Cybersecurity practitioners take a collaborative approach to problem-solving. They share vulnerabilities they discover with the larger cybersecurity community, allowing companies to fix security gaps before major issues arise. Prequel aims to apply this model to software.
The startup is creating a database of patterns of software failures and misconfigurations in Linux workloads. This database is constantly updated by a community of engineers and developers who share information about reliability. Prequel’s software integrates into a company’s existing software stack and regularly checks for bugs and failures by accessing this database.
The company’s co-founders, Tony Meehan and Lyndon Brown, come from security backgrounds, having worked at the National Security Agency and Endgame, a cyber operations platform company. Brown highlighted the challenges engineers face when software fails, such as sifting through extensive data logs to identify issues. Sometimes, only a few individuals within a company have the knowledge to assist with software problems.
Prequel, launched in 2023, has been operating in stealth mode. The company’s technology is currently used by several Fortune 500 companies, and its community network has grown to around 500 members. Prequel recently emerged from stealth mode, announcing a $3.3 million seed funding round led by Work-Bench, with contributions from Runtime Ventures, Operator Partners, and various angel investors.
According to Brown, Prequel’s main competitors are data observability and monitoring products like Datadog and Splunk, which also monitor software for potential failures. However, he believes that their approach allows teams to address issues earlier, before they become critical failures that only a few individuals can resolve. Prequel does not charge customers for data transfers, as all data remains with the customers, with a subscription fee solely for the service itself.
The team welcomes competition, as they believe more players in this space could benefit everyone. Brown stated that modern applications face constant failures, and their goal is to help teams address a broader range of issues and make better decisions regarding prioritization.
