Our Story
- 2007
When there is a problem, there is an opportunity
Back in 2007, GRC software was cryptically difficult to use, as well as monumentally expensive. It made things so difficult for GRC practitioners that we started building our own GRC tool and sharing it with colleagues, which led to the first version of eramba.
- 2010
Crude, but very effective
The first version of eramba improved considerably based on feedback from the community. While not particularly pretty or user-friendly, it did the job and got all of us through different GRC certifications and business challenges. It seemed that GRC tools could be simple and still deliver.
- 2012
The problem of scale
eramba began growing in popularity, and with that came increased requests for support from small, large and mammoth-sized organizations. We also needed money to pay for developers, infrastructure, etc. We made the radical decision to finance the project with simple, honest, fixed and open pricing that would be enough to pay the project’s bills. No IPO in sight here.
- 2015
eramba goes full-time
Having run eramba for years as part-timers and with hundreds of customers signed, we decided it was time to fully dedicate ourselves to the project. We quit our GRC jobs and, well, here we are. Living the dream! Ha! Ha!
- Today
Still small, still independent
We are still a small team, and we still build eramba together with the people who use it.
- 3.31.0 current version
- 11 releases last year
- 642 enterprise users
Trivia
You Must Be Joking!
The answer from a GRC “strategist” after we told him that Gartner would sooner or later acknowledge us. Gartner named us in 2020 and 2021.
e-r-a-m-b-a
Esteban Ri, Adriana Mat, Boris and Aida == the founder’s name, his wife’s name, their first son’s name and their second son’s name (in the end he was called Benjamin)
OMV Petrol Station
Our conference room was the cafeteria at this petrol station for a good many years!
A Small Team
That’s the whole team that built and runs this project: developers and GRC experts. Most of us have been here since the beginning.
Don't you like money?
A VC analyst’s comment after we (politely) declined their offer to invest in eramba. We love our independence.
A Wikipedia Page
All Esteban (the founder) wanted out of eramba in 2008. He never got one.
No Sales or Marketing Teams
From the outset, we decided to forgo the San Francisco startup scene for a small business run by friends. We have never needed sales or marketing funds or teams.
No Thanks
In the very early days, desperate for funding, we offered half of eramba to a small US GRC consulting company for 7k. They declined. Visionaries.
The Competition Is Too Bad
The reason for our success, according to Esteban.
Frugality and Transparency
The key to our pricing and successful business model is that we never made grandiose expansion plans, took on debt, accepted investments, etc.
Let’s talk GRC
Support / Sales / Well, anything!
A practitioner answers, not a sales sequence.
London
Bratislava
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