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.