers what people are going to the framework.
30:49
what people are gonna have to adhere to when they create their quantum algorithms to protect their devices and data. You know, you're giving away the secret ingredients. So like, even if they don't know specifically your algorithm, they know what you've based it off of. And that gives it like a tiny thread can unravel a whole t-shirt, right? So I look at it like that. So...
31:15
And even before, you know, we were already developing things before NIST put out these challenges. We are in alignment. We can adhere and do it here to the framework that they're putting out because, you know, you have the DOD space who definitely follows their framework, especially when it comes to the risk management framework. So they're going to follow NIST regardless. They're going to follow their framework, whatever they put out about cybersecurity protection.
31:44
The DOD space and all of its agencies are gonna follow that. However, being in the cybersecurity space every day, seeing what is happening and knowing that you've given some clues, some contextual clues to the malicious hackers about what you're using as a baseline to build your algorithms will, guess what? What we have is not that. Like we are...
32:12
One of the things that differentiates us right now, because I'm sure as quantum cybersecurity continues to grow legs, so to speak, people are gonna start using the more, less susceptible to hacks by quantum computers method. So you have things like multivariate hash code. So these are some of the
32:40
quantum properties that you can use that are not generally hackable by a quantum computer. They won't be hackable by a quantum computer. So we leveraged some of that. It was like, if I'm built, I looked at it like this, I've been in cyber, I've been in tech for almost 20 years. I know I don't look it. I get it all the time. You don't have to say it. I've been in tech for almost 20 years. I've been, and when I was in the air force, we call it InfoSec. It's the same thing. And that dates me.
33:08
If I say, if you hear somebody say InfoSec, trust me, they've been in cybersecurity for at least 20 plus years. So, but it's cybersecurity, that's what it is. And I've seen the changes and I've paid my dues too. Like I didn't, when I got out of the Air Force, I was just, side note, like I cut grass and loved it. I would go back and do it if I can make these results. So then like, it's very, it's very fulfilling. Don't let anybody fool you. Like I love, but I like being outside, but.
33:38
Um, my first tech job though, I literally went through the phone book. Cause this is like still, you know, internet was not quite what it is now, of course, but it was like still growing. And I went through the yellow pages and went through the aerospace companies and called all of them and was like, Hey, let's just get out of the air force, look for a job. I don't care if it's an intern or co-op and L3 L3 before they merged with Harris. Uh,
34:08
they created me a co-op. And, but again, still in touch with, cause you know, L3 is a huge government contracting company, right? And in the satellite communication space, cause they're in line with my background. And so I've seen it all. I've seen the changes of InfoSec into cybersecurity. And now we're entering a new frontier with quantum cybersecurity. So I've been here,
34:37
maybe at the latter part of the info set, but definitely through the cybersecurity and here for and to forge some guidelines and pathways in the quantum cybersecurity space with Inflotron. So when you know Inflotron was founded in 2019, I was like, okay, if I'm gonna start
35:03
something new in cyber and we hadn't even gotten to the quantum piece yet. They hadn't even gotten to me yet. Like it started like I was getting downloads. Yeah. Because I'm, I always, I'm a reader. I wake up looking at cyber news and just staying in the know because I need to know what's going on so I can protect my clients, whether that was me in a government contracting position or me as a consultant in my businesses. So.
35:33
I need to know what's going on. And if I'm going to build something new, why am I going to build it with compromised parts? Right. That's a great way to describe it. Yeah. Forget the tech. It didn't make logical sense. If I'm going to build something new, a SaaS product that's going to integrate and be flexible and adaptable and proactive.
36:01
Why would I use RSA encryption when I know what's coming? Got it. That will be one of the snippets that I share in my YouTube channel as well as the podcast. That is excellent. Why build something with compromised parts? Frontier technology, quantum cybersecurity is what Epfiltron is about.
36:30
Next generation. Talk to me a little bit more for us, less tech savvy listeners about the use of Infiltron in a SelleGov's program for smart cities. That kind of brings it more home and more tangible. How is technology used for smart cities? So first, SelleGov through leading cities. Yes.
36:59
It connects companies like ours with municipalities to tackle urban challenges. So for us, it's infrastructure, security, and sustainability. So we were a finalist in leading cities global competition back in 2021. And we've worked through them. You know, we've been able to work with city leaders to secure IOT systems and critical infrastructure.
37:28
And quick shout out to Michael Lake. Okay. He's the founder of Leading Cities, amazing guy. Another keep in touch, answer the email quickly person. He's based in Boston, but he's built a very supportive ecosystem. So shout out to Michael Lake. But as a part of this program,
37:56
We're offering smart cities our enhanced quantum vulnerability assessment. And this is to help the smart city leaders identify areas that need better quantum protections now. We've just had a session on November the 11th, Veterans Day. And the second one is coming up December the 5th. So you.
38:24
If you're a smart city leader or see so small, medium, large enterprise, no matter what market you in, you're in, definitely tap in. You can register for it on the leading city's website or on our website at Infotron.net. Yeah, that's on December 9, 2024 at 1pm. Is that Eastern? December 5th. December 5th? No, it's the 9th, because I have it here. And that's my cousin's birthday. So yeah, it's December 9th.
38:53
Did you get to influence those dates? Yeah. So let's jump into your startup. You've taken in very little dilutive funding. How much money have you raised to date? And how have you, what is the next phase, right? In terms of outreach for fundraising. So we've raised 120K and that was through Techstars, LA Space.
39:23
Still counting. I do not take a salary. I could take one, but I'm just, it's the long game for me. And I still consult. Don't let these people tell you not to quit your job and be an entrepreneur. Don't let people do that. Especially if you have a family. Don't let these people, don't let these people try to guilt you or shame you because you still have a job while you're building your startup. Don't let, don't do it.
39:53
Because I do have a company that I started called Right Tech Solutions and we still, that's why I said I still feel like I'm in the Air Force because I still consult them. So I can, you know, the revenue that we do and we've hit 500K in revenue. So you know, I could easily take a salary, right? But I just, it's the long game for me. It's the global expansion.
40:22
um, you know, more IP and patents, uh, protections, right? Because we do have global count clients. And, um, one of the things that I wanted to make sure of before we even took on the clients was that we had legal backing there. So IP trademarks, um, at least patent, at least the application is pending, but you know, like I want to, I want to, I want it to at least have that. And we have great attorneys. Um, shout out to Malika Tyson.
40:52
and Matthew and Dorian who have, they took over because I had a, I had an attorney, IP attorney that would, had her own boutique firm and then she had to go back, you know, she just couldn't do the entrepreneurship, it's not for everybody, but we still stay in contact as well. But she introduced me to McAndrews, they're based out of Chicago.
41:20
And they are the legal team for Impletron. I always tell them that when we're on calls, like you are the legal team. Like, yeah, anything that I need from them legal, legal wise, they do it. I literally just sent a partnership NDA over to Malekka this morning and she just sent it back to me. So like, that's not IP and trademark, right? But they do, they do it. And I always tell them how much I appreciate them because...
41:49
IP and trademarks are not free and they're not inexpensive. So, and then imagine, you know, we have one pending now in Japan. We just got one in Canada. So yeah, like it's expensive, you know, it's expensive. So a lot of the funding that we get now is going to be allocated to pay them, you know, even though they work with us. But it's going to be paying them.
42:18
doing some iterations, we have a partnership where there's some hardware that's gonna be involved. We're definitely tapping into the hardware. So we'll be forging our way there because people like things they can touch. SaaS isn't necessarily something that you can touch, although put it into a platform makes it a little bit more tangible for people, visual at least. So in the-
42:48
Yeah, I mean, hardware has always been a part of the vision. FBGAs, we have another colleague of mine, he has developed a cryptocurrency mining machine, and it leverages quantum. So it's mining at exponential speeds, right? Because generally what quantum does is speeds things up. It speeds exactly, in simplified terms.
43:18
Definitely still going after Sivers traditional government contracts globally. We participated in Fintech down in the Bahamas last October. Cause we are in the Fintech space and there's a lot of similarities between Fintech and Space Tech. Because when you're talking about fault zeros and being able to detect anomalies.
43:46
both of those markets need that and they need it quick. So we've been able to, yeah, like we've been able to leverage some of the things that we're learning in both of those for each other. So we've been able to participate in some conferences. We actually getting ready to go to Barbados in January for Fintech Islands, I'll be speaking about
44:14
the kind of the intersection of the quantum age and what's coming in respect to the fintech space, cryptocurrency, web three, traditional finance and AI, because we do leverage AI. And we've been in the AI space, Impletron has been in the AI space from the beginning. One of our advisors is an AI evangelist at AWS. I did say her name earlier on this podcast, but.
44:42
She's amazing. She's a Georgia Tech grad. We do have a few Georgia Tech people on the team, but she's amazing. And I'm able to tap her. I've been able to tap her because she was one of the Kit founders. So I've been able to tap her about AI and machine learning very early on. So all of the LLMs and the SLMs that everybody's kind of talking about, we've been doing.
45:11
Like even as small as we are, we've been.
45:16
Yeah, so, Chasity, how can my listeners contact or get information about Infotron? So, yeah, of course the website. So, infiltron.net. You can follow us on all of our socials at Infotron Software Suite. It might be, I think on Twitter is Infotron app. We wanted to keep it short.
45:41
And then, or you can email us at mfultronapp at gmail.com. And I know people are gonna be like, why you use Gmail? That's another filter. And that's an email that everybody on the team can look at and not be bombarded with, cause spam and it's just, everybody has their own email address, but. So you probably, it's a test environment for all of you.
46:09
beautiful quantum encryption that you're working on. Yes. And that's it all. One better way to start. Yeah, Gmail, right? Google knows a lot more about us than we'd like them to. Oh, Google knows everything. That's tough. Even when you turn location off. Oh, Instagram. I just posted something about Instagram. So Instagram's new. They just updated their policy maybe a month ago, maybe.
46:38
Okay. Whether you want to or not, they now have access to your photos, your GPS location, everything even if you say no, even if you turn it off, they still contract.
47:00
Just putting it out there guys. Yeah. So if you do platform. So there's cause to the platform. Right? Yes. Thank you. All right. We're coming down to the section of the podcast where I like to ask each of my guests what the following three words mean to you. Because this is what I do with my consulting business.
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In addition to my podcast, I work with founders that are really building resilient, purpose-driven and scalable businesses. What's resilience mean to you, Chasity? Man, that's a word that I use. Uh, I mean, I'm, I mean, you gotta think about it. I'm black trying to raise money. It's hard for black people to raise money on top of that. I've been, you know, um, I've come face to face with people that didn't believe that I wrote my own patents. Like.
47:53
you know, as if black people didn't invent a lot of things, like that we still use today. Like, come on. I mean, it's just the truth. Resilience. Resilience for me is bending, but never breaking. Bending, but never breaking. Yeah. It's about, you know, adapting to challenges. I just mentioned some and facing them. Like you can't, you can't, and I'm about to sound
48:23
run from the pain, you gotta run towards it. So you can come out stronger on the other side. And it's not necessarily about survival, it's transformation. That's transformation. It's transformation. And that transformation is preparing you for what's next. And you'll be standing taller than you were before. Amazing, thank you. Purpose-driven, what's a purpose-driven?
48:53
Enterprises or? Yeah. I'm a visionary. So like, there's a lot of founders that I've met. If I have the opportunity to get close to them or kind of hear them speak about what they're building to include myself, because I do talk to myself about the things that I'm building. I counsel myself. I'm sure my ancestors are around me.
49:23
Purpose is, it should be intentional. I think that it's kind of interchangeable for me. But in the context of the question that you asked on purpose driven enterprise, so it's the heartbeat in what we build here at Infotron. I can definitely say that. It's creating meaningful solutions that solve real problems. And in solving those real problems,
49:52
you're still staying true to the mission. I still bring the aspect of the military into Infiltron. We are mission focused. We have fun. We do all the fun things, right? Because again, that cultivates innovation too. And it keeps it spicy. You need to let things be spicy because in a regular deglar cybersecurity job, you're probably bored. Like.
50:19
I mean, let's just be real. Like you're probably bored. You're probably looking at Excel spreadsheets and creating a report by hand from that. Like it's boring. Like, but you know, it's also making moves that matter. And it's solving problems that for me leave a legacy and just never losing sight of why we started in the first place.
50:48
So never lives in sight. Excellent. What about scalable? So how does- That's one of those BC's favorite words. That's right. Because that's what they want to see. How will you scale? That's right. I mean, I'm an investor too guys. Don't get it twisted. Like, I think that was a question that I did ask with one of the investors I had. Like, how are you going to get over that challenge? Like, before I give you this money.
51:18
Scalable. So growth, like we can think about growth in so many different ways, like growth, personal growth, because if you embark on the entrepreneur trick, you are going to be, and need to be open to growth. To me, entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey. Beautiful.
51:45
about the Southern Baptist roots, but I'm not spiritual. I'm a yoga, meditating, put my feet in the sand, grass grounding person nowadays, but still bringing that element of praying. And it's all the same to me. They just changed the name of God, right? Just that's my perspective, but growth isn't just about getting.
52:14
bigger. It's about getting better. And me speaking about the personal aspect, that is what growth is. It might not feel good, you know, while it's happening. But, you know, once you get through it and you can get in a reflective mindset and look back with what you just came through and be grateful, like find gratitude in it, you know.
52:43
That's how I look at growth. It's expanding mindfully and staying grounded in your values and making sure that every step that you take going forward strengthens the foundation that you've already built. And it's...
53:11
Like I said, it's moving with intention. And while you're moving with intention, you're also preserving the quality and the vision that define you. Which goes back to purpose-driven. Yes, thank you. Last question, Chasity. Did you have fun in the sandbox? Oh yeah, I mean, it's you. You know, we already have a great rapport.
53:38
I'll say this, one of my favorite memories of you is when you brought Ty to the table to kind of see if they were, could invest in Infiltron and it was too early. But we had to sign an NDA, it was some type of contract, but it was during Mercury retrograde. You said it before I said it, I was like, I wonder if she's onto this type.
54:05
Cause I wasn't going to sign it. I was going to try to delay it as much as possible, but you're like, no, let's wait, let's wait. So after Mercer, that's your great. Well, I was like, oh, these are this. She's my people. And I was like, and I think I responded like, let's wait five days. So it is no, it's like clear. So, um, that's a little fighter for me with you. Oh, I love it. I love it. Generally hear that in business. No, no.
54:32
And the Founder Sandbox again is a pretty eclectic podcast, bringing in deep tech founders like Chasity Wright that are on the frontier, bringing in what the future, will, it's the future's here. It's here. That's right. So to my listeners, if you like this episode with Chasity Wright, CEO and founder of Infiltron, sign up for the monthly release of
55:01
this podcast where founders, business owners, corporate directors, and professional service providers share their own experiences on building with strong governance, a resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven company to make profits for good. So signing off for this month, thank you, Chasity. Thank you, Brenda, so much. I hope to see you soon.