ALTON JOHNSON

What is your name?

Alton Johnson

What company do you work for?

Vonahi Security

What is your position in the company?

Founder & Principal Consultant

How long have you worked in the industry?

Since mid 2012 (almost 11 years)

What do you do and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

At Vonahi Security, we automate network penetration testing. You would come to us if you’re looking to have a network penetration testing conducted for yourself or a customer. More specifically, you would come to us over a traditional cybersecurity company that offers network penetration testing because we can provide it more continuously at less than a third of the cost, while retaining the same quality as you’d get from them. Additionally, the scheduling and scoping process is extremely simple (takes less than 10 minutes), so no need to deal with meetings and what not.

How do you start and finish your work-day? 

I start my day off by logging into Slack and checking each channel with unread messages to determine if anyone has run into any problems in the business. If so, I get an update on that and provide any assistance where necessary. Afterwards, I check my unread emails to see if there’s anything that requires my response. By the time I get situated, I’m usually joining (mostly unnecessary) meetings for the rest of the day.

What do you do at work on a daily basis?

Due to the extremely technical nature of our business, I’m usually putting out fires every day. This would include handling escalated support tasks, providing assistance to the developers where necessary, and also providing direction/guidance to the penetration testers that require my assistance (typically due to automation workflow issues). I’m also heavily involved in meetings which I personally don’t care for. No one hates meetings more than I do. Whenever I get free time, I do try to build documentation and an internal roadmap so that I can eventually train my team through documentation on how to handle more complex technical issues.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about your position?

Inside our company, I don’t think we really have any. My team understands how busy I am, although sometimes this can be a little skewed because they only have access to my Vonahi calendar, whereas I have meetings several times a week on other calendars that take up my time as well. Outside of Vonahi, I believe a lot of people think I’m more of a “business person” just because I founded a company, but in reality I’m actually not and find most of it to a complete opposite of what truly makes me happy.

What is the best thing about your job?

Having customers as bosses instead of a single person. Although there’s the popular saying of “your customers are your bosses”, I have a team that can handle my “bosses” and they enjoy doing it, so it gives me a little more freedom to be creative and explore ideas without many limitations.

What hard skills should someone in your field have?

Understanding how to code is the biggest hard skill I’d say someone in my field should have. Without knowing how to code, it essentially limits the abilities of the penetration tester when it comes to ethical hacking.

What soft skills should someone in your field have?

Communication is definitely one of them. Without being able to properly communicate, it can literally make or break someone’s career or put a very low cap on how far they’ll be able to get. Another one is definitely leadership skills. It takes a lot of guts to take initiative and lead by example instead of just talking about it.

What’s one professional skill you’re currently working on?

I’m working on communicating better. I have a tendency to trust everyone to do what they say they’re going to do and never worry about it until it’s too late and starts costing me (time or money). I’m learning how to set better expectations and get commitment rather than consensus.

What’s a mistake you made early on in your career, and what did you learn from it? 

I would definitely say structuring the business with the right people in the right roles has been the biggest mistake for me. I had no idea my business would ever make it this far since I have no mentor and have never started a business before, so I didn’t think as carefully as I should have in the beginning. Hiring people in the right role from the beginning is critical because it’s much more difficult and frustrating to try circling back later when the business has grown to fix the process. In some cases, circling back later can also be too late and costly as well if you’ve made any agreements that extends beyond just a regular staff member.

What was the worst moment in your career?

I don’t really have a worst moment. I try to look at every bad situation as a lesson learned, even if it seems bad at the time.

What is the best job decision you’ve ever made?

Hiring the right people. I’ve had some really bad hires, but the good ones have really eased a lot off of my plate. I consider myself a professional at staying in my lane and not micromanaging people, and so it’s great when I can hire someone to do something and they take full ownership of it, doing that and everything more. I consider myself to be extremely technical in several different areas, so it’s really nice when I can find someone that’s as technical (or close to it) as me and being able to help tag team complex issues.

What is the worst job decision you’ve ever made?

Hiring the wrong people. Because I don’t like micromanaging people, having the wrong people in certain positions has cost me quite a bit down the road when I have had to go back and fix those problems.

What has been your biggest career disappointment?

I’d honestly say this is definitely hiring the wrong people. I trust people a lot, and so it’s extremely disappointing when I provide someone an opportunity to thrive and instead it requires more of my attention than less of it.

If you could edit your career, what would you change?

As it relates to the business, I would most definitely have changed my way of communicating. I would set better expectations from the beginning, set deadlines, and hold people accountable. It’s challenging for me to do that since I’m not a micromanager and I like to just stay in my lane, but it’s definitely something I’ve had to learn to become better at as part of growing my leadership skills.

What concerns you about the future of Cyber?

Not too much to be honest. 

Describe yourself in three words?

Leader, go-getter, and humble

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Either an ethical hacker like I am now or a cop. The cop thing is mostly because I love helping people and considered cops as heros as a kid.

What behaviour or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?

My humbleness. I always understand that there’s someone smarter than me and that everyone can teach everyone something, no matter who it is. There’s always a nugget somewhere in someone’s history that can help you make a better decision in the future. I never try to pretend I know something that I don’t and I’m always open to learn more. I believe this has allowed people on my team to feel very comfortable speaking with me. They’re always going to get a real, down to earth human.

What are your best and worst personality traits?

Best personality traits is definitely how humble I am. My worst is absolutely my patience. I’m a “get to the point” kind of person and hate waiting for something if there’s logical reasons as to why it should be faster.

What do you consider your greatest personal achievement?

I’d say learning myself as an entrepreneur has definitely been the biggest personal achievement. There are many things that I’ve learned about myself that I don’t think I ever would have if I had not taken the risk to start my own business.

What is the most important lesson that life has taught you?

“Life is only a bitch if you are.” I believe that treating people right has really helped me get far in my life. One of my favorite speeches is the one that Steve Jobs gave at Harvard with “Connecting the dots”. I feel like as long as I believe I’ll get somewhere, do my part, take action, and treat people right, the path will just fall right in front of me, no matter how bumpy the road may be.

Is there a quote that motivates you?

“Luck is a byproduct of those who take the most action” – by Grant Cardone. This really stuck with me while growing my business because there are plenty of times where I’ve looked at someone and went “damn they’re lucky”. However, when I moved to Atlanta, I tried to put myself out there by attending every event possible and just being outdoors and around people. This has really provided me an interesting lifestyle when moving and definitely connected me with some people that I wouldn’t have connected with. So by taking more action than I would usually ever take, I ended up getting “lucky”. It seems like this formula works well.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Grant Cardone. Of all the wealthiest people I know of, Grant is the most “raw” and “human” of them all. I can’t really connect with most wealthy people because there’s just something about them that seems unrelatable. Whether they’re dressing super fancy, using fancy words, have wealthy parents, went to a fancy school, etc. I have my GED, no father, and just had to figure out life myself, and I feel like Grant has a similar story. The way he communicates also just resonates.