- May 14, 2026
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Tenex is a rapidly growing cybersecurity company whose products were developed from the ground up with artificial intelligence. CEO Eric Foster had been in cybersecurity for about 30 years when he launched the firm, which came out of stealth mode in January 2025.
In the year after Tenex landed its first contract in March 2025, the Sarasota-based cybersecurity firm posted $25 million in contracted revenue, Foster says. It has also gotten a major boost from outside investors, raising $250 million in March and $27 million in September 2025. (The $250 million is one of the largest-ever tech company capital raises in the Sarasota-Manatee market.)
The company is using the capital to scale, hiring about 200 employees by the end of the year — bringing its total staff to approximately 300 — and adding an international office in Europe.
Tenex's flagship product is a managed detection and response service that helps organizations detect and handle cyber threats through AI agents, which escalate issues to humans when necessary.
“Think of it like it's a burglar alarm ... We're the security guard that's sitting at the desk watching those alarms and alerts,” Foster says. “But we're also the people who put them in in the first place.”
While the firm’s "sweet spot” is financial services, Foster says Tenex has clients “across every single vertical,” from Fortune 500 retail and manufacturing companies to government to technology sectors.
“We also partner with some of the biggest companies in cybersecurity — Google, Microsoft, CrowdStrike,” Foster says.
Before spearheading Tenex, Foster was a member of teams that built and exited multiple companies, including Cyderes, a cybersecurity firm that sold to private equity; RiskIQ, a cybersecurity platform bought by Microsoft; MMA Junkie, a startup sports site purchased by USA Today; and eScout, a virus filtering service bought by PerfectCommerce.
“Every one of those journeys taught me something that was then incredibly helpful” in starting Tenex, says Foster, 50.
And while outside funding provides validation, Foster says it is not the end goal.
“It's not about how much money we raise … It really, to me, is about how many people we’re able to help and how much we're able to actually accomplish our mission of fighting evil,” says Foster, who aims to root out cybercriminals around the world.
“We didn't start this just to build a big business — that’s not the objective,” he says. “Have we actually done good in the world? Have we managed to make our customers more secure? Are we winning in this fight against evil? That's the part that I'm most celebrating … especially with this last round of funding, because we're actually delivering on that promise.”
Over the next several years, Foster is forecasting the evolution of Tenex from a private firm to a public company as it brings its services to more clients.
Boosted by its recent $250 million capital raise, the company is aiming in the next two years, or eight quarters, to "deliver our services to the most people that we can," he says.
“At the two-year mark, we hope to be in a position to … potentially start the IPO process, [which] is the North Star that we're aiming for,” Foster says.
Between now and then, he says, there are “very specific metrics and measurements and milestones” required. “Then you’d have about a year process of that transition to being a public company.”
Adds Foster: “Really, I'm on a four-year plan right now — two years to get to go public, a year to take it public, and then a year to actually transition to being public.”
Tenex is an “overnight success that was 33 years in the making,” Foster says.
There have been milestones along the way like “hiring my first employee, hiring my 100th employee," Foster says, "signing my first customer, my first 10 customers — all of these different milestones build on each other.”
Says Foster: “I don't think there was one tipping point. There wasn't one cornerstone block. It's all of them.”
“The moment that you lose sight of the mission,” Foster says, “I’ve seen firsthand companies essentially slide into mediocrity.”
Foster says he has received so much advice from mentors and business partners that it is “too hard to choose from,” but it leads him to realize what guidance he would like to pass along.
“If you're trying to be an entrepreneur, find a mentor — surround yourself with a tribe of people who are willing to invest in you and help you,” Foster says.
He adds: “A mentor doesn't always have to be somebody who's senior to or ahead of you. We see a lot of value in peer mentorship and groups … you're going through it all together, and you can learn and share from each other.”
With about 100 employees now and a goal of 300 by year’s end, Tenex is rapidly scaling.
However, the company is not looking to hire just anyone.
The name “Tenex” means 10 times something, and Foster told the Business Observer previously that the employees the company seeks out are those who are 10 times better than average.
Attitude, aptitude and cognitive ability are among the key criteria the company evaluates when screening candidates, he says.
Problem-solving is “maybe the single most valuable” asset, he says, noting he wants to hire people who, when given a puzzle, are driven to figure out how the pieces fit together.
A turn-off for the company is people who would rather work remotely.
“One of the things that's disqualified people the most from Tenex is we're big believers in in-office culture,” says Foster. “We're hiring you because we want you to come into the office.”
Demonstrating its commitment to the concept of the office, Tenex is building a headquarters on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota. It also has offices in Kansas City; San Jose; and Scottsdale, Arizona. The company is looking to create a location in Europe as well. “We have 10 international employees already, centered around the UK,” Foster says.
When asked if he has one worry that keeps him up at night, Foster says the nature of being a startup means worry is never far away.
“Startup life in general is a constant knife-edge between everything is amazing and 'oh my God, we're all gonna die,'” Foster says. “Anybody who tells you otherwise is either lying to you or does not really understand the reality of entrepreneurialism.”
At Tenex’s level of growth, Foster says he’s always monitoring, thinking about hiring and retaining the best people and ensuring his customers are safe and secure.
“What ultimately motivates me and ultimately does keep me up at night is that we take on the literal, I believe, not only legal but moral responsibility,” Foster says, “to protect people that need our help.”
