Client Spotlight: Vitalis Omambia, Founder and CEO of Selstan

Vitalis Omambia has understood the power of entrepreneurship from a young age. Growing up in Sotik Highlands, Kenya, he found creative ways to generate income, from selling onions that he planted while in primary school to bringing avocados to sell to classmates in high school. Those early experiences inspired him to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, taking him from Kenya to the UK and eventually Canada.

That journey led him to a successful career in the telecommunications industry. He worked at Vodafone Group, where he developed expertise in telecommunication engineering, cybersecurity, Customer Service and product development. However, despite his achievements, Omambia saw limitations within corporate structures—barriers to innovation that often stalled progress. That realization led him to Canada, where he is building Selstan, a managed security services startup based in Waterloo.

Seeing the world from new perspectives

Omambia’s career started with a role at Safaricom, a Vodafone subsidiary in Kenya. From there, his career with the global telecommunications leader took him to the UK and other Vodafone Opcos, where he spent almost 12 years working on cutting-edge telecommunication solutions. While he is a software engineer by training, Omambia says his experience at Vodafone exposed him to technologies and challenges he had never considered before.

“When I joined the company, I found myself in the telecommunication world. I had to learn so quickly in terms of understanding how the telco world works. I found myself in the field, configuring, and installing network infrastructure. It was a fantastic opportunity going to a site, setting it from scratch, and even climbing up towers to install microwave radios,” he says.

Omambia’s first successful pitch was at Safaricom, where he presented an idea for a new managed security services offering for the company’s customers. He says it was an opportunity to collaborate across different groups within the Vodafone Group, bringing finance, product, and marketing together to introduce a new revenue stream.

“I saw that we were turning customers away who had questions about cybersecurity. We would turn them away because of the risk associated with it. I was able to put together an offering that received conditional approval. If I could sign six customers, we could move forward,” he says. “We ended up signing ten, including a large bank. That’s when I realized I could build things faster if it wasn’t for all the restrictions that come from working in a large organization.”

From building networks to building a network

Omambia knew there were a few things he would need to make his entrepreneurial start. First, he needed to build out his financial knowledge if he was going to launch his own business. Second, he needed a network of people for support and connections.

He found both in an opportunity to pursue a Master of Management Innovation & Entrepreneurship (MMIE) at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

“I searched for grad schools around the world, and then I landed in Canada. It is a good country, and the degree would help me focus on entrepreneurship because this would be how I could create value,” he says.

A spirit for entrepreneurship was not the only thing Omambia brought with him to Canada. He says he was still thinking about how to scale the managed cybersecurity services he had helped launch.

“I had honed my skills in cybersecurity, but it was coming to Canada where I was able to do more research and speak with more customers. The more I spoke with people, the more I realized how big the gap was,” he says.

Protecting data in the age of AI

At the same time Omambia was speaking with potential customers, something else was happening. The rapid development and adoption of AI and large language model (LLM) tools are creating new opportunities for almost every industry and new challenges for cybersecurity leaders. Together with Nelson Bore, his co-founder, Omambia says this led him to the idea for GuardlyData, Selstan’s first product.

“Today, we are in the era of AI. We can get work done quickly, but that means opening up new vulnerabilities. The challenge with using these tools is the potential for employees to provide sensitive data when using them, opening up risks for customer and business data,” Omambia says.

GuardlyData is a Google Chrome plugin that allows people to use generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini by masking and tagging sensitive data. It provides users with real-time monitoring of interactions with AI tools to track what data was shared with a tool and provides businesses with an audit trail of those interactions. Selstan has made the plugin available for free to help the team better understand what types of data businesses want to use with AI tools and plans to expand this tool to other digital workflows as well as build out the B2B zero-trust platform for businesses.

“We haven't commercialized yet, because we're learning. But the feedback has been amazing,” he says.

How Selstan is speeding up its pace with help from the Accelerator Centre

Being a first-time founder has its challenges, but Omambia isn’t going it alone. Selstan is participating in the AC:Incubate program to help refine its product and go-to-market strategies.

Every founder discovers the Accelerator Centre in a different way. For Omambia, a morning run through the David Johnston Research + Technology Park piqued his interest in what the AC can provide.

“I was out for a run and saw the Accelerator Centre sign. I snapped a picture and sent it to my co-founder Nelson who was working in South Africa at the time. We both looked at the website, learned about the programs, and I said, ‘In the next two years, we will be there,’” Omambia says.

Selstan was accepted into the AC:Incubate program in April 2023, and Omambia says the startup benefited from the mentorship and community the AC provides.

“We are so grateful to Accelerator Center because the mentors have been patient with us as we speak with customers to make sure we’re building what the market needs. We’ve been able to work with not only a product mentor but also sales, marketing, finance and PR mentors who have helped us build a compelling foundation for our company. The Accelerator Center has enabled us to become better entrepreneurs today,” Omambia says.