Amy Devers | Chief of Staff to CEO and Head of People Operations | JupiterOne
JupiterOne is the number one cyber asset visibility and relationship platform in the industry. We solve pain points for security teams by answering critical questions around assets: What do I have? What’s most important? Does it have a problem? Who can fix it? Over time, am I getting better?
This is how Amy Devers, Chief of Staff to the CEO and Head of People Operations at JupiterOne describes her organization.
We are on a mission to provide the best contextual security knowledge to security teams across the globe while being a force for good in our community and our employees’ lives.
-Amy Devers, Chief of Staff to CEO and Head of People Operations at JupiterOne.
Taking the Baby Steps In The Entrepreneurship Journey:
Amy shares:
As Employee #48, I joined JupiterOne when the company had been in business for just under one year. From the onset, I knew that not only was the product revolutionary, but the people were incredible. Our CEO & Founder, Erkang Zheng, is a brilliant visionary and his focus for me was to have a leader specialized in organizational management, talent attraction, people development, and fostering a rewarding culture very early on. Within my first year, we grew the company 3x both in customers and employees.
I make intentional choices about where I invest my time and career and I knew that I would be working for a company that is making a difference in the world. I’ve been a victim of identity theft; I know firsthand the impact of toxic combinations on a company’s security infrastructure. JupiterOne is empowering security teams to do important work and the company is filled with incredibly gifted people.
The Services & the Tagline of JupiterOne:
JupiterOne officially launched in July 2020. Its headquartered in Raleigh but is incredibly remote-friendly with employees in the U.S. across 32 states and in the U.K. as well.
JupiterOne empowers security teams to make smart security and infrastructural choices through their asset visibility and management platform. It offers software as a service (SaaS) through a subscription to our powerful platform, encompassing continuous compliance (SOC2 anyone?), alerts, dashboards, etc.
The product has many ways it can be leveraged, from checking to see who still hasn’t completed security training, to see which users have not enabled MFA, how to prioritize vulnerability findings based on business criticality, or heaven forbid, who still retains access after termination.
For those security pros that want to get deeper, one can triangulate workloads, storage, applications, users, and devices to identify problems, ensure compliance, set up alerts, and so much more. The best part is the company represents all of this in a visual graph that can be extended to see exactly what you need to know.
JupiterOne is the only platform that is the single source of truth for an organization’s digital assets and security posture, shining lights and providing clarity and confidence to the entire security team and CISOs.
The unique selling proposition of the services offered by JupiterOne is to not only provide asset visibility but to give context to the relationship between assets which is what matters. One can have two unique assets that are fine on their own, but once connected create a toxic combination as seen in notable breaches over the last few years. With JupiterOne one can get straight to knowing what you have, what has an issue, who can fix it, and how to get better going forward.
KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE, AND FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS.
We chose this tagline because there is so much noise and information out there. Getting right to the heart of what matters starts with knowing what [assets] you have. JupiterOne empowers security teams with that visibility and relational context.
– Amy Devers, Chief of Staff to CEO and Head of People Operations at JupiterOne.
Life Of Amy Devers As A Person:
Amy reminisces:
I started working at 15 years old, and in that first official tax-paying job, I had the glamorous role of washing party rental chairs. Little did I know, I was incredibly fortunate to have amazing mentors at that company. The hallmark of my development as a young employee began with customer service training to provide a pleasant and memorable experience for all customer and employee interactions. Business is built on reputation, after all.
I have had a storied life: I almost died when I was 14 years old; I am grateful for the brilliant surgeon who made it his mission to save my life. I am the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college. I helped the sweetest soul achieve his dream of homeownership at 80 years old. I assisted numerous military veterans transition into civilian roles post-war. I empowered women through their careers to escape homes of domestic violence. I’ve interviewed thousands of people and guided them into new careers. I survived a brain tumour. I’ve mentored and developed dozens of people, most of whose careers have rocketed through entrepreneurship, promotion to executive positions and more, achieving wild success, and continue to do so today. In the most rewarding roles of all, I have the honour and privilege of being a mother and wife.
My career journey has encompassed two main areas: business operations and people operations. I’ve used the foundational building blocks I learned early on – focus on experience – and utilized it in every role, whether as an internal business partner or with customer-facing interactions. Treat people well; make them feel valued, respected, and appreciated. I have accomplishments I am proud of, but it’s the people and the experiences, not the work itself that I remember.
Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to be a good steward of our people at JupiterOne.
She also shares:
In March 2014, I was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. How would I balance a rising career with a young family and medical treatment? It is the kind of scenario that forces you to slow down and take a look at what matters. During this time, I started a consulting firm so that I could keep a pulse on the industry while keeping my skills sharp and taking time off as needed to heal and recover from radiation treatment.
This experience was a gift, as it allowed me to truly evaluate what I wanted to do next with my career and how important time, family, and balance truly are. I committed that I would be very intentional about the roles I took going forward, aligning with companies that make a difference with their product or service but most importantly value the gift of a person’s time.
Overseeing the Functioning Of the Ceo:
Amy beams with pride as she shares that JupiterOne closed its Series C round of funding in June 2022, achieving the elusive unicorn designation with a $1.1 billion valuation.
“In 2021, organizations spent roughly $150 billion on cyber security; this is not optional for businesses. We have seen the devastation and disruptions to commerce when breaches happen. We get smart; hackers get smarter. Our CEO & Founder, Erkang Zheng, recently shared this sentiment during an interview for the CUBE at Reinvent, a major cyber security conference, “the industry moves quickly…how can we do the basics well? It starts with assets.” JupiterOne focuses on starting with the fundamental basics that matter to security teams and builds from there. Folks don’t want fancy bells and whistles if they can’t get answers to their basic questions, starting with ‘what do I have?” is what according to Amy that has led to her brand’s success.
Securing the Present & the Future:
“Currently on the operational side of the business, we are focused on enhancing our product and features, listening to our customers, and delivering a best-in-class experience. We are well past wondering if our great product idea will sell. Our sights are set on becoming a household name and building our infrastructure to support a long future is exciting.
On the people operations side, I am kind of a nerd for organizational development. We are in an amazing place where we can start to truly grow through employee enablement, development, and succession planning. It has been fantastic to watch people move into new, challenging roles in a relatively short time”, tells an excited Amy.
Regarding the future of her company Amy shares, “As an acknowledgment to the severe threat of cybersecurity, in 2021, an Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity was signed, and we are starting to see deadlines for adherence in 2023. The U.S. government has committed billions of dollars to internal infrastructure, software supply chain security, secure software environments, ease of threat information sharing, and more.
We see this commitment at the Federal level as a positive sign that the need for intelligent asset management solutions has escalated from a checkbox solution to part of every industry’s critical infrastructure. As is often the case, the commercial industry follows suit to the standards of government, so companies should be prepared to enhance security protocols”. We are also looking forward to Total market domination. We believe every company can realize value from partnering with JupiterOne.”
A Byte of Advice:
While signing off Amy tweets:
“I would ask this question: what chances would you take if you knew for sure that you would be successful? Sometimes letting go of certainty and taking that proverbial ‘leap of faith’ really is the answer. I have learned more from failed attempts than I have from not trying. As cliche as it sounds, people on their deathbeds don’t wish they played it safer. You are capable of so much more than you know. And if no one else has said this to you, I believe in you. Men don’t stop to ask if they are good enough; they charge forward and you should too”.
Earlier this year, JupiterOne published Reinventing Cybersecurity, a revolutionary book voiced by change-making female and non-binary authors in the field of security. We are quite proud of this work and have seen it become part of the required syllabus at colleges and universities across the United States. JupiterOne Press has also published other best sellers: Modern Cybersecurity and The Cyber Defense Matrix. Our goal with publishing is to continue to provide value to our customers, to our employees, and to anyone who wants to learn more about this fast-growing industry.
