BUILDERS Podcast — Ep: “AI vs. AI: Why Quantro Security is Building Defense for the Era of AI-Native Offense”

Date: March 18, 2026
Host: Brett (Front Lines Media)
Guest: Mehul Ravankar, Co-Founder and CPO, Quantro Security

Episode Overview

This episode explores the founding story and vision behind Quantro Security, an AI-native cyber defense company. Host Brett interviews Mehul Ravankar about how Quantro is responding to the unprecedented rise in AI-powered cyber attacks by building autonomous, AI-based defense tools. Mehul shares insights from his deep cybersecurity background, discusses the challenges of market education, positioning Quantro in a changing landscape, and paints an ambitious future where lean security teams command armies of specialized AI agents.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Mehul’s Background & Origins of Quantro Security

• (01:17) Mehul describes his unexpected journey from vulnerability research to product leadership, highlighting formative experiences at Tenable (now a billion-dollar cybersecurity company).
• Shipping Fast, Staying Customer-Close:

  "We could ship features into the product, we call them Nessus plugins, every day...so close to the customers, I could see their pain points and ship this." (Mehul, 02:01)

• Discovery of Product Management:
  Mehul realized his natural gravitation toward product leadership when the company hired conventional product managers who “didn’t understand the company or the product.”
• Built and scaled cybersecurity products from open source tools to $100M+ enterprise platforms.

2. The Existential Threat: AI-Native Attacks

• Changing Nature of Offensive Cybersecurity:

  "With AI, the skill and the cost of exploit development has essentially gone to zero. So now an attacker can essentially build a functional exploit with just a prompt." (Mehul, 03:43)

• Tactical Implications:
  • AI makes attack cycles faster and more effective.
  • Defenders must evolve: Traditional, manual methods (“patch, secure, repeat”) are now too slow.

3. Quantro’s Solution: AI-Native Defense

• Building an AI Agent for Cyber Defense:
  Quantro creates AI-powered virtual teammates to:
  1. Respond to AI-native offensive tools with AI-native defenses.
  2. Make cybersecurity professionals radically more productive.
  3. Serve as “always on expert advisors,” helping with tricky or resource-constrained situations.
• (04:45-06:30)

  "Instead of hiring an army of people who are productive for like five minutes and then probably not relevant for the rest of the day...you have an agent that can think like a human on your entire enterprise security data at speed and scale." (Mehul, 08:54)

4. Defining the Category: Beyond Tool Replacement

• (06:55-07:29)
• Quantro isn't about replacing existing tools (exposure management, CTEM). Instead, it’s a new category: “the user interface of record”—an orchestration layer atop existing cybersecurity tools, driven by AI.

  "We believe it's a new category that needs to be built. This is not the legacy way of doing things. This is an AI native assistant that is helping you scale your business." (Mehul, 07:47)

5. Education & Market Development

• Market Education Challenge:

  "This almost seems like, you know, the customers are driving a horse buggy and we are pitching a self driving car." (Mehul, 08:49)

• Clients request simple things (ticketing), but Quantro offers far more: risk reduction plans, autonomous remediation, and human-like reasoning over vast organizational data.

  "You literally have to know what it is that you want your virtual analyst to do. Define that task in simple English terms...and just watch the agent get the job done." (Mehul, 09:34)

6. Transforming Security Teams’ Workflows

• Offloading High Effort / Low Value Tasks:

  "50% of the time is like triaging false positives, reaching out to the people...all of this could be automated...then you’re focusing on genuinely high order risk reduction." (Mehul, 10:50)

• AI-Driven Decision-Making:
  Data-driven strategy recommendations (e.g., “What’s the optimal spend?” or “What can I accomplish in 10 hours?”) are surfaced instantly, shifting teams from grunt work to proactive defense.

  "With AI it’s like a minute or two. Once you connect the data: hey, what’s the most optimal strategy...?" (Mehul, 11:55)

7. Positioning & Evolving Messaging

• Why “AI-Native Defense” Matters:

  "Building products for the future, you want to understand where the puck is going or the puck is today...These old tools will not work." (Mehul, 12:42)

• Quantro’s stance: Defenders must match AI-native offense with AI-native defense, moving beyond legacy category definitions (VM, CTEM, RBVM).
• Platform is launching with a vulnerability management agent, but future will include other personas (compliance, pen testing, virtual CISO).

8. Competitive Landscape

• Three buckets of competitors: (14:50)
  1. Hyperscalers (e.g., Microsoft Security Copilot):
     • “A mile wide, a millimeter deep”—bundled but shallow, mandated by enterprise deals, little real user value.

     • "They claim to do everything but do nothing really well." (Mehul, 14:53)

  2. Siloed tools:
     • Deep expertise in one area; lack organizational context.

     • "They have a very good understanding of their siloed data...but they have no understanding of the organizational context around it." (Mehul, 15:57)

  3. In-house ‘wipe coders’:
     • Internal automations / scripts; lack innovation or scalability.
• Quantro’s Role:
  • Serves as the “connective tissue” to integrate wide and deep tools, extracting maximum ROI and productivity for customers.

9. Big Picture Vision

• The AI-Augmented Security Team:

  "We imagine a similar model for cybersecurity teams where there is a small, super-elite cybersecurity team and they are essentially assisted by an army of agents." (Mehul, 17:17)

• Deployment Model:
  • A handful of human analysts managing 50–100+ specialized AI agents (each handling pen testing, compliance, threat intel, risk reduction, etc.).
  • As needs grow, onboard more “digital or virtual equivalents.”
  • Outcome: Breaches avoided, brand protected.

  "We essentially ensure that never happens." (Mehul, 18:28 — on preventing customers from ending up on the front page of the New York Times due to a breach)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Market Education:

  "Customers are driving a horse buggy and we are pitching a self driving car." (Mehul, 08:49)

• On AI’s Impact on Hackers:

  "The skill and the cost of exploit development has essentially gone to zero." (Mehul, 03:43)

• On the Role of the Virtual Teammate:

  "What do you mean it can do that? You mean I can just ask a question or create a task in English and it just understands me? Yes...give it some instructions like you would give a junior engineer, and just watch the agent get the job done." (Mehul, 09:29)

• Describing the New Category:

  "We are the user interface of record.” (Mehul, 07:38)

• On the Future Team Structure:

  "A super elite tiny team...backed by six or seven coding agents...imagine five or six human analysts managing maybe 50 or 100 AI agents." (Mehul, 17:14)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:17 — Mehul’s cybersecurity journey & Tenable backstory
• 03:17 — Problem definition: AI-native offense and what defenders must do
• 04:45 — Why build AI agents for defense; the role of virtual teammates
• 06:55 — Quantro’s market/category — not just tool replacement
• 08:44 — Challenge of market education & market’s readiness
• 10:47 — Transforming security workflows; automating the grunt work
• 12:39 — Positioning: why legacy tools aren’t enough
• 14:42 — Competitive landscape: hyperscalers, siloed tools, internal scripting
• 17:11 — Vision: the AI-augmented security team

Where to Follow and Learn More

• Quantro Security website for updates, newly out of stealth: Quantro Security
• LinkedIn/X (Twitter): Follow for product news and thought leadership.
• Live Events:
  Quantro will be exhibiting at RSA Early Stage Expo 2026, booth #48.

This summary captures the rich and technical yet approachable tone of Mehul Ravankar’s conversation with Brett, providing an accessible entry point for listeners interested in AI-powered cybersecurity, modern product GTM, and the future of autonomous security operations.