Time is a funny thing. You don’t really think about it until it’s running out. Deadlines. Mortality. It’s all the same. Time just sneaks up on you, and then it’s gone. Yeah, I’m a little nostalgic this week because my birthday is Friday. And yes, there is some fodder for you social engineers out there. The kids get more excited about my birthday than I do. They want to know about cakes, parties, and the like. Personally, I’d take a day to sleep in, but who has time for that? There are things to do and places to be.

Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day...We at Securosis hit a milestone this week, unveiling the Securosis Nexus on Monday night. Honestly, I’m both exhilarated and terrified. We (especially Rich) have spent many hours conceiving, building, and populating our new online research ‘product’. I joke that building the Nexus took twice as long and cost 3 times as much as we expected. I’m probably understating it. But all of us have built software before, so we knew what to expect. What’s a little different this time is that we funded the project out of cash flow. So every check we wrote to our developers and designers could have been used to pay my mortgage. That really makes the investment real.

Rich, Adrian, and I aren’t really gamblers. We all go to Vegas a few times a year for conferences, and you’ll find us hanging out at a bar – not the tables. We live conservative lifestyles (even if Adrian drives a Corvette). On the other hand, we’re making a huge bet folks who don’t have the word Security in their titles will pay for impactful, actionable security research. And that even some folks who do have Security in their titles will find enough value to make a modest investment.

But what if we are wrong? It’s not like anyone has ever successfully delivered a research product to this market segment. Are we nuts? Compound that with the fact that we have built a pretty good business. We’re very busy writing blog series, pontificating, and doing strategy work, all of which I love. So why take the risk? Why make the investment? Why not just sit on our hands, keep pontificating, and enjoy the lifestyle?

I’ll tell you why. Because time waits for no one. Rich and I decided back in 2006 that this market opportunity was real, and we believe it. Just because no one has tried it before doesn’t mean we are wrong. We want to build leverage into our business and be bigger than just Rich, Mike, and Adrian showing up and waving our hands. Ultimately we want to make a difference and believe the Nexus provides a great opportunity to help folks who can’t afford Big IT research. But we aren’t kidding ourselves – it’s scary.

Fear is no excuse. It won’t hold us back. The train has left the station and now we will see where it takes us. The only thing we can’t get is more time, so we plan to make the most of it. Check out the Nexus. Sign up for the beta. Help us make it great.

–Mike

Photo credits: “Time” originally uploaded by Jari Schroderus

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