University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business

Co-Founder & CEO at Open Raven

Formstack

Chief Technology Officer

University of Michigan - School of Information

External Advisory Board

Inspectiv

Member Board Of Directors

Open Raven

Co-Founder & CEO

A security podcast project focused on in-depth interviews with the people shaping the security market.

There are great stories in the security industry that aren’t being told. Fascinating people who fly below the radar and aren’t being heard. We know because we encounter them in hallways, hotel lobbies and just about everywhere imaginable across the globe. Everytime we think “I wish I had recorded that conversation so that everyone could hear it…” Our goal with Security Voices is to provide a place for clear-headed dialogue with great people that’s unencumbered by the hyperbole and shouting that’s far too common in security circles. We don’t have anything against sponsors or sales pitches, but they run counter to our goal of cutting through the noise,  so we don’t have either. We’re aiming for 100% clear signal.

Security Voices

Co-Conspirator

GoGuardian

Advisor

Tenable Network Security

Chief Product Officer

As Chief Product Officer at CrowdStrike, Dave drove the design, development and support of the company’s cloud-based endpoint security product. During his tenure, the company’s flagship offering grew from a nascent product with a handful of small customers to a disruptive industry force and the fuel behind CrowdStrike’s explosive growth. Dave played a key role in the companies Series C funding last Summer, a $100M round of funding led by Google Capital.

CrowdStrike

VP of PM for User Protection & Productivity, from Consumer (Norton) to Enterprise. Includes products such as Norton 360 and Symantec Enterprise Protection.

Symantec

Vice President, Product Management

Founded Symantec's consumer mobile business, from initial concept to business plan development and led the business for ~2 years before the company's restructuring in Jan 2013. Responsible for most facets of business, such as PM, Sales (overlay), Operations, App Markets & related marketing functions.

Highlights
- Led creation of mobile product portfolio, ranging from security products (Norton Mobile Security, Norton HotSpot Privacy) to family safety (Norton Family) and performance (Norton Mobile Utilities) 

- Achieved 101% of plan in FY13, 163% growth year over year

- Led the creation of a small (8 person) team of online & mobile marketing experts called "Fuse" who drove millions of mobile downloads, optimized products for conversion, established baseline app market processes for Symantec, among other achievements

- Established mobilesecurity.com property, driving SERP ranking for the company for top keywords such as "mobile security" to the top 5 results daily (from a previous rank of ~90)

- Led the strategy and business plan development for Norton's residential gateway offering with Broadcom. Pitched for funding and delivered product within 6 months. Initial Norton-embedded routers on shelves in Autumn '13. 
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s741712

- Drove the concept and delivery of iAntiVirus for the Mac App Store, which quickly rose to be the #1 app for the entire Mac App Store for a brief period of time, and ultimately resulted in millions of new Norton Mac users through a new channel

Vice President & General Manager - Consumer Mobile

General Manager of a formerly acquired company operating as the value brand inside Symantec's consumer business unit (Norton).  I led the overall business strategy, sales, marketing, operations and related functions.

(Role held concurrently with Consumer Mobile VP & GM role)

PC Tools' portfolio is composed of a small number of security and performance products. The primary route to market was online, heavily leveraging online advertising (e.g., SEO, SEM, display) as well as affiliate networks and partners for distribution. Conversion models included demandware, trial and freemium tactics. Sales fulfillment and retention activities were handled by PC Tools' custom-built online storefront.

While shifting strategies for the business and re-allocating resources throughout FY13, we beat our plan at 113% of target.

Vice President & General Manager - PC Tools

Initially responsible for the flagship Norton security products, over time I assumed responsibility for all of the Norton product strategy and portfolio. The $2B+ product portfolio includes Norton AntiVirus, Norton 360, Norton Family, Norton Utilities, Norton Mobile Security and other offerings.  Product models ranged from trial to freemium and ad-monetization (Norton SafeSearch). 

My responsibility also included the consumer platform and online services used for SaaS, content delivery and related subscription services. I additionally ran the pricing and business intelligence/modeling team for a period of time while in this role.

During my time leading PM for the Norton security products, their NetPromoter (customer satisfaction) ratings rose from scores in the 20s to the 50s through a focus on the fundamental of performance, protection and user experience. Positive product reviews worldwide grew from 80% to 91% of all reviews and increased in terms of volume by >30%. Retention, product revenue, average sales price and other related vital signs such as conversion rates all improved during this period as well.

I drove the creation and execution of the initial "beyond the PC" strategy for the consumer business, ultimately leading to a series of new consumer products for mobile, wifi and the connected home. This included Norton DNS, a cloud-based security and safety service which now handles >600M queries daily and brought the Norton brand to new venues (e.g., it is now used at 4,000 Dunkin' Donuts locations) and served as the foundation for the company's recently announced (Feb '13) residential gateway offering.

Senior Director, Product Management - Consumer Products (Norton)

Led business strategy and execution for the company's Security Response team; 250+ people and $700+ million in related content subscription revenue. The Security Response organization is responsible for security research and operations, chartered with keeping all security products current against the latest attacks for the entire company.

I spent a significant portion of time in this role as a spokesperson for both broadcast (e.g., NBC, CNN) and print media (e.g., The Associated Press, The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal), as well as at industry events such as Black Hat, America's Growth Capital, and select Federal Trade Commission conferences.

Managed Symantec’s AntiSpyware initiative, moving consumer product performance in AntiSpyware reviews from poor performances to top-ranking finishes in 3rd party reviews in popular publications (e.g. PC Magazine, Ziff-Davis, etc.) within 12 months.

Operational maturity was a considerable focus, such as establishing regular KPI review sessions and related working teams to drive improvement in key areas. An example focal area was speed of response to important threats, where we showed marked improvement in time from lagging to leading scores versus our major competitors.

Introduced Symantec's first public-facing blog for Security Response, driving a large scale increase in traffic to the Symantec website. Managed the production of Symantec’s largest non-financial media event, the Internet Security Threat Report, growing worldwide media coverage by 74% (broadcast, print).

Director, Product Management - Security Response

I founded & led the Product Management/Marketing function at Foundstone, taking the flagship vulnerability management product from concept to eventual acquisition by McAfee in 2004.  I also initially led the Technical Support, Managed Service Operations, and Sales Engineering teams before transitioning them their eventual leaders following an incubation period.

Foundstone's Enterprise Risk Solutions product family was used by a number of Fortune 100 companies, won Editor's Choice awards from publications such as Network Computing, and achieved 100% customer retention and support/maintenance renewal during my time at the company. We grew our customer base over 100% each year and met our target of matching Foundstone's professional service revenues prior to acquisition.

Foundstone

Vice President Product Management & Product Marketing

Recruited and managed a team of 5 consultants. We sold and delivered security services such as incident response, penetration tests and security product deployment. Worked at ISS for 2 years.

Internet Security Systems

Consulting Manager

Performed a wide range of consulting services, from designing and managing a smart card deployment for an exhibition company to establishing a program office at a large technology firm.

Dave Cole