A cyberattack can be devastating to companies. In addition to the potential exposure of sensitive corporate or customer data, such attacks can cost companies into the millions. Rubrik, an enterprise data security company, was born from the desire to help companies get and stay in front of such risks.
Rubrik was the brainchild of Bipul Sinha, a software engineer who cut his teeth at IBM before moving on to Oracle. At Oracle, he led teams managing several database and middleware products. He would go on to join Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he was immersed in the ins and outs of tech startups. Engaging with so many entrepreneurs trying to tackle big problems inspired Sinha to launch a venture of his own.
Sinha tapped three other tech veterans—Arvind Nithrakashyap, Soham Mazumdar, and Arvind Jain—to co-found and launch Rubrik in 2014. In just two years after its first product was introduced to the market, Rubrik gained unicorn status with a $1.3 billion valuation and became known as one of the fastest-growing software companies to date.
As a venture capitalist, Sinha grew acquainted with the common pitfalls of failure, as well as the key decisions that can promote success. To avoid the classic problem of product-market misalignment, the Rubrik team hosted upwards of 60 focus groups with potential customers. They tested product ideas, features, and messaging to ensure that the launch product solved critical business problems and was marketed in terms that resonated with companies.
This kind of thoroughness, along with Rubrik’s highly intentional and inclusive culture, radical transparency, and practice of taking strategic risks, has proven essential to the company’s meteoric rise. Since its founding, Rubrik’s customer base has skyrocketed to over 5,550. Its 3,000+ employees work across 22 global offices, with headquarters in Stanford Research Park.
Today, Rubrik’s product offerings have broadened and evolved to meet the ever-changing data security needs of smaller companies all the way to multinational enterprises, and across a range of industries. Their products and services span across the four areas integral to data security: data protection, threat analytics, security posture, and cyber recovery.
More recently, Rubrik has launched two AI-driven products. Ruby, an AI assistant, enables companies to identify and respond to threats faster. When a Rubrik program detects a security anomaly, Ruby instantaneously notifies an organization’s security team and then guides personnel through the steps to grasp and counteract the threat. SentryAI analyzes customer telemetry data, which in turns allows Rubrik’s customer support teams to provide clients recommendations tailored to specific needs—a capacity that will no doubt prove invaluable as bad actors attack with greater frequency and sophistication.