Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have been involved with several different sides of the trading industry. Sk3w Technologies, our start-up that I lead alongside co-founder Chad Milam works to provide fair and equal access to the markets. For the most part, major exchanges have addressed this issue of a level playing field by using equal length fibers within the data center. While a very easy solution to understand, equidistant fiber is a time-consuming, inflexible and expensive way of managing connections for exchange matching engines. At scale, professional firms bemoan the lack of transparency and auditability of the fiber cables solution. Exchanges and data center providers bemoan the expense of installing significantly more fiber than necessary. Expansion into additional data halls or buildings on a campus becomes a barrier to business growth.
As a result, we founded Sk3w Technologies, knowing that the current solution is insufficient, especially for an industry known for technology at the edge. Our conviction was that we could solve for this, and in doing so make trading better for professional firms.
At Sk3w, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the way industry approaches latency standardization, data capture, compliance, and policy enforcement. In layman's terms, our approach involves deploying technology that continuously measures and monitors fiber connections and can shape the traffic over those connections. Financial markets can ensure that latencies to the exchange remain constant regardless of changes in the underlying fiber infrastructure. This gives exchanges control of their latency profile and gives them the ability to rapidly expand their infrastructure as their business grows.
One of the great aspects of working at the CME, as I did for years, was the ability to act as an “intrapreneur” essentially, an employee with an entrepreneurial mindset that has the license to create new products, services, or processes within their existing company. I've always liked being on the early stage in organizations starting new product lines within large companies.
As we continue on this journey, Chad and I are grateful for the support of our investors, advisors, and early adopters who believe in our vision. And we are excited to connect with all of you here as we work to standardize access to electronic markets.
Our mission has recently received further validation, as I am happy to share that we just raised $7M to build our organization, invest in our platform, and drive our vision forward.
Our investors, which include some of the most technologically advanced firms in the industry, will likely also be vital product users, helping us refine and improve with feedback that only a professional trading firm can provide.
On behalf of Chad, the Sk3w team, and myself, thank you for your support and encouragement as we work to ensure more equitable access to a fairer playing field.
Sincerely, Craig
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