Past, Present(s), and Future: DNSFilter's 2024 Recap + 2025 Roadmap

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About DNSFilter

DNSFilter is changing the way people think about DNS security. We're here to help make the internet safer and workplaces more productive.

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Ken Carnesi

HOW DID WE GET STARTED?

DNSFilter was born out of necessity. DNSFilter’s CEO and co-founder, Ken Carnesi, was fed up with existing DNS security solutions on the market.
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They were either overpriced, outdated, or ineffective. Instead of settling for a subpar solution, he set out to create one that he’d trust for himself and his clients.

DNSFilter was founded in October 2015. The goal for CEO Ken Carnesi, Chief Architect Brian Gillis was a big one. They set out to create "The Best DNS Filter On The Market." Their vision was to build a product that would be more effective at blocking threats than other solutions, while also maintaining ease-of-use, and world-class support.

In 2018, after being long-time customers, we acquired the company Webshrinker: an AI-driven domain categorization tool that powers our ability to classify and filter sites on the fly.

Pairing Webshrinker with our DNS security solution has made us the most effective solution in the DNS security market.

2015

DNSFilter is founded

There were just three of us when we started out. Today we're over 140.

DNSFilter
2015
2016

Our first customer

It was a big milestone for us as we were able to prove that we had a solution that was necessary—and works.

Our first customer
2016
2017

Our first investor

This was just the beginning of external buy-in in DNSFilter.

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2017
2018

Webshrinker is acquired

Webshrinker is what powers DNSFilter's threat efficacy. This was a momentous occasion for us, and we were able to expand our product offering.

Webshrinker
2018
2019

Team triples in size

We were still small compared to where we are now. By this point, we were big enough to really put some muscle behind expanding our features—Roaming Clients in particular.

Team triples in size
2019
2020

Massive growth

Despite a worldwide pandemic, we grew our team, added new functionality to our product, and added more customers than we ever had at that point.

Massive growth
2020
2021

Our Series A

We raised $33.5 million from Insight Partners and Arthur Ventures. We were one of the biggest cybersecurity Series A's in 2021–we were tied for third with four other companies.

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2021
2022

We acquired Guardian

We acquired Guardian, a privacy-protecting firewall for iOS and Android. The "smart firewall" blocks apps from sharing users' personal information with third parties.

Guardian
2022
2023

Series A Extension

We raised another $15 million in Series A Extension from Insight Partners to continue our mission of making the internet safer and workplaces more secure.

Series A Extension
2023
2024

Won Global Infosec Award for Protective DNS

We're proud to have won an award from Cyber Defense Magazine for our Protective DNS solution.

Global Infosec Award Winner 2024
2024
Team Photo

OUR VISION

What does it mean to change the way the world thinks about security via DNS? It means we're advocates for a layered approach to cybersecurity. We understand that the world is now remote. We want to decentralize cybersecurity. And we're here to help you adopt Zero Trust.

FROM THE BEGINNING, WE'VE MADE SURE:

  • Our threat categorization is driven by machine learning and supplemented by external feeds—giving our customers the most complete product
  • Support is timely, efficient, and friendly—when our customers have an issue, we want to be there to fix it and take pride in giving them an answer
  • We are listening to our customers—we prioritize features that are wanted

BECOMING DNSFILTER

We thought of going with a clever startup name—you know, adding “ly” or “io” to some noun evocative of freshness. Maybe we’d drop a vowel or two and go all lowercase. Instead, we decided to keep it simple. Straightforward. As an essential tool, DNSFilter is named for exactly what it does. We filter DNS requests, sorting the good from the bad to help our users get through their work days feeling more secure.

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Customers love us, threats hate us

We’re extremely customer focused because we want to do right by our customers. At DNSFilter, we pride ourselves on being easy to work with. We invest heavily in creating extensive documentation for our knowledge base and backing it up with responsive email support.
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Our range of badges from G2, Capterra, Gartner, and other review sites put a spotlight on why so many organizations trust DNSFilter for their DNS security protection.

See what customers are saying about DNSFilter