Shows
Inside the NetworkDino Boukouris & Sam Bronstein: How AI, identity, and cloud security defined 2025 and what 2026 holds for foundersIn this special year-end episode of Inside the Network, we’re joined by two of the most trusted strategic advisors in cybersecurity - Dino Boukouris, Managing Partner at Altitude Cyber, and Sam Bronstein, Partner at AXOM Partners. Between them, they’ve worked on billions of dollars in cybersecurity M&A, helped founders navigate exits to the world’s largest tech companies, and advised the CEOs behind some of the biggest public and private deals in the industry. In this episode, which also happens to be the 20th episode of Inside the Network, we break down wh...
2026-01-141h 02
Inside the NetworkDean Sysman: Betting on a boring problem and scaling Axonius past $100M ARRIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Dean Sysman, co-founder and CEO of Axonius, one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in the world. From struggling with his first startup to building a category-defining unicorn valued at $2.6 billion, Dean’s journey is a raw, insightful, and unfiltered look into what it really takes to build in security.Before founding Axonius, Dean co-founded Cymmetria, a Y Combinator-backed deception startup that despite all the efforts, didn’t end up leading to a successful outcome. That experience didn’t stop him; it made him more g...
2025-11-271h 16
Inside the NetworkTomer Weingarten: From cyber outsider to building SentinelOne into a $1B ARR category leaderIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Tomer Weingarten, Co-Founder and CEO of SentinelOne, one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies. From writing code and designing the company’s first UI himself, to taking SentinelOne public and crossing $1 billion ARR, Tomer’s journey is a rare combination of technical excellence, grit, and long-term conviction.Tomer didn’t grow up surrounded by startup founders or Silicon Valley mentors. He was raised in a small Israeli town with few resources and found computers as a creative escape. He met his SentinelOne co-founder, Almog Cohen...
2025-10-211h 11
Inside the NetworkSumit Dhawan: Leading Proofpoint’s AI evolution and building toward $5B in ARRIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Sumit Dhawan, CEO of Proofpoint, one of the largest private cybersecurity companies in the world. With over $2 billion in ARR, Proofpoint protects 85 of the Fortune 100 and is on a bold path toward $5 billion in revenue by 2030.Sumit’s journey is a masterclass in modern leadership. Having graduated with degrees in engineering and business from IIT Roorkee, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Florida, Sumit led major business lines at Citrix and VMware, including overseeing VMware’s $70 billion divestiture to Broadcom, before making the leap...
2025-09-1553 min
Inside the NetworkJay Chaudhry: Betting on yourself and building a $40B+ Zero Trust giant in ZscalerIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Jay Chaudhry, founder and CEO of Zscaler, one of the most valuable cybersecurity companies in the world with a market cap of over $40 billion and $3 billion in ARR.Jay’s journey is unlike any other. Raised in a remote Indian village with no electricity, no running water, and a two-and-a-half-mile walk to school, he went on to build five companies and pioneer the modern Zero Trust cloud security model. Zscaler, his most iconic company, was launched in 2007 with $50 million of his own capital an...
2025-08-2653 min
Inside the NetworkMichelle Zatlyn: Scaling Cloudflare to a $70B giant and building a better InternetIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Michelle Zatlyn, Co-founder and President of Cloudflare, one of the most iconic Internet infrastructure companies in the world. From its launch during the depths of the 2009 financial crisis to today’s $70 billion market cap and 5 million+ customers, Cloudflare has become a cornerstone of global Internet security and performance.Michelle’s journey is remarkable. Raised in a small farming town in Saskatchewan, Canada, she left behind plans to become a doctor and instead teamed up with Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway to tackle an auda...
2025-07-311h 01
Inside the NetworkJoe Levy: Scaling Sophos to $1B+ revenue and defending the 350M overlooked businessesIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Joe Levy, CEO of Sophos, a 40-year-old cybersecurity company that has quietly become one of the most important global players, serving over 600,000 organizations and generating over $1 billion in revenue. Throughout his career, Joe has operated with a founder's mindset: thinking in bets, building great teams, spotting technical and market inflection points, and executing with long-term discipline. A great example is Sophos’ recent $800+ million acquisition of Dell Secureworks, adding over 1,000 new team members and significantly expanding Sophos’ managed detection and response and extended detection and r...
2025-06-281h 05
Inside the NetworkAndy Cao and Hugh Thompson: Inside RSAC 2025’s biggest moments and boldest ideasIn this RSAC special episode of Inside the Network, we sit down not with one, but two remarkable guests from the center of the cybersecurity world.First, we’re joined by Andy Cao, COO of ProjectDiscovery, a company focused on open-source vulnerability management tools, which won the "Most Innovative Startup" award at the RSA Conference 2025 Innovation Sandbox. Andy shares how ProjectDiscovery is reimagining vulnerability management in an AI-driven world, what set their pitch apart in the Innovation Sandbox, and how their attacker-first mindset is reshaping how security teams discover and fix real-world exposures. With over 1 million us...
2025-05-2152 min
Startup Success: A Podcast for Founders & InvestorsYour Startup Board: How to Make it a Game ChangerWhat makes a startup board really effective? How do you build one that will truly benefit your startup? How do you conduct board meetings that are helpful and not just a quarterly scramble to put together a deck? In this episode of Startup Success, we dive deep into a topic we’ve never explored before: the real role and power of a startup board. Your board can be a game-changer for your startup—if done the right way.Joining us are Matt Blumberg, CEO of Acrolinx, and Mahendra Ramsinghani, the Managing Director of Secure Octane Investments —two of...
2025-05-0632 min
Inside the NetworkDug Song: Values over valuation—reflections on building Duo Security and leading with purposeIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Dug Song, the legendary co-founder and former CEO of Duo Security. Dug's journey is nothing short of iconic—he turned a side project into a cybersecurity powerhouse with over 50,000 customers and a $2.35 billion exit to Cisco. In a world obsessed with unicorn status and funding hype, Dug stands out as a founder who stayed grounded in values, culture, and customer empathy.We explore Dug’s early years—from doing data entry in his father’s liquor store in West Baltimore to cutting his teeth at...
2025-04-061h 25
Inside the NetworkJeetu Patel: Cisco’s AI-powered cybersecurity futureIn this episode of Inside the Network, we sit down with Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer. Jeetu previously led Cisco’s Security and Collaboration business units. Under his leadership, these divisions have become major growth engines fueled by AI-driven innovation, strategic acquisitions, and a renewed focus on user experience.With a market cap of $250 billion and a security business generating $10 billion in revenue, Cisco is evolving into a different kind of startup, one that moves with speed and urgency. Jeetu shares why he joined Cisco to spearhead this tran...
2025-03-051h 02
Inside the NetworkShlomo Kramer: A playbook for building three multi billion-dollar cybersecurity companies - Cato Networks, Check Point, and ImpervaShlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks is a rare bird in the cybersecurity industry, having built three unicorns in his career. For many in the cybersecurity industry, Shlomo needs no introduction. One of the early pioneers in Israel’s cybersecurity startup ecosystem, what makes Shlomo remarkable is his ability to repeatedly build category-defining companies. He first co-founded Check Point, which pioneered the firewall category and today commands a $20 billion market cap. Then, seeing the shift to the cloud, he launched Imperva, focusing on web application security (WAF). That was his second IPO. Now with Cato Networks, he's crea...
2025-02-0347 min
Inside the NetworkHamza Fodderwala: The future of cybersecurity — 2024 retrospective, 2025 predictions and what founders need to knowIn this holiday episode special, we’re joined by Hamza Fodderwala, Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where he leads cybersecurity equity coverage. He joined Morgan Stanley's software research team in early 2016 and leads coverage for public cybersecurity companies like Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, SentinelOne, Okta, Zscaler, Cloudflare, Rapid7, Check Point, Qualys, Varonis and Tenable. Before Morgan Stanley, Hamza was an equity research associate at Susquehanna International Group covering the financial technology sector. Hamza graduated from New York University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.We dive into Hamza’s insights on the majo...
2024-12-2957 min
Inside the NetworkKumar Saurabh: Building Sumo Logic, LogicHub, and AirMDR and why immigrants make great entrepreneursIn this episode, we sit down with Kumar Saurabh, CEO and co-founder of AirMDR, which provides a new approach to managed detection and response with an AI-powered virtual security analyst. A serial entrepreneur, Kumar has been at it for two decades. Before AirMDR, he co-founded Sumo Logic, the first cloud-based SIEM, and LogicHub, one of the pioneers of SOAR.Kumar’s journey as an immigrant founder offers a unique perspective on why immigrants often succeed as entrepreneurs and how institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have produced some of the world’s most...
2024-12-1252 min
Inside the NetworkRick Snyder: How a Founder, VC and Governor is building a safer digital futureIn this special election episode, we sit down with Gov. Rick Snyder, an entrepreneur, a former VC, and a leader whose career is unique in depth and breadth, spanning both the public and private sectors. Rick Snyder initially made his mark as COO of Gateway, where he helped the company grow revenue from $600 million to $6 billion to IPO. He then co-founded venture firm Ardesta, which stands for “spark” in Greek. After two fund cycles, he transitioned from business to politics, serving two terms as Governor of Michigan. Post-governorship, Rick Snyder returned to the entrepreneurial world...
2024-11-0248 min
Inside the NetworkSlavik Markovich: Building Descope & Demisto—brewing coffee and connections in the US-Israel tech sceneIn this episode, we sit down with Slavik Markovich, CEO and co-founder of Descope, a low-code/no-code Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) platform. A serial entrepreneur, Slavik has been at it for two decades and over this time built three companies.Before Descope, he was co-founder and CEO at Demisto, a leader in the SOAR industry that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $560 million. Before co-founding Demisto, Slavik was VP & CTO of database technologies at McAfee (Intel Security). He joined McAfee via the acquisition of Sentrigo, a database security startup, where he was...
2024-10-051h 01
Inside the NetworkDoug Merritt: Creating a decacorn in Splunk and identifying trendsIn this episode we have a special guest - Doug Merritt - who has shaped not a unicorn but a decacorn - a company valued at more than $10 billion. As the former CEO of Splunk, he steered this big data company to extraordinary heights. In just six years under Doug's leadership, Splunk's market cap soared past $25 billion, and its annual recurring revenue skyrocketed from $200 million to a staggering $3 billion. At its peak, over 50% of Splunk revenues came from security applications.Doug's journey began as a coder and developer before transitioning to sales leadership and...
2024-08-3057 min
Inside the NetworkJon Gelsey: Building Auth0, the only PLG company in cybersecurity to achieve a multi-billion dollar exitOur guest in this episode is Jon Gelsey. Jon was the first CEO of Auth0, a leading identity-as-a-service platform, which grew from 5 to 300 employees during his four years at the helm. Auth0 was acquired by Okta in February 2021 for $6.5B. After Auth0, Jon served as CEO of Xnor, a computer vision and machine learning spinoff of the Allen Institute. The company was acquired by Apple for ~$200M in January 2020. When Auth0 first started in 2013, there were already several authentication vendors in the market. Okta, ForgeRock, and OneLogin had all built considerable scale by the t...
2024-08-0157 min
Inside the NetworkMarty Roesch: Scaling Sourcefire and creating a new way to monetize open source security softwareIn this episode, we sit down with Marty Roesch, founder of Sourcefire. Sourcefire led the intrusion detection and protection (IDS/IPS) wave, raised four rounds of financing from leading VCs like NEA, Sierra Ventures, and Sequoia, and went public, later to be acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion.Founders often believe that their first few customers cannot be large enterprises. Marty took the contrarian path. Sourcefire’s first few customers were all six-figure deals - PWC, Intel, SAIC, and International Paper. In addition to that, Sourcefire was incredibly successful in working with industry research firms li...
2024-07-071h 07
Inside the NetworkRon Gula: Bootstrapping Tenable to $100M revenue and becoming an influencerFew cybersecurity companies have been able to bootstrap their way to success – Tenable stands above the rest in this category. The company raised its first round of funding after 10 years of operations. It had $90M of revenue at the time. In the venture world, “Tenable was the best cybersecurity business that nobody had ever heard of.” Today, it is the leading cyber exposure and vulnerability management company with $800M in revenue and over 44,000 customers globally.In our second episode of ‘Inside the Network’ we sit down with Ron Gula, co-founder and former CEO of Tenable. We learn abou...
2024-06-031h 00
Inside the NetworkDmitri Alperovitch: Building CrowdStrike and defending against nation statesThere are plenty of great startups solving impactful problems in security. Very few, however, ever grow to achieve the scale of CrowdStrike - a company that has rightfully become a household name in the industry. Today, CrowdStrike has a market cap of over $70 billion, making it one of the world's 300 most valuable companies. In the inaugural episode of ‘Inside the Network,’ we sit down with Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike, to discuss his journey before, during, and after building this iconic company. Dmitri walks us through his childhood, immigrating from Russia to the US, a...
2024-05-0358 min
Overboost Talks"Startup Boards" by Brad Feld, Matt Blumberg, and Mahendra Ramsinghani. In this enlightening episode of Overboost Talks, host Mike Sullivan delves into the strategic world of "Startup Boards" by Brad Feld, Matt Blumberg, and Mahendra Ramsinghani. We explore the crucial roles and responsibilities that define effective startup boards, from governance and conflict management to fundraising and CEO succession. Drawing on verifiable insights from the book, each segment offers practical advice and real-world applications tailored for entrepreneurs and investors. Join us as we navigate the complexities of board dynamics and discover how to craft boards that not only oversee but propel startups towards success. Special thanks to Andres Perez, co-founder...
2024-05-0222 min
AudioLoveStartup Boards Mahendra Ramsinghani, Brad Feld"Listen to this 2-hour audiobook excerpt, then enjoy the entire book for FREE by visiting https://audiolove.online/audiobooks ! Discover over 2000 enthralling mysteries, epic fantasies, romances, and non-fiction titles. Your next great adventure starts with a single click. Dive in now!" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2024-03-071h 59
The Daily BolsterManaging Effective Boards as a CEO with Mahendra RamsinghaniGet ready to hear game-changing advice! On today’s episode of The Daily Bolster, Mahendra Ramsinghani shares his top three tips for CEOs who want to take their board management skills to the next level. 🧍 Remember, we're all human🟰 Build a team of equals🏃♂️ Create a marathon dynamicMahendra Ramsinghani is a seed-stage VC Secure Octane and the author of The Business of Venture Capital and The Resilient Founder. He also co-authored Startup Boards alongside Matt Blumberg and Brad Feld.
2023-09-2106 min
Startup Life Show with Ande LyonsEP 279 What Founders Need to Know About Building Effective Startup BoardsKnowing when to form and build a Board of Directors is a challenge for many startup founders.Once the Board is formed, how to manage and communicate with the Board presents an additional burden on founders.Our guest, Mahendra Ramsinghani, co-authored Startup Boards: Getting the Most of Your Board of Directors with Brad Feld, and has all the insights and advice you need to skillfully navigate this important segment of your startup’s structure.Currently, Mahendra is the Founder of Secure Octane - a cybersecurity seed fund based in the San Francisco Bay area.
2023-04-251h 08
Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney JohnsonBrad Feld & Matt Blumberg: How to Get the Most From Your Board of DirectorsWhat is a board of directors? What is its purpose, and what makes for a good board member? And how can you get value from a board, especially if you're a startup? This week, we have another tactical learning episode to answer these questions and much more. Brad Feld and Matt Blumberg – together with Mahendra Ramsinghani – recently republished and vastly expanded the second edition of their book: "Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors." Brad has been a venture capitalist since the '90s, with a special focus on t...
2022-11-0856 min
WHERE’S THE FUNDING?Investor Shares What Every Startup Founder Should Know About Structuring a Successful Board with Mahendra Ramsinghani S5 Ep.9Investor Shares What Every Startup Founder Should Know About Structuring a Successful Board with Mahendra Ramsinghani S5 Ep.9Mahendra Ramsinghani is the author of two books - The Business of Venture Capital and The Resilient Founder and co-author of Startup Boards with Brad Feld and Matt Blumberg. He is also the Founder of Secure Octane - a cybersecurity seed fund based in San Francisco and led the legislation for two Fund-of-Fund programs.In this episode, we discussed:
The business of venture capital
The philosophy of building meaningful companies
The importance...
2022-11-0428 min
unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc202. The Business of Venture Capital feat. Mahendra RamsinghaniSince its initial publication, “The Business of Venture Capital” has been hailed as the definitive, most comprehensive book on the subject. In its upcoming third edition, this market-leading text explains the multiple facets of the business of venture capital, from raising venture funds, to structuring investments, to generating consistent returns, to evaluating exit strategies.Mahendra Ramsinghani is the founder of Secure Octane, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, which invests in cybersecurity among other sectors. He is also the author of multiple books including “The Resilient Founder,” and “Startup Boards” co-authored with noted VC Brad Feld....
2022-10-241h 09
On Boards PodcastStartup Boards: A Field Guide to Building an Effective Board of DirectorsIn this episode, Brad Feld, Mahendra Ramsinghani and Matt Blumberg talk about their new book, it is an incredibly inciteful and comprehensive look at Startups and all boards. An instruction manual for CEOs who are building and leading a board and a valuable reference for existing board members, aspiring board members and venture investors. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here. Links Startup Boards – Buy on Amazon Quotes Matt: It's never too early to build a board an...
2022-06-1740 min
Traction PodcastThe Playbook for High-Performing Boards with Michelle Zatlyn, Shawn Abbott, and Mahendra RamsinghaniOn this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Michelle Zatlyn, Co-Founder & COO at Cloudflare, Shawn Abbott, Partner at Inovia Capital, and Mahendra Ramsinghani, Founder at Secure Octane & Author at Startup Boards. Together, they give us a masterclass on building high-performing boards and productive relationships. Topics covered include: 12:22 - What do investors expect from founders when it comes to their board? 23:52 - Why momentum is the source of all authority you have as a founder 32:49 - Working through imposter syndrome 42:44 - R...
2022-02-281h 00
Boardroom Governance with Evan EpsteinMatt Blumberg: Startup Boards.Intro.(1:40) - Start of interview.(2:00) - Matt's "origin story". He grew up in San Diego, CA. He's lived in and around New York City for the last 30 years. After college he worked as a consultant (Mercer Consulting) and VC (General Atlantic). In 1995 he joined the executive team of MovieFone, a small cap public company. He helped the company "figure out what the internet was all about." They sold the company to AOL in 1999 (for $388M in stock). Then he started a company called Return Path in 1999. It was a 20-year run where they scaled the company to about $100m in...
2022-02-2248 min
Stocks4DocsInterview with a Start-Up Investor, Mahendra RamsinghaniWhile public markets are a great investment opportunity, most investors balance their portfolios with alternative assets such as private equity / venture capital. However, these are often high risk and inaccessible to most investors. Mahendra Ramsinghani, who has been an investor in Silicon Valley for over a decade and generated upwards of 50% IRR, will share his insights on this secret corner of the market. And oh - he is the author of the seminal book "The Business of Venture Capital"; a few signed copies will be given away to our listeners. Tune in for the next episode to find out...
2021-07-2138 min
Planejamento FinanceiroEp 104 - Investindo em Start-upO que é uma start-up, afinal? Você pode investir em empresas desse tipo, mas que tem uma série de riscos para avaliar e processos para entender em que momento entrar, como fazer essa aposta de risco (sim, de 50-60% delas não dão certo!)
Conversamos nesta semana com Leonardo Teixeira, sócio da Iporanga Ventures e craque no assunto. Contou-nos como os 10% das empresas investidas "pagam a conta" daquelas que não deram certo. Ouça para entender o que é a "seleção adversa" que pode te pega de calças curtas, e de como se preparar para...
2021-06-2841 min
The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing DemystifiedInvestor Stories 63: Exceptional Founders (Boyce, Ramsinghani, Greathouse)On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - Peter Boyce - Mahendra Ramsinghani - John Greathouse Each investor describes an outstanding entrepreneur that they've worked with and what key traits and behaviors make for the best startup leaders. To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
2017-06-0512 minThe Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified58. Startup Boards, Part 2 (Mahendra Ramsinghani)Mahendra Ramsinghani joins Nick to cover Startup Boards, Part 2. We will address questions including: What cadence/frequency should Board meetings occur? Can you talk about the board meeting itself and how the best meetings operate? How does the startup board's makeup and responsibilities evolve over the course of a startups... To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
2015-12-2231 minThe Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified57. Startup Boards, Part 1 (Mahendra Ramsinghani)Mahendra Ramsinghani joins Nick to cover Startup Boards, Part 1. We will address questions including: What are the key functions of a board and why should entrepreneurs put one together? When is the appropriate time for a startup to begin assembling a board? What is the ideal makeup of the... To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
2015-12-2129 min
Daily Hunt: Startups, Entrepreneurship & Founder Stories#44 Mahendra Ramsinghani of Startup Boards — How to Know if You Should Raise Funds for Your StartupMahendra is the co-author of Startup Boards. He shares a few tips on how to keep healthy communication between founders and investors, and what it means to build trust with investors before you seek funding.
2015-04-2843 min