Kevin Mandia is the Founder and CEO of Mandiant, the widely recognized leader in cybersecurity incident response which was recently acquired by Google for $5.4 Billion. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Kevin on why he founded Mandiant, and his personal journey to create a company to defend companies against cyber surveillance advanced persistent threats from Russia, China, and North Korea.
Jan 16, 2024
52 min
Shay Banon is the Founder and CTO of Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) the open source leader platform that enables enterprise search, observability, and cybersecurity. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Shay on his path to starting Elastic, and his success building a commercial open source company in the era of cloud providers.
Oct 5, 2023
44 min
HD Moore is the founder and CEO of Metasploit and runZero, two cybersecurity companies that are widely used to identify assets and vulnerabilities in corporate environments. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with HD on growing up as one of the most famous cybersecurity hackers who had the courage to publish software vulnerabilities on the internet.
Jul 18, 2023
35 min
Bipul Sinha is the founder and CEO of Rubrik, a leader in zero-trust data security used by enterprises to defend against ransomware and to create global cyber resiliency. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Bipul Sinha on his unusual path from India to Silicon Valley and his unique mindset as a startup founder.
Jun 28, 2023
45 min
Guy Podjarney is the founder of Snyk, a leading security company building developer first security tools to help organizations develop fast & stay secure. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Guy about the problem-solving approach he still carries with him from his time in the IDF and the threat of playing it too safe for first-time founders.
Aug 4, 2022
49 min
Nir Polak is the co-founder of Exabeam, one of the most successful and valuable private cybersecurity firms currently valued at $2.4 billion. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Nir about how his time in the Israeli Defense Forces prepared him for the constant battles in the early days of a startup and the importance of taking care of your mental health as a founder.
Jul 14, 2022
31 min
Jesse Rothstein is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ExtraHop Networks, a cyber defense platform that uses cloud-scale AI to help enterprises respond to advanced threats. ExtraHop was acquired by Bain Capital and Crosspoint Capital Partners for $900 million in 2021. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Jesse about selection bias for entrepreneurs and how some of his lowest moments as a founder were actually blessings in disguise.
Jul 8, 2022
39 min
Ed Bellis is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Kenna Security, a cybersecurity company that pioneered the risk-based vulnerability management space, and was acquired by Cisco last year. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Ed about his journey from skateboarder to cybersecurity expert, including his advice for first-time founders anxious about always getting it right the first time.
Jun 9, 2022
29 min
Slavik Markovich is the Founder and CEO of Demisto, a security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2019 for $560 million. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Slavik about how his time in the Israeli army kickstarted his entrepreneurial journey and what mistakes he made as a first-time founder.
Jun 2, 2022
38 min
Oliver Friedrichs is the Founder and CEO of Phantom Cyber, a four-time successful entrepreneur who has exited companies to McAfee, Symantec, Sourcefire, and Splunk. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Oliver about the lessons he has learned along the way, including how to cultivate partnerships that lead to successful exits and avoiding valuation traps as a first-time founder.
May 26, 2022
35 min
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