Jack Sunderlage, CEO and President of Content Watch

ContentWatch is a Utah-based company offering Internet protection solutions for the consumer, library, education, government and business markets. The company is funded by individual and angel investors and is preparing for venture funding in the near future. Silicon Slopes recently caught up with Jack Sunderlage, CEO and President of ContentWatch, to discuss the history and future of the company as well as his thoughts on doing business in the state of Utah.

This article originally appeared on Silicon Slopes.

Silicon Slopes: To start, tell us about ContentWatch and its products.

J Sunderlage: ContentWatch provides content filtering products for the home user and protects families from inappropriate content on the Internet. The inappropriate content includes pornography, intimate apparel, hate/violence and gambling among others. It also provides product offerings for small and medium businesses, education and government. The products in this sector can be software on the client or a series of appliances. ContentWatch focuses on enhancing productivity while protecting users from inappropriate content. In addition to content filtering, the applications include application management, bandwidth management, Instant Messaging and peer-to-peer controls. The remote monitoring with parental/supervisor alerts and remote reporting are popular features.

Silicon Slopes: What's the story behind your company and how did it start?

J Sunderlage: The company started as iAccess and produced CDs in unique shapes, such as, one designed for the NFL. They were approached by some pornographers who wanted some unique designs. Management responded, not only would they not produce the CDs, but they would do all they could to put the pornographers out of business. Thus began ContentWatch with its first product, ContentCleanup, designed to purge bad content from the hard drive.

Silicon Slopes: How are you funded?

J Sunderlage: We are funded by four principal investors who have been joined by a number of angel investors. Last year, 2007, was an excellent year in which our revenues grew 124% year over year. We are now preparing to introduce some venture capital into the company in order to fund and sustain our aggressive growth path for 2008 and beyond.

Silicon Slopes: Who are your major competitors and how are do you differ from them?

J Sunderlage: For our consumer market the major competitors are Cyber Patrol, Safe Eyes, and Cyber Sitter. Net Nanny was the best branded and most-trusted brand up through 2006. In early 2007, we had the good fortune to acquire San Francisco-based Net Nanny. We are on track for a major release in 2008 to incorporate the best of ContentProtect and Net Nanny planned features. ContentWatch has been acknowledged as providing the best technology and Net Nanny has been acknowledged as the market leader in customers installed. In January 2008, PC Magazine selected our Net Nanny 5.6 for the Editors’ Choice for Parental Controls. Our goal is to drive that leadership position further as we address the evolving Web 2.0 functions on the Internet with tools and technology to protect families from predators and cyber bullies. Our patent pending Dynamic Contextual Analysis enables us to filter text “on the fly" as opposed to most of our traditional competitors who are blocking black listed URLs. Our advantage is we stay current with purveyors of pornography who are continually changing URLs and IP addresses.

Our Security Appliance line competes with Barracuda, St. Bernard, and 8e6. Our major differentiating advantage is the robustness of our appliance applications which include content filtering, bandwidth management, IM and P2P controls and antivirus at the gateway. These are all available in a single multi function appliance. Whereas our competition requires multiple appliances to match this rich mix of applications. This was validated recently by Government Computer News (GCN) who selected our CP100 for the Reviewer’s Award for Security Appliance.

Silicon Slopes: Are there any new products or offerings in the works?

J Sunderlage: It is our intent to move upmarket with our appliance line with an expanded line and higher-end models. For our consumer line, we also expect to enter the Apple Mac arena where there is limited software competition for parental controls and content filtering. The area of secure management software offers some other application opportunities that play to the strength of our unique approach to categorizing content. We see some opportunity to be a player in the Software as a Service (SaaS) segment where we can expand on a service we already offer.

Silicon Slopes: How has ContentWatch grown since your arrival? What are your growth goals for the near future?

J Sunderlage: Our revenues have grown 4X in the last three years. We remain optimistic in our ability to sustain a high level of growth as we view the next three years.

Silicon Slopes: You've had quite a few successes in the past. Why did you decide to join ContentWatch?

J Sunderlage: After a long career in the IT industry with Burroughs, UNISYS, Digital Equipment, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard, I decided to take an early retirement. My later years as VP of Corporate Accounts, West Region for Digital and VP of Global Accounts, West Region, Compaq, a part of HP, were very fulfilling. It was not my intent to return to the workplace full time. But while serving on the Board of Directors at ContentWatch, it became apparent that this company had a great mission to fulfill. I thought I could make a contribution to its success, so when we had several discussions about my potential role as its CEO, I decided to accept the offer. It was a good decision, and the company has a bright future.

Silicon Slopes: You have had years of business experience outside of the state of Utah. How does the business environment here compare to other places you have worked?

J Sunderlage: Most of my experience outside of Utah was in the Midwest. It includes the states of Illinois (I was born and raised in the suburban Chicago area), Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Nebraska. The common thread between the Midwest and Utah is the strong work ethic. In these locations it was also important to build relationships through integrity and trust in your business dealings. I don't mean to suggest that those traits are exclusive to these areas, but they do have significant emphasis.

As VP of Corporate and Global Accounts for the West I had sales teams in California for accounts, such as, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Intel, and teams in Washington for Boeing and Microsoft. In many ways it was exhilarating, and in many times the stress levels were much higher. We broke a lot of glass in our pursuit of success. The pace was much quicker and the competition keener. Employee loyalty played to a much different equation.

Silicon Slopes: How do you attract the best people to ContentWatch?

J Sunderlage: We have been able to attract some of the best and brightest employees to ContentWatch. Three of our most recent hires have come from very successful enterprises. They are attracted to the mission of the company to do some good for mankind. Another factor is the comparative size and the engaging culture of the company both intra and inter disciplinary. The opportunity to be on the ground floor of building a successful company is appealing. Finally, our environment fosters intellectually challenging applications and innovative development for the evolving world of the Internet.

Silicon Slopes: I noticed your affiliation with two great organizations: Utah Technology Council and USTAR. How are these institutions helping to promote technology in the State of Utah?

J Sunderlage: The Utah Technology Council was created by the merger of the Utah Information Technology Association (UITA) and the Utah Life Science Association. With the convergence occurring between these two industries it was a natural alignment. With over 4300 companies in Utah in this sector, UTC plays a very pivotal role in the maturing of the knowledge-based industry in our state. In the U.S., these intellectual property intensive industries represent 40% of our economic growth. UTC is the voice of technology in Utah.

USTAR with its technology commercialization emphasis will be a key building block for the future of the technology sector in Utah. The vision to attract 50 top researchers to our research universities, secure valuable research grants, create 422 high tech companies and 123,000 high paying jobs over the next 30 years will enable Utah to sustain a leadership position in those areas where we already have demonstrated success. As John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins in Silicon Valley, describes the “clean technology" industry, he states, “this moment equates to Internet investing, which he famously called ' the greatest creation of wealth in the history of the planet'". One of the focus areas of USTAR is clean technology.

This is our moment in Utah... the building of Silicon Slopes.

Silicon Slopes: Thanks for spending some time with us!