Austin’s NSS Labs Shuts Down Abruptly and Lays off All Employees

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News

NSS Labs, an information security testing company, has shut down operations resulting in more than 40 employees losing their jobs.

The Austin-based company posted on its website “Due to Covid-related impacts, NSS Labs ceased operations on October 15^th.”

“It was unexpected, and it took a lot of people by surprise,” said a former employee who requested anonymity.

Employees were not offered severance pay or extended benefits, according to the employee.

NSS Labs received a Paycheck Protection Loan of between $1 million and $2 million in April through Silicon Valley Bank to keep its 47 employees on staff.

NSS Labs moved into new headquarters with 23,000 square feet of space at 3711 S. Mopac a few years ago, according to Austin Inno. The company had ping pong tables, sit and standing desks, and provided catered lunches daily to its employees, landing it on Austin Inno’s 50 on Fire list for 2017.

Attempts to contact the company for comment via email and phone were unsuccessful.

DARKReading first reported the news of the shutdown last week. TechCrunch and TechTarget also reported the news.

Jason Brevnik, CEO of NSS Labs, posted to LinkedIn about the shutdown and wrote “If you are in need of excellent people that exceed my high standards, please get in touch.”

On Nov. 1, 2019, Consecutive Inc., a private equity company based in San Francisco, acquired NSS Labs, according to mergr. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Attempts to get a comment from Consecutive via email were also not successful.

Bob Walder, now a real estate investor in Austin, founded NSS Labs in his garage in 1991. NSS Labs had raised $27 million in venture capital and was backed by LiveOak Venture Partners. The company created the “Cyber Advanced Warning System,” cloud-based software that monitors networks for attacks and tests security products against those attacks.

Other high-profile Austin tech companies that have shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic include ScaleFactor, a Techstars company that had raised $103 million, announced its plans to close shop in June. And GoDaddy, which bought Main Street Hub for $125 million in 2018, shut down its Austin office in June and laid off 331 local employees.