Martin Roesch and His Nose (Snort) for Business

By Susan Kim, MANAGING EDITOR





Martin Roesch turned a sniffer into a snort. No, he's not an allergist or a plastic surgeon. He's a techie turned major-league entrepreneur.

In early 2000, Roesch had a landmark idea in the then-burgeoning world of network security. He began writing the code for the Snort Intrusion Prevention and Detection System. In layperson's terms, Snort analyzes traffic on a computer network and searches for attacks and probes.

Why the funny name? In the network security industry, intrusion detectors are commonly called "sniffers." As he finished writing what would become a world-renowned code, Roesch realized he had more than just a sniffer.

"Coming up with that name was fairly straightforward," he said. "'Snort' is a word for sniffer - but more. A snort is stronger than a sniff."

Roesch marketed Snort as an open-source product. That meant Snort was downloadable for free, and released for use or modification by developers, who are then free to make changes to the code as they please to create their own personalized product.

Today, true to its original roots, Snort is still an open-source code. But Roesch nevertheless found a way to wrap a business - Sourcefire - around it.



Late-Night Brainstorms

Within months of its creation, Snort was being downloaded by thousands upon thousands of users across a global spectrum of commercial and governmental organizations.

Roesch hadn't yet thought of starting a company, but he did sense he was onto something big. "I realized I was working very hard on this thing I was giving away for free."

While fine-tuning the code, he passed through three different jobs, two for defense contractors and one for an unrelated startup that quickly fizzled. When a friend suggested Roesch start a business around Snort, Roesch thought about it for a good seven months.

"I didn't have any formal business training," he said. "The hardest thing was probably that there are so many unknowns when you're doing this. I didn't have any experience in the mechanics of starting up."

Relying heavily on feedback from friends and advisers, Roesch launched Sourcefire in 2001, basing it in Columbia. The company name was more difficult to create than the clever "Snort," he said.

"I was thinking about names and playing with words one night. I had been thinking about it for weeks," he said. "I looked at science fiction, Greek and Latin. But then I thought 'source' was a meaty word, a good foundation word."

Roesch sent the name "Sourcefire" to his mailing list to test the name. "Only 50% said it was terrible," he laughed, "which was the best I got."



The Lucrative Side of No Cost

Roesch proceeded to build a company in a way that might turn today's flagging news industry green with envy: He released a product for free and built a sound money-making strategy around it.

To this day, users can install Snort for free - but, as Roesch explained, any time a new security technology is applied to a network, there is always pain for the user. Today, Sourcefire gets paid essentially to take that pain away.

"People are happy to pay for ease of use and convenience," he said. "We build the infrastructure for hundreds of devices and we offer support and access for engineers, large-scale networks and the government."

Sourcefire sells aspects such as an easy-to-use interface, optimized hardware, data analysis and reporting, and 24/7 support.

The strategy has worked beyond anyone's expectations, attracting customers from across the globe as well as the wallets of venture capitalists who realized Roesch was a wise investment.

From a single employee in 2001, Sourcefire grew to four people in 2002, 44 in 2003 and 85 in 2004. Now Sourcefire has close to 300 employees and offers a realm of services related to network security, some related to Snort and some not.



Catching the Eyes of Venture Capitalists

Harry Weller, a general partner with New Enterprise Associates (NEA), said Roesch was a venture capitalist's dream - not for his big idea but, curiously enough, for his small ego.

NEA is one of the world's largest venture capital firms. Weller recalled when he first observed Roesch years ago. "Not only was he an innovator, but he was an innovator who had an extraordinarily good gut instinct on how to build a business."

Weller, who has worked with countless tech entrepreneurs, said that many of them, caught up in the glory of a big idea, fail to perceive what they don't know. But Roesch immediately began hiring expert helpers and giving them the freedom to fly, said Weller.

"He took his ego out of it. And, usually, as venture capitalists, we spend a lot of time carving the ego out of the picture."

Not the case with Roesch, he said, adding that Sourcefire's current team is one of the finest in the world. "This all began with that sacrifice he made," said Weller. "He traded control for experience. He recognized there was a tradeoff, and the results are striking."

Striking indeed. Only two security companies have gone public in the last three years in a marketplace that has become viciously competitive.

In 2006, Roesch was named as one of InformationWeek's 18 "Innovators and Influencers" and one of the Tech Council of Maryland's "Most Influential CTOs in Maryland." Roesch also has been the recipient of the 2004 InfoWorld IT Heroes Innovator Award as well as a winner of the 2004 "40 Under 40" award from the Baltimore Business Journal.

Weller said that whatever accolades Roesch has received, he has earned without having to seek them. "The awards he has received are all due to his accomplishment, not him going after the recognition. He doesn't ask for it."

Another early investor, Tim Guleri, managing director of Sierra Ventures, also cited Roesch's combination of brilliance and humility. Guleri met Roesch at a security show in 2002, and they shook hands on a deal a week later.

"In starting and scaling Sourcefire to a public company, Marty joins that exclusive club of founders where technical brilliance is almost 'the price of admission,'" reflected Guleri. "What puts Marty ahead in this pack is his uncanny ability to look around the corner, his work ethic to help execute this vision and the humility with which he does it all."



'No Plans to Let Up'

With $100 million in the company bank and new ideas surfacing daily around the Sourcfire table, Roesch doesn't plan any big changes. He now acts as Sourcefire's chief technology officer, serving on an 11-person executive team.

"I have no plans to let up," he said. "We are well-positioned as a company. I still provide a lot of leadership for a world-class leadership team."

Most of all, Roesch said he simply still is eager to come to work every day. "It's still an interesting place to work, and still a great place to learn."

Roesch said the best strategy he ever deployed was hiring talented people and watching them do their work.

He's also known as an accessible leader. "Everybody knows my cell phone [number], and my e-mail doesn't sit for very long."

As for today's entrepreneurs, Roesch shares a sense of encouragement - and a bit of caution.

"Don't worry too much about everything. But you also need to develop a healthy respect for understanding that there are so many things you don't know. Accept that things will change very rapidly out there."