SAN DIEGO – Cybersecurity specialist ESET formally opened a new North American headquarters in downtown San Diego on Oct. 23. The tech business, which previously had an office in Little Italy, was still settling into its 24,000 square feet on two floors at 655 W. Broadway, a short walk from the Broadway Pier.
Company leaders, including CEO Richard Marko, shared plans while also showing off the technologically advanced and sustainable interior. The space takes many cues from the home environment, all to appeal to the North American headquarters staff. The office will support 200 local and remote employees.
CEO
ESET
It is the company’s second largest office, only smaller than its headquarters is Bratislava, Slovak Republic, less than an hour’s drive from Vienna. The business has had its North American base in San Diego for 25 years, starting with a space across the bay in Coronado.
Seeing an opportunity to refresh the business after COVID-19, privately held ESET decided to move to a new space. The business elected to stay in San Diego – a city where it can find talent, a city that people like to visit and a city where the company has found partners.
“We value long-term relationships,” said Marko, who attended the grand opening in tech executive fashion, wearing a dark, short-sleeved T-shirt.
“ESET is a staple of San Diego,” said Ryan Grant, senior vice president of sales and marketing with ESET North America. “So it just makes sense for us to be here and continue that investment with the community. As Richard said, it’s longstanding partnerships that go beyond just business. It goes well beyond that.”
The Rotunda and the Living Room
Marko and Grant were seated for an interview at a large, round table with matching, curved bench seats. It’s a spot in the new office that the company calls The Rotunda. It is light and airy. Though there are no walls separating it from the surrounding desks, sound from the exterior is kept to a minimum with the use of noise canceling technology. A large video screen lets people who are not on site join a meeting.
Parts of the interior design are deliberately homelike, such as the kitchen. “We try to mimic the living room of a home,” Grant said, referring to another part of the office. Employees might choose a couch to pursue their work.
SVP, Sales and Marketing
ESET North America
There was also an effort to be better than a home, to provide spaces where people can easily collaborate and innovate.
Employees find the new space attractive, Grant said, drawing a parallel between a pleasing office environment and a strong company culture.
Marko, the CEO, said that while the work-at-home trend has its benefits, nothing beats the office for collaboration.
“If you are only working from home, you are not part of the team, of the community. It doesn’t work the same,” he said. He allowed that tasks such as coding and research don’t need to be performed in any particular shared space. Employees can sit on the beach and enjoy everything that location has to offer. “But if you want to have a meeting, then you can meet on the screen – but it never works the same. You just don’t see how other people react and so on.”
“This was the opportunity for us to reset the work environment in a new footprint for us …,” said Grant. “It’s really hard to have a virtual culture.”
The office contains both standard desks – some which are permanently assigned, some not – and a variety of meeting rooms and other collaborative spaces.
As a tech employer, ESET decided its new office should include a game room with old-fashioned pastimes. Staff can take a break with several 1980s-style video arcade games, or an even larger ball toss game that would be at home on the midway at a state fair.
ESET’s new space also has an outdoor area with stepped seating, like an amphitheater. Employees have access to a gym with a variety of classes downstairs.
Furniture was selected with sustainability in mind. If the company sees a need to reprogram its space a year from now, no furniture will end up in a landfill, a representative said.
The office is close to a variety of transit options, including the Coronado ferry, the San Diego Trolley, and commuter rail extending to Los Angeles and beyond.
Taking a Global Perspective
Asked about business strategy and future investment, CEO Marko said ESET plans to invest in its own R&D teams as well as the customer experience.
ESET directly protects more than 100 million devices; indirectly, it protects more than 1 billion devices, Marko said. “There is a lot of intelligence we get,” he said. “If something happens in the world, we know about it.”
ESET detected unusual activity in Ukraine in early 2022, including attacks involving “wiper” software. Grant said ESET’s insights into the growing international crisis got the company an invitation to take part in the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), part of the U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
ESET, founded in 1992, built its business on its NOD antivirus product, which it first brought to market in 1995. Approximately 70% of its work is business to business, Marko said. Up to 20% of ESET’s work is with large companies.
The business is investing in a corporate solutions division, meant to offer custom solutions to clients on the scale of Microsoft, Meta and Google. “Of course, for smaller companies we can’t be as customized,” Marko said.
The business sees strong customer interest in a cybersecurity service model. The vision, the CEO said, is to deliver peace of mind to customers.
“In the past, it was difficult to understand what is cybersecurity, what types of threats are out there?” Marko said. “Right now, it’s really difficult even for experts to keep up with the trends.”
ESET
FOUNDED: 1992
CEO: Richard Marko
HEADQUARTERS: Bratislava, Slovak Republic
BUSINESS: Global digital security company
EMPLOYEES: More than 200 report to ESET’s North American headquarters in San Diego
WEBSITE: eset.com
CONTACT: 619-876-5400
SOCIAL IMPACT: ESET plans to use its new space for community outreach, which has already begun. On a Saturday in October, the business hosted 37 members of the LatinaGeeks group, who took part in a cybersecurity certification workshop.
NOTABLE: ESET directly protects more than 100 million devices; indirectly, it protects more than 1 billion devices
link
