Code Story | Startup Podcast for CTOs, CEOs and Technical Founders

Today, we are kicking off an amazing series for Cybersecurity Awareness month, entitled the Haunted House of API’s, sponsored by our friends at Traceable AI. In this series, we are building awareness around API’s, their security risks – and what you can do about it. Traceable AI is building One Platform to secure every API, so you can discover, protect, and test all your API's with contextual API security, enabling organizations to minimize risk and maximize the value API's bring to their customers.

In today’s episode, we will be talking with Jayesh Ahire, an expert in API testing and OWASP, will guide us through the "brew" of common vulnerabilities that haunt API ecosystems, focusing on the OWASP Top 10 for APIs. He’ll share how organizations can use API security testing to spot and neutralize these vulnerabilities before they become major exploits. By emphasizing proactive security measures, Jayesh will offer insights into creating a strong API testing framework that keeps malicious actors at bay.

Discussion questions:

1. What are some of the most common vulnerabilities in APIs that align with the OWASP Top 10, and why are they so dangerous?
2. Why is API security testing crucial for detecting these vulnerabilities early, and how does it differ from traditional security testing?
3. Can you share an example of how an overlooked API vulnerability led to a significant security breach?
4. How can organizations create an effective API testing framework that addresses these vulnerabilities?
5. What tools or methods do you recommend for continuously testing APIs and ensuring they remain secure as they evolve?

Sponsors

• Traceable

Links

• https://www.traceable.ai/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayesh-ahire/
• https://owasp.org/

Elkhan Shabanov was born in the Soviet Union, and started out in the tech world. He eventually left tech to try some other types of businesses, but eventually returned. He has done a few early stage startups in the past, in particular in the 3d printing space before it was cool. Six years ago, he joined his current venture. Outside of tech, he enjoys traveling, and is in a competition with his daughter to see how many countries he can visit. When he reads, he prefers to go back to the books he has read and enjoyed before, and being in Texas, he is a big fan of grilling out on his big green egg.

As I mentioned, six years ago Elkhan joined a company that wanted to be more than a software development shop. He and the founder of the company wanted to build a company that did more than throw bodies at a problem - but actually because a long term partner to their clients.

This is the creation story of Digicode.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.mydigicode.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/elkhanshabanov/

Vishal Agarwal was born in India, and did his schooling in Darjeeling. He noted that this city exports some of the best tea in the world! Prior to his current venture, he was the chief marketing officer for Choxi. Outside of tech, he is an avid tennis lover and follows cricket and basketball closely. Though, he admits, now that he has a 2.5 year old child, his time is mostly dedicated to him.

In attempting to solve the problem of "splitting the check", Vishal discovered that restaurants had a real problem with having multiple tablets for the many order and delivery services - like GrubHub, DoorDash, etc. When he saw this problem proliferate, he validated that people were willing to pay for a solution.

This is the creation story of Checkmate.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.itsacheckmate.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalagarwal82/

Heiki Riesenkampf is from a tiny country called Estonia, later studying computer science in London and doing his post grad in Zurich. He has been into machine learning since before all of the hype it has now. Outside of technology, he dreams of being a macroeconomist, and spends a ton of time reading about the topic. He lives in New York now, and frequently takes in the architecture, fashion and local art scene.

Previously, Heiki spent time working for a VC, eventually building a product in a completely different domain. After personally realizing that he didn't want to be known for the product he was building, he pivoted towards building something that impacted him personally as an immigrant.

This is the creation story of Commonbase.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://commonbase.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/heikir

Guy Guzner first computer when he was 5, which was a Commodore 64, where he learned to program in BASIC. As a teed, get started getting into the internet, back with dialup and a modem. He startec hacking into places where he shouldn't be, and eventually got into trouble - but now, he has flipped that for good and works to protect systems now. Outside of tech, he plays tennis, and likes to ski. He also plays guitar, jamming Led Zeppling and 80's / 90's rock.

After selling his past company to Symantec, he stayed on to help existing and future companies. What he realized was that people were still mis-using their identities. He observed this behavior, and decided to take identity to the next level.

This is the creation story of Savvy Security.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.savvy.security/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyguzner/

Rob Grazioli started his life in Brooklyn NY, but moved to Italy for his Dad's job, and lived there from age 5 to 13. He ended up moving back to the states for High School and College, and finds that it's difficult to separate tech and work from his life. Outside of tech, he enjoys exercising, and has always been an athlete, most recently picking up basketball. He really loves to make things, learn how things work, and to munch on Oreos.

Eight years ago, Rob and his partners started a company called Density, allowing businesses to count the number of people in a room. After growing that business, Rob realized that he wanted to get back to building things. And, after working with early businesses, he found his passion in being founders for hire.

This is the creation story of Bread.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.madebybread.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-j-grazioli/

Sebastian Raffaele grew up in a small, working class family in Australia. He had a crazy life, growing up in social housing, having to find his way. He found inspiration from his family members, who always pushed him to follow his passions. He left high school early, and jumped straight away into the work force. In 2014 he was introduced to crypto, and got hooked. Outside of tech and finance, he has always been into the creative spaces, specifically music. He likes to spend time with his fiancé, likes trying new foods, and tries to surround himself with high quality people.

Sebastian realized that the manual processes for a trader are overwhelming, along with making it difficult to be consistent. And alongside this, he saw the cycle of manual traders returning the money they made to the market - sort of like "the house always wins" in casinos. He wanted to build something close the gap for these traders, and solve this problem.

This is the creation story of Minotaur Trading Systems.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://minotaurtradingsystems.com/

Adam Pisk lives in Sydney, Australia, and just turned 45. He has 5 year old twins, and at the time of this recording, had just taken them on a trip to explore theme parks. He enjoys good wine, good steak, and good people. And the best place you can get a steak? In his backyard on his pit. Outside of this, as he puts it, he is unfortunately one of those people that really enjoys their work. IE, considers it a hobby.

Adam started his outsourcing journey in 2001, specifically in the manufacturing industry. He couldn't get the engineers he needed, and built an offshore engineering team. Once he got that working, he wondered what else he could outsource. Eventually, he offshored operations for a different company, and noticed all metrics improved. He then realized there is something to this.

This is the creation story of Bruntwork.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf

Links

• https://www.bruntwork.co/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/adampisk/

In August of 2021, we interviewed Brendan Wood on the podcast to tell the creation story of Passiv. After the recording, the company decided to pivot into a new market, focusing on solving their biggest pain point for other platforms. They were running into the problems surrounding integrations into brokers. In fact, they were spending 80% of engineering time on integrations. People started to reach out to his team to ask if they could use the integrations... and they started ideating about making this its own product.

This is the creation story of SnapTrade.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf

Links

• https://snaptrade.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendancalebwood/
• https://codestory.co/podcast/bonus-brendan-wood-passiv/

Hello listeners.

Today, I have an awesome follow episode from our friends at Swob. You may remember our episode with Stephanie Florio in Season 6 over 2 years ago, where she clued us in on the creation story of the company. Today, I'm speaking with her co-founder and brother, Alex, to hear the update on Swob and what the team has been up to since then. Have a listen now

It's very cool to hear the successful update with Swob, adding over 7 million jobs to the platform, scaling for businesses and candidates, and ensuring they have the right team in place to carry out the vision.

If you would like to learn more about Swob, go to swobapp.com.

Sponsors

• P0 Security
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf

Links

• https://www.swobapp.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderflorio/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-florio-51397765/
• https://codestory.co/podcast/bonus-stephanie-florio-swob/