We (YeshID) are excited to announce that we’ve raised a seed round to build the next generation of cloud identity and access management (IAM) solutions. We’re out to build IAM that’s full-featured and drop-dead simple; but first, a bit more on why identity management is still such a nightmare for most companies.
The (somehow still unsolved) problem
Start-ups and small and medium businesses that dream of moving quickly and keeping expenses down, turn to cloud services. They happily swipe credit cards to license tools that amplify staff skills. Since all of their infrastructure is cloud-managed and (allegedly) secure, few of these companies dedicate headcount to IT – let alone security. Why should they?
Many start with Office365 or Google Workspace for identity management. This works for a while. But as they keep swiping their credit cards to add licenses and services, things begin to bog down, then break down. Staff needs to be provisioned, onboarded, off-boarded, reconfigured–new problems that require (surprise!) new tools. Their lean and efficient dream becomes a nightmare.
Consider off-boarding. No matter how detailed the spreadsheet, Confluence page or Trello checklist, the IT/Security folks at companies we’ve talked to hold “off-board Monday” meetings or create Slack channels like “elvis has left the building” to make sure they properly revoke access when people move or leave.
Or let’s examine authentication. SaaS packages that include support for multifactor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) cost more. They’re usually called “enterprise packages.” They’re priced for companies with plenty of cash, not lean companies with small budgets (check out: the SSO Wall of Shame). Admins duct tape workarounds. Users sit in a hodgepodge of authentication methods (password, OAuth, SAML). Which one they use depends on the application. Irritation follows.
And so it goes. Companies are forced to hire IT and security staff to support their ever-growing list of vital cloud services. They start navigating the fragmented identity market, searching for an IAM service to help them manage their business services. Want one that’s full-featured? Try the high-priced enterprise tier and hire some consultants to help navigate the complexity. Want one that’s dead simple? Sorry.
As we talked to startups and SMBs (and some larger companies) we saw the pattern repeated. The frustrating outcome seemed inevitable. But then we started to see a new approach. And now we’re building it. Full-featured and drop-dead simple. That’s our goal.
We’re refining as we learn and always eager to learn more. If you want to share your story – nightmare, dream, or alternate reality – we’d love to hear from you. Contact us and we’ll set up a time to talk.
We’ll share more news as we build and ship. You can follow us by subscribing or follow us at @yeshidco on Twitter.
How we got here
Alex Vaystikh and I (Dana Wolf) are the co-founders of YeshID. We met when we worked in the CTO office at RSA Security during the infamous RSA breach — Alex working from Israel and me from the US. Over the years, we kept talking about security and simplicity. We kept seeing identity sprawl growing, not shrinking. This year we decided to do something about it.
Our partners
Lastly, we want to tell you about the partners who are funding the first part of our journey. We are grateful to be working with Sunil Dhaliwal and the team at Amplify Partners and with our kick-ass angel investors: Lara Druyan, Dan Hubbard, Tom Daly, David Eckstein, Sean Leach, and Cooley LLP.
Our name
In American slang, ‘yesh’ is an emphatic yes! In Sanskrit it means to try, strive, attempt. In Hindi it is a baby name that means ‘glory or intelligence.’ In Hebrew, it means something, exist, being, is. We hope to live up to our name and we strive to bring something into being that’s glorious, intelligent yet simple, to which our customers will say “Yesh, finally!”
