In this episode, we sit down with Ed Bellis, Founder of Kenna Security (acquired by Cisco) and now Co-Founder and CEO of Empirical Security, to unpack the highs, lows, and learnings from over two decades in cybersecurity.
Ed shares:
👉 The wild early days of Kenna, including near-bankruptcy and a failed “Kenna in a box” moment
👉 His journey from CISO at Orbitz to founder, and the painful transition from practitioner to CEO
👉 What went wrong — and right — with managed service partners and scaling go-to-market
👉 Why Empirical is taking a radical approach: building thousands of custom AI models for each customer
👉 His honest take on the AI hype wave (“everyone’s suddenly an AI company… really?”)
👉 How he’s applying lessons from Kenna to build smarter, predictive security tailored to your data at Empirical SecurityÂ
Plus: advice for founders, raising early capital, and how not to blow your Series A runway.
If you're building in cybersecurity, scaling a startup, or just love a good founder story - this one’s for you.
Ed's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellis/
Empirical Security - https://www.empiricalsecurity.com/
Joseph's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybercoops/
Aspiron Search - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspiron-search/
