When Christian Hyatt walked into his first Executive MBA class at the Scheller College of Business, he didn’t know a single person in the room. Out of habit, he took a seat in the front and noticed another student with the same name sitting in the seat next to him. That first conversation with Christian White sparked what would shape the next decade of both of their lives.
“It was the easiest icebreaker in the world,” Hyatt recalled. The two quickly discovered an uncommon alignment: both had come to Scheller to start a business, were relentlessly hardworking, and were hungry for a meaningful career beyond traditional corporate pathways.
By the time the 18-month program ended, the Christians weren’t just classmates or project partners — they were co-founders. Their company, risk3sixty, would grow from a single cybersecurity client generating $30,000 in its first month to a nationally recognized, award-winning consulting firm inducted into the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Hall of Fame after seven consecutive years on the “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list.
And it all began at Scheller.
Two Paths, One Purpose
Hyatt grew up in western Georgia. With the encouragement of his high school Spanish teacher, he enrolled at UGA as a first-generation college student where he majored in management information systems and entered consulting after graduation. It was there he first encountered cybersecurity — a young field with no playbooks and few rules. For him, that was the appeal.
“I was developing proposals, processes, pitch decks, and deliverables as a first-year consultant,” Hyatt said. “It taught me how to build things from scratch and prepared me for starting a business.”
White’s path was equally unconventional. An infantry officer and West Point graduate, he learned early how to lead high-performing teams under pressure. When he transitioned out of the military to be closer to family, he knew he wanted to build something of his own. Georgia Tech — and its intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership — felt like the next best chapter.
“In the military, you learn to take charge and figure things out,” White said. “I knew I either needed to find the right team to join or build a high performing one myself. That work connected to my deeper purpose of developing and leading people to create something of value.”
They met on day one. They partnered on every group assignment. They traveled abroad together. They built trust in the way only classmates-turned-teammates can: through late-night projects, cramped hotel rooms on study abroad, and countless conversations about shared values, purpose, and vision.
A Business Born in the Middle
Risk3sixty launched in July, five months before their MBA graduation. Hyatt signed the firm’s first $30,000 client that month. By October, there was enough work for White to leave his job and join full time. By December, the business had generated $176,000 in revenue, which was enough for both founders, each with young families, to “keep fighting the good fight into the next year.”
But beyond the revenue, something deeper was taking shape.
Both founders were driven by early experiences with uncertainty — economic instability, military deployment, or the lack of a safety net. Instead of discouraging them, those hardships gave them a sense of clarity and grit.
“We both had this sense of confidence that we could bet on ourselves,” Hyatt said. “We’d both already survived harder things.”
That resilience, and a shared desire to build a team-centered, values-led company, became the heart of risk3sixty.
Vision Meets Opportunity
Neither Hyatt nor White grew up dreaming of cybersecurity. But at Scheller, they finally had the space to step back and think strategically. They analyzed macro trends, market projections, and long-term opportunities — something they say they never would have done without the “tactical pause” of the MBA program.
They noticed three seismic shifts:
- Cybercrime was becoming one of the world’s largest “economies.”
- Companies were generating exponential amounts of data every year.
- Digitization and outsourcing created massive vulnerabilities — and therefore enormous demand for trusted partners.
“It was a market exploding in every direction,” Hyatt said. “And we saw an opportunity not just to build a profitable business, but a meaningful one.”
Bootstrapped on Purpose: Building “The Good Business”
Unlike many tech startups built to “go big or go home,” risk3sixty was intentionally bootstrapped. Both founders didn’t want to chase venture capital, or a fast exit. They wanted control and the ability to invest in people without an investor’s timeline dictating their choices. Their philosophy: build a business that can last forever but could be sold anytime.
That guiding philosophy eventually became the title of their book, “The Good Business: How to Bootstrap a Company to $10 Million and Beyond,” releasing on June 15, 2026.
The book project grew into a legacy for their families and a chance to pause and look back on ten years of building risk3sixty. As they wrote, they found themselves articulating the values and principles that had guided them, offering prospective clients and future team members a clear window into what they stand for. Woven throughout the pages is a practical guide for entrepreneurs who want to build something meaningful without following the traditional Silicon Valley script.
Ultimately, “It’s the book we wish we had when we started,” White said.
Building Culture Like a Craft
Culture is the founders’ proudest achievement. “Invest in people” is the ethos they’ve come to embrace, adopted not from business school but from the Army, early mentors, and years of building high trust teams.
