Cyber Inspiration

What happens when a problem you've experienced firsthand becomes the inspiration for building a company?

In this episode of the Cyber Inspiration Podcast, host Evgeniy Kharam welcomes Josh Aaron, CEO and Co-Founder of Aiden Technologies, to explore the personal experiences, business decisions, and entrepreneurial lessons behind building a cybersecurity company.

Josh's motivation to make technology easier for people started long before Aiden Technologies. Growing up, he watched his father struggle to adapt as computers transformed the advertising industry. That experience helped shape his belief that technology should enable people, not hold them back.

Years later, while working in IT leadership and private equity, Josh encountered the challenges of vulnerability management firsthand. Together with his co-founders, he saw an opportunity to approach endpoint management differently.

But building Aiden wasn't about creating the biggest product or launching with every possible feature. The team started with working technology, early customers, and a focus on delivering measurable outcomes.

Josh shares how Aiden Technologies got started, the importance of staying focused when resources are limited, how early customer successes helped validate their approach, and why founders need to listen to the people around them.

In this episode, we explore:

• The personal experience that inspired Josh's approach to technology
• How a vulnerability management problem contributed to the creation of Aiden Technologies
• Starting a cybersecurity company with existing technology and early customers
• Why Aiden focused on results before building sophisticated reporting tools
• The importance of early customer validation and proving your product works
• Building a company around a differentiated approach
• How AI is changing expectations for endpoint management and remediation
• Leadership, company culture, work-life balance, and advice for entrepreneurs

Whether you're building a cybersecurity startup, leading a growing business, or thinking about turning an industry problem into a company, Josh's journey offers practical lessons about staying focused, listening, and building technology that delivers real value.

Tune in to the Cyber Inspiration Podcast with Evgeniy Kharam and Josh Aaron.

Robert Maxwell, CEO of TGT Solutions Inc., joins Cyber Inspiration to share the story of building a technology company that has survived and evolved through 30 years of change.

The story begins in 1996.

At the time, Robert was working at National Trust and could see an acquisition approaching. Having experienced an acquisition before, he knew he didn't want to wait for someone else to determine his future.

At the same time, he and his colleagues saw an opportunity.

Software was proliferating, client-server computing was emerging, and ERP systems were gaining momentum. But there was still a major gap between buying technology and actually integrating it into an organization in a meaningful and profitable way.

Robert persuaded two colleagues to get ahead of the curve and build something of their own.

That became TGT Solutions.

Over the next 30 years, the company evolved alongside technology. About nine years ago, a major client implementation presented another opportunity when a simple question came up: Who is going to secure this?

That question helped lead TGT Solutions into cybersecurity.

Robert shares why collaboration has remained central to the company's approach, how TGT evaluates potential team members based first on whether they genuinely care about the client's problem, and what has kept him motivated after three decades.

The conversation also looks ahead at AI and vibe coding, including why Robert believes new tools can provide enormous value but don't eliminate the need to understand requirements, manage technology carefully, and test what you build.

Finally, Robert reflects on what he would change if he could start again, including hiring more leaders earlier, paying closer attention to emerging technology trends, and considering greater industry specialization.

It's a conversation about longevity, leadership, collaboration, and what it takes to keep evolving when the technology around you never stops changing.

Learn more about TGT Solutions: www.tgtsolutions.com

Ian Matthews, Founder and President of WMC Global, joins Cyber Inspiration to share the nearly 20-year journey behind the company and the lessons learned from building, bootstrapping, pivoting, and eventually raising outside capital.

Ian's experience in mobile technology began before WMC Global existed, during the early days of SMS when text messaging was still an emerging technology. That experience gave Ian and his team deep knowledge of the mobile ecosystem and eventually helped them identify an opportunity to tackle mobile billing fraud.

WMC Global was founded in 2006 and initially built its business around that problem. But as technology evolved, app stores emerged, billing models changed, and the market the company originally served began to disappear.

Ian explains how WMC Global responded by reinventing itself, expanding into smishing, social engineering, brand impersonation, and broader mobile threat intelligence.

The conversation also explores the business decisions behind that evolution, including experiments that failed because of insufficient market validation, learning to listen more closely to customers, the tradeoffs that come with bootstrapping, and why WMC Global ultimately decided to raise outside capital in 2025 after nearly two decades of building independently.

Ian and Evgeniy also discuss today's mobile fraud landscape, including encrypted messaging, phishing-as-a-service, AI, security awareness, and why fighting fraud requires greater collaboration across the cybersecurity, telecommunications, financial services, and government ecosystems.

The episode closes with a candid conversation about founder burnout, work-life balance, and why stepping away from the business can ultimately help leaders make better decisions.

Graham Neray, Co-Founder and CEO of Oso, joins Cyber Inspiration to discuss the realities of startup life and what it takes to build a company through uncertainty.

Unlike many founders who begin with a specific problem they are passionate about solving, Graham shares that his journey started with a desire to build something meaningful and create his own path. From early conversations with the founder of MongoDB to raising venture capital and navigating pivots, Graham provides an honest look at the founder experience.

Topics include:

• Entrepreneurship and startup decision-making
• Product-market fit myths and realities
• Raising venture capital
• Lessons from failed product ideas
• Startup hiring challenges
• Leadership under uncertainty
• Customer-driven product development
• AI in recruiting and hiring
• Managing founder stress and setbacks
• Advice Graham would give his younger self

A thoughtful conversation for anyone interested in startups, technology, leadership, and growth.

In this episode of Cyber Inspiration, Evgeniy Kharam speaks with Kevin Spease, founder of ISSE Services, about cybersecurity in highly sensitive military environments and what it truly means to build security into systems from day one.

Kevin shares how working on the Minuteman III missile program shifted his view of cybersecurity from compliance-driven documentation to engineering-driven protection. He explains why “security baked in” matters far more than simply checking boxes.

The discussion also dives into:

• FedRAMP and government cybersecurity requirements
• Supply chain security risks
• Growing a cybersecurity company organically over 20 years
• The importance of honesty, ethics, and curiosity in hiring
• Why soft skills matter in technical environments
• Advice for veterans transitioning into cybersecurity careers
• Leadership lessons from difficult moments and uncertainty

This episode is packed with practical insights for cybersecurity professionals, founders, engineers, veterans, and anyone interested in critical infrastructure security.

In this episode of Cyber Inspiration, Evgeniy Kharam is joined by John Spiegel, Jaye Tillson, and Graham Ludlow, authors of Zero Trust Done Right: A practitioner’s guide to zero trust security in the age of AI.

Based on decades of real world experience, they break down why most Zero Trust initiatives fail and what organizations need to do differently.

This is not a technical deep dive. It is a practical conversation about leadership, communication, and execution.

We cover:

• Why Zero Trust is a business initiative, not an IT project

• The human side of Zero Trust and why culture matters

• How to communicate with executives and gain buy in

• Why most initiatives never get finished

• How to position Zero Trust without even using the term

• Lessons learned from real world failures

If you are attending RSA, you can meet the authors and get your copy signed:

• Monday at the Cloud Security Alliance event

• Wednesday at the RSA Bookstore

Grab the book here

In this episode of Cyber Inspiration, Evgeniy Kharam sits down with David Sequino and Bill Lattin of OmniTrust (formally INTEGRITY Security Services - ISS), and authors of Trust on the Edge: The New Front Line in IoT Cybersecurity.

With decades of experience in cryptography and embedded systems, David and Bill share how a real world manufacturing challenge led them to build solutions focused on securing connected devices.

As everything from vehicles to medical devices becomes connected, cybersecurity is no longer optional. It must be built into products from the very beginning.

This conversation explores why embedded security is different from enterprise security, how the attack surface is rapidly expanding, and why leadership must take responsibility for security across the entire product lifecycle.

In this episode of Cyber Inspiration, Evgeniy Kharam sits down with Stanley Li, Founder of Netswitch Technology Management, to unpack a 30 year journey through technology, entrepreneurship, and cyber governance.

Born in Hong Kong, educated in England, and building his career in San Francisco, Stanley’s path was anything but linear. From bartending at a yacht club to becoming a cable puller, to network architect, to founder during the dot com era, his story reflects persistence, risk, and reinvention.

We discuss:

• Starting at the bottom and learning the industry from the ground up

• Launching a company in 2000 just as the dot com crash hit

• Building early voice recognition technology before the iPhone existed

• The emotional toll of failed partnerships

• Trust but verify in business relationships

• Why entrepreneurship is different when it is your own money

• How cyber governance became the next chapter

• The vision behind their open source Risk Indicator data visualization tool

Stanley also shares powerful advice about staying focused, elevating awareness, and protecting your character in business.

If you are navigating leadership, startups, or cybersecurity strategy, this episode is a masterclass in resilience.

----

Read more on Netswitch: https://www.netswitch.net

Connect with Stanley Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/netswitchstanleyli/

Connect with Evgeniy Kharam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekharam/

Sharon Isaaci, Co-Founder and CEO of Tonic Security, joins Evgeniy Kharam to explore what it really takes to build a cybersecurity company that helps defenders focus on what matters.

After years in military intelligence and incident response, Sharon kept seeing the same pattern. Organizations had visibility, alerts, and tools. But they still got breached. Why? Because they missed the context.

This episode dives into how that insight led to Tonic Security, how GenAI is being used to cut through noise, and why Sharon now hires for values and learning ability instead of just technical skill.

What You’ll Learn

1. Why visibility is not the issue, but context is
2. How Tonic reduces irrelevant security findings by over 99 percent
3. The origin story behind Tonic Security
4. Lessons from Israeli cyber teams and elite talent
5. How Sharon approaches hiring and leadership
6. The personal tools he uses to stay grounded, from martial arts to music

In this episode, host Evgeniy Kharam speaks with Omar Romero, CEO of Rose IT Services, a Trinidad-based MSP serving the Caribbean and North America. Omar shares his story of launching the company post-2008 crash, scaling without VC or franchising, building a team from scratch, and adapting to evolving tech, from cybersecurity to automation. He also explores cultural differences in client communication and how COVID shaped his documentation-first mindset.

Key Topics:

• MSP growth lessons from New York to Trinidad
• How culture impacts IT service delivery
• Scaling a business without losing the personal touch
• Why cybersecurity became central to Rose IT
• Real work-life balance while running a global MSP
• Automating, documenting, and preparing for the unexpected

🔗 Learn more: https://www.rose-it.com/

🔗 Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-romero-roseitservices

🎧 Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgeniykharam

Mentioned in this episode:

Cyber Innovation Showcase

Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst is excited to invite you to the Cyber Innovation Showcase – a Brampton-based event uniting business leaders, cyber experts, and innovators to spotlight the cutting-edge technologies that can help protect and future-proof your business.