Sublime Black
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Sublime Black was an automated cybersecurity platform startup founded in 2019 by Charles Whitby (CISSP, PCIP, CRISC, CISM), based in Rockville, Maryland / Washington, DC. A Y Combinator Winter 2019 company, it developed AI-based technology to automate cybersecurity incident response - leading projects from initial design through installation, programming integration, and commissioning so clients could combat threats and maintain network security. It raised $150,000 through an accelerator round in January 2019 and a seed round in September 2019. PitchBook lists the company as Out of Business as of January 7, 2025.
02 / Sublime Black FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
No detailed public account of why Sublime Black failed was ever published. The facts on record: the company was still in beta testing when PitchBook marked it Out of Business on January 7, 2025 - six years after founding and its YC W19 seed round. It never reached general availability; a beta-stage product that survived six years without graduating to a commercial launch suggests the company could not turn its AI incident-response automation into a market-ready, revenue-generating product.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded, accelerator round
Sublime Black was founded in 2019 by Charles Whitby and raised $150,000 through an accelerator/incubator round in January 2019; it entered Y Combinator's Winter 2019 batch with its AI incident-response automation.
- Seed round
In September 2019 Sublime Black completed a seed round; the product remained in beta testing.
- Out of business
PitchBook records Sublime Black as Out of Business on January 7, 2025, with the product still at the beta-test stage.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On January 7, 2025 PitchBook recorded Sublime Black as Out of Business.
- 02
The company had raised $150,000 (accelerator, Jan 2019) plus a seed round (Sept 2019, amount undisclosed); the product never left beta testing.
- 03
No bankruptcy filing, debts, or creditor claims were disclosed.