HopZero

HopZero’s product, DataTravel (delivered through its HopSphere platform), works at the TCP/IP layer rather than at the application or content-inspection layer that most data loss prevention (DLP) tools operate at. It sets and enforces a maximum hop count (time-to-live, or TTL) on packets leaving a designated "Sphere of Trust" around a critical server or database, so that if data is exfiltrated beyond its expected network radius, routers drop the packets before they reach an attacker-controlled destination outside the perimeter, regardless of what the payload contains or whether it was encrypted.

Founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas, by network analyst Bill Alderson (formerly Principal Services Architect at CA Technologies/Broadcom) along with James Rounsville and Shawn Mack, HopZero has raised a small amount of seed funding reported in the $3-4M range and has stayed a very small team, publicly reported at roughly five employees. The company’s technology and messaging have been fairly stable since a wave of "top vendor" trade-publication recognition around 2019-2020, with limited visible product news or customer announcements since.

The core idea, that firewalls control access but say nothing about distance, is a genuinely distinct angle on exfiltration prevention. But HopZero’s tiny team size and lack of recent, independently verifiable customer or evaluation evidence mean it should be read as an early-stage, narrowly-scoped complement to existing DLP and network segmentation, not a proven category leader.