CyberShark Pitch Competition Selects Finalists

​LaunchTech Communications’ CyberShark Pitch Competition announced that it selected two finalists to compete in the Black Hat Week USA 2025 competition in the fall. The competition involved firms pitching their ideas to chief information security officers (CISOs). In 2025, RapidFort and Dropzone AI were the two first-round finalists who will compete against others during the Black Hat competition.

This specific competition offers companies in the cybersecurity space an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of CISO judges. This competition took place during the RSA Conference. In this event, CISOs from various industries, including insurance, food and beverages, manufacturing, financial services, and technology, converged to vote on which business idea conveyed the clearest message and had distinct value. Those who entered the competition received feedback, which included actionable steps to improve their messaging, positioning, and product-market fit, all within a supportive environment. 

Finalist Dropzone AI is an autonomous cybersecurity platform that functions as a virtual security operations center (SOC) analyst, utilizing large language models (LLMs). This platform empowers cybersecurity teams to investigate alerts without requiring human input, playbooks, or code. 

The company’s standout offerings include its autonomous alert messaging, which acts as a Tier 1 triage center, providing analysis from AWS GuardDuty, Microsoft Defender, and CrowdStrike. Its AI Interviewer is another feature that automates user interviews from sources such as Slack. This feature reduces the platform’s repetitive tasks while also accelerating investigations. The platform can also mimic the behavior of human analysts through context-aware reasoning. This feature utilizes integrated tools to gather information and employs an organizational chart to make conclusions. The pre-trained platform operates efficiently and can quickly adapt to its environment. This company offers SOC solutions that work alongside humans and is especially helpful for teams experiencing alert fatigue or those without the resources to implement 24-hour monitoring. 

RapidFort, the other finalist, is a cloud-based cybersecurity platform. The company’s offerings enable businesses to secure and optimize their containerized applications, helping businesses remove as much as 95 percent of their software vulnerabilities. The platform’s features include curated common vulnerabilities and exposure container images updated daily to meet industry compliance standards. Its DevTime Protection Tools help companies identify components that are dormant and those that are in use, allowing teams to prioritize which components to repair. Finally, the platform features runtime protection tools that automatically secure dormant tools, reducing surface software attacks by up to 90 percent. This company’s product is best suited for businesses that need to accelerate their compliance frameworks. 

According to a May 2025 Business Wire article, the competition was an exciting display of technological innovation. During the judging segment, CISOs focused on delivering a clear problem statement and discussing product integration with other systems and the larger landscape. They also addressed the use of each product in real-world scenarios. All these areas are elements of delivering a strong pitch to companies. The finalists of this event will compete with finalists in the Black Hat event. Those companies that were not finalists can compete during the Black Hat event.

Dustin Sacks, Chief Technologist and Senior Director of Programs at the CyberRisk Collaborative stated that the competition provided an opportunity to identify game changers and invest in innovation. Wayne Schepens, Chief Cyber Market Analyst of CyberRisk Alliance, added that the competition enables vendors to gather valuable information, identify champions, validate their brand message, and test their solutions. Vendors benefit from being able to test their pitch before CISOs in a competitive environment, and buyers influence the direction of innovation.

LaunchTech, founded by Wayne Schepens in 2015, is a PR and communications company that serves cybersecurity and emerging technology companies. The competition is part of the company’s mission of laying the groundwork for brand visibility and recognition. For more information about the competition, please visit golaunchtech.com/.

Wayne Schepens, LaunchTech

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