Featured Startup Pitch: Originally founded in Poland, now Silicon Valley-based Sher.ly has built a private cloud network that makes security a priority

By Blazej Marciniak, Sher.ly co-founder and CEO

ELEVATOR PITCH

Sher.ly is a software-based, localized private cloud network that allows for invite-only, limited-access file sharing and keeps information on connected hardware devices.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DESCRIPTION

Sher.ly is a software-based, localized private cloud network that allows for invite-only, limited-access file sharing and keeps information on connected hardware devices. Our company aims to create a next-generation file sharing where copy/sync is not needed, as the software itself is intelligent.

FOUNDERS’ STORY

My co-founder Marek Ciesla and I founded Sher.ly in Poland. It was a challenging funding environment in the country, we spoke to nearly every Venture Capitalist in the country, and we eventually decided to move the company to Silicon Valley. After three years of research and development, we are launching the company’s private cloud network.

MARKETING/PROMOTION STRATEGY

We have multiple ways we are looking to market the company. One strategy we implemented to identify early adopters and customers was to promote a campaign through Kickstarter. We not only brought in over $150,000 in orders, but this also brought us close to 900 customers.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Our competitors include AeroFS and Egnyte. We look at this market as a multi-billion dollar opportunity. Egnyte, as an example, has raised $62.5 million dollars in venture funding to date. According to Gartner, cloud security market will reach $3.2 billion in 2015.

HOW WE DIFFERENTIATE FROM THE COMPETITION

We believe Sher.ly differentiates itself from competition in multiple ways. To begin, Sher.ly’s software solution integrates your existing hard drives into a private, tightly controlled cloud network. Rather than have to send out open links to files or share copies across a public cloud, organizations and individuals alike can now count on the security of invite-only, limited-access file-sharing that keeps data where it belongs: on the devices that produced it.

For businesses trading in sensitive information, Sher.ly means robust reporting, simple access management controls, and easy-to-use auditing tools, integrated into a secure space that allows for all the dynamic, collaborative work of the traditional cloud without the blaring privacy risks.

As compared to traditional cloud software platforms, Sher.ly is faster, safer, simpler, and more efficient. It’s an entirely new way to think about data storage. The principle is still the same, but the foundation is radically different.

Additionally, through its combination of VPN connectivity and peer-to-peer communication technology, Sher.ly restricts data flow to secure nodes, as opposed to relaying it through central servers. Users can access information stored behind the firewall of their own network devices, share data streams across remote work groups, and collaborate on documents and edits, all with the guarantee that private files are never leaving the safety of their native storage hard drives. By keeping the information where it is, we can free up almost 50 percent more bandwidth, and improve processing speeds on CIFS/SMB protocols 20-times over.

BUSINESS MODEL

At Sher.ly we plan to make money by selling its software in SaaS mode and license it to independent storage manufacturers to create hardware-agnostic file sharing platform.

CURRENT NEEDS

We are currently speaking to venture firms and industry representatives in regards to a potential funding round to fuel faster growth.

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HEADQUARTERS: Palo Alto