Carbide

Darren Gallop, Carbide founder and chief executive

wo miles off the coast of northeastern Canada, Cape Breton is so remote that tourist sites love referring to the island as the edge of the world. But for Darren Gallop, founder and chief executive of Carbide, built on securing data and privacy, it’s the perfect place to set up a technology company.

When he and cofounder Laird Wilton decided to build a new platform to provide end-to-end cybersecurity tools and resources for small and midsize businesses, Gallop knew where to base his new firm: home. “This is where we live, so we built our business here. You could say the largest concentration of tech start-ups is in Silicon Valley, but the largest concentration of competition is also there. And if you look at the growth curve of start-ups, the number of new companies is higher outside of traditional start-up hubs.”

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Gallop believes that despite its location, “Nova Scotia is no different from every other small area in Canada or the U.S. where there are tons of accelerators and start-up communities.” Although he will concede one clear advantage Cape Breton has over Silicon Valley: employees are not quite as expensive as in California, which pays the highest tech wages anywhere.

Gallop and Wilton began Carbide in 2016, and their fledgling firm took off with the help of Techstars’ Boston accelerator. With those deep Beantown roots, Gallop imagined spending more and more time there as the company grew. But that changed after the 2020 pandemic.

“I went back to Boston after the pandemic and was 150 meters away from a customer’s office when I called and offered to drop by for an in-person meeting,” Gallop said. “They said, ‘Let’s just do a Zoom call; it’s kind of busy here today.’ So that left me thinking, ‘I don't think we're coming back to Boston anytime soon!’”

Today, Carbide employs more than 25 people and has established a fast-growing customer base in Canada, the U.S., and Europe among small and midsize businesses seeking to meet the governance and risk-and-compliance standards required to do business with major companies and governments. For example, at a time when regulations are proliferating in fields as diverse as finance and health care, Carbide helps their client businesses meet such regulations as SOC 2 (Service Organization Control Type 2), a cybersecurity compliance framework that ensures third-party vendors store and process client data securely.

Headquarters: Sydney, Nova Scotia
Founded: 2016
No. of employees: 25+
Website: carbidesecure.com

When these businesses want to work with large firms and government bodies, they must meet the arduous compliance and data-and-privacy standards these enterprises demand before approving a new vendor. Carbide’s platform offers small and midsize businesses solutions that align with enterprise-grade security programs at a fraction of the cost of building their own. Their service is designed especially for those clients who don’t have security experts on staff, need to meet demanding security-and-compliance requirements, desire greater efficiency, and are creating their security program for the first time.

For Wilton, by helping smaller but foundational businesses compete for contracts with larger enterprises, Carbide is democratizing a lucrative opportunity that start-ups would otherwise not be able to afford. Wilton says there’s nowhere he would rather work than Cape Breton. “I live and work in the town where I grew up,” says Wilton, Carbide’s chief operating officer. “My parents, my sisters, and the life I want are all here. I feel fortunate every day to be able to do what we do from here. It’s about quality of life and where you want to spend your time.”