Looking at Initials Again
Vendors by initial letter
When Karen and I started IT-Harvest eighteen years ago we spent an inordinate amount of time updating a spreadsheet of the 1,100 or so vendors we tracked. We would collect HQ address, category, etc. We broke up the workload based on initial letter as one does with an alphabetical listing. I remember dreading getting to the S list because it was so long.
Three years ago Maximillian moved our spreadsheet into a database to create the IT-Harvest Dashboard. That made it easy to extract the number of vendors by initial letter. I have published this before but each year I look at it again as I put the manuscript together for Security Yearbook. Here are the latest distributions by first letter:
And sorting the list from greatest to least we can see that the letter S still dominates but watch our for C which is catching up!
S of course because of “Security” and C because of “Cyber.” In Security Yearbook 2024 there were 458 S’s, 449 C’s, and 354 A’s. So, S is up 46, C is up 48, and A is up 38.
If you are a founder picking a name for your baby you probably overthink the process. Do you go with one of the SCATPIDs? Or do you try to be different with a Y or J (looking at you Yubico and Jamf)? How about Z? There is certainly an upswing in Z vendors including four “Zeros”:
Zero Networks
Zerocopter
ZeroFOX
ZeroTier
You should definitely spend some time leafing through the printed directory in Security Yearbook before settling on a name. Perhaps a few collisions could have been avoided if founders had had access to this resource.
My favorite is Fraud.com and Fraud.net, two anti-fraud companies.
XM Cyber and XO Cyber differ by only a letter but probably no danger of confusion.
The letter V attracts tech companies that are into verification: Veriato, VeriClouds, Veridas, Veridify Security, Veridium, Verif-y, Veriff, Verificient Technologies, Verimatrix, Verimi, Veriscan Security, and Veriti. Of course you aslo have your “vaults”: Vault JS, Vault Security, Vault12, Vaultize, and Vaultree.
There are several “ups” including Upfort, UpGuard, UprootSecurity, UpSight Security, Upstream Security, Uptycs, and Upwind. And only one “under”, UnderDefense.
These three probably do not run into each other very often because they are in different regions and segments:
There are 19 vendor names that start with “Trust” including TrustArc, TrustMAPP, and TrustCloud.
These three evoke the rising tides:
Both Tascent, Tascet have fewer than ten employees so I predict there is a name change in the future for at least one of them.
There are 18 vendors that begin with “Sy” including Symmetrium and Symmetry Systems.
Of course there are far more “Cy”s, 133 to be exact. From Cyabra to Cyware and Cywareness.
“Cyber” appears in 292 vendor names. That is an amazing jump from 2015 when I presented on stage for RSAC TV and there were only 22 “Cybers.” If you watch the video you will see that I only tracked 1,325 vendors back then.
Today there are 60 vendors that begin with “Cyber,” from Cyber adAPT to Cyberwrite.
That gives me an idea. Maybe the AI Assistant we launched on Wednesday could help brainstorm ideas. I posed the question:
help me pick a name for my cybersecurity startup. It must include the word cyber. What is a good name that is not already taken?
The Analyst Assistant gave this amazing answer:
Those are good names. Next time you have to name a security startup you should just head on over to HarvestIQ.ai and sign up. You should be able to find a name within the free 20 questions.