The Decibel Podcast: Founders Helping Founders

Casey Ellis is the founder of BugCrowd, the first open marketplace for vulnerability disclosure and commercial bug bounties. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Casey on the early economics of paying people to hack companies, why ethical hackers are an amazing source of criminal creativity, and why every founder needs to ultimately fix their known vulnerabilities: Why the Economics of Bug B...

Yaron Singer is the Founder and CEO of Robust Intelligence, the early leader in AI security that was recently acquired by Cisco. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Yaron on how academics need to decide on the right time to start a company, why the capabilities and risks of AI for many industries need to be approached end to end, and why startups should seek to dispel many of the myths of b...

Dmitri Alperovitch is the Co-Founder and former CTO of Crowdstrike, one of the most valuable cybersecurity companies founded in the modern era that defined the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Dmitri on why email security was one of the best places to learn cybersecurity, the hardest parts of finding product-market fit in a new category, an...

Chris Wysopal is the Founder and CTO of Veracode, a $2.5 billion software supply chain security company that pioneered the field of application security and was one of the first companies to embrace software as a service. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Chris on his early fame as a cybersecurity researcher and the highs and lows of building Veracode across three decades: How a Hacking G...

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 Kore...

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: Learn To Overcome Fear and Embrace the Future  [6:10- 8:43] - Shay was dia...

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: Need to Necessity - Diving in Dumpsters for C...

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: Don’t Be Afraid to Drop Everything  [4:30-6:50] - Bipul dropped out of school in...

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.  How to Approach an “Impossible Problem” [4:59 -...

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.  From The Front Lines O...

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 momen...

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 t...

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. Basic (Entrepreneurial) Training in...

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.   Your Advant...

Haroon Meer is the Founder of Thinkst Canary, a fast growing cybersecurity company that enables companies to put “honeypots” on their network to catch attackers in minutes. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Haroon Meer about how growing up during the tail end of Apartheid influenced his leadership style and how he bootstrapped Thinkst Canary to success. You Need to Build a Better Mousetra...

Amy Chang is the Founder of Accompany, a relationship intelligence platform that uses machine learning and AI to help business professionals enhance and grow their most important relationships. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Amy Chang about her journey to Founder, including the unconventional way she chose between job offers at Google and Yahoo and how her husband finally got her to st...

Andrew Peterson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Signal Sciences, the fastest growing web application security company in the world. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Andrew Peterson about why he calls Anthony Bourdain his career role model and how he ended up in Tanzania working without running water or power near the beginning of his career.   Hire People Smarter Than You [5:38-6:06] - Andr...

Ricardo Oliveira is the Co-founder and CTO of ThousandEyes, a Cisco company providing some of the largest brands more visibility into how customers and employees use their networks. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Ricardo Oliveira about meeting his future co-founder in a research group at UCLA and developing a constructive mindset as a first-time founder.  How To Turn Rejection Into Mot...

Matthew Prince is the Co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure company that is making the internet a faster and safer place. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Matthew Prince on how he went from bartender to founder of one of the most successful startups built in the last decade.  Pick Your Co-Founders Wisely [13:10-15:16] - Choosing who to build your startup with is ju...

Michelle Zatlyn is the Co-founder, President, and COO of Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure company that is making the internet a faster and safer place. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Michelle Zatlyn on her path to Co-founder and why you have to love what you do in order to succeed.  Don’t Be Afraid To Deviate From The Plan [2:30-14:15] - Michelle grew up thinking she wanted to be...

Marty Roesch is the founder and CEO of Sourcefire, one of the very first commercial open source companies, that was acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $2.7 billion. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Marty Roesch on his journey to CEO, including how laser tag became his foray into cybersecurity and why he considers himself a “particularly good benevolent dictator”.  Have Empathy For Your Users...

Jon Oberheide is the co-founder and CTO of Duo Security which was acquired by Cisco for $2.4 billion. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Jon Oberheide about his personal journey to where he is today, including the “not illegal” way he met his Duo co-founder in a back stairwell.  The Most Unorthodox Practices Are Sometimes The Most Fruitful [06:11-09:16] - From spamming unsolicited emails a...

Omar Tawakol is a serial entrepreneur whose latest company, Voicea, was acquired by Cisco in 2019. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Omar Tawakol about his journey to becoming a three-time founder and his advice to new founders caught up in the noise of the industry.  Find The Creativity in Every Step of Iteration [01:48-03:19]  - To Omar, being a founder means creating value to bring to...

Mohit Lad is the co-founder of ThousandEyes, a Cisco company providing some of the largest brands more visibility into how customers and employees use their networks. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Mohit Lad on how founding a company was “plan C” and why it’s important to use his role as an advisor to fight for diversity in the tech industry.  Tap Into The Scrappiness/Pressure For The...

Dug Song is the co-founder and CEO of Duo Security which was acquired by Cisco for $2.4 billion. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Dug Song about how he fell into a world famous hacking group made up of “angels and devils” and how he got hired by his college after hacking into their networks.  Understanding Your Customers Requires Deep Empathy [16:55-19:21] - Instead of giving your custom...