- October 12, 2026
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A New England technology company has opened an office in Sarasota. SecureWon, which provides IT and cybersecurity services primarily for independent schools, nonprofits and small- to medium-sized businesses, recently began leasing a property off Fruitville Road at 3388 Magic Oak Lane.
SecureWon Chief Strategy Officer Craig Audette moved to Sarasota County with his family less than two months ago to establish the office. He will be working there as part of a team of five that includes a field tech manager, help desk, engineer and business manager.
It is a “small team that will also be very nimble — able to get in front of customers at a moment's notice, and that's how we'll want to keep it,” Audette says in a phone interview. That ability is one way his company differentiates itself, he says.
“If it’s 3 a.m. and your system is down and you need it to be online because you have food coming in for the homeless at 5 a.m., our team is responding 24/7," Audette says. If someone calls or texts and needs help, “you’re getting a response."
The company offers a range of services, from conducting cybersecurity vulnerability assessments to acting as a managed service provider, handling all things IT for clients. It also offers what it calls “AI readiness checks” to ensure organizations are using AI in ways that keep their proprietary information safe.
"I wanted our clients to feel like they were winning their cybersecurity and physical security posture, not constantly reacting to the next problem," SecureWon CEO and founder Wayne Audette, Craig's younger brother, says in an email, explaining how the company chose its name. "But the idea of 'one' mattered too. One trusted partner that could understand the entire technology environment instead of forcing an organization to coordinate five different vendors."
Part of what attracted SecureWon — headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts — to the Sarasota area is its abundance of nonprofit organizations and focus on education, Craig Audette says.
His company has an office in Indianapolis and had been looking at other areas to expand nationally. About seven months ago, Audette and a Massachusetts school client came to Orlando for a speaking engagement at a conference hosted by the NBOA, the National Business Officers Association, which covers business leadership for independent schools.
Afterward, the conversations that Audette says he had with Florida school leaders helped move the area up on SecureWon's short list of places to search for its next location. While the conference attracted about 100 leaders from schools nationwide, he says there was something different about those who were from the Sunshine State.
“They were fully engaged,” he recalls, and he set up three meetings as a result of the conference with Florida school leaders.
When he and the team drilled down into different parts of Florida, “greater Tampa Bay and then Sarasota started to really elevate,” Audette says.
In all, SecureWon employs 30 people, including the Sarasota staff. The goal is to get to “10x in three years,” meaning 50 employees would be working in Sarasota in 2029, Audette says. That said, the company plans to build out the team gradually as its client base grows. Among its clients in Massachusetts are schools, towns, nonprofits and businesses ranging from plumbers to law firms to travel agencies.
“We really want to learn from what we've done in the Northeast and double down on the customers that start giving us opportunities down here,” Audette says. “How can we be the best partners to them? We’re really excited."
