August 1, 2025
Part 1 of 3: Starting A Digital Forensic Business
"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
-Epictetus
Interestingly, I still get inquiries about starting a digital forensic business, even after penning an article entitled “So You Want to Start a Digital Forensic Business” over 5 years ago, wherein I cautioned would-be entrepreneurs about setting up their own shop, using personal anecdotes of essentially what not to do. Since then, a lot has changed. My company was acquired by a larger, nationwide digital forensics & e-discovery provider and we’ve grown immensely in that time. Access to digital forensic tools has evolved, particularly for those of us in the private sector. We now have the ability to conduct full file system collections on mobile devices and the advancements made in research on a multitude of fronts has been and continues to service us all well.
But it all starts at the beginning, and there are a lot of decisions to weigh. How does one effectively start a business, particularly if you’ve never done it before? Some of what’s discussed here was touched upon by Amber Schroader, a noted DF Entrepreneur in her own right. But I’ll expand a bit more and offer some advice from my experience. None of this is intended to be legal or investment advice, but is intended to relay what I’ve learned in the past dozen years of starting, running, and selling my own digital forensic consultancy and what I’ve observed from operating in a larger market share.
So let’s get started!
It’s All In A Name
Business starts with being able to be recognized for what you do easily. That starts with a name. Yes, you can name it “Patrick’s Forensics” or something like that, but it’s not only arguably egotistical, but it doesn’t really tell your potential clients what you do. The only time I’d recommend using your name is if you have a very recognizable name. As I mentioned 5 years ago, I had a locally recognizable name and quite the search engine profile, but I still wouldn’t have used my name to start the business. “Siewert Forensics” or “Siewert Discovery” doesn’t really roll off the tongue easily.
I chose “Professional Digital Forensic Consulting” (dba, Pro Digital) for a few specific reasons. First, it tells everyone exactly what I do. There’s no confusion about whether or not I do crime scene, fingerprint or ballistics consulting (although I’d still get calls for those). It automatically elevates everything my company does to the level of “professional”, which was purposely chosen because I’d personally been fed up with the lack of professionalism in prior career endeavors. It’s important to our profession and our practice overall that we maintain a baseline semblance of professionalism, hence the first word in the company name.
The ”Digital Forensic” piece of the name is a no-brainer… At least that was the goal. The “Consulting” moniker was also purposely added to define that my company was in the business of consulting in our specified areas of expertise. This can sometimes be a legal definition (consulting vs testifying expert), but I found it to be valuable because prospective clients could automatically expect consultation as a main part of our services.
Whatever you choose as a name, make sure it’s clear, concise and definable. I tried to steer away from insider-like terms such as “4N6” in the company name because most people don’t get it. However, it was the most effective (read: shortest) thing to put in the website URL and email domain. There are insiders to our practice and outsiders. Largely, we’re marketing to outsiders, so anything that only forensicators would understand can definitely be catchy, but maybe not the best option for a company name.
Decide Who Your Clients Will Be
A large part of choosing your name is choosing who you want to be your target clientele. I highly discourage throwing out your DF shingle and taking business from anyone and everyone who calls. The first reason is, you may be violating some software licensing terms of service by doing that. The second reason is, you will spend most of your time fending off undesirable clients. By “undesirable”, I mean those clients who call and are convinced their phone is hacked or they’re being monitored by the CIA or their estranged partner, who “works in IT”. You don’t want those clients and you’ll never get any money from those clients.
A third reason you don’t want to cast too large of a net is, we need to police ourselves within our practice first, and this starts with the individual. What do I mean by “policing ourselves?” We seem to be constantly teetering on the edge of widespread acceptance as a forensic science and “junk science”. You know who makes the difference? YOU DO! And this starts with the type of work you accept as a private practitioner and how you approach the work you do.
Some who start their own business are fortunate enough to get government contracts and churn the government clients. That’s awesome, but it’s an administrative load to get that work to get and maintaining it is a full-time job in itself, which you alone will likely not have the time to manage. It’s definitely not for the one-man shop. Most local and state governments have their own DF staff (and you may have worked for them), so largely, they probably won’t consider your brand-new company to work those cases if they can do them without expanding their budget, unless you’ve potentially laid the groundwork before leaving your prior role that this is an agreed-upon client base.
A nickel’s worth of free advice: Choose your clients wisely and with great intention. Here are some good tips I’ve learned mostly the hard way over the years:
- For litigation support, only accept attorney-clients who are representing individuals or corporations involved in litigation, and ensure to contract only with the attorney unless explicitly asked otherwise. This adds legitimacy to the engagement and it means the end-client is serious. It also has the benefit of extending legal privilege to you and confidentiality over your work. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN CRIMINAL DEFENSE CASES. And along those lines…
- Decide if you want to only work civil cases or a combination of civil and criminal
- If only civil, decide what types of civil cases you want to work, i.e., auto/trucking, divorce/custody, IP theft, employment, etc. A note to my former/transitioning LEO’s, get acquainted with this world before diving into it. It can vary quite a bit from the criminal world you operated in for your career.
- If you choose to work criminal, it is best to leave all options open if you want to earn a living. The client who called you to work a CSAM case may also need you to work a robbery or homicide a month later. Also, to my former/transitioning LEO’s, you will be ostracized by most of your former co-workers if you work criminal defense. Decide it’s OK and move on.
- For investigative support, only accept corporate clients, and even then, be selective and ask lots of questions on the intake. When employees leave a company and they are suspected of taking trade secrets or other IP that belonged to the prospective client, emotions can be high and some CEO’s often want to flex their muscles as a show of force, even if there’s no litigation. Proper vetting is key.
- Don’t take pro bono cases. Trust me on this one, it’s a really bad idea.
- DO NOT take cases form individuals. Again, trust me on this one. I’d also suggest being very selective about taking business from private investigators.
- Get paid up front. Accounts receivable will grow over time, and you don’t want to have to add debt collector to the many hats you’ll wear. Accounts payable keep rolling in and your debtors don’t care that Law Firm, PC hasn’t paid you for the work you did 6 months ago. Don’t issue findings without getting paid for them.
- As mentioned in the article 5 years ago, consider supplementing the business income with training as a contractor or developing your own curriculum. It will help fill in the gaps when business cycles downward, which it is sure to do.
Get The Foundations In Place
Businesses are built on foundations, and these foundations will generally define both internally and externally who you are and how you conduct business. Like a building, if the foundations are weak, so will your business be. Choosing the right clientele is a big one, but there are others that are just as important:
Simon Sinek famously preached, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. If you haven’t watched this video on YouTube, do it immediately. It’s old, but it’s evergreen. Decide why you’re starting this business. Who is it for, and why? If the answer is, “I heard you private sector guys make lots of money”, that’s the wrong answer. There is a mission to the practice of digital forensics, and adhering to that mission in some reasonable iteration is important. A good place to start is with a Mission Statement. Any good business with a solid foundation has one. Mine was succinct to grab the client: “We Find The Truth For A Living”. It took me a while to come up with that. Not because it's complicated, but because it’s not easy. Catchy slogans are fine, but the slogan should lead the client directly to your Mission Statement – your reasons for doing what you’re doing and how you implement those principles. Being principled in our practice goes hand-in-hand with keeping it legitimate and legitimizing the practice of digital forensics in the private sector. Those who get into it for an “easy buck” are those with whom the rest of us don’t want to affiliate ourselves. And news flash: There’s nothing “easy” about it.
Beyond the principles and mission statement are the legalities of starting a business. In most states and in most cases, a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) is sufficient. My home state of Virginia makes it easy and you can do it with $100 and fully online. It’s important to have a bonafide business entity in place because it will insulate you and your work from liability should you mess up, and our practice can often be high-stakes. But along with that, you’ll want business insurance to protect liability and assets. It’s not cheap, but it’s necessary. Of course, you’ll also need to register your business with the IRS, obtain an electronic identification number (EIN) and open a business banking account. All of this is either done out-of-pocket or with investor funds, and if you have investors, the business structure gets more complicated. I can’t advise much about that. Thankfully, I owned my business 100%.
All of these things may seem trivial, but they are foundational, and nothing foundational is trivial. As your company grows, you’ll decide where you want to place emphasis, and may even seek to refine these notions and practices a bit, but the principles on which your company is built should be evergreen.
Finally, get your curriculum vitae (CV) in order. Most of you probably already do, but just in case you don’t, you’ll definitely want it. It will be requested almost daily. This is not a resume. It’s a listing of positions, training, awards, grants, associations, accomplishments, etc. Don’t list garbage, but don’t leave anything out either. Keep it updated. Your CV is what will make you stand out on paper for each engagement when multiple potential experts are being vetted. Ensure to have dates and case citations for any expert testimony. And if current events haven’t taught us anything else, it’s to be HONEST & TRUTHFUL on your CV. If you lie, someone will eventually find out!
Tools of the Trade
No conversation about the business of digital forensics is complete without discussing the decision about which forensic tools to invest. This is not an easy question, and it gets harder with every passing year. The natural tendency, if you’ve moved out of a law enforcement/government role, is to stick with what you know. There are two potential problems with that:
1) What you know may be very expensive and
2) What you know may not be the best tool for the casework you’ve targeted
What dictates your tools partially relates to the earlier point about who your clients will be. If you’re working personal injury, auto, trucking, etc., you’ll obviously need more mobile-centric tools. If you’re working ex-employee & IP-theft cases, you’ll likely need more computer-centric tools. But make no mistake about it, the practicing attorneys in whatever field of support you choose to market toward are getting more educated about what is available all the time. Do you know why I ultimately and eventually invested in *INSERT LARGE MOBILE FORENSIC TOOL HERE*?? Because that’s what the attorneys know, and that’s what they want. The market will largely dictate what you can do, but so does your budget. I tried to replicate what worked for me in law enforcement as much as I could within my budget. That didn’t work. I learned that not every tool can do what you think it can do and not every tool is maximized for business purposes – in fact, almost none of them are. They are not designed for people running businesses, they’re designed for people working for the government.
Decision Time
Whether you’re retiring from LE/Gov space, graduating from college with a DF degree, moving away from a larger employer in the DF space or simply enamored by the potential windfall that may come from owning your own consultancy, the decision to open your own shop is a big one. I’ve mostly seen those who are no longer working in LE/Gov due to retirement or transitioning out for other reasons getting into this space. But there’s something virtually no one will tell you. There’s a dirty secret in the digital forensic tool market that is unspoken and will affect how you do business from day one forward.
The big digital forensic tool providers don’t want you as a customer.
I get a lot of push-back on LinkedIn and other platforms whenever I push this notion, but my experience, observation from years in various roles in the market, both having direct decision-making authority and input on the purchase of DF tools suggest this is 100% true. Why wouldn’t they want you as a customer? Because their main customer base – LE and government – don’t want you to have access to their tools.
It's a simple, customer-driven math problem – If you own a company selling widgets and your widget is primarily purchased by one segment of the market – by a VERY LARGE margin – that segment of the market can start to dictate how you conduct the business of selling the widgets. Adding to the mix, the widget is sold on a subscription basis, so keeping the VERY LARGE portion of your customer base returning means staying in business for the foreseeable future (read: profits). And if the underlying approach is that the customers in this VERY LARGE portion of the market will stop buying your widgets if you make it simple, affordable and/or even accessible to other customers they don’t think should have ready access to the widgets, then you have little choice but to do everything short of banning the sale of the widgets to the “undesirable” part of the market to make it difficult for those in that sector to purchase the widgets.
Notice I said difficult, not impossible (yet).
That’s why certain tools cost a baseline of $10,000 per year or more. And if you want access to the part of the tool that the VERY LARGE segment of the market has access to, and is increasingly necessary to stay modern and competitive, it’s more than twice that amount, on top of the $10,000 per year. Most retired or transitioning LE/Gov folks simply can’t afford that, and they know it.
So you have a hard math question to answer. Pay to play, or not. And one more thing: With every passing year, the price goes up.
WHEW! That’s all for part 1.
Part 2: Running a Digital Forensic Business will be along soon!
About the Author:
Patrick Siewert served 15 years in full-time law enforcement and investigated hundreds of high-tech crimes to precedent-setting results, Patrick is a graduate of SCERS & BCERT and is a court-certified expert witness in digital forensics, mobile forensics and historical cell site location analysis. He has published dozens of articles and is cited in numerous academic papers. He was the Founder & Principal Consultant of Pro Digital Forensic Consulting, based in Richmond, Virginia (USA) and currently serves as Director of Digital Forensics and E-Discovery for a Nationwide (US) provider of DF/IR and e-disco litigation support services, while keeping in touch with the public safety community as a Law Enforcement Instructor in multiple disciplines.
Email: Patrick@ProDigital4n6.com
Patrick Siewert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-siewert-92513445/
Patrick Siewert on X/Twitter : @RVA4n6
Patrick Siewert on Substack : rva4n6.substack.com
Pro Digital (old) blog site : https://prodigital4n6.blogspot.com/