Padlock

7% of the European cybersecurity workforce are women in a market that requires diversity of thought and problem solving. And, for every 100 cybersecurity jobs posted on Indeed.com there are only 32 applicants, yet the industry is ignoring half of the population.

Meanwhile “women’s jobs are disappearing”. Single parents are too easily left behind due to care responsibilities and employment inflexibility and single parents face a significant risk of in-work poverty.

Padlock is an online platform connecting businesses with freelance cybersecurity consultancy, powered by ongoing, iterative and free up-skilling of single parents in marketable cyber skills. 

We will create a bridge to the future of employment through a model of free, interactive and market-focused cybersecurity training in perpetuity for single parents.

As they rise on the escalator of skills and experience development, they become ever more employable, marketable and valuable to Padlock and market (average salary $112,974).

Single parents face barriers to re/enter and remain in employment. Local childcare is often unaffordable and inflexible and the lack of flexible work makes it hard to combine work and parenting. 

A lack of confidence can also hold single parents back from re/entering work. Once in work, they face a significant risk of in-work poverty and can struggle to progress. A disproportionate amount of single parents are underemployed - 22% (vs 9.3% across the entire economically active population). They’re more likely than the average worker to enter/get stuck in low-paid work. Insecure work also means some cycle between low pay and no pay. 20% of working UK single parents are in poverty.

Over 22% of UK families are led by a single parent and there are 2m single parents throughout the UK and 22m across Europe. 

The Resolution Foundation thinktank estimates that a single parent with two children in a job earning the “national living wage” needs to work 23 hours per week to live free of poverty, compared with the 16 hours required in the absence of benefit cuts made post-2010.

Padlock provides flexible, lucrative work with continuous, market-based paths to career progression.

In 2018, were selected by the UK government to address the cyber skills crisis and solve both the gender and ethnicity gaps in cybersecurity industry. 

We have since trained 160+ learners and in 2020 upped our game by now specifically targeting unemployed and economically inactive single parents through an EU funded grant in Brixton, a multi-ethnic London community, with a large percentage of its population of Afro-Caribbean descent.

From the beginning we partnered with the national single parents charity, Gingerbread as well as local Brixton-based employment charities such as High Trees. Through our partnerships and feedback from our learners, we improved our training to become more accessible to the specific needs of single parents including setting up a private Facebook Group page Cyber Lambeth through which learners can share, learn and be immersed into cyber. Facebook is an enormously popular means of lone parents’ local community networking in the UK.

Padlock provides free, iterative and ongoing market-based training to provide single parents with flexible and lucrative work. We remove barriers for lone parents to enter cyber careers and address their specific needs for flexible and lucrative work with paths to progression. 

Increasingly there are events where the subject is ‘why is nothing working’, as the cybersecurity skills shortage is getting worse. 

Padlock provides cybersecurity consultancy on demand, where competitors include Toptal.com, Expert360.com and Upwork.com. These generalist companies also offer a wide range of professional services whereas a focus on cybersecurity is a competitive advantage. 

There are also cyber-specific firms such as cybri.com and wisecrowd.global. In the training space are firms such as immersivelabs.com and cybrary.it, the latter of which features career development. 

What makes Padlock unique is our: (A) direct link to paid work (B) our aggregated intelligence approach, which leverages the shared community of threat insight and learning. Where cyber workforce commonly share learning online within the community, we harness this propensity for intelligence sharing. 

This platform will be a learning space that is also curated centrally to include bespoke market-led insight and training. 

The competitive advantage of Padlock is that we combine TopTal.com with ImmersiveLabs.com and power our growth through free, ongoing, iterative and market-led training for single parents who are supported by leading cyber consultants, to create shared learning where the more they learn, the more valuable they become and the more valuable Padlock becomes.

We differentiate by training, developing and curating our freelancers to assure clients of the experience, skills and quality of our consultants. 

We will use AI to gather and correlate the insights from the 60,000+ security-related blog posts each month, so that our cyber professionals can digest the relevant information much more efficiently. 

Padlock will leverage the aggregated intelligence of our community through engaging, interactive, gamified and on-demand cyber skills training. 

A bespoke solution is required to leverage the propensity of cyber pros to share expertise and intelligence amongst the community and to harness this to drive ongoing, iterative learning.

We have trained 160+ people to date and have exhibited at CyberUK 2019, Infosec Europe 2019, and Collision 2019 validating our model within the cyber market. 

We have been invited to speak at a variety of events including the prestigious Westminster Policy Forum on cybersecurity training.

Our initial work was funded by the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund which blended classroom and online learning to maximise inclusion and accessibility, https://www.pscp.tv/IntegrateUK/1mrxmYDellLxy

We have 8 BETA customers. Currently our learners can access a closed Facebook page named Cyber Lambeth where we deploy a variety of learning approaches including Facebook video / webinar, which works well.

We started Padlock to address what TechCrunch describes as a GIGANTIC problem; the cybersecurity skills shortage. The WEF observed that “nowhere is the workforce-skills gap more pronounced than in cybersecurity.”

In 2018 we were funded by the UK Government to tackle the cyber skills crisis.

Here is where it gets exciting.

When we sought our supply of local single parents, we were inundated with interest and very many had degrees in computer science and cybersecurity but faced barriers such as care responsibilities that blocked their way into their chosen careers.

90% of single parents are women and there are 2m single parents in the UK, a very significant source of hidden talent both to address the skills gap but also to provide a diversity of thought and problem solving to a rapidly changing threat environment.

There is a particular dearth in the cybersecurity workforce of entry to medium level operatives. We plan to take market share by filling the gap at entry level, a role that does not need a degree but are well paid.

Padlock provides practical security learning developed by experts and derived from world-class threat intelligence. Our training platform develops our freelancers by providing highly relevant, real-time content directly to the browser.

Our social enterprise model is to provide FREE training to our single parents trainees in perpetuity to: 

(A) address the ever changing threat environment and 

(B) make them ever more employable, marketable and expert in areas of their interest and are market-led.

Our inputs are: 

1. Sourcing/training single parents to entry level cybersecurity standard
2. Providing ongoing, market-led training
3. Brokering paid work with BETA customers such as with Phoenix Place School where one of our first cohort is now their Data Protection Officer
4. Provocative talks, events exhibiting

Selected outputs:

• 150+ trained from UK Government funded pilot
• 29 successfully completed our second stage GDPR / Data Protection Officer practitioners course
• 75% had paid work in cybersecurity
• 25% secured further qualifications such as Security+
• We have secured 8 BETA customers
• We secured an EU contract to support unemployed/economically inactive single parents in 2020 (10+ trained to date)

Selected outcomes:

• 75% have had paid work in cybersecurity
• 25% have secured further qualifications such as Security+
• We secured wide ranging customers
• We secured an EU contract to support unemployed/economically inactive single parents in 2020 (10+ trained to date)

Selected impact:

• European winner, global finalist for $1.6m MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge #FutureofWork
• Named one of the 14 Most Innovative UK Cybersecurity SMEs 2019
• Selected Allia Future 20 incubator addressing SDGs
• Presented at Westminster Policy Forum on cybersecurity training
• Presented "The Future of Cyber Employment" at the Cyber Innovation Showcase / Infosec Europe
• Presented "Hidden Talent in Plain Sight" at the Cyber Innovation Showcase / Infosec Europe
• Named 2019 Vodafone Techstarter
• Selected Cyber 101 - Digital Catapult (cybersecurity accelerator)
• Selected for HutZero #4 (cybersecurity incubator)

Most importantly, we have made a difference to people’s lives. Here is a story from one of our single parents from our first cohort.

Current Numbers

To the end of February 2020, we have trained 160+ single parents to date and have recently begun an EU funded project to specifically target unemployed and economically inactive single parents in our local community.

We currently have 50+ who actively interact on our closed Facebook Group page, 'Cyber Lambeth' including training, job brokerage and peer to peer support. 

In One Year

Our secured EU funded project forecasts to support another 100+ single parents in 2020

We have also secured funding to open Cyber Hive, in partnership with a youth charity Caius House and the defence contractor Raytheon UK for scale a whole family approach to cyber skills development and reach more single parents across London and their children. We expect this initiative to support another 100+ single parents in 2020.

Prudently, we forecast to support 200+ in a year and actively work with 150+ through our closed Facebook Group page.

In Five Years

Without securing additional funding, we will have supported a minimum 800+ in five years and 250+ actively interacting on our Facebook Group page. 

We are launching our first fundraising round (a seed round) in April to formally launch the platform and resource our sales activity. We also have a variety of strong funding bids submitted and traction in Germany, Canada and USA, we therefore forecast to have supported 1500+ single parents into cyber employment in five years and by then operate in UK, Canada, USA and the EU.

Our key goals in the next five years are to:

1. Impact the 2m single parents across the UK
2. Impact the 22m single parents across the EU and 
3. Impact single parents throughout North America 

2020

We are preparing a seed round in April to resource our formal launch including sales to grow our client base and platform development. 

GOAL 1 – begin a fundraising journey, following a roadmap to scale our impact. 

• We have also submitted strong bids to fund the training platform that will power the growth of our learners throughout their cyber career.
• Sales specific fundraising will drive growth for our market share and increase opportunities for our learners. 
• Training platform fundraising with drive the skills growth and career development of our learners, making them ever more valuable to the market and therefore to Padlock.

GOAL 2 – complete a partnership with a multi-national firm such as EY and Raytheon UK to create a formal pathway to skills development into a large company. This partnership will also help drive our plans to export abroad.

Beyond 2020

GOAL 1 – We have traction in Germany, USA, and particularly Canada and plan to open an office in Toronto/Ottawa in 2020 or early 2021.

We are supported by the Department for International Trade (DIT) and have a DIT cyber advisor helping with our export plans to replicate our model abroad.

2020

GOAL 1 – CAPITAL & INCOME GENERATION

BARRIER 1 – We are preparing a seed investment round for April but we have never raised money through investment before.

BARRIER 2 – We submit funding bids for philanthropic funding for our training and to build our training platform but this income is not guaranteed and grants funding is extremely competitive

GOAL 2 – MULTINATIONAL PARTNERSHIP 

BARRIER 1 – We have had a variety of interesting discussions towards a strategic partnership but these talks can be protracted. 

Although great synergies exist, particularly as a sweet spot between driving diversity in cybersecurity for competitive advantage, addressing large vacancy rates and meeting CSR commitments, we are not always a priority

BEYOND 2020

GOAL 1 – INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

BARRIER 1 - There are cultural and policy differences in Canada compared to the UK. For instance, whereas the UK government has invested £1.9b into cybersecurity development including catalysing a rich cyber startup and scale-up ecosystem as well as the NCSC, Canada has a less sophisticated cyber ecosystem and less formal investment. 

The policy focus in Canada is towards new Canadians and well as solving gender skills gap in cybersecurity. 

BARRIER 2 - Sourcing hidden talent abroad. We have existing relationships, partnerships and networks in the UK to source learners for Padlock. 

2020

GOAL 1 – CAPITAL & INCOME GENERATION

BARRIER 1 – To overcome our lack of experience in raising investment, we have sought to be part of accelerators such as HutZero, Cyber 101 and Allia Future 20. 

These have provided Padlock with practical support. For example, Cyber 101 held workshops on raising investment, introduced us to FullTilt Communications who are helping us develop/design our investor deck. Cyber 101 also introduced us to VCs, angel investors and within the cohort we met cyber companies that have raised investment. 

BARRIER 2 –  We aim to remove barriers to grants income through maintaining a robust and varied pipeline of opportunities and applying a professional approach to the process flow of horizon scanning, bids development and execution and submission. 

GOAL 2 – MULTINATIONAL PARTNERSHIP 

BARRIER 1 – We are leveraging all our available networks to access decision makers in the firms we wish to work with. Recently we welcomed Paul Cornish to Padlock as a non executive director to support this activity.

BEYOND 2020

GOAL 1 – INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

BARRIER 1 - We are working closely with the Department of International Trade to support our expansion. We are also seeking GCHQ accreditation for our training, which carries significant prestige abroad and opens doors. 

BARRIER 2 - We are developing relationships on the ground with lone parents charities and government agencies. We are attending the Social Enterprise World Forum in Halifax 2020 in Canada, to give a talk on our work to further develop network. 

N/A

Padlock is supported by a cybersecurity trade advisor from the Department of International Trade (DIT) and throughout 2019 we explored entry into the Canadian market including visiting Toronto four times and Ottawa twice, supported by the defence/cybersecurity trade officials at the UK High Commission in Ottawa. 

The team at DIT prepared a comprehensive analysis of the Canadian cybersecurity market for Padlock.

In May 2019 we exhibited at Collision and used the event to validate our offering in the market. 

Interest was strong and we returned in July and met Cybersecure Catalyst, who are tri-sector solution to addressing the cyber skills crisis in Canada and are focussing on solving the gender gap in the market.

We also met a wide variety of cybersecurity companies, government officials including the defence/cybersecurity procurement leads for Canada, and various trade organisations such as Toronto Global, Invest Ottawa and the Toronto Board of Trade, World Trade Centre.

We returned in November after the MIT Social Innovation Challenge global final to meet with Carleton University and MaRS Discovery District explore synergies.

The opportunity in the Canadian market is to be part of the development of cybersecurity ecosystem which currently does not exist in the same way as the UK and support the Canadian boom in AI and fintech.

We plan to open a Toronto/Ottawa office(s) from July to November 2020. 

N/A

Padlock is a startup, founded and powered by the Integrate Agency CIC, an award winning social enterprise and the full Integrate team provide support and provide energy to developing Padlock including 8 FTE staff with a variety of skills and experience in employability/skills and tech. 

We have 50+ active learners who contribute to training and paid work for our BETA customers as freelance consultants.

We are supported by a variety of accelerators and we are delighted to have brought in our first non executive director (NED), Paul Cornish. We expect to bring in two more NEDs before April. 

Eoin Heffernan and Kevin McLoughlin founded Padlock having previously worked together with different companies in leading large-scale government contracts where they managed the data protection/cybersecurity risks across a complicated supply-chain. 

Having developed talent for these contracts including taking an apprentice with no tech background to a £79,000/a($100,000 USD) cybersecurity salary in 36 months, we knew we had the capability to source hidden talent. 

During a 22-year Armed Forces career, Kevin conducted tours of Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq, and worked in organisations considered ‘Special Employment’, working with highly sensitive intelligence. He returned home to begin a career in cybersecurity and knows first-hand the importance of training/retraining to enter/re-enter the workforce in a new field. 

Eoin is a serial social entrepreneur named 'One to Watch' on the 2019 UBS Social Entrepreneur Index for top UK social entrepreneurs.

Eoin founded/CEO of Integrate, which was named on the 2019 NatWest Social Enterprise SE100 list as one of the best 100 social enterprises in the UK. 

Integrate was also named as 'Tech for Good' nominee in the 2019 Social Enterprise UK Awards.

Laura Bassett, has a background in Business Development, Partnership Development and Co-created Service Design within charities including specifically the women’s sector. 'My interest in cybersecurity comes from a fundamental interest in people. How do we make cybersecurity work for everyone? How can we increase diversity in the sector by enabling access to employment from people who may otherwise be forced by circumstance to work in roles far below their potential?”

We work with local and national charities such as High Trees Community Development Trust and Gingerbread (the national single parents charity) to access expertise and networks. 

We work with Cyber 101- Digital Catapult, HutZero who support our development as a cybersecurity market start up. 

We are part of Allia Future 20, programme for 20 most innovative UK startups who are working to address the UN SDGs. We are part of their incredible Cambridge,UK tech ecosystem and shortlisted for a 2019 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Award in the STEM category. 

We are part of a vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem in the UK including membership of Plexal who have provided Padlock with free office space. We also work closely with a number of cyber companies such as the CyberFish Company for whom we have provided a stream of freelance consultants to resource their activities as they grow. 

We also partner with the UK Government and were selected in 2018 as 1 of 7 pilots for the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund addressing the cyber skills crisis. In 2019 we were selected for Private Roundtable on UK Government Cyber Security Retraining Strategy which generated the current UK cyber skills strategy. 

Our business model is a 20% fee for consultancy work.

Beneficiaries

Our beneficiaries are single parents. They are trained by us to entry level and then provided ongoing, market-based training in cyber. Some have backgrounds in IT and cybersecurity and wish to work flexibility. 

Some of the work is ad hoc, project based work. For example we provide freelancers for CyberFish Company cyber war-games events to support scenario activities. 

Some of the work is ongoing and contracted. For example we provide Data Protection Officer support for Michael Adamson & Company accountants including routine monthly visits.

Concurrently we provide ongoing, market-led training. For example we have recently developed an innovative penetration tester practitioner course for our learners which is market-based and adapted specifically for our learners.

The impact of our work for beneficiaries is primarily two-fold: 

• We remove barriers to entry to a lucrative cyber career through training and offering flexible work
• We provide continuous market-led training and therefore practical pathways to career progression, leveraging the cybersecurity market requirement for constant training

Our beneficiaries are ever more valuable as they train in a market with exceptional day rates and an acute dearth in talent and expertise. 

Customers

We provide on demand cybersecurity expertise for a market where Raytheon UK reported that the vacancy rate in the company’s cyber security unit is 20–30%.

We have BETA customers, from schools to public sector organisations to small cybersecurity companies. Our key customers are small businesses requiring both ad hoc and ongoing cyber work. 

We are nearing our first fundraising activity to source investment to launch and build upon our BETA customers. Our first fundraising round is in April to raise $320,000 at a company valuation of $1,280,000 along a roadmap to growth through later rounds of investment. 

We will scale our impact through gaining market share in the London area and then UK-wide and then market entry into Canada, Germany (EU), USA. 

Our platform based model will drive our growth. We forecast profitability in year one, powering our virtuous cycle of growth whereby the more training we provide, the more valuable our freelancers become to the market and the more valuable Padlock becomes.

We were fortunate to be part of the 2019 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge and win our region, Europe for Income Growth and Job Creation. We benefited (and continue to benefit) hugely from that journey so we were very excited to see the 2020 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge transitioning to MIT Solve and to spot this opportunity that aligns so closely to our mission and aims. 

ServiceNow's primary markets include the four current areas of our interest, United Kingdom, Canada, United States and Germany where we won our region and met very promising leads for Padlock. 

ServiceNow has taken an inspiring approach to ‘belonging’ within ServiceNow, and have a clear understanding of the benefits that diversity and inclusion can bring, not only to the satisfaction of the workforce, but also to the growth of the company. Padlock believes that diversity, inclusion and addressing the gender and ethnicity gaps in cyber are a competitive advantage, there is strong alignment.

We say to our learners that they must have:

• curiousity
• commitment
• courage

...we can train the rest.

We also live by that statement and want to continue to learn and develop new network and ideas. We are therefore part of a wide variety of accelerators and business programmes and we would welcome skills-based mentorship and practical support. 

For our expansion, media opportunities would have enormous benefit for us, particularly given the status of MIT and ServiceNow.

We are interested in developing relationships with multinational companies who could potentially accelerate our growth throughout the UK and abroad. Our key areas of interest are the UK, Canada, USA and Germany and we have begun serious development of an exporting strategy to Canada for 2020. 

We are particularly interested in tech companies, cybersecurity companies, defence contractors and consultancies. 

In the UK we have benefited from developing relationships with trade and membership bodies such as the Federation of Small Business and the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) to support efficient customer acquisition. In Canada we have developed relationships with similar bodies such as the Toronto Board of Trade - World Trade Centre to drive our market entry through immediate access to a captive audience. 

We are also keen to develop relationships with agencies in Canada, USA and the EU that represent single parents, particularly charities that provide employability and skills support.