Paul Swaim originally went to school with the goal of working in youth and family ministry. To this day, he still uses his talents for this type of outreach. But to make ends meet as a young student, he began working in the tech industry – a career field that never left him.
With over 20 years of IT experience, Paul did everything from private contracting, small business work, and tech support in people’s homes. He eventually worked for Alltel and CenterPartners, where he serviced contracts like ATT and Comcast. In 2004, he started as a Systems Administrator at North Idaho College, later managing their help desk and eventually becoming the Director of Network Technology for the last decade of his tenure.
Searching For More
At the request of North Idaho College, Paul began relationship building within the Innovation Collective, an entrepreneurial community. He was inspired and intrigued by the innovators he met there.
“I realized there was more in store for this phase of my life, and felt called to explore new options to use my talents and give back.”
-Paul Swaim
One innovator in particular, Garret Oetken, had already met Paul through the higher education system, but they were reconnected at a Coffee and Concepts meeting at the Collective. Garret was working on a novel approach to fighting malware, and Paul was surprised at the uniqueness of the solution.
Bleeding Edge Technology
Garret’s software took an approach to cybersecurity that hadn’t been done yet. Living daily in the IT world, Paul was used to the industry attempting to present new ideas, but implementations were clumsy and built on security assumptions that were often no longer relevant.
Garret had a fresh perspective and started from scratch. His business partner, Doc, had the security and business expertise to lead an organization, and Paul brought his technical expertise and passion to the table. After receiving the support form his wife, he decided to take on the role of Chief of Business Development while still working at NIC. His objective was to take the technology and get it where it needed to be to compete.
For nearly three years, Paul poured his heart into Quantum Star and NIC. It wasn’t until September of 2020, when the company became fully funded by Kingdom Capital, that Paul came on board full time at Quantum Star Technologies.
The Starpoint Difference
Quantum Star doesn’t worry about industry saturation. “Yes, we have competitors. We have a ton of indirect competition, but directly, almost no one is doing what we’re doing with Starpoint.”
The difference is in deep learning. For decades, the cybersecurity industry has detected network threats using hashing, signatures, artifacts, and strings. Utilizing AI and deep learning, Paul and his team have pioneered a new cybersecurity technology that will be the bleeding edge of new cybersecurity postures.
“I enjoy being on the cutting edge of technology and working with solid, trusted partners. I have a direct influence on the company’s culture and results. It’s a responsibility I value with great esteem.”
Paul loves his work. Quantum Star is at the precipice of defining machine learning capabilities for the cybersecurity industry. Being a part of that satisfies his techy side and his journey towards giving back.
Today, Paul treasures the time with wife and two children, and values building meaningful church and small group relationships. His long term goal is to develop mobile technologies that would help organize and encourage the meeting of like-minded individuals, in order to develop healthy spiritual habits. Paul spends his free time with his family, enjoying what he calls the most beautiful place in the country – Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.