Secure Ventures with Kyle McNulty

Oded is co-founder and CEO of Akeyless, which provides a vaultless secrets management platform for companies to manage their non-human identities. We will talk more about the vault vs. vaultless approach in the episode, but essentially the Akeyless design allows for a SaaS model which dramatically reduces time to value compared to often cumbersome vault implementation. Akeyless last raised a whopping $65 million dollar Series B in late 2022. Before Akeyless, Oded navigated a winding career parth from a Captain in the IDF working on identity management, to professional services, to product management at a B2C transportation technology company, and then finally back to identity management and Akeyless in 2018. Akeyless Website Thanks to our sponsor, VulnCheck!

Oz is co-founder and CEO of Opsin, which provides access control capabilities to LLM outputs ensuring users only get appropriate outputs based on their access level. The company was founded earlier this year, but they have already seen strong customer and investor interest given they are aimed at a key roadblock in making gen AI more available within the enterprise. Before Opsin, Oz worked in product management at high profile technology and security companies for most of the last decade, including Fireeye and Abnormal (where he met his co-founder James). In the episode we discuss everything from the origin story to the technical challenges of applying access control to these outputs and how to maintain current records despite a constantly changing access landscape. Website Sponsor: VulnCheck

Kabir is co-founder and CEO of Leen, which is creating a unified security API to enable simpler integrations of security tooling. As Kabir will immediately tell you, he has no background in cybersecurity. However, he does have extensive experience with growing partnerships and sales numbers in industries where he has no background. He worked in business development for the last 15 years across a variety of tech companies including NativeX, Kiip, and Typeform. As he tells in the episode, he very carefully and patiently assembled the founding team, and the problem Leen is addressing then emerged as the imperative from their extensive whiteboarding sessions. Now, after a hot start, the team is in the middle of key strategy decisions that will determine the future of the company. Website: Leen Sponsor: VulnCheck

This episode is a re-release of a conversation I had with Uri back in the beginning of 2022. It is truly one of my all-time favorites because of how well he illustrates the evolution of fraud prevention in financial services over time. Rest assured, he will be back on the show soon to talk about his new company which was in stealth at the time of this recording. His new company's website Our sponsor, VulnCheck!

Andy is CEO and co-founder of BreachRx, which provides incident response management tooling to help organizations respond effectively, consistently, and in accordance with legal requirements. Andy has a JD, an MBA, and a philosophy degree, which combine for a unique skillset. He worked in data breach litigation early in his career, and before starting BreachRx he was a Director for a government consulting group specializing in technology litigation. BreachRx ties together his experience across his career, as he is uniquely knowledgable about the legal complications that arise when managing cyber incidents. In the episode, we jump from the evolution of data privacy to the importance of dedicated communication channels for breach response to the personal liability of executives in cyber incidents. Website: BreachRx Sponsor: VulnCheck

Craig is co-founder and CEO of Bleach Cyber, which is building a product for small businesses to manage their holistic cybersecurity posture in a streamlined fashion. Before Bleach, Craig was COO and co-founder of Cyvatar which is a cybersecurity as a service offering for SMBs. Craig has 15 years of experience as a CISO or equivalent, including at companies such as Monster.com and Fujitsu. In the episode we touch on his journey from CISO to founder, the comparison of cybersecurity for extremely small businesses to B2C, and the strategy behind their go to market approach currently in-play. Website Sponsor: VulnCheck

Vivek is the CEO and co-founder of SquareX, which is building a Chrome extension to help users secure their web browser activities. Before SquareX, Vivek founded and led Pentester Academy, one of the leaders in online cybersecurity training. Pentester Academy was acquired by INE, which then led to the birth of SquareX. In the episode we discuss his story of learning penetration testing skills and building educational resources along with the pros and cons of offering an extension-based product compared to a complete browser as seen by others in the space. Website Sponsor: VulnCheck

Luigi is CEO and co-founder of Bfore.ai, which detects malicious infrastructure before it is used in an attack. The company has two products today under its broader pre-crime technology umbrella, and we talk about those in more detail during the episode. Prior to Bfore.ai, Luigi was a diehard Dell employee. He started in tech support and worked his way to become a VP for solution sales for the EMEA market. He then led EMEA sales for Quest software, which was a spinout from Dell. He left in 2017 after over two decades under the Dell family and thought he was retiring. However, a year later, he started Bfore.ai after a series of events he describes as serendipitous. In the episode, we discuss the unique founding story, what pre-crime technology entails, and the data supporting its relevance under a broader threat intelligence program. Website: Bfore.ai Sponsor: vulncheck.com

Liran is one of the founding partners at Team8, one of the most preeminent investors in Israel with over one billion dollars under management. Team8 started in 2014 with a focus on cybersecurity and enterprise technology, and it has since evolved to include investments in fintech and healthcare as well. Before starting Team8, Liran was in Unit 8200 and then worked in product-focused roles at two high-growth tech companies. In the episode we discuss his story of starting such a successful fund at a young age, the opportunity they saw in a foundry model in Israel, and the areas of cybersecurity that can support standalone public companies as opposed to just acquisition targets. Team8 website: team8.vc Sponsor: vulncheck.com

Gil is co-founder and CEO of Orca Security, one of the leading cloud security platforms on the market today. The company was last valued at 1.8 billion dollars in late 2021. Orca has 8 co-founders, and Gil started as Chief Product Officer before taking the CEO reins last year. We talk more about this dynamic in the episode. Before Orca, Gil worked at Check Point for a decade where he gained experience across a variety of different cutting-edge domains including mobile security, advanced threat protection, and cloud gateway. In the episode, we discuss the commoditization of the CSPM space, the relevance of AI in cloud security remediation, and the strategy for Orca moving forward including regional expansion. Orca Website: orca.security Sponsor: vulncheck.com