Entrepreneur Alec Ryncavage, is seen on River Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre. CYBIOT, his city-based cyber security firm, recently was awarded $50,000 in investment funding from a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, The 1517 Fund. Ryncavage, 19, also serves on Plymouth Borough Council, to which he was elected last fall.
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Ryncavage, 19, of Plymouth, is founder of CYBIOT
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Alec Ryncavage has long marched to the beat of a different drummer.
The Plymouth youth began running his own tech startup before he entered high school, focusing on computer virus removal. He was elected to a seat on Borough Council last November on a platform that included heavy emphasis on community revitalization and making the region more attractive to new arrivals and keeping more young people here.
Now Ryncavage, 19, can add another significant achievement to his list of accomplishments: His Wilkes-Barre-based cybersecurity software company, CYBIOT, has been awarded a $50,000 investment from a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, The 1517 Fund.
Ryncavage was the first applicant interviewed by the investors and his business was the first to receive a check, he said.
Experiential learning
The 1517 Fund is the force behind a program called the Invisible College. It’s aimed at providing early stage funding for “uncredentialed” young entrepreneurs who — like Ryncavage — are working independently to turn science and technology projects into practical products and services rather than sitting in a classroom. Some may be drop-outs, while others are “opt-outs” who chose not to attend college.
That’s a very personal cause for Ryncavage, who graduated from Wyoming Valley West High School in 2019 and chose to take a gap year while continuing development of his business and running for council.
Discussing the decision not to immediately pursue college has been at times awkward, Ryncavage admits.
“It is a taboo thing,” he said in an interview Sunday afternoon. “I respond that sometimes ideas just can’t wait.”
His commitment paid off.
The 1517 funding, which is designed to be spent within six months, will assist CYBIOT with experimentation and final development and as the company works toward product launch, currently set for November.
Ryncavage said he spent many months working on the pitch to investors — something that was actually made easier by the COVID-19 outbreak, since he was able to meet with them virtually rather than traveling long distances for in-person meetings.
If successful with their initial experiments and projects, Invisible College participants like CYBIOT may be eligible for $250,000 to $500,ooo in “pre-seed” startup capital, Ryncavage explained.
CYBIOT’s mission
CYBIOT consists of four partners, five engineers and three investors. Its goal is to create affordable business cybersecurity solutions that do not require a team of network engineers or purchasing enterprise-grade hardware.
Ryncavage is targeting a highly competitive industry, but one in which he says the only solutions on the market are designed for consumers, often up-sold as ‘business grade,’ or are built for large enterprises requiring the engineers and equipment he works to automate.
“There’s no middle of the road featuring flat rate pricing, without sales calls and demos, or with the ability to be installed by the most technology-illiterate of users,” Ryncavage said.
He believes that the people who will win at cybersecurity will be those who make it the simplest to interact with and understand.
“No one wants to become a network engineer or bankrupt themselves in the process, which is why most people don’t purchase solutions until they’ve already been hacked,” he added.
Looking ahead
Ryncavage hopes his experience can become more widespread.
“My investors say the most interesting thing about a 20-year-old should not be where they went to college, and I happen to agree,” Ryncavage said.
“Yes, some career paths require a degree and that I do not have an issue with, but I look at the generations before us and think how many of them actually use their degree day-to-day,” he asked.
“We need to de-stigmatize trade schools, gap years, and joining of the workforce. We will run out of plumbers before we run out of MBAs,” he added.
As for his political career, that also has been a learning experience.
Ryncavage took office in January, and most of his time on council so far has been dominated by the COVID-19 crisis.
Among its many impacts, that has slowed down the operation of state offices whose participation was vital to ongoing municipal revitalization efforts in Plymouth, he said, although those offices are slowly returning to normal.
Ryncavage said he has been working on revitalization, block grant spending priorities and other projects to be announced soon, and that his council colleagues have been supportive.
“They see that I am a workhorse,” he said.