FireEye: Re-Architecting A Product

“10x Management has given me the ability to keep a lean staff and surge when I need to, with a high degree of confidence that the resource coming in is going to be able to deliver value very quickly.”

Sanjeev Williams, Sr. Director, Product Development

Executive Summary

FireEye is the premier cyber security company that protects you before, during, and after a breach. FireEye combines innovative security technologies, world-renowned expertise, and deep threat intelligence capabilities to take the edge away from cyber criminals working against you. We interviewed Sanjeev Williams, Sr. Director, Product Development at FireEye for his take on what it was like to work with 10x and how 10x added value to FireEye.

Q&A with Sanjeev Williams, Sr. Director, Product Development at FireEye

Why did FireEye originally reach out to 10x?
As a startup (Invotas) we had just recently decided to re-architect our product. The plan was to unveil it at a very large cyber security conference, but we were falling behind schedule. The conference was looming 3 months away and I needed someone that was talented enough to make up our lost hours, but also would come up to speed quickly. I had heard about 10x through two different channels and was intrigued by how differently they positioned their resources. Talent… not consultants. Other companies that provide consultants weren’t going to cut it in this time crunch. I needed value delivered in a short amount of time. The 10x brand highlights the fact that they have the best tech talent to help you reach your goals. I decided to give it a shot.

What was hard about finding the right people before?

Finding front-end development talent as a start up was extremely difficult. Finding good technical talent in general, in the DC area, is hard. So part of the problem was location, but the other part was not necessarily knowing what you needed. In the case of our original reason to bring 10x in to solve our problems, we had front end developers. We just didn’t have enough and the ones we did have also did not have the right skill sets for the new architecture.

What were FireEye’s requirements?
I needed someone to step in and do 3 things: 1. Come up to speed quickly on the technology, product and features. 2. Work diligently on specific epics and features to reach our first milestone. 3. Own it. I needed someone that could lead through example and teach the rest of the team.

What was it like working with 10x?
Extremely easy. The first resource I got was a god-send. He saved us that year at RSA. I later hired that person to lead my front end team. The second person, likewise. He was a backend infrastructure architect and has built (and rebuilt) our infrastructure, tooling, and virtual appliance. In 4 months he got us from having zero infrastructure for automated testing and release building to being a well oiled machine. The 10x talent speaks for itself, but obviously it takes time and direction from the client to guide those resources, so you have to be able to put that time in. Working with the 10x management arm is also extremely easy. I’ve used 10x as a startup as well as at a large organization and they are very flexible working through contracts, back ground checks, etc. Super easy.

Would you hire 10x again?
Yes.

Would you refer 10x to other companies?
Absolutely.

How has working with 10x changed FireEye?
See above. But it has given me the ability to keep a lean staff and surge when I need to, with a high degree of confidence that the resource coming in is going to be able to deliver value very quickly. That’s pretty important for any company, but especially those that need to keep a lower cost structure stateside as more development is moving overseas.

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