Description

Hackers already have AI. So do the people trying to stop them. Who wins that race? And how fast is it actually moving? That's what this episode is about.

In episode 9 of Code and Cobblestones, Lior joins us, Matt Crane and Will Lehmann, to walk through what it looks like to build the defender side of an arms race most people don't know is already happening. Hackers already have AI writing and running their attacks. Almost nobody has AI running the defense with the same speed.

He didn't come at this from a typical tech background. Unit 8200 at 18. Years with the Mossad that don't show up on LinkedIn. Then Cybereason, one of the first EDR companies, built over 12 years. Now 7AI, built with the same co-founder, Yonatan, after a conversation with OpenAI's former head of product convinced him the ground was shifting under the entire industry.

We got into:

• Why Lior thinks we're racing toward a moment when AI can plan, execute, and repeat cyberattacks entirely on its own, and why he still believes defenders can win that race
• Open weight AI models, which he called a gift with sharp edges, and why he thinks the US should lean into them instead of running from them
• Autonomous code generation, and why that ship has sailed whether security teams are ready or not (his words, not ours)
• What 7AI actually does day to day, and why Lior says "AI SOC" is already commodity. Too little, maybe too late, if that's still your whole pitch.
• The three-star Michelin culture 7AI is building internally, and why some of their strongest hires never worked in tech a day in their life before joining
• How 7AI runs as a flat, fast organization with almost no recurring meetings, and why Lior says that only works because of how they hire

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Lior Div, 7AI CEO

01:34 AI M&A: Stripe and NVIDIA

03:47 AI Cyberattacks Are Rising

06:09 Open Weight Models Debate

08:27 Risks of AI Code Generation

10:35 Lior's Path: Unit 8200 to Mossad

13:29 Why He Founded 7AI

15:34 What 7AI Actually Does

17:02 Beyond AI SOC

19:38 Building an AI-Native Company

24:10 Hiring for a Builder Culture

28:35 The Michelin Hiring Approach

32:46 Raising Capital for 7AI

35:00 Why Build in Boston

37:10 Rapid Fire

Guest: Lior Div,  Co-founder and CEO of 7AI https://7ai.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/liordiv/ 

Hosts: 

Matt Crane, Founder of MGMT Boston https://mgmtboston.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhcrane/ 

Will Lehmann Founder of Step Function VC https://stepfunction.vc/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wlehmann/ 

Watch/listen/Subscribe: 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033HueFNlE1LPnEFPvVscs?si=e2351085b40b4334 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/code-and-cobblestones/id6785977680 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MGMTBoston 

Code and Cobblestones is a love letter to Boston tech founders. New episodes spotlight the people building the city's next generation of companies.

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