Gravwell co-founder and CEO Corey Thuen
For Gravwell co-founder and CEO Corey Thuen, data is king. Thuen wanted an easier way to sort through data, the foundation for any modern technology company. Using existing data products proved difficult and expensive, so Thuen and Gravwell’s co-founder, Kris Watts, built their own platform to help their cybersecurity jobs at the time. It turns out that their data platform was able to handle more data, and provided opportunities for businesses to pull out more information that can improve their operations. For Thuen, it was easy to see that this new platform had wider applications than just cybersecurity. Gravwell is a data analytics platform to help companies make sense of the vast amounts of data generated by the Internet of Things and Humans. “Everything from databases to dishwashers are spitting out ones and zeroes,” Thuen said. One of the main products in the data industry was built in 2003, but few others have broken through to become heavily adopted.
Gravwell’s Leah Figueroa and Corey Thuen speak on camera at the Wild West Hackin Fest in South Dakota.
Watts’ work with the Department of Energy essentially centered around rebooting the Internet, in case of a widespread issue. That work helped fuel the desire to build something new, which meant starting from the ground-up. Gravwell was born shortly after, helping companies understand the data that comes from consumer interactions. “We’re using more data now than ever before,” he said. “The amount of data being used since 2003 has exploded.” Although the company is still in its infancy, Gravwell has received coverage in several influential media outlets. In October last year, the BBC highlighted the company’s recent analysis of comments submitted to the FCC regarding net neutrality. Most of the 22 million comments were submitted in bulk, and had several reasons for being labeled suspicious. According to their findings, only 17.4 percent of the more than 22 million comments were unique. Gravwell was also featured in Ars Technica for their data reporting regarding net neutrality.
Gravwell’s Leah Figueroa speaks at ShmooCon in Washington, D.C.
The business started running full-time in August 2017, growing to a team of five engineers and developers, all working remotely. Gravwell’s provides businesses with a different pricing model, one that doesn’t hurt someone on the amount of data they use. Instead, pricing tiers are based on the amount of equipment used. While the business is still in its infancy, Gravwell’s board of directors is very enthusiastic about its position in the marketplace. Among their board includes Ron Gula, former CEO and co-founder of the Tenable Network Security from 2002-2016. During Gula’s tenure as CEO, Tenable Network Security grew to more than 20,000 worldwide customers and achieved annual revenues of more than $100 million. Thuen says Gula is passionate about Gravwell’s future, and even aids developers in finding bugs before software releases. Unlike some modern businesses coming from Silicon Valley, Gravwell is focused on sustainable, long-term growth. “We’re not in it for a get rich and get out approach,” Thuen said. While Gravwell is still pursuing their first large sale, Thuen said reception around the company at trade shows and conventions has been overwhelmingly positive. The business is active in the Startup Spokane community, attending regular networking events, and became a Greater Spokane Incorporated member in November 2017. Startup Spokane is a program of GSI. “Being a new company in enterprise software is challenging. Finding the right customer is important,” he said. Thuen said he hopes businesses are open to discussing the value and opportunities available from using Gravwell’s platform. To learn more about Gravwell, visit Gravwell.io.
