Chasity Wright: Wins $50,000 Google Grant – “We finally have a seat at the table.”

There is a new industry popping up in the world, and it’s called Internet of Things (IOT). According to Houston County entrepreneur and inventor, Chasity Wright, it essentially started with something referred to as “bring your own devices,” which allowed other devices to be connected to any network, whether it’s at home or in a business setting. It seemed futuristic for a while, but the unexpected appearance of COVID-19 accelerated the need for IOT security solutions for systems in those types of environments. Wright’s $50,000 grant award-winning invention, Infiltron, proactively protects data in devices in real time.

“The ideation for Infiltron came probably around the beginning or middle of 2018,” shared Wright. “I did not get a business license until January 2019, but in 2018, I was literally talking to my developers and hashing out with them about how we wanted to go about building it and breaking the ground of it.”

The inspiration for her invention was in some ways tied to Wright’s military mindset. As a military veteran, she served eight years in the Air Force, with much of that time spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on what Wright shared, a mindset that is acquired during active duty is one that’s difficult to let go.

In addition to that, her professional experiences also helped to spark Infiltron’s development. “I have sat in high level administrative engineering positions for different industries, from aerospace and defense to logistics, sports and entertainment. I’ve seen the vulnerabilities; from insider threats to adversaries. One of the gifts that I have is vision, so I’m able to see.”

That extraordinary foresight, in part, comes from her days as a basketball star at Warner Robins High. “I was a point guard, and one of the main things that you have to do, as a point guard, is see the play before it happens,” Wright explained. “Same thing for a football quarterback. You kind of have to see the play develop from what the defense is giving you, and you have to place the ball where the player is going to be—not where they are—so they can get to the goal. I kind of took that strategy, and that’s what you see at Infiltron.”

When she first presented the idea, Wright said people told her that she was too far ahead. “And then, boom!” she expressed. “The pandemic happened, and all of a sudden they need it, and they need it now. People are trying to catch up with having IOT environments and needing the right type of security for those environments. McAfee can’t do it. Norton can’t do it. There’s very little competition. It’s brand new. We’re like in the very beginning of the gold rush era of IOT.”

The world is moving to a smart ecosystem, by Wright’s calculations. “It incorporates 5G. It incorporates your internet service provider. It incorporates all your smart devices to include your car, your phone, your TV, your refrigerator, your Ring and all these things that we’ve brought into our lives for convenience, and there’s no IOT for it. So, we’re just literally like pants-down out here,” she emphasized. “I was able to see that because I’m in the cyber security industry. I’m in the tech industry, so seeing all that was how Infiltron came about.”

Being awarded the $50,000 grant from Google Startup will take Wright and her team a long way in accomplishing current and future goals. Infiltron is a part of the Atlanta Founders Academy, which is under the Google for Startups headline; therefore, Infiltron is already in somewhat of an accelerated program with Google that’s headed by Jewel Burks Solomon. The program is set in place to make sure that business founders of color have the same opportunities as everyone else.

A local television station was among the earliest to make an online post regarding the news of Wright’s business receiving the monetary award, and to Wright’s disappointment, what should have been celebratory news drew several negative remarks from the public.

“I actually got to go online and see some of the comments on the post, and it has turned into a racist conversation,” she disclosed. “I’m not responding, but I’m aware and I’m looking, and I’m thinking that what they are failing to realize is that they have had this. Because of their privilege, many of them have a mom and a dad who could write them a $100,000 or $50,000 check. Most of us don’t. That is what this [grant] is.

“With Goodie Nation and Joey Womack, there’s an ecosystem of black tech people that’s popping up,” Wright went on to say, “and we’re leveraging, not only positions that we have other people on the other side of the table like your Jewel Burks and your Joey Womack, but we also have people like myself that have been in the industry for almost 20 years. We’re seeing now that we can own our IP, our patents, our trademarks, because back in the day, we invented a whole lot of stuff, and we weren’t able to actually have ownership of those.”

Wright said that she and her team are excited about the future. “We just came out of a cyber warrior defense event with the Air Force Research Laboratory last week. They were really impressed with us. We have a lot of people at the table. We have the Air Force at the table because I helped build and architect a lot of those systems in uniform and out, so I took all of those wisdoms and those knowings and created Infiltron.”

While Wright’s team at Infiltron is diverse and consists of Blacks, Whites, Asians, and Latinos—both males and females included—she admits that she’s hopeful that Infiltron will produce more millionaires, especially in the African American community.

“This is bigger than me,” she said. “Everything I do is bigger than me. I’ve offered my core team equity for their work. Infiltron is what was missing when the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were written. We were not at the table back then. We finally have a seat at the table.”

Wright said that she hopes her success at gaining the Google Startup grant will inspire other young people to push harder for their goals and to remove the limitations that they may have built in their minds.

“We’re glad we can bring limelight to middle Georgia, because there is so much talent outside of sports here,” she stipulated. “I can say that because I was a sports superstar. I went on to play in college. But there’s so much more talent than sports in the middle Georgia area. I hope that person that feels like the sports world gets more limelight that something based more on intelligence, technology, architecture and inventiveness will look at me and say, hey… she’s from here, and in some respects, she looks like me. So if she can do it, I can do it too.”

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