From Duo Security's launch in 2010, the Internet security start-up was built to scale. This is the year the downtown Ann Arbor-based company begins to accelerate its growth.
Duo Security specializes in creating
two-factor authentication software, which enables its users to use their mobile phones to secure their logins. The idea is to add another layer of protection against account takeover and data theft for companies.
"These days passwords are not enough to really protect anything," says
Dug Song, co-founder & CEO of
Duo Security.
The market for Duo Security's software has a high ceiling. The company has watched its revenue grow by 400 percent over the last year as its customer base has doubled to more than 1,000 clients. Some of those users include a variety of big brand names ranging from Fortune 500 companies to large research institutions. Song declined to publicly name those firms.
"Probably half of our customers are first-time customers of two-factor," Song says. "We are helping grow the two-factor market."
That growth has allowed Duo Security to more than quadruple its staff to just under 50 people. To accommodate its growth, the firm moved from the Tech Brewery to a newly refurbished office on the northern edge of Kerrytown. It now occupies most of the 10,000 square feet of space there, which it is currently working to fill out. Duo Security currently has five job openings and expects to hire 10 new people in total by the end of the first quarter.
"We have grown pretty quickly," Song says.
Source: Dug Song, co-founder & CEO of Duo Security
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.