Despite lacking a ritzy degree or much background in tech, Gen Xer Brian Murphy built ReliaQuest into a billion-dollar firm off the heels of credit card debt and a dream. Now his company is now valued at $3.4 billion and headed down an IPO pathway. The secret? Recognizing failure is inevitable, he tells Fortune.
Brian Murphy couldn’t have started his company at a worse time.
It was late 2007, and Murphy had just quit his cushy corporate accounting job with big plans to build out his own information technology firm called ReliaQuest. But the financial crisis had other ideas.
In a 40-day period, nearly all of his business disappeared into thin air, leaving him and his eight employees scratching their heads on how to stretch one single government sub-sub-contract focused on cybersecurity of overseas satellite terminals into a sustainable business.
And despite “turmoil for nine years,” he didn’t throw in the towel—he doubled down on his belief that a growing digital age would cause a cyber explosion.
“At some point, you’re far enough away from shore. You’ve already burned the lifeboats that you know swimming back isn’t really possible, so let’s just keep moving forward,” Murphy tells Fortune.
Along the way, Murphy was forced to take out a second mortgage on his house, max out his credit cards, and eliminate his own salary.
But over a decade and a half since its founding, the company is now a leader in B2B cybersecurity operations with its flagship “GreyMatter” software. ReliaQuest has over 1,200 employees across three continents, with top clients including multiple billion-dollar companies like Southwest Airlines, Circle K, and Tractor Supply Co. Earlier this year, a funding round valued ReliaQuest at $3.4 billion.
“It just shows you, sometimes luck is undefeated,” Murphy tells Fortune.
And while the 48-year-old may call it luck, others may call it hard work. The next stop? An IPO.
Lessons learned from bag boy to chief executive
Like many people growing up in Florida, Murphy was first exposed to the world of business bagging groceries and pushing carts at his local Publix Supermarket (interestingly, Murphy’s brother is now the CEO of Publix). The lessons he learned as a teenager are just as relevant today.
“It taught me the customer,” he says. “And that idea that you don’t point the customer to the ketchup aisle, you walk them over there, and you show them the five or six different kinds.”
But Murphy’s sights were not always set on the tech industry. In fact, he studied accounting and finance at Florida State University before starting what he imagined would be a long career as an auditor. It wasn’t until he was drawn into tech consulting and learned to program that he recognized the industry’s potential.
Now, as a founder and CEO, the biggest challenge to overcome is accepting that failure is inevitable and pleasing everyone can be an impossible task.
“It doesn’t matter how good you are or how much you work, or how diligent you are on ‘the grind.’ You’re always failing someone,” Murphy says.
“It’s the most out-of-balance journey—ever.”
For aspiring Gen Z entrepreneurs, he offers two pieces of advice: show up willing to work hard, and don’t shy away from voicing your opinion.
“You’re not always going to be right, but if you say nothing, you’re always going to be wrong,” Murphy says. “As you get older, you learn that sometimes the best thing to do is shut up, but when you’re young, you want to stand up and talk as much as you can to get that experience.”
A once-in-a-generation entrepreneur
One of the things that sets ReliaQuest apart from its competitors in the cybersecurity space is that the company is based in Tampa, Florida, not in Silicon Valley.
According to Paul Shoukry, CEO of Raymond James Financial (a fellow Tampa-based company), ReliaQuest’s emphasis on staying well-grounded in its community is what’s helped find success. In fact, he goes so far to say that Murphy is a “once in a generation-type entrepreneur.”
“He’s got a drive that is very hard to match in terms of his dedication to the business and to his people, and the intensity around which he built the business,” Shoukry, who also is a member of ReliaQuest’s board, tells Fortune.
“He’s just very real, and tells you like it is,” he adds. “Whenever you ask him a question, he’s never going to beat it around the bush. He’s never going to give you a polished answer. For better, for worse, he’s just a really authentic person.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
