FT Start-Up Stories How fighting a computer bug turned into a vocation
Jun 25, 2018
Marcin Kleczynski, the Founder and CEO of Malwarebytes, shares his journey from battling a computer virus at age 14 to leading a global cybersecurity firm. He discusses how the freemium business model transformed from a volunteer effort into a lucrative company. Marcin reveals insights on adapting from remediation to prevention, scaling the business while in university, and fostering a strong remote culture. He emphasizes the importance of recruiting from the security community and maintaining a no-nonsense company ethos to innovate and succeed.
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From Virus Victim To Co-Founder
- At 14 Marcin fixed his own infected PC using instructions from an online security forum and began automating the process.
- He later teamed with forum volunteers to build an antivirus without meeting them in person until much later.
Pivot From Cleanup To Prevention
- Malwarebytes began as a remediation tool that cleaned infections other antiviruses missed.
- By pivoting to prevention and launching a paid product in 2008 they made about a million dollars that year.
Caught Testing Malware At University
- While at university Marcin analysed malware on the campus network and was visited by IT who ran Malwarebytes in front of him.
- That moment taught him to be more cautious when experimenting on live networks.