In this discussion, Jeetu Patel, Cisco's Executive VP and Chief Product Officer, illuminates the company's shift towards AI-powered cybersecurity. He shares insights on Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, aimed at streamlining security solutions. Patel delves into common challenges faced by CISOs today, like tool sprawl and talent shortages, emphasizing the importance of user-friendly technology. He also offers a six-vector rubric for startup founders looking to attract Cisco's attention and highlights the importance of integrating AI into business strategies for future success.

Shlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks is a rare bird in the cybersecurity industry, having built three unicorns in his career. For many in the cybersecurity industry, Sholmo needs no introduction. One of the early pioneers in Israel’s cybersecurity startup ecosystem, what makes Shlomo remarkable is his ability to repeatedly build category-defining companies. He first co-founded Check Point, which pioneered the firewall category and today commands a $20 billion market cap. Then, seeing the shift to the cloud, he launched Imperva, focusing on web application security (WAF). That was his second IPO. Now with Cato Networks, he's created an entirely new category called SASE – Secure Access Service Edge – and Cato has already reached over $200 million in annual recurring revenue.But Shlomo isn't just a builder – he's also a remarkably successful investor with an eye for transformative companies. His portfolio includes Trusteer, which IBM acquired for $1 billion, and Palo Alto Networks, in which he wrote the first angel check and sat on its board - a company now valued well over $100 billion dollars.In this episode, we get inside the mind of the only entrepreneur we know who's on track to potentially take his third cybersecurity company public. Many founders are satisfied with one IPO, some rarely go to two and Shlomo is on track for his third IPO - a hat trick if he pulls it off. In the cybersecurity hall of fame, very few could equal what Shlomo has accomplished.We discuss building cybersecurity companies, the evolution of the security market over the past three decades, why founders should focus on their customers instead of competitors, how building startups has changed from when Shlomo started Check Point, and many other aspects of the founder's journey. 

Hamza Fodderwala, Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, specializes in cybersecurity equity coverage. He discusses major buying patterns for 2024 and trends for 2025, underscoring the impact of Generative AI on security solutions. The conversation covers the booming M&A landscape, with over $50B in deal volume, and highlights key private companies poised for IPOs. Hamza offers valuable advice for founders on disrupting markets, navigating venture funding, and building resilience in an evolving cybersecurity industry.

Kumar Saurabh, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of AirMDR, shares his journey from IIT to the forefront of cybersecurity. He discusses why immigrants often excel as entrepreneurs, and the role that institutions like IIT play in shaping tech leaders. Kumar explores how startups hold a competitive edge over large corporations, the challenges of innovation, and insights into recruiting top talent. He also highlights the transformative role of AI in cybersecurity, providing valuable lessons for founders on scaling and selecting the right VC partners.

In this special election episode, we sit down with Gov. Rick Snyder, an entrepreneur, a former VC, and a leader whose career is unique in depth and breadth, spanning both the public and private sectors. Rick Snyder initially made his mark as COO of Gateway, where he helped the company grow revenue from $600 million to $6 billion to IPO. He then co-founded venture firm Ardesta, which stands for “spark” in Greek. After two fund cycles, he transitioned from business to politics, serving two terms as Governor of Michigan. Post-governorship, Rick Snyder returned to the entrepreneurial world, co-founding SensCy, a cybersecurity company focused on helping small and medium-sized businesses defend against growing digital threats.Drawing from his experience in both public office and tech entrepreneurship, our episode with Rick Snyder brings unique insights into the intersection of technology, government, and cybersecurity. We speak with Rick about cybersecurity, its importance in elections, and what startup founders need to keep in mind when selling to the public sector. In addition, we cover the importance of securing small and medium-sized businesses, and what startup entrepreneurs should do to develop personal resilience.

In this episode, we sit down with Slavik Markovich, CEO and co-founder of Descope, a low-code/no-code Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) platform. A serial entrepreneur, Slavik has been at it for two decades and over this time built three companies.Before Descope, he was co-founder and CEO at Demisto, a leader in the SOAR industry that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $560 million. Before co-founding Demisto, Slavik was VP & CTO of database technologies at McAfee (Intel Security). He joined McAfee via the acquisition of Sentrigo, a database security startup, where he was a co-founder and CTO. Slavik also served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 5 years as a team leader. He graduated with a degree in computer science from The Technion (Israel’s MIT).We speak with Slavik about his childhood and what got him hooked on cybersecurity. We cover Slavik’s learnings on how to identify early product-market fit and define a category like what he did with SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response). We discuss the art of negotiating a VC fundraise and M&A exit. And of course, we touch on how Slavik’s love for good coffee has played a key part in building friendships including with one of his co-founders Rishi Bhargava.

In this episode we have a special guest - Doug Merritt - who has shaped not a unicorn but a decacorn - a company valued at more than $10 billion. As the former CEO of Splunk, he steered this big data company to extraordinary heights. In just six years under Doug's leadership, Splunk's market cap soared past $25 billion, and its annual recurring revenue skyrocketed from $200 million to a staggering $3 billion. At its peak, over 50% of Splunk revenues came from security applications.Doug's journey began as a coder and developer before transitioning to sales leadership and eventually CEO of a publicly traded company. His entrepreneurial roots trace back to founding a company called Icarian, which was acquired by WorkStream. He then went on to hold senior management positions at tech giants like Cisco, SAP, and PeopleSoft. Today Doug is the Chairman and CEO of Aviatrix, a secure cloud networking leader that has raised over $350 million in venture funding and serves over 500 global customers.Throughout his time at Splunk, Doug hired, mentored, and promoted well-known executives in the infrastructure and cyber industry, from Haiyan Song to Jason Child to Snehal Antani. In this episode, Doug discusses what he looks for in executives, how he evaluates their ability to succeed, and what founders should keep in mind when building their leadership teams. As the CEO of Splunk, Doug led several acquisitions including SignalFx and Phantom Cyber. On Inside the Network, he shares how founders should think about M&A and what they need to do to achieve successful exits. In our conversation, we'll explore Doug's career evolution, insights from his founder experience, and key lessons learned while scaling Splunk into a decacorn. We'll also discuss his current role at Aviatrix and his vision for the future of cloud technology and generative AI.

Our guest in this episode is Jon Gelsey. Jon was the first CEO of Auth0, a leading identity-as-a-service platform, which grew from 5 to 300 employees during his four years at the helm. Auth0 was acquired by Okta in February 2021 for $6.5B. After Auth0, Jon served as CEO of Xnor, a computer vision and machine learning spinoff of the Allen Institute. The company was acquired by Apple for ~$200M in January 2020. When Auth0 first started in 2013, there were already several authentication vendors in the market. Okta, ForgeRock, and OneLogin had all built considerable scale by the time Auth0 launched its product. Not only did Jon and the team build a successful company in a very crowded space, but they also did it their way. While all of Auth0’s competitors were running a top-down GTM motion, Jon made a critical decision to adopt a bottom-up, product-led growth (PLG) strategy. Instead of relying on traditional marketing tactics for demand generation, Auth0 built an extensive content rollout plan to help drive inbound interest in the product. To date, Auth0 is the only PLG company in cybersecurity to achieve a multi-billion dollar exit. On Inside the Network, Jon talks about building go-to-market strategies, identifying the right buyer personas, and establishing success metrics for customer acquisition.  In addition to his experience as a serial entrepreneur, Jon worked on the M&A and strategy team at Microsoft from 2007 to 2014 where he led several acquisitions for the company. Jon shares the tips and tricks founders need to know to plan, negotiate, and successfully close acquisitions with potential buyers. 

In this episode, we sit down with Marty Roesch, founder of Sourcefire. Sourcefire led the intrusion detection and protection (IDS/IPS) wave, raised four rounds of financing from leading VCs like NEA, Sierra Ventures, and Sequoia, and went public, later to be acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion.Founders often believe that their first few customers cannot be large enterprises. Marty took the contrarian path. Sourcefire’s first few customers were all six-figure deals - PWC, Intel, SAIC, and International Paper. In addition to that, Sourcefire was incredibly successful in working with industry research firms like Gartner and organizations like SANS in developing a new category. In this podcast, Marty shares what happened behind the scenes and provides founders with advice on how to work with enterprises and gain the interest of industry analysts.Almost two decades after starting Sourcefire, Marty has gone back full circle to being the CEO of Netography, a network security startup. Marty shares stories from both his Sourcefire and Netography journeys, discusses how he navigated the M&A landscape and explains where we should be excited about AI in security, and where it’s wise to be cautious.

Few cybersecurity companies have been able to bootstrap their way to success – Tenable stands above the rest in this category. The company raised its first round of funding after 10 years of operations. It had $90M of revenue at the time. In the venture world, “Tenable was the best cybersecurity business that nobody had ever heard of.” Today, it is the leading cyber exposure and vulnerability management company with $800M in revenue and over 44,000 customers globally.In our second episode of ‘Inside the Network’ we sit down with Ron Gula, co-founder and former CEO of Tenable. We learn about his early beginnings and love for fighter jets and UFOs. We dive into his three successful startup journeys, including his most recent run building Tenable over 14 years. And we talk about lessons learned from his investing career at Gula Tech Adventures with over $100M invested in 50+ startups.After their successful entrepreneurial journey, Ron and his wife Cyndi’s work has continued with Gula Tech Foundation, working to make the cybersecurity sector more diverse and inclusive. Finally, we touch on Ron’s new-found passion as a YouTube influencer – the Joe Rogan of cybersecurity has now garnered over 150K subscribers!