A local entrepreneur who saw glaring gaps in efficiency in the workplace has brought together cybersecurity and technology to make life easier for analysts.

Tensor Wrench is a data-streamlining tool that helps analysts improve working speed across applications by collating data with cloud support.

Founder Jason Wagner said Tensor Wrench is the solution to tying “shadow IT” — where IT workers solve problems and make decisions on their own — to their normal workflow.

The inspiration for the product came when Wagner saw “a group of users who had 27 browser tabs open… they were spending 30% of their time just, control-C control-V, copying and pasting from one app to another,” he said.

“And we figured: what if we just take those applications and let them talk directly to each other?”

The transition from employee to entrepreneur was also jarring, Wagner said. “It’s scary and awesome at the same time… it’s coming from the technical to the business side. You have to keep both in mind at the same time,” he said.

“The majority of companies that get started die off. It’s like a one-percent success ratio. And you have to be aware of that, but you can’t dwell on it,” said Wagner.

Wagner credits local accelerators with helping him adjust to the new way of thinking. “I couldn’t recommend it highly enough,” he said. He worked in accelerator Mach 37, which specifically works with potential technical founders, and it taught Wagner “an amazing crash course in how to market,” he said.

One of the most impactful sessions in the accelerator was a lesson on brand management and presentation, about “feelings, and how everything is a feeling. And as a very analytical, technical background, it’s like, ‘blah blah, soft skills’,” Wagner told What’s Working in Washington.

But then he realized something. “Even if I don’t think this way, there’s a lot of people who do… and I need to understand how they think,” he said.

Some of the most important advice Wagner could provide to potential entrepreneurs was to ”have a war fund. Have more than you think you need, because you need to go full-time to do it,” he said.

“Have a team. If you can’t convince anyone else to join you in it, then it’s kind of a statement of your ideas… Don’t do it because of money. I think I’ve heard that a couple of times recently. You have to do it because you enjoy it, because you’re not going to see money for a long time.”

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