I wanted to give everyone here an update because this community has been incredibly supportive and I ended up doing something a bit unusual, which might give others some out-of-the-box ideas.

Searchfunder member

During my search, I came across a small cybercrime response and prevention consultancy as a customer. It struck me as a critical service, with a repeatable process, in a growing market (the cost of cybercrime in the US was $320B last year; it's projected to surpass $1.8T in 2028).

Long story short, instead of acquiring the business, I’ve partnered with the founders to create a new company and grow what they’re already doing. The new entity absorbs the existing customer base and relationships, and best of all, combines our complementary skill sets; I get to partner with people who have DEEP domain expertise and contribute operating know-how.

Searchfunder member

I previously had no idea about the importance of taking cybercrime seriously as a business owner, as I haven’t seen it discussed in books or forums, so here's a PSA: SMB owners and executives are major targets of cybercrime. When attacks are successful, personal losses near $100k on average, and 60% of SMBs go out of business within a year of a breach. And what's really frustrating is no matter what you do, you can't avoid third-party risk.

Insurance: One real benefit of taking precautions to avoid being a victim of cybercrime is that insurers may give you a discount on your insurance premiums, and it significantly increases the chance that insurers will pay a hack-related claim.

GRC / HIPAA: For anyone acquiring a healthcare company or private practice knows, the GRC for HIPAA is often inadvertently not being met. CounterCybercrime best practices solve this (healthcare is a major target for cybercrime), protecting both the business and the owner as an individual.

Searchfunder member

DM me here to chat or email --@----.com and visit the website @ zerohacksecure.com for more information. Happy to share what I know with this community.

For anyone interested in services, I’m offering everyone on Searchfunder 50% off our investigation product ($500-$1000 retail)—forever. This means you get a discount now, during due-diligence, during a transaction (a high-risk activity), and during operations. The investigation determines if there’s enough risk to warrant countermeasures and mitigation efforts. Often, low-cost monitoring is all you need.

Again, happy to answer any question y'all have.

Cheers,

Jacob