Podcast
Cult Products
Hosted by Yaya · EN
Dive into the essentials of start-up success with Cult Products, hosted by Yaya's co-founders, Adam Yaya-Durrant and Phill Keaney-Bolland. This podcast delivers sharp insights on creating revolutionary products, radical branding, and attracting a loyal following of early adopters. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, each episode is packed with actionable advice and stories from those who've built successful businesses. Join Adam and Phill as they help you transform bold ideas into start-up success.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Cyber is a business problem that needs a business partner
1w ago00:34:39Tap to summarizeMost organisations believe they have a handle on their cyber risk. They have green KPIs, patching reports, and a CISO in post. What many of them do not have is a clear view of what is actually critical to their business, and that gap is where the real exposure lives.Matthew Treagus has been helping people use technology to do interesting things since the eighties, starting with a maths teacher who lent him a computer and a curiosity that never quite went away. Over the decades, he has co-founded a digital agency, been a Partner in a management consultancy and led transformation efforts at a diverse range of businesses. He was CIO and Chief of Staff at Oxford Biomedica - a life sciences business. He now works as a fractional tech exec for a number of organisations. He was a contributor to the NCSC/DSIT Cyber Governance Code of Practice.His approach is grounded in empathy, commercial thinking, and a persistent belief that security works best when it is designed in rather than bolted on.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland sits down with Matthew to explore why the language of risk is so often misused, how the CISO role needs to mirror a business-partnering function, and what happens when organisations treat their most critical machines as a footnote in a quarterly report. They also get into agentic AI, technical debt, supply chain thinking, and why becoming consciously incompetent is actually a step in the right direction.What You'll Learn: Why "risk-driven" is often used as an excuse to ignore risk rather than address itHow the CISO is a business partnering role not a policing one -and why that framing mattersWhy secure-by-design thinking removes cost and friction rather than adding itWhat the 94% patching story reveals about how organisations misread their own dataHow information hygiene problems become significantly more visible once AI tools are deployedWhy organisations often focus on the wrong systems when asked what is critical to their businessHow the Cyber Governance Code of Practice reframes security as a board-level disciplineWhat it means to move from unconsciously incompetent to consciously competent as an organisationWhy the minimum viable corporation exercise is worth doing even if it feels uncomfortableEpisode Resources:Matthew Treagus on LinkedIn Phill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedIn Yaya's WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
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From CISO to Founder: How Itzik Alvas Built Entro by Solving the Problem He Lived
Mar 3100:38:03Tap to summarizeMost cybersecurity founders build for a problem they've studied. Itzik Alvas built for one that had already beaten him.As former CISO of a large healthcare services company and responsible for the formal security of Microsoft Defender Cloud and Office 365, Itzik had been on the receiving end of non-human identity breaches before most of the industry had a name for them. When he left to co-found Entro with his partner, Adam, he wasn't guessing at the problem. He had lived it.Non-human identities, which are the credentials applications use to authenticate against resources, databases, and infrastructure, are now the second most frequent attack vector in cybersecurity. For every human identity inside a company, there are, on average, 144 non-human identities. In a company of 1,000 people, that's 144,000 credentials most security teams cannot see, cannot track, and cannot manage. Entro was built to change that.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland sits down with Itzik to trace the full founder journey: from idea validation to seed funding, from stealth to market, and from the CISO buying decisions he once made to the sales conversations he now leads. Itzik talks through why he conducted 200 customer interviews before writing a single line of code, how early design partners became Entro's first paying customers, and why the explosion of AI agents turned out to be not a challenge but a gift.What You'll Learn:Why non-human identities became the second most common attack vector and why most teams still can't see themHow Itzik validated the Entro concept with 200 CISOs and practitioners before building anythingWhat crossing from buyer to seller taught him about trust, budget, and decision-makingWhy referrals from validation interviews became Entro's most powerful early growth engineHow to turn early design partners into paying customers without a finished productWhat the rise of AI agents means for non-human identity security, and why Entro was already positioned for itWhy delivering something broken early is better than waiting for a polished betaHow to build a founder network inside the cybersecurity industryEpisode Resources:Itzik Alvas on LinkedInEntro WebsitePhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →Inside the CISO Mind: Trust, Culture, AI, and the Sales Moves That Backfire
Mar 1700:44:20Tap to summarizeEvery security product either lightens a CISO’s load or quietly adds to it. Ryan Lindley has seen that reality from every angle, from early hacker curiosity to years inside startups and enterprises, and ultimately from the CISO seat itself, where tension, politics, and personal risk are part of the job. His perspective comes from living with the consequences of security decisions, not just designing or selling tools around them.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland speaks with Ryan Lindley, Co-Founder and CEO of Aegis Cyber and former CISO. They talk through why the CISO position is still evolving, how reporting structures and culture shape outcomes, and why influence and people skills matter as much as technical depth. Ryan also shares what earns his trust as a buyer, what design partnerships look like when they truly work, and the kinds of sales behavior that shut doors fast. Underneath it all is a clear message for builders and sellers: listen carefully, respect the human realities within organizations, and build relationships meant to last.What You’ll Learn:Why the CISO role still carries ambiguity and how that impacts decision-makingHow CISOs reduce internal tension through culture, influence, and security championsWhat founders miss about “security friction” and engineer context-switchingWhat a “control plane” for governance can unlock across GRC, risk, and complianceWhy so much compliance evidence fails the “reality test,” and what better looks likeHow CISOs should approach AI adoption, governance, and downstream liabilityWhat good design partnerships look like when value flows both waysHow to earn a CISO’s trust in sales and what gets vendors ignored or blockedEpisode Resources:Ryan Lindley on LinkedInPhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →Founder-Led Sales and the Reality of B2B Trust
Mar 300:47:40Tap to summarizeEvery founder reaches a point where the problem they are working on stops being abstract and becomes personal. For Dr. Damodar Sahu, that moment came from seeing how fragmented privacy systems, rising data breaches, and unchecked data movement were quietly eroding trust across enterprises and societies. From his early career in large organizations to building a company during the pandemic, the pattern was clear: privacy was being treated as compliance paperwork rather than a foundation of trust. Data Safeguard was built to change that, using unified privacy automation and responsible AI to reduce risk before breaches turn into financial and reputational damage.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland speaks with Dr. Damodar Sahu, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Data Safeguard, about the future of privacy, ethics, and intelligent systems. Damodar shares his journey from Odisha to global leadership roles, why privacy must be approached as trust rather than secrecy, and how unified automation replaces fragmented tools. They further dive into founder-led sales, design partners, and partner ecosystems, offering a grounded B2B GTM perspective shaped by real customers, real feedback, and long-term relationship building.What You’ll Learn:Why data privacy now defines digital trust, not just complianceWhat unified privacy automation replaces inside fragmented enterprise systemsHow responsible and ethical AI reduce data breach risk in practiceWhy founder-led sales are unavoidable in early B2B GTMHow design partners help founders earn credibility before enterprise scaleWhy partner ecosystems create leverage when teams are still smallWhat founders often overlook about trust, relationships, and the human side of buildingEpisode Resources:Dr. Damodar Sahu on LinkedInData Safeguard WebsitePhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →Building Overwatch: AI Agents for Threat Intelligence at Attacker Speed
Feb 2500:43:01Tap to summarizeEvery founder looks for the moment when the work finally clicks. For Arjun Bisen, that moment came from seeing how risk and intelligence work were handled inside government, Google, and Stripe, and realizing how manual and fragmented those systems still were. Overwatch was built to change that, using AI agents to monitor cyber and fraud threats at the speed attackers operate.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland speaks with Arjun Bisen, Co-Founder and CEO of Overwatch Data, about the path from diplomacy and global security into startup life. Arjun shares how Y Combinator helped unlock enterprise trust, what it takes to sell honestly in a market burned by overpromising vendors, and how Overwatch found traction by focusing on repeatable use cases, proof of value, and the customers willing to build alongside them.What You’ll Learn:What Overwatch’s AI agents automate across cyber and fraud threat intelligenceHow Arjun’s background in diplomacy, Google, and Stripe shaped Overwatch’s approach to riskWhy Y Combinator mattered for enterprise credibility and recruitingThe early “BERT moment” that sparked the company’s directionHow to think about product roadmaps when the technology shifts every quarterWhy proof of value beats polished messaging in security marketsA practical definition of product-market fit for enterprise startupsWhat founders consistently underestimate about the human side of buildingEpisode Resources:Arjun Bisen on LinkedInOverwatch Data WebsitePhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
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Unboring Cyber: How Sara and Kelly Bring Human and Neurodiverse Thinking Into Cybersecurity Marketing
Feb 301:11:11Tap to summarizeCybersecurity teams deal with complex, emotional, high-pressure work every day, yet the industry still leans on generic padlocks, fear-driven messages, and copy-paste visuals. For Sara Carty and Kelly Allen, Co-Founders of Unboring, this gap between the reality of cyber and the way it is marketed became impossible to ignore.Sara brings 15+ years in high-growth tech startups and ongoing doctoral research in Cyber Diplomacy, giving her a deep view into how influence, trust, and communication shape cyber decision-making. Kelly adds over a decade of award-winning cybersecurity marketing experience, where her sensitivity to tone, emotion, and cognitive load shaped her belief that different minds create better stories. Together, they built Unboring as a place where human insight, neurodiverse thinking, and clear strategy come together to help cyber companies communicate with more relevance and originality.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland speaks with Kelly Allen and Sara Carty, Co-Founders of Unboring, about why cybersecurity marketing has become repetitive, how emotional awareness strengthens messaging, and why bold creative only works when tied to a clear value proposition. They break down the role of brand as a stabilising system for teams with different working styles, the impact of ICP clarity on sales and marketing alignment, and what actually works at events when everyone claims to be “AI-powered.”What You’ll Learn:Why cybersecurity marketing became predictable and how to break out of the patternHow emotional and neurodiverse perspectives strengthen brand storytellingWhy bold ideas must connect to real product valueHow consistency and simple systems help teams with different working styles succeedThe role of customer research in shaping strong value propositionsWhy clear ICPs reduce wasted effort across sales and marketingHow brand shows up in overlooked parts of the business: onboarding, invoicing, internal commsWhat actually works at events when everyone claims to be “AI-powered”How clarity, focus, and repetition build brands that lastEpisode Resources:Kelly Allen on LinkedInSara Carty on LinkedInUnboring WebsitePhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
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From Claroty to Twine: Building a Top-Down Security Company
Jan 2100:40:10Tap to summarizeEvery founder dreams of clarity. For Justin Woody, that meant turning decades in enterprise cybersecurity, at IBM, Mandiant, and Claroty, into a focused mission: building Twine, an AI-powered identity platform designed for a top-down approach to cyber operations.In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast from Yaya, host Phill Keaney-Bolland speaks with Justin Woody, Co-Founder of Twine Security, about growing Claroty, launching Twine, and the lessons behind building a top-down cybersecurity platform in an age of AI agents. Justin explains how his team validated their idea through over 250 in-depth conversations, what it takes to secure first customers, and why trade shows and innovation competitions only work when you turn visibility into trust.What You’ll Learn:How Justin’s time at Claroty shaped Twine’s culture of focus and speedThe 250-conversation validation process that led Twine to prioritise identity riskWhy trust, not marketing, is the new sales currency in cybersecurityHow to prepare and stand out at trade shows and competitions like RSA SandboxWhat it takes to translate early interviews into design partners and first customersWhy the best founders do fewer things, but with deeper intent and measurable impactHow to build a vertical moat in an LLM-dominated landscapeEpisode Resources:Justin Woody on LinkedInTwine Security WebsitePhill Keaney-Bolland on LinkedInYaya’s WebsiteCult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →How Cult Products Win Big: Mastering Crowded Markets and Building Devoted Fans
Dec 3, 202400:40:20Tap to summarizeLinksModern House: https://www.themodernhouse.com/SummaryIn this conversation, the hosts discuss the challenges of standing out in competitive markets, particularly in the context of product differentiation. They introduce the Cult Products Framework, emphasising the importance of having a revolutionary vision and a unique value proposition. The discussion highlights the significance of niching down and creating a unique customer experience, as well as the balance between growth and maintaining brand integrity.takeawaysYou will always struggle to get people's attention in a crowded market.Standing out requires a unique value proposition.Niche marketing can lead to better market capture.Creating a unique customer experience is essential.Differentiation by design is crucial for success.Modern House exemplifies a successful niche brand.Maintaining brand integrity is challenging as businesses grow.It's important to attract the right customers and repel the wrong ones.The cult products framework simplifies business growth strategies.A strong brand can create a sense of community among customers.Cult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →Brand Part 3: From Plan to Impact - The Journey of Turning Strategy into Branding Success
Nov 26, 202400:55:20Tap to summarizesummaryIn this episode, the hosts discuss various topics ranging from the organisation of bookshelves to the intricacies of branding and the recent rebranding of Jaguar. They explore the importance of strategy in branding, the creation of brand narratives, and the balance between creativity and strategic goals. The conversation culminates in a critique of Jaguar's new branding approach, highlighting the potential disconnect between the brand's traditional customer base and its new target audience.takeawaysOrganizing bookshelves can reflect personal style and chaos.Branding requires a clear strategy to be effective.Brand narratives help bring a brand to life.Creativity in branding should align with strategic goals.The transition from strategy to branding is crucial.Understanding the target audience is key in branding.Feedback from clients should guide creative processes.Branding should not alienate existing customers.The balance of aesthetics and functionality is important in design.Rebranding can provoke strong reactions from traditional customers.Cult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Transcribe →Brand Part 2: Unstoppable Branding - Crack the Code with Blue Oceans & Archetypes
Nov 19, 202400:41:20Tap to summarize🎙️ Does your brand stand out, or is it lost in the pack?In this episode of the Cult Products Podcast, we explore what makes a brand truly effective—and spoiler alert: it’s not about flashy graphics or catchy slogans. We dive into the Blue Ocean Strategy to show you how to make your brand the obvious choice in a crowded market.Key Takeaways:🎮 Learn how Nintendo created a "category of one" and redefined its market.💡 Discover what David Attenborough can teach us about brand storytelling.🖌️ Understand why copying competitors is a dead end—and what to do instead.Whether you're refining your brand or starting fresh, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you carve out your unique space and grow your start-up.Looking for more tips? Connect with Phill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillbolland/Cult Products Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
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