SubImage

SubImage operated in the cloud security visibility space, specifically infrastructure mapping—a segment dominated by Wiz, which had achieved unicorn status by 2023. ​​‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌The market already contained established players offering asset discovery and relationship mapping, but SubImage's founders possessed a structural advantage: they were the original creators of Cartography, the open-source project underlying their commercial product. They positioned themselves as the "open core alternative to Wiz," emphasizing transparency, community-driven development, and avoiding vendor lock-in—claims that directly addressed frustrations with proprietary solutions. This differentiation mattered significantly to security teams skeptical of closed platforms. Early validation came through Cartography's existing adoption and community trust; thousands of organizations already used the free version, creating a natural funnel to the managed offering. The open-source foundation provided credibility that pure commercial competitors couldn't match, allowing SubImage to compete on principle rather than feature parity alone. This approach attracted security-conscious enterprises willing to pay for managed infrastructure around proven, auditable code.