Michael Nicosia is an Italian–American serial entrepreneur[1] and software technology executive.[2] He currently holds the position of chief operating officer (COO) and Co-Founder of Salt Security.[3] In 2016, Nicosia partnered with Roey Eliyahu,[4] an Israeli national, to establish Salt, a SaaS cybersecurity startup.[4] Salt Security safeguards the application programming interfaces (API) at the apex of contemporary software application.[2]
Michael Nicosia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | B.S. in Marketing, 1988 |
| Alma mater | San Jose State University |
| Occupation(s) | Serial entrepreneur and tech executive |
| Organization | Salt |
| Website | www.salt.security |
Nicosia holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from San Jose State University. He is a US citizen who immigrated from Sicily, Italy.[5]
Before co-founding Salt Security, Nicosia held diverse sales roles in the technology sector, engaging with companies such as AppSense, Liquid Engines, Datasweep, PeopleSoft, and Adallom.[6] His leadership contributions have had a notable impact on the monetization of corporate assets and global expansion of sales for these organizations.[7]
In 2022, Salt Security received a $140 million Series D funding round, propelling Salt to a valuation of $1.4 billion, and solidifying its status as a unicorn startup.[2]
Early life edit
Born in Italy to Sicilian parents,[5] Nicosia moved to the United States during his early adolescence and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area.[6] Nicosia grew up in Silicon Valley, the hub for tech innovation. He is proficient in both English and Italian.[5]
Nicosia completed his middle school and high school education in Santa Clara County.[5] In 1988, Nicosia graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing.[5]
Career edit
Nicosia's professional domain is in the field of enterprise software sales and marketing.[5][7] In 1988, he initiated his career in the information technology landscape with an inaugural role at Hewlett-Packard, followed by several years as an account executive for JD Edwards.[6]
In 1998, Nicosia became the Regional Vice President at PeopleSoft, a position he held until 2002 when he transitioned to Informatica Corp.[6] In 2003, he played an integral role in the executive team at Datasweep, Inc., assuming the position of VP of Sales for North America. Rockwell Automation later acquired Datasweep.[8] Subsequently, in 2005, Nicosia joined Liquid Engines, where he led the corporate sales force.[5] The company was later acquired by Thomson Financials.[9] In 2009, Nicosia joined Citrix Systems[5] contributing to the company's solution portfolio expansion.[7]
By 2011, Nicosia assumed the role of Vice President of Sales, Americas, at AppSense, a leading virtualization and endpoint security software company located in Santa Clara.[6] He was acknowledged for strengthening the sales infrastructure, encompassing various pre-sales, in-house, and external sales channel for the Americas.[7] In 2016, Landesk acquired AppSense, which eventually merged into Ivanti. In 2013, Nicosia joined the founding team at Adallom, an Israeli Intelligence Corps, engaging in a directional shift in strategy for using their SaaS cloud security solutions. In the capacity of Vice President of Global Sales, Nicosia made significant contributions to Adallom's growth,[6] leading it from $10 million to over $100 million. This growth culminated in its acquisition by Microsoft for a substantial sum of $327 million.[6]
In 2015, Nicosia and Roey Eliyahu[4] met and joined forces to co-found Salt Security, a Palo Alto-based[10] SaaS security company, in April 2016.[7] Eliyahu is the current Salt CEO while Nicosia holds the position of COO.[4] Salt Security is the exclusive holder of the granted patent for using AI to detect and thwart API attacks.[7] The patented API protection platform stands as the sole trademarked API security solution, integrating cloud-scale big data with well-established machine learning and AI capabilities.[4]
By 2022, under the joint leadership of Eliyahu and Nicosia, Salt secured a $140 million Series D funding round led by Alphabet's CapitalG.[11] This round elevated the company's valuation to $1.4 billion, establishing its position as a unicorn in the field of SaaS cybersecurity.[2] In the Series D round, spearheaded by CapitalG, Alphabet's independent growth fund, all current investors participated in refunding.[11] This round included notable firms such as Sequoia Capital, Tenaya Capital, Y Combinator, S Capital VC, Alkeon Capital, DFJ Growth, Advent International, and CrowdStrike.[7][2]
Personal life edit
Nicosia currently resides in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area,[6] and takes pride in being the parent of two adult children.[5]
References edit
- ^ Genish, Shai (2023-06-19). "Israeli Unicorns Wiz, Salt Security and Armis Team on New WIN Platform". Retrieved 2023-12-06.
- ^ a b c d e Security, Salt. "API Security Leader Salt Security Named to 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ "Michael Nicosia". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ a b c d e Shrivastava, Rashi. "Forbes 30 Under 30 Alum Roey Eliyahu Raises $140 Million At $1.4 Billion Valuation For Salt Security". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Michael Nicosia, Salt Security Inc: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Michael Nicosia | Co-Founder & COO – Salt Security". Forbes Technology Council. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g Michael Nicosia, Salt Security | CrowdStrike Fal.Con 2022, retrieved 2023-12-03
- ^ "Rockwell Automation to acquire Datasweep". Plant Engineering. 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ "Thomson Reuters Acquires Liquid Engines | Mergr M&A Deal Summary". mergr.com. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ "The Pitch: Startup guards APIs at the heart of many apps". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
- ^ a b Coulter, Martin. "Check out the 9-slide pitch deck that cyber startup Salt Security used to raise $140 million backed by Google, Sequoia, and Y Combinator". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-12-04.