>This gap is the reason the standard playbook for security startups looks nothing like the YC one.

I would say the vast majority of startup possibilities are further outside the current playbook.

You guys are going to rake in the bucks :)

I just had a meeting with a very big enterprise this week and went through one facility where we did take a look how excellent, but still not absolutely perfect their data handling had evolved since mainframe times. Naturally I was the only one that remembered those times in those type facilities any more.

One thing I was casually looking for I did find.

Not unlike the smaller companies I have been up-to-date with, which it's possible to have more comprehensive deep knowledge from stem to stern, there is one big similarity.

For what it's worth, everything is about the same as it was a year ago from an IT service perspective, but for equal security this year it looks like they need twice as many people on the case no differently than a 20-person company does now.

And some companies haven't even made a move.

Good luck and if neither of you are seasoned businessmen you're going to need an unfair advantage to keep from stifling your progress toward being the most respectable you can be. Even then you're not going to be that seasoned during your first decade no matter what you do. Give people their money's worth :) Nothing works better than that, and it's only the best kept "secret" because so many lesser businessmen know they can't make any money that way, so that detracts from the potential popularity whether they have business degrees or not.