The GloucestershireLive Business Awards are back for another year – as we prepare to once again celebrate the leading lights of Gloucestershire’s business community. The awards provide a range of categories that companies can enter themselves for – including the Start-Up of the Year Award.
Starting up a business can be an intimidating thing. It takes passion, skill, and a lot of hard work to be successful and become part of a business community. As a former start-up themselves, the team at Cyber Security Associates understands this journey and the pressure it entails – which is why the business has chosen to sponsor this year’s Start-Up award.
Cyber Security Associates (CSA) was established in 2013 – when David Woodfine and James Griffiths left their positions with the MoD, deciding to pool their cyber security experience and start a consultancy that would offer cyber security services to other businesses. David says: “It was just the two of us in this big commercial world – we did it all ourselves, and so we want to sponsor the Start-Up award because we know the journey they’ve been through.”
The most important factor in CSA’s early success was its encouragement of employees and determination to help them flourish. According to David, he and James encouraged the team to do their own research and keep up with a constantly changing field – and actively sought their ideas on how the business could develop and become more effective. David adds: “The key drivers have always been our people – every person’s had an input into our growth and direction.”
In the years since, CSA has grown to provide a range of cyber security services – offering incident monitoring and detection, assessments of a client’s cyber security setup, consultancy, crisis response and training services, among others. In 2020, the company received investment from now-parent company Fluid One, helping it begin its next phase of growth.
As a former start-up, CSA wants to encourage others to make the leap into the commercial world (Image: Markus Spiske – Unsplash)As well as its employees, CSA is dedicated to helping its clients flourish as well. Providing comprehensive security services, and a better understanding of cyber security, CSA is keen to help clients key in to just how important this area is – and be properly prepared for the future. David says: “It’s a changing world with new types of threat coming through – and we want to make sure that companies are safe and secure.”
David adds that the business has recently taken this principle to the wider point of “how can we protect the UK – companies have to remain safe and secure so that the UK can remain prosperous.”
David wants to help encourage other start-ups through CSA’s sponsoring of the awards. With Gloucestershire already one of the cyber capitals of the country, he wants the business to help develop the potential the region possesses: “We’re part of that ecosystem – as that grows we grow as well.”
The Golden Valley development – an investment of £25m by Cheltenham City Council in a new cyber business park – will be key to this growth, encouraging new start-ups and pushing further innovation. With these projects reinforcing Gloucestershire’s position as a cyber-centric location, David feels that now is the perfect time for new businesses to become part of this, and help propel us into the future.
Businesses that constantly strive to propel progress and achieve great things are what the GloucestershireLive Business Awards are all about. If you want to join us in celebrating the region’s business pioneers, visit the official website to find out more.
