marko sarunac, qrbolt, incudolabs, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, yvr, business, entrepreneurs, industry magazine

Marko Sarunac: Innovating Digital Security with QRBolt and the Power of Practical Insight

You see a QR code. A pixelated square promising a gateway to information, a special offer, or a convenient menu. You point your phone at it. Instead of going straight to the business, it redirects through a shortened URL from an unfamiliar service. Do you trust it? Do you risk it?

Now imagine being on the other side. You are a business owner who has spent months perfecting a menu or survey. You print static QR codes everywhere. They work—until you update the link. Suddenly, every flyer, poster, and card becomes useless. The solution seems to be dynamic codes, but those often redirect through odd, unbranded domains. With QR phishing on the rise, customers hesitate.

marko sarunac, qrbolt, incudolabs, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, yvr, business, entrepreneurs, industry magazine

A seasoned technologist and the founder of IncudoLABS Inc, Sarunac has spent his career confronting the ways in which convenience often outpaces security. His mission has consistently been to bridge that gap—first through enterprise solutions, and now through a product designed for everyone who has ever second-guessed a QR scan.

That challenge inspired Sarunac and his company to build a smarter solution. The result is QRBolt.com, a platform designed with a cybersecurity-first mindset. Its promise: QR codes that are smart, secure, and forever yours.

“We wanted to create a tool that businesses could use to build customer’s trust in the brand,” Sarunac explains. “QR codes are here to stay, but unless consumers feel safe using them, they lose their value. QRBolt solves that by making security and branding the default.”

Sarunac’s path into cybersecurity began with real-world problems, not a grand vision. “My story starts as a student crawling through the ceilings of local high schools, pulling wires for what was then the new Ethernet,” he recalls. Those early days led to work in the Dot-com boom, and later to a national telecom provider where he worked on mission-critical projects.

The corporate world brought process but slowed innovation. Later, while helping launch a pilot program called Quick Wins, he saw how Agile teams delivered quickly but left security behind. “In the race to deliver features, security was an afterthought,” he says. “That was my lightbulb moment about the need for a Secure Software Development Life Cycle.”

As his career progressed, frameworks like NIST, SOC2, and GDPR multiplied, leaving companies struggling. Compliance tools could identify problems but rarely fix them. This realization drove the creation of IncudoLabs.

Inspired by the Latin “incudo,” meaning “to forge,” the company is developing Orion’s Belt, a free repository of security hardening scripts, followed by Orion’s Forge, a commercial solution that aligned hardening with compliance. At the same time, IncudoLABS began working with SFU Beedie School of Business and other schools, to offer students internships and real-world projects, in many capacities.

marko sarunac, qrbolt, incudolabs, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, yvr, business, entrepreneurs, industry magazine

“Our mission has always been to make security accessible,” Sarunac says. “From hobbyists to enterprises, and from students to professionals, everyone should have the tools to build safer systems.”

QRBolt is the natural extension of that vision. While Orion’s Belt and Forge will focus on infrastructure, QRBolt addresses consumer trust. By allowing businesses to create branded, dynamic codes that are secure by design, it ensures both sides of the interaction feel confident.

Currently in public beta, QRBolt is gaining traction with restaurants, retailers, and event organizers. Its dynamic functionality, branding options, and focus on transparency give businesses a competitive edge—and give customers a reason to scan without hesitation.

For Marko Sarunac, QRBolt is more than a product launch. It represents his lifelong belief that innovation must move as quickly as technology, but never at the expense of trust. With QRBolt, he and IncudoLABS are forging a safer, smarter, and more resilient digital future—one scan at a time.

Photography by Michael Mihaylov.

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Helen Siwak, Collaborator: This story is created in collaboration between Helen Siwak and the featured subject. As the founder and publisher of Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, Helen works closely with entrepreneurs to share their paths of innovation, resilience, and growth. Each story in this series is co-developed through interviews and first-person insights, blending authentic voices with Helen’s editorial expertise to highlight the remarkable individuals shaping British Columbia’s business landscape.