Update: Making $14K/Month As A Cybersecurity Expert [+ Releasing New Products]
This is a follow up story for Las Vegas Information Security (Now TCM Security). If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello! I am Alex Tushinsky, and I operate a consulting firm that I started called Las Vegas Information Security, or LVIS for short! The full and legal name of the company is Left To My Own Devices Computer Solutions LLC, which has been around in one form or another since 1993, but I felt that segregating the cybersecurity offering into its area and giving it a legally registered fictitious name was the way to go.
Under LTMOD, I work on software development projects, while at LVIS, I focus on helping individuals and small businesses with their various cybersecurity needs.
I was previously featured on Starter Story about a year ago and a lot has changed since that time! While I still do some consulting, it’s a different type of consulting, and I am now shifting focus to concentrate more on specific services, rather than trying to acquire customers using traditional methods. I am getting ready to launch several products that will offer self-service capabilities instead.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
When I was last interviewed, my focus was on marketing cybersecurity services within my local area, here in Las Vegas, Nevada. I did several TV and social media campaigns, which produced poor results at best.
I was confident that I would have some sort of breakthrough moment, but instead realized the fact that the majority of small businesses just don’t believe that they need any guidance in this area. Additionally, I realized that marketing the way I was, was burning through my capital without any guaranteed or even estimated result.
This lead me to pause what I was doing until I could figure out a better approach. I was discouraged and took time off from the business. Of course, I still had to pay the bills, so during that time, I went back to work as a software and IT architect and software developer.
At one point, I considered myself a cybersecurity failure and thought that this chapter of my life has come to a close. However, so many different opportunities presented themselves, that I am busier than ever when it comes to cybersecurity, and in no way did I imagine that these new opportunities would be the areas that I concentrate on.
All of this came to be because despite “leaving” the field, I kept getting calls from colleagues and people I previously worked with for various tasks and projects. Things like security reviews of source code, design and development of corporate policies and procedures, and I was even called to a private residence to help someone identify rogue spying devices planted by a former spouse on the home network.
I am also a Pluralsight author, and my most popular course to date is “Secure Coding with OWASP in C# 10”. This, too, provided some insight into what I should be doing with my time going forward.
These projects gave me ideas for restructuring the company into something new, different, and exciting!
First, I worked up a set of policies and procedures that I considered most important for any small business. These documents serve as a guide for an organization and provide employees with an understanding of how the employers want them to work. Things like computer usage, privacy, and backups are all handled here. Of course, every organization is different, and you can’t have the same document apply to everyone.
So, I decided to build a self-service portal that helps users create customized versions of these policies. The web-based software conducts an online interview, asking questions that I would have asked face-to-face.
Once all of that data is collected, some of the finer details of the policies can be filled in automatically, and some can be addressed manually by me after reading through the responses (yes, I still have to review and work on each document).
At the end of the day, this provides an easy and effective method for startups and small business organizations to produce the documentation they need without major consulting fees.
This led me to another product currently in development to be released late this fall (November 2023). This product will be a mobile application for iOS and Android that will assess an individual’s or small business’s security posture. Through a series of questionnaires, it will evaluate how well your company’s (or your own) data is secured and give you a score.
Small educational videos, recommendations, and articles can guide you to better security, or you can hire a professional for penetration testing or general consulting as needed. I will, of course, offer my services through the app, as well as include other cybersecurity firms and freelancers that want to be part of this marketplace. Through the app, people will also be able to sign up for a newsletter!
Another major project that will get its launch this year is a live course that I will teach over several months via Zoom. Called “Secure Coding For C# Developers,” this live cohort will offer a different approach to my Pluralsight OWASP course. Because I am a developer myself, I think I am in a unique position to be able to help developers get a handle on this.
While most courses in this area focus on vulnerabilities and how to prevent them, I would like to focus on good practices and showing developers the right way to create their code, which would prevent the vulnerability in the first place. Initially, I am offering this masterclass at a very low cost and anyone interested can sign up.
I am also working on completing an online video course called “C# 101 For Hackers.” This course will be available online in August on a popular security platform. I am very excited to release this course, as I believe it will improve and speed up how many ethical hackers perform their work!
The last thing that is getting some traction is a service that works with high-net-worth clients. Executives, Influences, Celebrities, and VIPs are particularly hard hit by cybercriminals. After the project where I helped someone remove rogue cameras and nannycam equipment from their house, I realized how valuable of a service this could be.
This does require a high degree of privacy and confidentiality and is aimed at helping keep my clients’ homes, social media, and families safe from identity theft and personal data loss.
You must be able to pivot based on the feedback and environment that you are in.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
There are many challenges, especially because I work alone and have difficulty handing over work to someone else. That said, marketing and getting the word out is very challenging. Right now, I rely solely on word-of-mouth and my existing connections for any projects I’m part of.
This is quite nice, to be honest, because instead of me trying to find and reach out to potential clients, people simply call me and ask if I’m interested in working on a given project.
Going forward, I hope that my mobile application will help generate leads. Additionally, I want to find more B2B connections that could use my help. This is a struggle, as I don’t know how to find or engage with them.
On the technical side, there’s a ton of work that has to happen every day for me to achieve the incredibly ambitious goals that I put forward for 2023. I work seven days per week and begin my days at 3 am. Although I don't immediately rise and head straight to work, engaging in early morning exercise enables me to have a more concentrated and uninterrupted day.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
I’ve seen this posted many times, but for some reason always dismissed it. All of us who have started a business have a preconceived notion going into the business about how it’s going to function and how it is going to work. Of course, that couldn’t be further from reality. I find myself creating products for a different audience than I intended to and doing work that I didn’t think I would be doing.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work with several startups over the last ten years and watched them grow. They, too, have experienced this same phenomenon, and not one is the same company today that it was when it initially launched, even though they’re in the same space and still have the same vision.
The biggest lesson learned here is that you must be able to pivot based on the feedback and environment that you are in. I could have ignored or avoided doing code reviews, but instead, I found that it’s very interesting work. I could have said no to that person who wanted their home checked for rogue devices, but instead was able to help them and made a great connection in the process. Neither of these things was ever on my radar as something I would ever do, but now I’m building products around them.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
This is the year of re-invention. If everything goes according to plan, by the end of 2023, I will have an interesting set of products that businesses and consumers can use to address their cybersecurity concerns, and I already have many ideas for the future if these work as expected.
This year (so far) has been about research, reinvention, and product development. I hope that next year brings additional insights and performance metrics for the products launched in 2023 and that I can further grow and scale the company.
In five years, I hope to have several employees and work across different sectors concentrating on their specific cybersecurity needs, things that are not easily or readily handled by conventional cybersecurity firms.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
There are several books that I return to periodically and one new one that I’d like to mention. First, I’d like to say that the series of books by Gary John Bishop is very motivational and cuts through much of the BS in personal and business development. If you had to pick up, Unf*ck Yourself is my favorite!
Another very interesting read is “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek. This book discusses the importance of capturing the “why” in your startup, something that I’ve not always addressed in my startup journeys.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
If you get anything out of reading my story, it is that finding your place may take time and patience. I love reading the “wins” here on Starter Story and don’t consider myself or my story a “win” yet. That said, giving up should not be an option. Your journey will be full of experiments and choices, but eventually, you will find the way.
It’s important to establish your guiding principle and identify your why. Yes, I did learn that in the book by Simon Sinek, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Having that vision and why allow you to make alterations and changes to your company without compromising what you do and why you do it.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
At this time, no, but I hope to in the near future!
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website - Left To My Own Devices Computer Solutions LLC
- Website - Las Vegas Information Security
- YouTube - Better Code - I recently started this to help share knowledge on programming and cloud platforms!
- YouTube - Las Vegas Information Security - I’ve neglected this while revamping my company and working on my products, but I will have weekly videos starting in August 2023.
- Email - alext@ltmod.com, alex@vegasinfosec.com
- I’m also on the Starter Story Slack Channel (as Alex Tushinsky, atushinsky@gmail.com)
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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