Learn how Tony Pepper, CEO at Egress, started his career working for cybersecurity software business Reflex Magnetics and subsequently Check Point Software Technologies, giving him the foundation to form Egress with his business partner, Neil Larkins.
Transcript:
Working at Reflex Magnetics was great. I moved to London from Liverpool, which was awesome, but I also met people that I still work with today, that's like 18 years ago now.
What it made me realize is that not just working in technology, but working for a software company, was one of the coolest things you can do - because it's incredibly creative. You can think what would be neat for customers, you can design how it would work, you can even get involved in the marketing and the sales side of how you take it to market, you can influence developers on what they build, and then you can work with customers to implement it, you can really make a difference. I think one of the most amazing things about a software development business is that you see every bit of the creative process right through to adding value to customers.
I really did not appreciate how awesome it would be until I was lucky enough to land there and subsequently spent my whole career working in software companies, but Reflex Magnetics was a really special business with an incredible culture. I gained something I only now appreciate looking back, but at the time I don't think I took for granted - but all I do remember is everyone I worked with all had the same goal, we all wanted to kind of punch above our weight and make a difference, everyone worked incredibly hard. So it was a culture that allowed me to really flourish, to get involved in everything - and I did, right from sales, into tech sales, into channels, into international markets, and really found myself in any opportunity I could get involved in.
I guess four years came and went, five years kind of came and went, and by the end of the time in that business where we really built an incredible business, they've created an opportunity for us to then and exit that business, which also brought just a phenomenal experience. So myself and the leadership team and sold our business to Pointsec Mobile Technologies, which was then subsequently sold to Checkpoint Software Technologies in 2006, and was really the the end of a real era of my life that I reflect really fondly on.