Podcast
Secure Ventures with Kyle McNulty
Hosted by Kyle McNulty · EN
Kyle McNulty interviews cutting-edge founders in the cyber security space to understand their plights, glories, and revolutionary products.
New episodes are published every other Tuesday.
If you are interested in sharing your story, please contact me at kyle@secureventures.io
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12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Project Discovery | CEO Rishi Sharma on AI Disruption in Software Exploitation
2w ago00:44:02Tap to summarizeProject Discovery is an autonomous software testing platform with a focus on remediation rather than purely vulnerability identification. Before starting Project Discovery in 2021, Rishi worked as a security engineer for almost a decade, if you include the two years while he was still in high school where he was bringing in $50,000 a year from bug bounties. In the episode we discuss how Project Discovery emerged from an open-source labor of love, the wave of AI capabilities in software analysis, the future of bug bounties and penetration testing, the limitations of existing AI models (Mythos included), and more.https://projectdiscovery.io/
Transcribe →Oso | CEO Graham Neray on Agent Permissions, Why You Shouldn't Build in Stealth, and More
May 500:47:27Tap to summarizeIf you have any sort of connection to former congressman Barney Frank, please reach out to Graham!Graham Neray is CEO of Oso. Oso provides authorization, governance, and security for AI agents to help customers confidently control their agent footprint. The company was founded in 2019 for authorization-as-a-service more generally, and they have since found traction using their technology to secure AI adoption. The team has raised from some of the top investors in the world including Sequoia, Felicis, and Harpoon. Before Oso, Graham was at MongoDB where he started in product marketing before taking over as Chief of Staff in 2016. Over 7 years he helped the company grow revenue 250x and headcount 30x. In the episode we discuss the transformation of MongoDB over his tenure, the lessons that transferred (and the ones that didn't), the evolution of Oso, controversial takes on building in stealth and creating an open-core company, and a lot more. https://www.osohq.com/
Transcribe →JetStream | CEO Raj Rajamani on the EDR War and Agent Identity
Apr 700:53:23Tap to summarizeRaj Rajamani is co-founder and CEO of JetStream. JetStream sells an AI agent governance and identity platform designed to help organizations identify and control their sprawling AI footprint. In a crowded space, JetStream has emerged as a leader with a world-class team and $34 million seed round. Before JetStream, Raj has a storied career as a product leader at several of the most important EDR companies of the last 15 years. He served as a VP of Product at Cylance, CPO at SentinelOne, and CPO at CrowdStrike. In the episode, we talk about the lessons from the winners of the EDR battle, his personal character changes throughout, and how his experience has set him up to lead a startup in arguably the most important security category right now. https://jetstream.security/
Transcribe →Duune: Founder Jack Austin on Surf Forecasting and Pursuing a Business of Passion
Mar 1000:39:51Tap to summarizeIn this episode I talk to Jack Austin, founder of surf forecasting company Duune.If you are only interested in hearing from cyber founders, this episode is not for you.However, Jack works in cybersecurity full-time at F5 Networks, and this is very much a passion project in an industry he cares deeply about.We discuss his decision to start a company outside of cybersecurity, his tactics for taking on a large incumbent such as hyperlocalization, his marketing strategy reliant on community building with a social-first footprint, and more. We had fun with it, so I hope that comes through for the audience!If you live in LA and want access to the best local surf forecasts available, check out the website or download the mobile app.https://duunecrew.com/
Transcribe →Geordie | CEO Henry Comfort on AI Risk Management
Feb 1700:40:34Tap to summarizeWith me in this episode is Henry Comfort, Co-founder and CEO of Geordie. Geordie is an AI observability and risk management platform designed to help organizations confidently and securely deploy AI models and agents. They raised a $6.5 million seed round last fall from General Catalyst and 1011 and were just announced as a finalist in the RSA Innovation Sandbox competition. Before Geordie, Henry worked as an executive at Darktrace, which was acquired by Thoma Bravo for over $5 billion in 2024. His career before Darktrace is even more unique. In the episode we discuss everything from security analogies for toxic gases in coal mines, enabling vs. controlling AI, the AI security buyer profile today, and more.https://www.geordie.ai/
Transcribe →Empirical Security | CEO Ed Bellis on Sales Pitfalls for Founders and Vulnerability Management
Jan 700:47:30Tap to summarizeWith me in this episode is Ed Bellis, co-founder and CEO of Empirical Security. Empirical uses a scoring system informed by customer data to create tailored risk prioritization models. Ed started Empirical in 2024 after leaving Cisco, three years after they acquired his previous company Kenna. Kenna was a vulnerability management and prioritization tool that aggregated data from an organization's scanners and enriched that data with threat intelligence to better prioritize risk. In many ways, Kenna helped lead the way in modern vulnerability management by creating an abstraction layer over the scanners themselves. Empirical is now further pushing the bounds following advances in machine learning and AI to go beyond Kenna's limitations. In the episode we discuss the alluring sales pitfalls for new founders, the importance of a "fast no", Cisco's acquisition strategy and execution, modern VM in light of AI penetration testing, and more.Empirical Website
Transcribe →Illumio | Founder & CEO Andrew Rubin on the Voice of the Customer and IPOs
Dec 200:49:05Tap to summarizeAndrew Rubin is co-founder and CEO of Illumio. Illumio is a breach containment and network segmentation company that has become a mainstay in the cybersecurity market over the last decade. Illumio was last valued at almost $3 billion dollars and is now on the verge of going public as we discuss in the episode. Before Illumio, Andrew grew his career in sales at VoiceNet in the late 90s and early 2000s before moving to Cymtec, where he was VP of Sales for two years before taking over as CEO. That led him to love the CEO role and then start Illumio. In the episode, we discuss everything from redefining sales goals, meeting a co-founder (spoiler: in Andrew's case it was a lot of luck), preparing to IPO, including why the "IPO window" concept is silly, and more.Website
Transcribe →Virtru | CEO John Ackerly on Data Security and Building a Company with your Brother
Nov 400:39:03Tap to summarizeWith me in this episode is John Ackerly, co-founder and CEO of Virtru. John started Virtru with his brother Will over a decade ago to make data security more pervasive across mediums such as emails and files. Virtru has raised over $150 million to this point from investors such as ICONIQ and Bessemer and built a very healthy business on one of the core pillars of cybersecurity. John has an atypical background in business well-complemented by his brother's technical experience at NSA. One of my favorite lines from the episode: he always thought he would start a business with his other brother. In the episode we discuss pricing strategy, which is certainly not all science, the founder outlook when starting a company, founding with family, and more. Website: https://www.virtru.com/
Transcribe →SPLX | CEO Kris Kamber on Founder Lessons from Sales and AI Security
Sep 3000:45:35Tap to summarizeKris Kamber is CEO of SPLX AI. SPLX performs security testing and red teaming for AI agents, helping organizations detect vulnerabilities in their constantly expanding agent deployments. Before SPLX, Kris worked a handful of sales jobs, starting in telecom before hustling his way into Zscaler. I enjoyed asking him about the specific lessons from working in sales such as setting metrics and compensation. He's the first person who has described to me a workplace filled with arrogant and cocky people and also illustrated why he was attracted to that environment. We also touched on how he met his co-founder through a conversation on a plane and what compelled him to build a company at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity given his background.SPLX Website
Transcribe →Onapsis | CEO Mariano Nunez on Securing SAP Applications
Aug 2600:42:50Tap to summarizeMariano founded Onapsis back in 2009 to address the challenges securing a growing new class of technology: ERP systems. After working at CYBSEC for 5 years doing offensive security research, he discovered just how vulnerable SAP applications could be. Onapsis is sneakily a juggernaut, having raised a $55 million Series D in 2020. And while they started focused on SAP, they have since expanded into related tools such as Oracle. They have certainly established themselves as core to securing an often overlooked component of IT infrastructure. In the conversation we discuss the founding story, why SAP couldn't do this themselves, and how he has thought about growth opportunities over the last 16 years.Website
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