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On August 28th, 2024, Cobalt announced the appointment of Sonali Shah as its new Chief Executive Officer. With an impressive track record in leadership and a deep understanding of the cybersecurity landscape, Sonali is poised to lead Cobalt into its next chapter of growth and innovation. Her vision and strategic insights will be instrumental in driving the company’s mission to provide cutting-edge security solutions, while continuing to strengthen Cobalt’s position as a leader in the industry.
Her Background
Shah joins us after serving on the company’s Board of Directors. She is a seasoned business leader and product visionary with more than 20 years of experience scaling high-growth businesses across the cybersecurity landscape. Shah holds an MBA from Wharton and a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics. Shah brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the leadership team.
Shah joins Cobalt with a proven track record of leading B2B SaaS companies from inception to successful exits. She pioneered the first cybersecurity risk rating platform, Bitsight Security Ratings, developed product vision and strategy for Human, and drove the transformation of legacy application security technology at Veracode and Invicti to enable early and frequent testing of web applications and APIs. Shah also played a strategic role in the successful sales of both Veracode and Invicti. Prior to these roles, Shah was an investment banker with Credit Suisse.
In addition to her work, she is on the Board of two Boston based non-profits, 826 Boston and Mass TLC.
I was thrilled to sit down with Sonali to get to know her better and discuss her vision for Cobalt’s future!
Q&A with Sonali
What are you most excited about for the future of Cobalt?
We have great people, a fast growing market, and a product our customers love.
Our market, offensive security, is growing. Attack surfaces are expanding, and the threat landscape is continuously evolving, causing demand for pen testing to grow in the double digits annually (between 15-20% annually, depending on which research report you read). There is also a growing market for other offensive security services like DRA and red teaming, both of which we offer. Companies realize that they need multiple ways of assessing risk from the outside, and they need a combination of automated tools and human expertise to accurately assess and remediate that risk.
Customers: Our customers continue to tell us that our PtaaS offering is the best on the market. I had the opportunity to spend time with our CAB two weeks ago and the resounding message was we love what you do. Stick to your core - services that leverage our community and platform. A few customers even told us that we need to do a better job promoting our brand and all of our various services. Never have I heard customers tell us to invest more in marketing!
People: I have met employees in Boston, London and the Azores, and in general I can say we have a smart and passionate team that genuinely cares about each other and the success of Cobalt.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your professional career?
The biggest challenge is always creating and maintaining a great culture. Cultures don’t just appear, they have to be actively developed and maintained. It takes a long time to build company culture, but can be quickly destroyed.
Some of the key ingredients to developing a good culture include the following:
- Shared vision that is known and understood across the company
- Continuous communication: celebrate the successes and learn from the failures
- Clear roles, responsibilities and accountability
- Mutual respect - differing opinions make us stronger
- Humility
What do you like to do outside of work?
I love to paint! My favorite medium is painting with acrylic paint, on anything I can! I have done Curious George paintings for my kids, Italian landscapes for my kitchen, and colorful abstracts when I am in a contemplative mood.
I love to travel! I feel that I have learned so much by exploring new places and cultures with friends and family. My favorite place I have traveled to is where history, outdoor adventure, and relaxation meet. Some of my favorite highlights are Costa Rica, South Africa, and India! Recently, I went to Peru with my son before he headed off to college!
What show have you been binge watching recently?
I am a huge “Thronie" (That is what myself and my fellow Game of Thrones fans call ourselves!). I loved the original Game of Thrones series and now love digging into the House of Dragons prequel series. I am anxiously awaiting Season 3!
When I am with the family, my kids and I enjoy watching reruns of Modern Family - a great comedy sitcom for us all to share. I have also been watching Inventing Anna! Shonda Rhimes never misses.
Our Welcome
We wish her a warm welcome to the Cobalt family - her success is a collaborative victory for us all here at Cobalt. We are so happy to have her as the new addition to our #TeamCobalt!
