SalesTechStar Interview with Jonas Karklys, CEO at NordPass

In a hybrid or remote work environment, it is more crucial for distributed marketing, sales and other teams to collaborate using safer processes to prevent cyber security threats, especially with remote teams having shared access to cloud systems, Jonas Karklys, CEO at NordPass dives deeper:

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Hi Jonas, we’d love to hear about your journey through the years…tell us more about your role as CEO at NordPass?

I have always worked in the digital field, which I find fascinating. I enjoy experimenting and creating, and, in this industry, you can do that all the time and achieve quick results. Sometimes, you can even build a beautiful product within a day. This is why I got involved in the digital world from my early childhood. Today, as I lead the NordPass team, I encounter new challenges every day. Keeping people motivated and achieving the most effective results is something that will always remain my focus.

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We are a fast-paced and fast-growing team of product developers, marketers, and salespeople. We also have teams working on the B2C as well as B2B product. And yet, we’re all unified by one goal – to create the best product that we can and work towards it with the utmost passion.

Can you highlight a few core features of password management systems and their benefits to teams who mainly work remote?

I think that the core features that benefit remote teams the most are the ability to share credentials and use them across devices. Today, as many people are being onboarded remotely, there isn’t a more convenient and secure way to give new joiners access to credentials than by using a password manager.

Accessibility is also important. We’ve heard many stories from clients about how, at the beginning of the pandemic, they had to almost immediately switch to remote work and left some belongings at the office; employees had to go back to the office to pick up their notepads, which contained all their passwords. This is a real story — a lot of people still jot their passwords down on a piece of paper. Password managers allow users to access their credentials on different devices no matter where they are.

What are some of the top cyber threats and concerns that today’s sales and marketing teams need to especially be paying attention to?

 There are loads of them, but, if I had to pick one, I would single out employee negligence because of the massive damage it could inflict. Our new study on password habits of large businesses reveals that employees even of the largest corporations struggle with password security. Many of them still safeguard their corporate accounts with very weak passwords, such as “123456” or “password”. Additionally, we found out that 20% of passwords were the exact name of the company or its variation. Such weak passwords can jeopardize even the largest corporations. Therefore, I think that education and knowledge of potential risks are vital. Employers need to help their employees become aware of the importance of password strength and understand why mixing their work and personal accounts could be dangerous. This ensures that their personal identity is protected and that all information related to the employer is protected in the event of a breach.

How has the ongoing global pandemic redefined the need for better data protection and password protection measures?

With many employees forced to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are now more vulnerable than ever. In the office, everyone uses the same Wi-Fi connection, so it’s easier to ensure secure communication. On top of that, employees need access to all the internal resources, and these assets must be protected from potential attackers. Our research has revealed that 62% of people are using personal computers (or other devices) to work from home. This is concerning, as most private laptops are not equipped with proper security software.

All of this is making cybersecurity more important than ever and is also changing its focus. Instead of focusing on enterprise security only, many companies are now focusing on solutions and security for remote work. The combination of both is where cybersecurity is heading.

How do you feel password managers will evolve in future – what features do you feel will drive demand for these tools?

I feel that password managers will continue to employ more advanced technologies, such as machine learning. We are already starting to implement AI in our autofill functions, for example. This helps us to autofill users’ personal information more accurately in various online forms. The use of such advanced technology will improve user experience and make the autofilling feature more accurate and agile.

A few thoughts on what you feel today’s sales and marketing leaders need to do differently to help them stand out from the crowd and create a better buying experience.  

I think the most important thing that any team can do is to put their user first. We often see companies over engineering their processes, making everything much more complicated than it needs to be. Imagine that you are the product user and then ask questions. How would I like to be communicated with? How could I purchase this easier? How could I onboard more quickly? At NordPass, all our processes, whether it’s sales, communication, or product development, are extremely user-focused.

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