OptioLabs names new CEO ahead of sales push

OptioLabs has a new CEO as the cybersecurity company looks to exit “startup phase” and make a push to get its product to market.
Bill Anderson, who joined the company following its acquisition of Oculis Labs in 2015, is now leading the Camden Yards-based company. In addition to being CEO of Oculis, Anderson previously worked in an product and marketing roles with SafeNet and Certicom.
Previous CEO Gregg Smith decided to step down after two years as the company completed the build-out of its product. Anderson said the two are still in contact amid the transition.
“He was a builder of the company,” Anderson said of Smith. “He got us from having early stage tech to the point we got to at the end of last year where we finally had the product that we were ready to push out the door.”
The process of building out the product also meant prioritizing products. The Oculis-developed technology to protect against “visual eavesdroppers” is still a source of revenue, but the company is now focusing its resources on mobile security technology for Android devices.
With the Optiocore, which works within the operating system of Android devices, and corresponding management product OptioInsight, the team is targeting government and big companies. The technology can cut off access to specific apps or a device, and is location-aware.
Anderson said the process of building the product took four years, which he acknowledged was longer than expected. Asked about insights for other companies into the process, he said a lesson he drew is to focus on a “provable result.”
“It’s not enough to take a technology on the lab bench and get it working, and get a proof of concept,” he said. “For a company to be successful then they need to take the thing all the way through to a real customer, and find out how the real customer uses it.” The company has worked with some customers on pilots, and Anderson said they’ll look to gather more feedback.
The company has funding through parent company Allied Minds, and a team of about 30 spread between the Warehouse at Camden Yards, bwtech@UMBC and an office in Nashville, Tenn.
“We’re ready to go,” Anderson said. “Now we can go out and really engage with customers.”