Worcester Business Journal

W he made the move to Central Massachusetts, arriving in Northborough to be closer to his job at tech consultant NFP Health in Braintree. While living in Northborough, and with the influence of his girlfriend, a cosmetologist, he had his first taste of business ownership. Despite him having no entrepreneur- ial experience, in 2017 the two founded the Lush Nail Lounge, off Route 20 in Northborough. "I knew nothing about opening my own business. I knew nothing about the beauty industry … but I made sure to give it my all to see the successful outcome of it. Some of the things in my life have yielded great results because of this belief [of giving my all]," Phengsomphone said. While remaining co-owner of the lounge, he continued to work at NFP Health until late 2020. During this time he moved to Worcester with his girlfriend, partially to save money, but also because he had his eyes on something new: his own cybersecurity company. Creating his own success Working under other people for nearly 20 years eventu- ally made Phengsomphone disillusioned. "I came to a point in my career where I wasn't happy where I was," Phengsomphone said. "I just [didn't] want to work for anyone else anymore. I have always put 100% into my work [under others], but never received a great outcome from it. " With that as a motivator, Phengsomphone secured capital and founded BitSpartan Security, in December of 2020. Seeing all the new developments in Worcester since his time at Barrday in 2008, he was inspired, and so he founded BitSpartan right in the heart of downtown at the WorcLab incubator in the Printers Building. e business offers cybersecurity services to businesses throughout the commonwealth. Phengsomphone said he chose cybersecurity as it was more fulfilling than working on computer infrastructure systems, because cybersecurity specifically deals with the protection of individual people. "I realized maybe five or six years ago that [cyberse- curity] was my passion," Phengsomphone said. "When I started looking at [cybersecurity], I realized that it was a much larger issue than just business alone … I'm not just helping organizations, but individual people. And if that information isn't protected, we have the issues that we see today." e cybersecurity market is expected to grow 7% annually in the U.S. over the next five years and become a $212-billion market globally by 2026, according to Ger- many-based market intelligence provider Statista. Cybersecurity is an ever-growing, big business, and it's even bigger for the criminals, said Michelle Drolet, CEO and founder of Framingham cybersecurity company Towerwall. "It's a trillion-dollar industry [for the criminals]," Drolet said. "It's never ending. [Attacks] will always be present. I predict by 2025, there's going to be over two million jobs in the cybersecurity space." Following some snags and logistical issues, Phengsom- phone opened BitSpartan's doors to the public in spring of this year. At this stage, the company is working to secure contracts with state and federal agencies, as well as work- ing on gaining contractors and freelancers. While the future of the business's prosperity is un- known, Phengsomphone remains confident in any outcome. "At my [past] job, I've made sure [other businesses] are successful," Phengsomphone said. "Why can't I do that for myself? Why can't I do that for my family? Bottom line, there's no one telling you that you can't do something. You can show your own success. I feel at this stage in my life … that if I pursue something, and even if it ends in failure, I would be fine with that. Because I actually tried doing it." PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT wbjournal.com | June 13, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 11

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