GREENSBORO – Larry Cecchini, CEO of Greensboro-based Secure Designs, took to LinkedIn and email to announce big news for the Internet and data security firm on Sunday.
“We are headed to the tourney, man!” he wrote to fellow Triad entrepreneur Joel Bennett.
Secure Designs
Secure Designs has been acquired by home security firm ADT, and Cecchini couldn’t wait to share the news.
Cecchini “called me and was pretty darn excited with the news that his company Secure Designs (SDI) had made the big time!” Bennett wrote in an email.
While financial terms weren’t disclosed, Bennett noted that “ADT is the largest provider of on-premise security services in North America.”
Cecchini, who has worked at the company since 2002 and became CEO in 2011, also took to LinkedIn to share the news.
“It’s official: My company SDI has been acquired by ADT Security and is now ADT Cybersecurity,” he wrote.
“Preparing to deliver ‘Value Innovations’ on a massive scale,” he added.
Bennett, who champions startups across the Triad, hailed Secure Designs as “a sort of local Cinderella story, since they started the cybersecurity company in a garage 16 years ago after winning a business plan competition.”
The company now says it “provides affordable Internet security for thousands in the SMB, Enterprise and Education markets.”
Cecchini, who earned a Masters in business at UNC-Chapel Hill, has guided Secure Designs to the Inc. 5000 list six times since 2011. In 2017 the firm ranked No. 3590 with revenues increases 85 percent to $6.3 million.
ADT went public earlier this year.
