MarTech Edge Interview with Sheree Lim, Head of Product, Metomic

How have data discovery & Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technologies evolved? How have your products adapted to it?

Modern data discovery technologies use advanced algorithms and machine learning models to analyze large amounts of data in real time, identify sensitive data, and categorize it based on various attributes. Additionally, DLP technologies have had to adapt to the increased usage of cloud-based applications and storage. At Metomic, we use natural language processing to detect and classify sensitive data, monitor user behavior, and automate the alerting and redaction within SaaS apps.

Can you share Metomic’s mission of protecting sensitive data in SaaS applications?

As the explosion of SaaS apps has continued to rise, we believe it is too easy for sensitive data to get passed through these apps. We want to provide our customers with the tools to find the data that matters to them, easily notify employees, and automatically redact the data.

Metomic has raised significant funding of $20 Million in the Series A round recently. What changes in the product can we look forward to?

We’re super excited about the upcoming changes! You can expect to see plenty more integrations, more granular controls, and a lot more customization so that our users can easily find the risks that matter to them.

As a woman in tech, tell us about your career journey to this role as a Product Head.

I transitioned into Product from Data Analytics five years ago and found my first Product Analyst role at a tech jobs fair in London. I knew within the first few weeks that Product Management was the career for me, and I became obsessed with knowing everything about all the products I worked on. I spent over three years at Tray.io, where I became a Lead PM, leading the workflow-building experience. Without a doubt, the best skills I developed were my product sense and technical knowledge; I wasn’t afraid to ask those around me questions regarding the technical complexities of both the product itself and the implementation of new features and bug fixes, and the product sense came from spending hours listening to sales calls, speaking with customers and using the product on a daily basis. I’m super excited to now be leading the Product team at Metomic!

How are you planning to reach a broader audience and capture newer markets?

We’re going to be focusing on time to value, as we know that security teams are constrained by time and resources; surfacing the sensitive data within their SaaS apps within a matter of minutes is crucial for helping these teams understand where the risks are. We’ll also be continuing to offer more integrations across the SaaS spectrum to cover the increasing amount of tools that organizations use.

What product, marketing, and technology challenges may arise for SaaS businesses?

The innovation we are seeing within AI is going to push SaaS businesses to ensure they are staying competitive. However, these businesses need to consider the wider picture of data privacy within the use of AI tools and understand that even those with good intentions can breach data privacy laws.

What makes your company stand out from your competitors?

We focus on finding the risks that matter to each individual company via AI technology. Our competitors don’t triage risks in the way we do; we cut through the noise to make sure they can see their most critical risks and what they’ll need to address first.

We’re also helping companies enable the human firewall within their business by educating their employees continuously on security policies. Our employee notifications bridge the gap between security teams and their colleagues, enforcing policies automatically and helping employees resolve their own violations.

How do you align sales, marketing, and other customer success teams to drive organizational growth?

At this stage of the company, we are moving fast, and no two days are the same. It is my job to ensure that all the go-to-market teams are aligned with product and engineering, and I do that by regularly communicating the product roadmap and the underlying strategy that underpins it. One of my favorite methods of communication is video recordings, big shout out to Loom!

Which trends in the industry are you focusing on that will impact marketing and sales?

Our core focus is cloud security, specifically data security within SaaS apps. With the huge move to remote- and hybrid-working, building a security-aware culture plays a big part in what we are doing at Metomic. Our automated alerting and notifications help provide education to organizations without security teams needing to step in every single time; this plays a huge part in how we communicate with prospects, as we know that automation is now essential to modern security teams. 

What do you think lies in the future of Data Discovery & DLP?

As organizations continue to collect and store vast amounts of data within their SaaS apps, the importance of effective data discovery and DLP solutions will only increase. I think we will start to see the use of AI more and more to improve DLP capabilities, especially as security teams will be under more pressure to comply with privacy and compliance regulations.