Ep 1.4 • Cybersecurity's First Mother-Daughter Founding Team | Interview with Seccuri
Meet the first mother-daughter co-founder pair taking on cybersecurity industry. Listen (or read) this How I Met My Co-Founder episode to learn what it's like founding across family generations.
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Juanita Duque (CEO) and Olga Botero (CTO), co-founders of Seccuri, are the first mother-daughter co-founders in the cybersecurity sector.
Mother-daughter pair, Olga and Juanita, are no strangers to mixing business and family. Juanita’s mother, Olga, and her father worked together at HP early in their career and marriage. Growing up, Juanita remembers weighing in on the stock market at the kitchen table, honing her business skills alongside her parents and brother.
Olga is a global powerhouse with over 20 years of C-Level expertise including as former CIO of Grupo Bancolombia, one of the largest financial groups in Latin America. Juanita, a Stanford MBA and engineer by training, former consultant, and cybersecurity expert, called up her mother after business school and said, “let’s start something together”.
In 2022, they came together to launch Seccuri, a multi-award winning global cybersecurity skills and talent platform, as co-founders - a rare dynamic to see between mother-daughter. In doing so, they became the first ever mother-daughter founding pair in cybersecurity.
In our conversation, they discuss their experience in starting Seccuri as co-founders, negotiating their different roles and responsibilities, and maintaining a balance between their professional and personal relationships. The duo shares how creating rules of engagement, appreciating each other's strengths, and maintaining a sense of humor are key to their shared success in business. The episode also features tips on working with family members, emphasizing the importance of separating personal life from work, learning from each other, and trusting each other.
In our conversation, we discuss:
• Starting a Family Business in Cybersecurity
• Varying Levels of Seniority in a Founding Team (Who’s the Boss)
• How to Make (and Support a Co-Founder through) Mistakes
• Create “Rules of Engagement” (When Are We Family vs. Co-Founders)
• Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry (as Female Founders)
Some takeaways:
1. Know what you and your co-founder individually want to get out of the company (e.g., leadership experience, sales, social impact) and check in regularly on whether these motivators are being met.
2. Agree to leave mistakes in the past. It may be a mother’s tendency to point out the mistakes of her child… however a co-founder’s role is not to dwell on mistakes of the other, but to help them move forward and say, “ok what’s next?”
3. Admiration and respect are critical when founding with seniority levels. The founder with more seniority needs to believe there is as much to be learned from their partner as there is to teach. (See Sound Relationship House in resources)
4. Create “Rules of Engagement” when you are more than just co-founders. When do we talk business (or not)? What happens at family dinners? How can we respect each other’s schedules - for example, if one of us wakes up “late” (is 7am late…?)? (See Partnership Agreement below)
5. Be very careful when founding with family - if you cannot separate professional life from family life, then do not do it. If you do, you will be putting your family at risk. (See Family Charter in resources)
Where to find Juanita, Olga, and Seccuri: https://www.seccuri.com/
Juanita Duque: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanita-duque-24927878/
Olga Botero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgabotero/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/seccuri/ / Twitter - https://twitter.com/seccuri_inc / Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/seccuri.inc/
Where to find Annie Garofalo, host & startup team relationship expert:
Website: https://www.confidante.info
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-garofalo/
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In this episode, we cover:
0:00 Episode Highlights
01:04 Introducing Juanita and Olga
02:31 From Family to Business
04:37 The Birth of Seccuri and Shared Purpose
05:37 Defining Roles and Responsibilities
06:54 Navigating Personal and Professional Boundaries
09:28 Strategies for Meetings - Stepping Out
15:44 Letting Mistakes Happen
18:45 Creating a Positive Company Culture
20:16 Female Founders in Cybersecurity
25:26 Biggest Failure as a Founder
28:20 Creating "Rules of Engagement"
31:43 Advice for Founding with Family
References & Resources:
• Sound Relationship House: https://confidante.substack.com/p/the-sound-relationship-house-for-cofounders
• “Rules of Engagement” / Partnership Agreement: https://confidante.substack.com/p/partnership-agreement-cofounders
• Using a Family Charter (BCG): https://web-assets.bcg.com/img-src/BCG-Use-a-Family-Charter-June-2015_tcm9-76537.pdf
Podcast produced by www.confidante.info. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@confidante.info. Annie may be an investor, advisor, or coach for the companies discussed.
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