[September 13, 2011]

Wisegate Introduces the Hype-Free Social Network for Business Professionals

Austin-based start-up Wisegate, the social knowledge network, unveiled its first community which is exclusively for qualified senior information technology (IT) professionals. Wisegate, which raised a round of seed funding in December, 2010 led by Trellis Partners, was founded with the ambitious mission to provide the best information resource for senior professionals. Wisegate's invitation-only micro-communities enable members to collaborate with true peers and have candid conversations about challenges, industry trends, products and personal experiences with vendors. Free from the presence of vendors or selling, Wisegate members can quickly access the pragmatic information they need to make timely and smart decisions.

"Today there are more social networks than ever before, but meaningful networks are on the decline," said Sara Gates, CEO and Founder of Wisegate. "Wisegate represents the anti-social social network, a purposeful, hype-free professional social network where members gain real insights and experiences from fellow experts. We've heard loud and clear that everyone needs a Wisegate - from land developers to directors of HR. We started with senior IT and infosecurity professionals."

In hundreds of hours of interviews with senior IT professionals Wisegate found that:

• 82% said they need more transparent, unbiased information to reduce risk in IT decisions
• 89% said peers are their most trusted source of information
• 81% said a trusted online community of senior IT peers could provide greater information transparency

In response, Wisegate has organized the most valuable and untapped resource in IT: the collectve wisdom of professionals who daily bet their jobs and reputations buying, deploying and managing technology. Wisegate brings together the best brains and experience in corporate IT and provides tools for connecting, conversing, and collaborating, including micro-communities, online discussions, teleconferences, in-person events, community polls, interactive Q&As, and detailed vendor reviews by actual users.

"There's nothing out there like Wisegate today," said Jeff Bardin, veteran CISO from companies including Investor's Bank & Trust, State Street Bank and Hanover Insurance Group. "It's the members that define and make it valuable. The community is definitely filled with experts, people that have suffered through the same things you have, the failures as well as the successes. I'm finding a lot more value in Wisegate than any other service out there."

"I'm very busy and don't have time to spend on networking activities that fail to produce information when I need it quickly," said Tom McCreary, Information Security Officer at CalPERS. "Some of the identity management projects that other Wisegate members are either planning or implementing are providing valuable information that helps me do my job."

Wisegate is rolling out a series of micro-communities for IT, beginning with information security, identity & access management, data security, mobile security and privacy. Wisegate members are using the community to find solutions for the toughest challenges around the hottest info security topics including mobile devices in the enterprise, cloud security, corporate social networking policies, the RSA (News - Alert) SecurID hack and regulatory pressures.

Wisegate is in Beta through December, 2011. Membership in Wisegate costs $1,000 annually during the Beta period. Vendors are not eligible for membership.

To request an invitation to Wisegate, please visit http://www.wisegateit.com/request-invite/.

About Wisegate

Wisegate (wisegateit.com) is a new social knowledge network for senior professionals. By enforcing strict membership guidelines and barring vendor ads and sales hype, Wisegate is the first and only private professional online community to foster high-value collaboration, conversation and content-sharing by a network of one's true peers. Wisegate's first community is for senior Information Technology (IT) professionals, with others to roll out according to market demand. Wisegate Inc., a privately funded company with headquarters in Austin, Texas, was founded in 2010 by Sara Gates, a respected industry veteran of several start-ups and large enterprise IT companies.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6859419&lang=en

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