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Reenvisioning the complexity and security of enterprise mobile development

Brendan McCorkle is the CEO of CloudMine. Headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices in Boston and San Francisco, CloudMine aims to reduce the complexity of backend development for enterprises everywhere. The platform emphasizes mobile performance as well as security and compliance, allowing organizations in a variety of highly-regulated industries to launch mobile initiatives quickly and reliably. Prior to starting CloudMine, Brendan founded Fourth Power Solutions, Textaurant, and the Free Beer Company. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate program of Technology Management.

Brendan McCorkle spoke with Jeff Mack, Executive Managing Director at Newmark Grubb Frank, for this interview.

JEFF MACK: Where do you envision CloudMine five years from now?

BRENDAN MCCORKLE: Well, what’s exciting about the thing in our CloudMine in five years is, since our investment by Safeguard, we’re actually pretty sure there is a CloudMine in five years. That’s I think one of the greatest parts about having a patient, big-pocketed investor, is that you don’t actually have to think, “Okay, what is payroll coming from? What do we need to do operationally that costs x, where we have only half x—should we still do it?” That’s the stuff that keeps entrepreneurs up at night for most of the life of most companies. Having Safeguard on board means that we don’t have to have those conversations. We know the payroll is there, we know that the next round is there, we know that they’re not in the business of cutting loose their portfolio because the company has run out of cash. So you take the cash risk away and you get to actually chase some of the real operational problem: “Where’s the next customer? Are we building the right thing in the product?” All big problems on their own, but usually a little bit less scary than the cash one. It feels good to focus on those.

We have really doubled down in our last fundraise on security and compliance, so we’re the first HIPAA-compliant mobile platform. We have a lot of what we’ve seen called the “security halo.” We have customers who don’t require HIPAA compliance, for example, but everyone is a little bit nervous about giving their data to somebody else right now. There’s been a lot of high profile attacks: the Anthem hack, the Target hack. Even businesses that don’t require or aren’t regulated or don’t require that level of compliance get the _______ if you will, because we’ve passed that level of compliance, got checked by companies that are bigger than them or more conservative by them. So that actually helps us out a lot, and that’s really what the thesis was for Safeguard. Because as we had built this enterprise grade platform and we were doubling down on that—say we had security at 4, the investment was to take it to 8, and really double down on that in the market. So, if you fast forward a few years, we will take that to 10—or, if you’re a Spinal Tap fan, maybe to 11—and that’s sort of the story in the short-term. Then, we’ll start to explore adjacent markets to healthcare. We think FinTech is one. We think retail is another one. They’re actually not regulated but they act regulated, so they’re very receptive to value proposition of CloudMine being the safest and most secure, even though they don’t have a governmental body or regulation saying “you have to do this.”

Q. How did the Target hack change how retailers think about security?

A. Target’s brand took a big hit when they had that exposure. People are starting to shift. They realize that a lot of those hacks happen from on-premise data storage, and so as everyone’s going to the cloud and realizing that might actually even be more secure than how they did it before, that’s a really nice time for us as we are starting to get more exposure and the product’s getting more robust.

Visit CloudMine's Website for more information.

ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Jeffrey E. Mack, Executive Managing Director

Jeffrey E. Mack is a senior leader in Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Philadelphia operation. Jeff has been a significant member of the commercial brokerage community in Philadelphia since 1979. He co-founded Smith Mack & Co. in 1984 and has continued to lease and sell more suburban office space than any other individual agent. He served as past chairman of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors, commercial and industrial division. NGKF acquired Smith Mack & Co. in 2012.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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