How Did You Hire a Team and Raise Funding Pre-Product?

In this episode of Cyber Security District, we sit down with Kim van Lavieren, co-founder and CTO of Dawnguard, a cybersecurity startup that raised millions in funding before registering a company or launching a product. Kim’s story is anything but ordinary, from leading Marines on no-sleep missions to building offensive hacking tools for the Dutch military, to managing massive security teams at Amazon in the U.S., his path combines discipline, vision, and deep technical mastery.

Together with co-founder Madi Abdurazak, Kim is now on a mission to completely rethink how cybersecurity should be done, by starting not with alerts or vulnerabilities, but with architecture, policy, and real business risk. Dawnguard is building a platform that automates secure-by-design architecture using AI, aiming to replace an entire category of cloud security tools before most companies even realize there’s a better way.

• What the Dutch Marine Corps taught Kim about discipline and decision-making
• How a military comms officer became a cybersecurity architect
• Building secure systems after discovering flaws in weapons room access
• Writing offensive tools for the cyber division of the Dutch Armed Forces
• Why cyber soldiers may be more impactful than boots on the ground
• Kim’s journey to Amazon and running third-party security at massive scale
• The mindset shift from “no” to “how” in security engineering
• The origin story behind Dawnguard and raising millions pre-product
• How Dawnguard is building a new category for architecture-led security
• Using AI to design, verify, deploy, and enforce security from day zero
• Advice for cybersecurity newcomers, and why the industry must rebrand
• How Dutch risk aversion is holding back innovation — and how to break through

00:00:00 – Intro
00:00:47 – Kim's Background: From Marines to Cybersecurity
00:03:29 – Training Under Extreme Pressure
00:06:28 – Becoming a Communications Officer & Discovering Security Gaps
00:08:18 – First Lines of Code at Age 10
00:10:19 – When Tech & Physical Endurance Collide
00:11:04 – Offensive Cyber Capabilities in the Military
00:14:22 – Why Cyber Soldiers Now Matter More Than Physical Ones
00:17:05 – Consulting, CISO Roles & Joining Amazon
00:18:49 – The Scale & Speed of Security at Amazon
00:21:00 – The Origin of Dawnguard
00:23:00 – Automating Architecture Compliance with AI
00:25:08 – Using Threat Intel & Policy as a Starting Point
00:28:02 – Building the Engine: 5 AIs and a Moonshot
00:30:46 – Meeting Madi & Finding the Perfect Co-Founder Match
00:33:29 – Raising Millions with No Product — and Building a Dream Team
00:36:37 – Rise Into Resilience: What the Dawnguard Slogan Really Means
00:38:08 – Rebranding Cyber: Why the Industry Needs a Makeover
00:39:44 – Advice for People Trying to Break Into Security
00:41:03 – Advice for Aspiring Cyber Entrepreneurs
00:44:42 – Certifications, Labs & Reality Checks
00:47:25 – Going Big Means Accepting Uncertainty
00:49:00 – The 5-Year Vision: Replace Entire Security Categories
00:50:30 – Final Signal Message to CISOs: Security Is Balance, Not Absolutes

Connect with the guests:

Kim van Lavieren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-v-0645931b4/

Learn more about Dawnguard: https://dawnguard.ai/

Follow Cyber Security District:
Laurens Jagt (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensjagt/
Website: https://www.cybersecuritydistrict.com
All channels & newsletter: https://beacons.ai/cybersecuritydistrict