Years ago, a cyberattack on a side business turned Cecile Mengue’s life upside down. The incident wiped out everything she had built and left her asking tough questions: “How did I get hacked? What made me a target?”

That moment of loss became the turning point that fueled her determination to understand how systems work online and how to protect them.

That experience pushed her to pivot from her original studies in criminal justice to a career in cybersecurity. She returned to school, then went on to work in corporate America as an ethical hacker, testing the defenses of Fortune 500 companies and flagging vulnerabilities for clients to fix. While the work was valuable, she noticed a troubling gap: smaller businesses rarely had access to those same protections because the services were expensive and often reserved for large corporations. Without the resources or knowledge to defend themselves, these smaller companies became prime targets — just as she had once been.

Motivated by that insight, Mengue launched CyberCile, LLC, a Fort Worth, Texas–based company dedicated to making cybersecurity accessible for small and mid-sized firms. CyberCile specializes in penetration testing, IT infrastructure assessments, and cyber awareness training. Her focus is on industries like banking, healthcare, and law — sectors that handle sensitive data and face mounting compliance pressures but often lack affordable options for protection.

Finding Structure

Launching the company wasn’t easy. While Mengue had technical expertise, she lacked experience running the business side. Chef Tonnette Khabir of Bobsaith LLC, a Communities Unlimited (CU) client, referred her to CU’s Entrepreneurship Team.

Working with Senior Management Consultant James Custer, Mengue began shaping the business beyond its technical core. A benchmark analysis confirmed her profit margins were already above industry averages, showing she had the financial capacity to grow. Together, they developed a Business Model Canvas, a strategic plan with financial projections, and measurable milestones. The process helped Mengue define her services, target customer segments, customer engagement strategies, key partnerships, and revenue streams — sharpening her focus and identifying areas for immediate improvement.

“It meant structure. It meant having a clear vision,” Mengue said. “And it meant me coming outside of like this technical person and just a business. So, it literally came from just me just working on gigs, to actually being like a business with processes in place.”

One of the biggest breakthroughs came in finance. With assistance from Custer, she adopted Wave, a cloud-based bookkeeping platform, and learned how to track expenses and revenues consistently.

“I found that I was bad with numbers,” she admitted with a laugh. “I now have that under control, and it was thanks to this program really to be able to look at numbers and in the way that we were able to get my books together.”

They also built a growth plan that included specific goals, timelines, and resource needs, and identified key performance indicators (KPIs) to track revenue, customer acquisition, and profit margins. These tools gave Mengue real-time visibility into her finances and a roadmap for sustainable growth.

Results and Vision

CyberCile is already seeing results. Mengue has a well-defined strategy and a clearly identified target market, including small to mid-sized law firms and healthcare providers — industries with strong demand for cybersecurity services. She has refreshed her website to present her services and pricing transparently, streamlined her offerings, and added structured marketing and lead generation to expand beyond referrals.

Her ambitions also reach abroad. She is in talks with a bank in Cameroon — where she grew up and lived until age 13 — to provide cybersecurity services, marking an early step toward international expansion. At the same time, she envisions CyberCile building recurring monthly retainers, generating about $50,000 a month. That foundation, she hopes, will allow her to expand her team, create local jobs, and give more small businesses the protection they need.

“One or three years from now, I want CyberCile to be a company that… helped small company improve their security,” she said.

Mengue encourages other small business owners to embrace the full scope of entrepreneurship:

“The advice that I probably would give to them would be like to be ready to really work on their business because they will learn… processes of a business and the different things that need to be covered from bookkeeping to sales to marketing to actually what it takes to run a successful business.”

She added, “For example, James, he always made himself available to meet. We met every week. That was my recommendation. I had a lot to go through to get my business where it needed to be. I appreciate everything Communities Unlimited has done for me.”

Building CyberCile has brought Mengue’s story full circle, born from the experience of being hacked herself. Now her focus is clear: continue growing the business while making sure small companies have access to the protections they deserve.