I made the decision to start Gemini while I was on vacation in July of 2001. For me, the beach was (and remains) an excellent source of inspiration and a place to do creative thinking. I spent days determining how I might be able to use my personal experiences to make a difference in the world of information security. Once my decision had been made there was more work to be done. I spent the following days and weeks developing a business plan, incorporating Gemini, and trying to get enough work lined up to ensure I’d be able to pay my bills. I submitted my resignation to my old company on the last day of August, and stayed for 3 weeks to assist in a smooth transition.

Between my resignation and my last day, the horrible events of September 11, 2001 unfolded.

Suddenly, a lot of the energy and money that was going to be focused on areas where I had expertise – especially cryptographic programming interfaces and public key infrastructure – was instead redirected. Instead of buying smart cards and security software, the government was quickly shifting to spending money on things to help protect the homeland. Before I even began my first day at Gemini, the company needed to pivot. Consequently, we stumbled out of the gate while I tried to figure out how to change from my initial vision.

The first two years were exciting, but also rocky. I learned a number of (sometimes difficult) lessons about everything including business management, taxes, banking, hiring employees, and marketing. Ultimately the pivot resulted in a broader focus, reducing our pure engineering work and adding expertise in security assessment and analysis.

Fortunately, one thing has remained constant from the first day. Gemini’s focus has always been on solving our customers’ problems. This focus has allowed the company to become and remain successful over the last ten years. Our primary source of business is still word-of-mouth referral, which makes me very proud.

The next ten years will hopefully be even more exciting, although hopefully a bit less rocky. Our ten years of experience helped us develop our three-phase information security lifecycle, which identifies how we help solve our customers’ problems:
- Assess to understand threats and how information is currently protected,
- Architect solutions which reduce risk and improve information assurance, and
- Apply those solutions into the business through integration and software development.

For me, it has been a fantastic first ten years at Gemini Security Solutions. I would like to thank everyone who made it possible, including my wife and family, our employees past and present, and especially our customers. I look forward to the next ten years of providing solutions to our customers.

– Peter Hesse, President, Gemini Security Solutions, Inc.

– Peter Hesse, President, Gemini Security Solutions, Inc.

This page will be dedicated to providing updates on the interesting things Gemini is doing, including new customers, new projects, and letting you know when we’re giving presentations or performing education and training. I’ll use this space to highlight specific problems or challenges we have encountered, and let you know how we worked to create solutions.

We welcome feedback on the new site via the Contact link above. Let us know what you like, and what you don’t like!

– Peter Hesse, President, Gemini Security Solutions, Inc.