The 21st Year of the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox

Hey everyone. Welcome back here to TechOne tv. You know, it's getting that time of year again, I'm not, not talking about Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Believe it or not, we're talking R-S-A-C-R-S-A conference. Hard to believe we are here in, you know, mid-October RSA conference is a little earlier this year. Um, I believe it's late March, March 23rd to March 26th, right here for you, Alex.

Absolutely. You ask and I deliver. You know what?

You read my mind. Let me introduce you to my friend Cecilia Mar Marne. Cecilia.

Yeah. It's so good to see you. But I feel like we're early, right?

I usually don't see you till around January, February. I know. On here.

This is crazy. We are very early this year. Uh, that's Good.

'cause we're getting out ahead of things. That's right. We're getting people ready to go to think about it because we are even opening up our, um, registration like next week.

So not, not next week, but two weeks I think, from now. So people have to start getting Ready. Oh no, it's next week from the time people will see this.

Oh, Sorry. It is Next week. People.

It's magic of the internet. The magic of the internet. When you see this, it is already in the future.

It's so good. Mm-hmm. I love it.

It's not AI Or it's in the past. Cecilia, before we open, talk about opening up for Sandbox and Innovation, I want to talk a little bit about your evolving role with RSAC. Right.

Um, your official title these days is Vice President Innovation and Scholars. Yes. And I, you know, a lot of folks out here may not be familiar with the scholars piece of it.

So before we jump in to, to the, you know, opening up of submissions and stuff, let's talk about your role in the different programs that you're shepherding now as part of RSA conference. So, uh, thanks Alan for giving me a platform that really allows me a lot of liberty to actually share with you all of the great things of how RSAC is looking at the future kind of matches what we were talking about before. And we're doing that in a couple ways.

The programs I work on are actually trying to identify where's the industry going? And it goes in two fronts. The innovation piece itself is really focused in on helping startups and giving them a platform to amplify their message and their, and what their, um, products are.

Because we are in a really, really difficult time in our world where there's so much changing so quickly, we absolutely need a lot of innovation and a lot of creativity about how to solve these problems. And that's what the innovation platform is. And I'm gonna talk more about that in a second.

I just wanna touch on the scholar piece because this is the future of the industry. So, RSAC is committed to helping these scholars, and we do it in two programs. One is a security scholar program, which identifies 60 top scholars from across the country.

We ask the department leads to actually send us their students, um, from 40 plus schools. Um, and then we give 'em a curated experience and think of it like a TED fellow program. Really very important because they are the future for our industry.

We're looking at, you know, they're now coming in and there's some of them that are actually applying to the Innovation Sandbox contest. They're entrepreneurs. Some are speaking at conference and sharing their research.

So we are hoping to elevate them up and build their network for them. But it's not just those scholars. It's also college days.

So if you have a student, because a lot of your audience members might know somebody that's in in security, RSAC has opened our doors for one day, full conference free pass for college students on the Thursday of conference this year. It's March 26th. So please let them all know about that.

But I'll get into the innovation programs. I'm happy to roll with it, unless you want me to go ahead and, um, and, and have you answer. What would you like me to Yes, how would you like me to manage Cecilia, before we jump in on, on the sandbox?

I, I want to come back to this scholars thing because look, I've always been a big believer in, in education and giving kids a chance to explore. And, and especially, you know, as a dad of my sons are 26 and 24 now. Um, there's so much pressure on kids, even young kids, what are you gonna be when you grow up?

What do you, what do you mean? You're 13 years old? You don't know what you're gonna be when you grow up.

You're, you're going into college. You don't know what you want to be when you graduate. And the world's changing.

And no matter what you want to be today, who knows what tomorrow will be. So these kinds of scholars programs where people are with children and, you know, young people are exposed to what a career looks like in this path. What, what the state of, of the technology is, what, what's the market, what's, you know, what's happening?

That's God's work. And so it's an important, important thing. So thank you guys for, thank you for doing it, and thank RSAC for being involved in that.

All right, let's pivot though, Cecilia and talk about Sandbox. So this is last year, I thought, was it 10 or I forgot the, I I'm losing my mic. We at 21 years.

20 more. Last year was 20 years. This year will be 21.

Yes. You're making me feel old. I feel old.

I'm right. I'm right there with you, Alan. I think signing because, um, because if you can't see that we're committed to innovation at RSAC, I can't say what else we could do.

Like it's 21 years we've been in before for this. And this Innovation Sandbox contest has really been the cornerstone of RS a's innovation pieces, as well as like the industry standard to bear. You know, this is where people come to find out about where the future of innovation and, and the, the hottest startups are.

So we're pretty excited about our, our track record. Can I give you some stats? Alan?

Can I shock you? Sure. Mm-hmm.

8 billion, and there have only been 200 companies that have come on our stage, and a over a hundred of them have been in a merger or acquisition. So the, the test of is, is this contest actually identifying really important companies for the future? Absolutely.

And it's in the proof is in the pudding by just the, the hearing. Those numbers crazy. No, just crazy.

Yeah. No, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the billion number. I know.

You're like, oh my God. But listen, like when you have companies like Imperva and Sendel one, axons, you know, big id, these are household names. You guys have heard of this, and if you haven't heard of the company, like Phantom, for example, one in 2016, it was bought by Yes, I remember.

Yes. So, you know, uh, and, and Oliver's company, um, Pania was just bought by CrowdStrike. So I mean, we're looking at these kinds of, uh, acquisitions that if the company itself isn't the one that you hear about, the company that bought them is like, you know.

Yeah. We have a tremendous track record here. A absolutely.

And you know, and it it, let's talk a little bit about the selection process, Cecilia. Okay. Right.

How do you, how does, usually when you, by the time you get to RSAC, it's the 10 finalists, right? Right. And that's how you have 200 companies over the last 20 years, 10 a year.

You don't have to be a mathematician to figure that out. But, um, you know, before you, how, how do you get to the 10 finalists? What, what does that look like?

Yeah, and it's hard because like last year we had record number submissions, but what we've done, RSAC is not identifying the companies. RSAC is giving it back to be adjudicated by the community. And how we do that is we identify judges who are industry leaders and people that are, that, you know, and have different backgrounds that can actually evaluate whether the company is going to be successful or not, and in their space.

And so, you know, for example, we have this year Dave Chen, who's the head of global Technology Investment banking at Morgan Stanley. We have Nilu Razzi, who is operating partner at Capital Meridian Partners, also, she's a distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University. Paul Kocher, who sold his company.

He's a cryptographer, well-known cryptographer, uh, and an independent researcher. Um, but can bring that element of like, how do you actually have a successful company and then sell it? Um, Nazarin ra, who is the SVP and CISO at Verizon.

So you have a buyer at the table from a company that is a leader Company, a real practitioner. Mm-hmm. And then we just added this year, Larry Fe Smith, who's the head of global Technology Strategy, innovation and partnerships at JP Morgan Chase.

And we're really excited about this portfolio of very strong, uh, solid individuals who really understand what it takes to make a startup be successful in this space. So, Cecilia, there are people out here watching this, budding entrepreneurs, maybe not maybe serial entrepreneurs or what have you, who say, I'd really like to, I I think we're worthy. I think we could win this.

Yeah, absolutely. If you can give 'em the breadcrumbs to, to getting involved and applying, you know, getting their hat in the ring, if you will. Absolutely.

So the submissions open October 14th, and they close on November 14th. The most important piece of the submission process is filling out the entire submission and including a three minute video at the end. And the video should actually be something that you're creating for this particular contest, because the judges will watch this video, and if you give us a canned packaged marketing video, it's not gonna be really helpful.

They're looking for you to explain to them why you're different. How did you, what did you, what made you start your company? And then how are you different from your competitors?

How is your solution unique? And, and why are you gonna be successful like that in a three minute nugget is really hard to do. But take a look at the overall, we built out a couple really important pages on our website that kind of give you some background of like, you know, how to read it thoroughly read about the submission process.

Uh, and then it's just a matter of like really positioning your company if you, and, and I think everybody should take a shot at this. I mean, honestly, you are getting in front of these five people. You have nothing to lose and you have everything to gain.

I, I think back to Andy Kao, who was the, uh, CEO or the president of Project Discovery Project Discovery won in 2025 and Project Discovery won in 2025 This year. Like he won this year. Yeah.

And he was, I was just gonna say it was the last year, so you come on on Now. I know. My God.

Oh my God. Yeah. So, um, the pro, so Andy Cal won this year and his whole point, and I've heard this over and over again from every entrepreneur that we have, and you could look at a blog that we just posted from Mike Malone, who was also on our stage this year.

Um, and it's like, you have nothing to lose, but this can change the trajectory of your company. It can actually, and this is, you know, verbatim, you know, RSAC is second to none in the industry paired with the $5 million investment, which is what we're giving this year. And we'll talk about that in a second.

The WIN helped us recruit exceptional talent, meet surging enterprise demand, and accelerate our growth. I mean, that's a testament, like, it's so amazing. So I, I think that that actually puts it in a nugget.

And he is not alone. Like I've heard this from a lot of the top 10 finalists, that it just gives you this mantle legitimacy and provides you with the, an opportunity to get in front of the most important audience in cybersecurity. So I, I think you, in fact, just thinking about the fact that you could get in front of like Dave 10 or Larry Fine Smith or Nazarene, I mean, that's crazy just in itself.

Like, what a great opportunity for you to send your company in front of these important judges. So Cecilia, where it's on the RSAC website, but what, what's the, do you know, maybe like a, is there an easy URL or what, like how should they navigate to it? What's the best way?

That's a great question. Um, so you're just, if you go into RSAC uh, conference, if you go to the, uh, I think it's RSAC conference and you actually just type in Innovation Sandbox, it should pop up. It's also under programs.

It's under events, and you can go under programs. So there's multiple ways to get to it. But if, if you just actually type in the Google Inno RSAC Innovation sandbox, it will lead you to the website.

And there on the 14th you'll see a button that says Submit now. And that's your opportunity to get in there. I love it.

That's fantastic. Let's, um, I feel like Billy Spears here, but wait, there's more. And the Ginzo knives.

Yes. Right? Yes.

And, and if you order now, we'll give you the second set, just shipping in handling. Um, but, you know, so Innovation Sandbox 21 years this year, but you guys also, I I guess is maybe it's three years now. Four years launchpad.

Yes. How long is Launchpad around? You know, thank you for asking because I love launchpad.

Launchpad is for those nascent companies maybe coming outta stealth to get in front of three really impressive VCs, venture capitalists who are going to adjudicate their particular group of, um, of Cadro submissions that come through. And when you get to the conference, it's super fun because it's like a shark tank. It's an hour, it's a 40 minute affair.

It's very, very fast. You see the pitching, you see the questions and answers, and the judges, the, the judges, for lack of a better word, 'cause they're venture capitalists, give you an idea of what do they care about. And so it's like being in the boardroom.

And when they're, the new company comes in and, and pitches to these guys, they only give five minutes to do it. Uh, and they have to get in front of, like Barack Mehta, who is the, um, founder, I know Barack Barack is the founder of Conviction Partners. You got Sarah Gao, who is like a superhero in my book.

She came from Greylock, and then she founded her own, uh, VC firm called Conviction Partners and Salem, who everybody knows, uh, and is at, at Bain Capital Ventures. Former Semantic also. Yeah, former Semantic.

And I mean, just honestly, again, like this opportunity to get your company in front of those three different VCs is just worthy of putting in your submission for that submission. It's the same kind of idea. It's a, it is a form.

You're gonna have to explain why is your company, uh, important and how are you different? But you're, instead of putting in a video, you're gonna put in a side deck, a pitch deck like you would to any vc. So imagine you get your pitch deck and these three people are gonna be seeing your pitch deck.

So go for it people. Absolutely. Now, Cecilia, for those people out here watching who maybe aren't entrepreneurial or aren't starting a new company, but they're one of the 40,000 odd people who come to RSA conference every year, sandbox usually takes place Monday of RSA week.

Yep. Correct? Yes.

And then last year for the first time you guys did it in the, uh, it's a theater. I just don't remember the name of the theater now that it's in as part of Moscone. Actually, no, we're gonna be back.

We're in the Moscone. We Have back in Moscone. We don't fit that theater.

It's, we're too big. I, and we have too many people on it. It's So fun.

I went, I know, I, it's on the second Floor, Moscone South. It's so fun. Uh, and then also I gotcha.

Launchpad will be on that in that same area. Um, we're trying to really highlight some other ar uh, some other innovation pieces. So on that same floor where you have Innovation Sandbox on Monday, launchpad on Tuesday, we'll have a whole track dedicated to investors and entrepreneurs that will be talking about trends in the industry.

And then right next to that will be the whole area that's called Early Stage Expo, where it has 78, um, early startups, so that are exhibiting like an expo floor. And it's super fun and it has free coffee and a couch. So I recommend it to everybody.

Don't. So, you know, our, of course, we, we put on our DevSecOps event every year on Monday at the, with partnership with RSAC. We're usually, I think this year they have us on the third floor.

Now I know why. Yeah, we were on the second floor, but actually free coffee. I get just written down the escalator Starting on Wednesday.

That starts Wednesday. Oh, on Wednesday. Oh no.

Ugh. I know. When you come back, See the Villages Wednesday, be in Broadcast Alley and doing, you know, I mean, videos, we'll Come over.

You have to come because will, you know, try know what the village people, the villages are gonna be there. The def com villages are next to it. I mean, which is, I told you told me the village people are coming.

I shouldn't call them that, but I laugh and joke with them. But they're, um, the DEF com Village tp. Yeah, exactly.

They're Gonna do some I was doing my ymc, I think, but good enough. Um, Cecilia, what exciting, exciting, exciting stuff going on here. Yes, Yes.

All you have to though, submit before November 14th at 5:00 PM That's the Right, But you can't submit until October 14th, Right? October 14th. So I actually, I think, so look, you know, these are obviously prerecorded.

I think this, we will try to get it up for October 14th. So if you're watching this go goes hit, go to the RSAC site, Google, RSAC, innovation Sandbox, looking for it on the website. But go and, and throw your hat in the ring, right?

You, you're in the presence of giants there. Love it. Love it, love it.

I can't wait to see you all there. Whether you submit or not come. It's such a fun experience.

Really Fun. And then just a little RSAC housekeeping. Yeah.

Uh, I, I, I believe sessions or speaker selections for sessions are coming out the end of this month, Right? So, um, so people will be notified not at, okay, they're, right now they're actually being selected by the program committee, right? So as you all know, RSAC conference is completely adjudicated by, uh, by the, the program committee.

But people who volunteer their time and review all of these submissions, we got a record number of submissions. It is crazy. And we have, we're gonna have like 27 tracks.

It's, it's gonna be an outstanding conference again. 'cause that's how we roll. Uh, we only do great.

Um, but what I'll say is, uh, for those that did submit, you know, expect notification later in the year, uh, and then a full agenda comes out, um, and my friend Ben, just send it to me. Gimme a second here. On early January.

In early January, excellent. Excuse me. Excellent.

But for people who wanna register and get early bird specials to attend Yes. And everything else, they could do that. Now They, almost towards the end of the month, we're opening up, uh, uh, the actual early bird, um, registration and hold on.

Uh, and I'll, and so gimme a second 'cause I'm gonna count myself back in. Ben, when is registration open? October 22nd.

Okay. That was the 22nd. I knew there was something October 22nd.

Okay. Count going back in three. I'm gonna count you.

Okay. 3, 2, 1. For those that are interested in registering are early registration opens on October 22nd.

And I, I think, um, it's a great time to get in because you'll obviously get access to the hotels, which is a bonus. I, I was just about to say that for you. Newbies out there, as soon as you register, go nail down your, your hotels or your, uh, your a your, you know, your accommodations to stay, but 'cause they fill up fast and they get expensive if you wait too long.

That's right. So you will need, this year, you will need an all access pass to get early access to the hotels. Um, but Expo Plus, which is what you need to get into all of the innovation programming Monday events.

Yep. Yeah. And Tuesday it's all week.

But, um, those, that opens on the 22nd. But you actually will be able to get housing in early January. So you have to make a choice what you want to do.

But yes, I agree. Like get in there, get your submissions Going, going Absolutely. All righty, Cecilia, it's so good seeing you so early in the year.

I know. So fun. Alan, We will have you back on, I guess around January.

When, when will the finalist be announced? You know? Yes, I do.

I they're gonna be announced mid-February, So, so I'll ha I will see you in mid-February. We have a date, my friend. I love it.

Thank you so much, Alan. Thank you for everything you're doing. We're so Grateful to you.

Ah, it's my pleasure. Thank you. Grateful to you for, we should be grateful to you for what you do.

Cecilia Mar Mar, vice President, innovation and Scholars at RSAC here on Tech Trunk tv. We're gonna take a break. We'll be right back.