Cybertraps Podcast

Okay, welcome to this special
edition of the Cybertrops podcast.

We're here at the Inch360 event in
beautiful Spokane, Washington on the

campus of Gonzaga University and, uh,
excited to have Brian Yamanaka here.

Brian, uh, why don't you start by
telling us who you are and what you do?

Yeah, thanks for having me, Jethro.

I'm Brian Yamanaka.

Uh, I'm the CEO and founder of a,
um, company called Archangelos, where

we specialize in governance, risk,
and compliance, as well as cyber

security, uh, program advising, And,
um, Consulting Services for Startups

and Small to Medium Sized Businesses.

Uh, so I'm here at this, uh, Inch360
event, which is actually in a

beautiful space on Gonzaga's campus.

It is, yeah.

because I'm still what I would
consider relatively new to the area.

I moved here from Seattle about
three years ago, uh, with my family.

And Um, have always been in the tech
space, and, you know, Seattle's a

very different, I'll say community
than it is out here in Spokane.

And so, by coming to the Inch360
event, and even volunteering to

be on the planning committee, it's
given me a lot of, um, uh, networking

opportunities, built new connections
with other engineering leaders in

the area, and have really, um, sort
of established, you know, who I am

and where I am in the community here.

Uh, much quicker than I think in Seattle,
and I have nothing against Seattle, I

think it's just different here, the,
the community is, um, I'll say one

that's also continuing to grow and be
in flux, I think there's a lot of people

in the Spokane area that are like me,
coming from Seattle, or, some other

tech hub, and, um, it's, it's great
to see the embrace, um, and, See folks

be embraced when they come here and,
uh, with open arms, you know, Heather

and her team have just been phenomenal
with regards to welcoming people in

and we're seeing it at the event here.

Um, uh, there's a lot more people
than I thought would be here.

And I think that's just a testament
to the growing community as well as,

you know, welcoming the folks in.

Yeah, I,

I'm glad you brought that up
because like you, uh, I moved

here about three years ago and.

have also been very welcomed in, and
specifically by Heather, uh, Heather

Stratford, CEO of Drip7, that we, um,
we've had her on the show, and she's,

she's fantastic, but, she's, she's
really good at making people feel like

they matter and that they belong, and
she does a really good job, at that, and

so, um, There have been several people
who have said, Well, I know Heather, and

she invited me to this, and, you know,
she just, uh, knows a lot of people and

is able to connect with people really
well, so I think that's powerful.

What's your, uh, takeaway from what you've
experienced today as, as part of this?

Well,

as I had said before, my, my, takeaways
is definitely that, the tech community

here is a lot larger than I thought.

There are, um, You know, very experienced
and, bright folks here, even from

the universities, you know, there's
some students that were here that

stopped me afterwards and we were
talking and, uh, it's just unexpected.

you know, I think the other takeaway
is that, uh, I think intellectually

and especially in the security
space that, there's something

special out here in Spokane.

Uh, I can't put my finger on
exactly what it is, but, you know,

there's, there's great companies
that are continuing to get funded.

Um, there's more tension that's,
uh, Spokane's garnering in the, in

the startup and the, the SaaS space.

So, yeah, my takeaway is, is really
that there's a lot of talent out here.

There's a lot of great people.

it isn't talked about
outside of Spokane very much.

Um, so I would hope that.

As we continue to grow as a
community here, that we can make

more of a name for ourself, um, and
attract more talent and, and folks

of the, the area.

Yeah, it, it actually reminds me,
especially being at this, uh, conference

here, reminds me a lot of the mid aughts
of, uh, Utah and Silicon Slopes and the

Provo, uh, Lehigh, American Fork area.

There was a lot of growth in that
area in the tech space specifically,

and a lot of stuff happening around
that and people getting together

and, and doing things in it.

And it felt very grassroots, uh,
when I was down there and this feels

very similar, like coming to this
conference today, it just has that

same vibe of people like welcoming,
welcoming, wanting you to be successful,

wanting people to be part of it.

And, uh, and that's just, that feels good,
you know, it feels like they're like we're

on the upswing and like there's going to
be some good things coming out of this.

I like that a lot.

yeah, the community here is, is
just, um, has been fantastic is, you

know, being someone new to the area.

Yeah.

Like yourself.

Yeah.

So tell us about your company and what
you guys do and how people who should

be reaching out to you to connect with

you.

Um, so at Archangelos, I mean, right
now it's just me and another business

partner that, um, I have Carl, and, uh,
we've actually been able to get in with

a lot of companies very quickly, and I
think the reason for that is because,

um, we found this nice little spot sort
of in between, like, being kind of like

a coach player, I'll say, and the reason
I, I, I, make that analogy is because

when we go into startups and, um, smaller
companies, um, Uh, a lot of the, the

coaching I'll say that we do is with the
founder because the founder is there to

build a product to, um, you know, delight
their customers, if you will, and they

don't have the time to, uh, put towards,
Hey, how do I get SOC 2 compliant?

How do I maintain a good security posture?

How do I build out a
cyber security program?

And by the same token, when I say player,
it's, you know, there are engineers that

are typically in these organizations.

They need someone to build the
product, but again, they're

focused on feature development.

And, um, and building the product out.

So, we kind of sit in the middle in terms
of being able to work with both sides

of the house to establish a program, to
meet certain compliance needs, whether

that be HIPAA, PCI, um, and governance,
uh, frameworks like SOC, um, or NIST.

so we shoulder a lot of that on us
to be able to have those teams focus

on, you know, what they're good at,
what, what they should be focused on.

Yeah.

Uh, do you do any work with, uh, like
EdTech startups around COPPA or, um,

FERPA, compliance or anything like that?

So I

haven't, um, I know that Carl, uh,
has in his past, um, with FERPA, uh,

it's a space that, you know, we're
definitely interested in, but being

as small as we are, we're sort of
being very disciplined and focused

on, on where we're operating today.

You know, as we scale out and grow,
that might be Definitely an area that we

look into.

Yeah, interesting.

It's, it's something that as more
schools are adopting, different

pieces of technology, not everybody
is playing by those rules, and, things

as simple as accessibility, which
is not one of those things, but,

accessibility, like, there's been a
rash of, lawsuits against schools for

making websites that are not accessible.

And because they are government
institutions, they basically have

to be accessible and, and they
can be sued for violating that.

And it's one of those little things that,
like, nobody even thinks about, unless

they have someone in their community
who needs that accessibility, right?

and then, you know, in, five or six years
ago, there was this rash of lawsuits

all across the country of schools not
being accessible, their website's not

being accessible, and it was like, a lot
of money went towards dealing with that

lawsuit, and updating their systems,
which is the right thing to do, but

that could have been prevented with
somebody like yourself saying, here's,

here's what you should be focusing on.

Oh, you're building that website?

Do these two things, and
it'll make it accessible, and

make it a little bit easier.

And I think that's what you're
saying you do on the cyber security.

Jethro Jones, Transformative
Principal, Jethro, Jethro,

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Jethro Um, kind of like what we talked
about today at the conference, it's how

do we better prepare you by building out
a cyber security program, running the

vulnerability scans, um, and empowering
your team to also own that process so

that it isn't a call that you have to
make to the consultant every time, your

team has the in house knowledge and
skills to at least be able to provide

like tier one support if anything happens.

Yeah, very good.

So how do people, uh, get in contact with

Archangelos?

Uh, you can check us out on LinkedIn.

Um, that's where we
spend most of our time.

Uh, we have a website.

Uh, it just goes, you know, at
a high level through what we do.

Um, but, DM me on LinkedIn.

Uh, follow Archangelos on,
on, on, on LinkedIn as well.

you know, we're always happy to
have a conversation and connect

and learn more about your business.

Yeah.

And, you know, just a little A secret
piece of advice for people out there,

when you're working with a startup,
they may not know exactly who they're

serving yet, and you've got a pretty good
idea, but having these conversations is

incredibly valuable to you, and to the
people that you're talking with, because

you may not be able to solve their
problem, or do something for them, but

you can at least talk through things and
help them see what they do need to do,

and if you're not a good solution, you
probably have a connection that is, right?

Oh,

100%.

Um, we've spent so much time in this,
um, industry and with our experience,

uh, our network is pretty deep.

So if we can't do it, I'm pretty
certain we know someone that can.

All right.

Very good.

Thank you, Brian.

Appreciate you.

Thank you, Jethro.