TRAILBLAZER

From the Space Shuttle to startup CEO Drata CEO and Co-founder Adam Markowitz discusses his time working as an engineer on the Space Shuttle programme , and the importance of trust

Prior to Drata , Adam was the founder and CEO of Portfolium , an academic portfolio network for students and alumni to visually showcase their work and projects directly to employers , faculty , and fellow students / alumni .

He has also worked as an aerospace engineer designing , analysing and testing liquid rocket engines for NASA ’ s next-generation space launch vehicle , as well as the Space Shuttle Main Engine .

You worked as an aerospace engineer on the space-shuttle programme , what led you to that and what did you learn ? Growing up , I always had a dream of being an astronaut one day . Having earned a Bachelor ’ s degree in Aerospace Engineering , and with plans to pursue my Master ’ s in Astronautical engineering , I landed the second best job next to being

Drata brought on 100 customers an astronaut , and that was as an aerospace engineer working on NASA ’ s space shuttle programme .

The position was highly sought after , and , as a recent college graduate , I knew I would have to stand out in order to be selected for the job , so I brought a portfolio into my job interview to showcase my relevant work rather than listing it out in a resume . Landing the job and having the experience of a lifetime working on the shuttle programme reinforced the importance of taking chances , earning trust , and pursuing my dreams . After NASA retired the programme , I was inspired to explore on my own as an entrepreneur and start Portfolium based on that very interview experience .

What inspired you to create Drata ? Prior to Drata , I founded a company called Portfolium , an edtech startup that connected university students and recent graduates with businesses and employers by better visually presenting their academic work to prove their skills . Selling the software into hundreds of universities and handling the data of millions of students , it was critical that we were able to prove the effectiveness of our security program . SOC 2 reports quickly became the minimum bar requirement for our industry to help earn the trust of our customers and users that we were protecting their data . We experienced the pains of pursuing SOC 2 compliance manually firsthand – the time , cost , know-how , and slowing of sales cycles .

20 January 2023