Welcome to Season 5 of the Cyber Security District Podcast. In this episode, we sit down with Niek Waarbroek (Founder & CTO) and Tycho Klessens (CEO) of Florbs, the Dutch startup redefining how organisations secure files inside Google Workspace. What began as a collection of internal admin scripts has rapidly grown into a full SaaS platform used by companies around the world to prevent data leaks, automate access control, and bring clarity to one of the most overlooked threats in the modern workplace.
This conversation takes you behind the scenes of their journey, from a technical frustration that sparked the idea, to raising €1 million from cybersecurity leaders, to building a product-led growth model without a sales or marketing team. Their insights offer an honest look at the challenges and decisions founders face when building in the security space.
Meet Niek Waarbroek & Tycho Klessens
Niek Waarbroek, a long-time Google Workspace specialist, spent years working with organisations struggling to manage user onboarding, off-boarding, and file permissions. He saw first-hand how easily employees, even those who had already left the company could still access sensitive data. After repeatedly fixing the same problems through manual scripts, he built a small internal tool to automate access controls. That prototype became the foundation of Florbs.
Tycho Klessens, formerly a VC investor, discovered the product while sourcing cybersecurity startups. Impressed by the traction Florbs had achieved without funding or sales, he joined as the commercial co-founder. Together, Niek and Tycho raised €1 million from angel investors and CISOs across the Netherlands and Europe, fueling Florbs’ transition from a one-person project to a fast-growing software company with a clear mission: to eliminate blind spots in Google Workspace file security.
Solving One of Google Workspace’s Biggest Security Gaps
A central theme in the conversation is the massive visibility problem inside Google Workspace. Organisations often underestimate how many files are publicly shared, shared externally, or still accessible to former employees. According to Niek, this is not a niche problem, it’s a structural one:
“You’d be shocked how many former employees can still access shared folders and documents. And most companies don’t know where those risks even are.”
This lack of visibility creates unnecessary exposure, often without any malicious intent. Simple oversights, like a file shared externally years ago, can snowball into major data breaches.
Florbs addresses this by giving security teams real-time insight into file permissions across the entire organisation. The platform identifies risks, flags unusual sharing patterns, and enables safe, reversible actions so admins can fix issues with confidence.
The Hidden Risk of Onboarding and Offboarding
Another major topic in the episode is the threat introduced by poor onboarding and offboarding workflows. In many organisations, granting and revoking access is managed through manual processes or inconsistent admin behaviour. Niek explains:
“If you’re onboarding 20 people, someone always forgets something: permissions, group memberships, shared drives. If you’re off-boarding 20 people, it gets even worse. And that’s where real security issues begin.”
Florbs automates these flows, ensuring that new employees receive the right access on day one, and that departing employees lose access across all connected services immediately. This eliminates the chaotic, error-prone nature of manual identity and access management for Google Workspace.
From Scripts to a Full SaaS Product
When Florbs launched, it wasn’t a startup, it was a side project solving an urgent need. But as more organisations adopted the tool, Niek realised he was running a product with global demand. That’s when Tycho stepped in.
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is how they moved from a “tool” to a real SaaS platform. Instead of hiring a sales team or investing heavily in marketing, they leaned into product-led growth. Users discovered Florbs, tested it within minutes, and quickly adopted it because the pain was so clear. Tycho describes the moment he knew the product had true potential:
“Companies were finding Florbs without any outreach from us. That’s when you know the problem is real and the solution is working.”
Raising €1 Million and Building a Complementary Founding Team
When Niek and Tycho met, both immediately felt the potential of combining their skill sets. Niek brought deep technical knowledge and years of hands-on experience in Workspace. Tycho brought commercial strategy, investor networks, and the operational experience of scaling a product.
Together they raised €1 million from angel investors and cybersecurity leaders, funding that allowed them to hire engineers, refine the platform, and prepare for expansion.
What stands out most is their emphasis on founder chemistry. Tycho shares that raising capital is far easier when the investor believes not just in the product, but in the team behind it. Florbs’ early traction, combined with their complementary backgrounds, created a compelling story for investors.
Expanding Into AI-Powered Security and Cross-Platform Collaboration
In the episode, Niek also shares how Florbs is growing beyond Google Workspace into broader collaboration security. As more companies operate across multiple cloud environments, the next stage of file security requires understanding not just who has access, but why.
The team is investing in AI-powered detection that identifies unusual access patterns, cross-platform collaboration risks, and subtle behaviour that might indicate accidental or malicious data exposure. As Niek puts it:
“Visibility is the first step. Intelligence is the next.”
Looking Ahead
Florbs is now at a pivotal stage. With steady revenue, a growing engineering team, and clear market demand, the company is focusing on product development, customer expansion, and deeper integrations with collaboration tools.
The conversation with Niek and Tycho highlights a crucial insight: file security is not just a technical problem, it is a human one. Employees share files to get their work done. Security tools need to support that behaviour safely, not restrict it. Florbs sits directly at that intersection, helping companies stay secure without slowing down collaboration.
Learn more about Florbs here.
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
