The Gately Report: ThreatLocker CEO — No BS ‘Smoke and Mirror’ ProductsThe Gately Report: ThreatLocker CEO — No BS ‘Smoke and Mirror’ Products

ThreatLocker partners can expect more improvements to products and continued good service in 2025.

That’s according to ThreatLocker CEO Danny Jenkins. We sat down with him at last week’s Zero Trust World 2025 in Orlando.

During Zero Trust World 2025, ThreatLocker launched five new solutions that the company designed to make zero-trust security easier and more efficient. In addition, it shared how its products are thwarting cyberattackers’ tactics, as well as the latest cyber threat trends facing ThreatLocker partners and customers.

“Our mission is to change the paradigm from 'default allow' to 'default deny,'” Jenkins said. “You can’t detect every threat. Blocking by default is the only way to get ahead of it.”

This month, ThreatLocker announced that, in a new partnership, the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise has bolstered its cybersecurity defense with the company's platform.

“We’re also partners with the [NBA's] Orlando Magic,” Jenkins said. “We've got probably 30 or 40 sports teams as customers.”

ThreatLocker Partners Seeing Rapid Growth

ThreatLocker also ranked 49th on Deloitte’s 2024 Technology Fast 500, which ranks the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech companies in North America.

Related:ThreatLocker Zero Trust World: New Solutions for Partners, IT Pros

“Our growth is huge,” Jenkins said. “We’ve grown nearly double every year. We're actually accelerating our growth. It's very simple — a good product and a good team making sure everyone knows about it. That's the driver behind the growth. We solve real problems. We're not just bringing some BS product out there that is smoke and mirrors. It's real, tangible products that are delivered, and we back it up with good service, good onboarding, good sales and everything else.”

Channel Futures: Is ThreatLocker alone in the cybersecurity industry with its default-deny focus? Are there any direct competitors?

DJ: Yes, there are companies that do things like allowlistings, so that will block software by default. But we're not really competing with them because they tend to be such difficult and cumbersome solutions that are targeting ATMs, or something like that. They're not really viable on the endpoint. So there are products where we compete with them. It's like 0.1% of the time and it's such an easy competition. It's not even comparable products. It's like comparing paint to Photoshop ... We've got elevation control. There are a few different products out there that have elevation control, but as a platform and on a zero-trust basis, nothing comes close to ThreatLocker.

Related:ThreatLocker Zero Trust World: Partners Leave with Cyber Action Plan

CF: What’s the latest in terms of ThreatLocker’s partner program? Anything new coming this year?

DJ: At this point, it's just the products. We have a really great partner program. We have the ability to help with marketing. We have the ability to onboard and we make it very smooth. I think it's just more products. The web filtering is really exciting for partners because it means [fewer] agents, better web filtering, better user experience and saving money as well, because it's on the same platform.

CF: Is ThreatLocker’s partner ecosystem growing? If so, what’s fueling that growth?

DJ: All of the above. Good products and we’re very engaged in the community. We did 850 trade shows last year. Probably 400 of those were in the MSP and the partner-based community. And we make a good point of presenting all of our executives to meet these partners. So we hear their feedback and we understand it. We constantly lead thought leadership at these events. I think that's a big part of it, integrating with the community, understanding what they need, spending time with them and delivering good product. At the end of the day, people want it; it doesn't matter how nice you are, it doesn't matter how nice your sales [team] is and how big your bar tab is. If you're not delivering the good quality product, people aren't buying your product.

Related:ThreatLocker Zero Trust World: Arming Defenders for a Cyber War

CF: Is ThreatLocker focused on specific types of partners? Is it adding new partner types?

DJ: We have a lot of success in the MSP world. We do a lot through VARs, but a lot of the VARs are very much about transaction of deals as opposed to [managed services]. We do a lot of SIs as well, big integrators, some of the big-four type people who introduce us and implement our solutions in banks and retail stores, and things like that. So I think the biggest section is the MSP world, but it's all over the place, really.

CF: Has zero-trust adoption increased since the last Zero Trust World? Are there challenges associated with adoption?

DJ: Absolutely, more and more, and I think not only are they embracing it, but they know they have to or they're going to lose. They're going to lose the battle of cybercrime. I think if you’re trying to implement a true zero-trust posture, especially on your endpoint, and you're not implementing ThreatLocker, it's virtually impossible. We are making it substantially easier for everyone, and that's what our goal is continuously.

CF: What’s the latest in terms of feedback from partners and customers? What are their latest needs, concerns?

DJ: The feedback from ThreatLocker partners is they love our products, they love what we're delivering. They’re always concerned about security, but feel a lot better when they've got their environment properly locked down. I saw one of those testimonials when I was on stage from Neal Juern [former CEO of 7Tech and current president of Juern Technology], where he said in 2019, they were having multiple breaches, data breaches from clients, and haven't had one since 2019.

CF: What do you find most surprising and dangerous about the current threat landscape? Has that changed in the past year?

DJ: I think the most dangerous thing right now is AI and the ability for anyone to write malware, and anyone to distribute malware with almost perfect English voice-phishing. All of this is a big concern.

CF: Are there any regions/countries that ThreatLocker is targeting for future expansion?

DJ: We're very available in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. We're pretty aggressive in Italy. France is a growing market. Germany is a growing market. We've got Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. We have recently opened offices there and that's exploding at a much faster rate, actually. In Australia, we have a lot of staff there, but technically we don't have an office. But I'm traveling there to get an office.