V (Five) Questions for Veteran Small Business Owners Featuring Tom Conkle, CEO and Cybersecurity Engineer at Optic Cyber Solutions

November 1, 2021

To commemorate National Veterans Small Business Week (November 1-5, 2021), an initiative of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Office of Veterans Business Development, and also celebrate National Veterans And Military Families Month (November 2021) AAEDC is publishing an interview series that highlights some of the many great Veteran-owned businesses in Anne Arundel County:

“V (Five) Questions for Veteran Small Business Owners”

Fresh off of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, our first Q & A features Tom Conkle, CEO and Cybersecurity Engineer at Optic Cyber Solutions.

 

What’s the name of your business and how did you come up with the name?
Optic Cyber Solutions. At Optic Cyber Solutions, we apply cybersecurity as a lens to business priorities to help organizations manage risks and protect their critical information and resources. The name Optic Cyber Solutions helps convey the fact that we understand that cybersecurity should be implemented to address your business risks and not just as a list of controls.

What does your business do and what motivated you to start it?
We assist in interpreting industry standard cybersecurity requirements and controls to meet our clients’ business needs. Creating Optic allowed us to take our experience and knowledge from working with the federal government to commercial businesses. Optic helps businesses implement cybersecurity to enhance their business by making security a driver for improved business operations instead of a tax or obstacle to business processes.

If you had to name just one, what quality or skill from your service most applies to being a small business owner?
The US Army gave me many of the foundational skills I use today. During my time in the service, I was fortunate enough to assist in the development of several data centers. This gave me the skills and knowledge for understanding how information technology (IT) components interact and provided me with the understanding that IT is a service that enables the mission. Learning the importance of the mission and understanding how we supported that mission is something I use today. I start by understanding a company’s business goals and then identify how cybersecurity can be applied to help them better run their business securely.

What aspect of your business are you most proud of/what’s your favorite part of running it?
At Optic we are able to help businesses, large to small, understand cybersecurity requirements and their value. I enjoy being able to help a company understand that cybersecurity requirements and regulations are not just a burden to be addressed, but capabilities that can help make their business stronger. As we complete a project, we are able to reflect back on the company’s progress in a short period of time to see the improvement to their understanding of cybersecurity and how to manage their new cybersecurity capabilities.

What’s the top piece of advice you’d give a veteran who’s thinking about starting a small business?
It is a lot of hard work and takes a commitment to make it work. The military taught me how to work as a team and lean on others to help complete tasks. There are many resources available to individuals trying to start a business such as the AAEDC. Working with these groups helped me understand the core concepts of running a business and help us get it off the ground. We are very grateful for their support.

 

To learn more about Optic Cyber Solutions, visit https://www.opticcyber.com/ 

To learn more about how AAEDC supports entrepreneurs in the technology sector, visit our Arundel Defense Tech Toolbox.

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