In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with TJ Jermoluk, CEO of Beyond Identity, a passwordless authentication platform that’s raised over $200 Million in funding, about why it’s time to address the fundamental flaw in the way we’ve all been running our security. We all know that sharing passwords is a no-no, but it’s built into the alphanumeric system on which our traditional security systems have been based for decades. By combining identity management and security infrastructure, Beyond Identity are carving out a new market category, and successfully bringing investors and clients along for the ride.

We also spoke about TJ’s legacy in Silicon Valley and the companies which helped to make him a legend there, why it’s such a uniquely great place for starting a startup, and how it’s changed over the decades. Leading the way in a new market space means confronting a whole host of unique challenges, foremost among which is educating your market about exactly why what you’re offering is something they need, and how it's going to change their whole world.

Topics Discussed:

• TJ’s time in Silicon Valley, and why a unique combination of innovation and investment means its still a uniquely special place to do business

Favorite book: 

The Soul of A New Machine

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Ramiro Berrelleza, CEO of Okteto, a software development microservices platform that’s raised over $18 Million in funding, about how inefficiencies in software development cycles can undermine long-term business success, and why Okteto saw this challenge as an opportunity to carve out a new market category. By providing cloud-integrated development support services for engineering teams, helping them coordinate, collaborate and innovate remotely, Okteto helps make sure that their clients don’t fall behind the competition when it comes to the rate at which they can deploy their critical software solutions.

We also spoke about why Ramiro prefers to focus on teams, and doesn’t quite buy into the myth of the charismatic leader, the challenges of creating a new market category and the benefits of leading market once you’ve done so, and why storytelling is a critical skill for any founder, even those working in a tech-orientated market space. By driving a sense of urgency.

Topics Discussed:

• A lifetime in tech, how computer games led Ramiro to cloud-integrated software solutions

Favorite book: 

The Design Of Everyday Things

Rodney Reisdorf, CEO of Verivend, a payments platform operating exclusively in the private capital space, about why this most finance-orientated sector has been left behind by the fintech revolution, and how Verivend is set to disrupt the way transactions take place. By providing a seamless, streamlined platform for moving venture capital and private equity money around, emulating the success of personal payment platforms in transforming how most of us interact with our finances on a daily basis.

We also spoke about the challenges of being a founder and how you can’t always trust the theory, why Verivend asked its funders to invest directly through the platform they were supporting, and why Rodney’s biggest biggest decision might have been pivoting away from his original idea to pursue a more problem-based approach to growing a business. Creating a brand new business category around their private capital-focused platform, Rodney also explains why a comparative description might be the best way to communicate an idea with new potential customers.

Topics Discussed:

• Why being a business founder means confronting the limitations of theory and the messy challenges of real life

Favorite book: 

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Josh Shaul, CEO of Allure Security, about his lifelong obsession with cybersecurity, taking technology apart, and fighting the oldest scam on the internet, identity fraud. With a proactive approach to brand protection, Allure Security scours the internet for identity fraudsters impersonating established brands, working with browsers and other industry partners to shut them down or overloading them with unusable data, rendering their business model essentially unviable. From building relationships with major social media players to protecting individual accounts from scammers, more sophisticated brand protection is a cornerstone of contemporary business, and while total immunity is all but impossible, Allure Security can promise a dramatic reduction in its impact.

Topics Discussed:

• How cybersecurity was a natural progression for Josh Shaul since he was a child in the 90s

Favorite book: 

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jorge Penalva, Co-Founder & CEO of Lang AI, a language understanding platform that's raised $40 Million+ in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

• Customer Experience Transformation: Lang AI focuses on helping CX organizations manage and analyze massive amounts of customer data to transform CX from a cost center to a revenue driver.

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Parry Bedi, CEO of Tingono, a revenue retention platform that's raised almost $7 Million in funding, about why most companies miss out on the real value of their data, and how stitching together inputs to form a cohesive whole can provide critical decision-making insights for a modern business. Terming this approach ‘Machine-Learning driven revenue growth,’ Tingono has carved a space for itself in the SaaS ecosystem, working closely with clients to develop genuinely value-adding software solutions.

We also spoke about why Parry has such a pattern for entrepreneurship, how working with data is now much more important than just producing it, building ‘design partner’ relationships with potential customers, and why constructing the ideal team can be both the biggest challenge in business, and also one of its most rewarding aspects in the long run.

Topics Discussed:

• Why Parry’s passion for entrepreneurship leads him to keep founding new enterprises

Favorite book: 

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Paul Kim, CEO of Notifi, a Web3 communication infrastructure platform that's raised over $12 Million in funding. 

Topics Discussed:

• From multinational enterprise to energetic startups, how experience working with the big boys gave Paul valuable lessons for his own company

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jordan Gal, CEO & Co-Founder of Rally, a checkout payment platform that's raised $6 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

• Innovative Checkout Solutions: Rally offers an alternative checkout solution for e-commerce merchants, challenging the standard platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Chris Strahl, CEO of Knapsack, a design systems platform that has raised more than 7 million in funding, about his addiction to the more agile side of the business world, and why smaller companies are the way he likes to operate. With Knapsack, he's determined to reset the relationship between business and design, providing an integrated platform for collaboration and coordination which ensures the highest level of efficiency and consistency in the digital design process. The design systems platform category is all about providing the framework to support a whole range of design solutions, whether they come from engineers, designers, or the mind of a visionary CEO, and see them transform into high-quality content.

Chris also spoke about the current state of the venture capital market and being a 'wartime CEO, ' the challenges non-digital native companies have in facing an increasing consumer demand for online experiences, and why building a new market category is such an exhilarating but challenging experience. Whether or not Knapsack will emulate the success of design platforms like Canva remains to be seen, but Chris can see a path ahead in that direction, and he's determined to make it. 

 Topics Discussed:

• The mundane challenges of modern design, and why most designers end up making the same product several times over

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Wes Winham Winler, CEO of Woven, about why a new way of hiring tech developers is needed to keep up with the rapid transformation and growth in the startup space. By putting candidates through rigorous skills testing exercises tailor made to the needs of a specific company, Woven is determined to all but eliminate the mishiring phenomenon and make sure everyone finds themselves in the role that’s right for them.

Wes also explains how a personal experience working with a small team led him to really understand the impact of ineffective hiring, why keeping ‘in-category’ is important for helping potential customers connect with your business, and how pretty much anything can be measured (even if not precisely) to help us all make better business decisions moving forward.

Topics Discussed:

• Wes’ experiences in startup culture, and how both positive and negative experiences gave him important lessons to apply with Woven.

Favorite book: 

How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business