Sam Crowther is the founder of Kasada, a cybersecurity solution for bot mitigation designed to beat cybercriminals at their own game. Sam got his start in entrepreneurship pretty early on, kicking off the business in 2015 at age 18. His story and the following success has been pretty unique. We talk about fundraising, managing sales cycles, and the importance of picking the right people to work with.

In this episode you'll hear us mention Pieter Danhieux from Secure Code Warrior. You can hear his story here: https://soundcloud.com/cyrisesessions/cyrise-sessions-with-pieter-danhieux

Sam's book recommendation is The Ride of a Lifetime, by Robert Iger: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44525305-the-ride-of-a-lifetime

Find out more about Kasada here: https://www.kasada.io/

Wes Huffstutter is a serial entrepreneur and US expat living in Brisbane, Australia. Currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Queensland University of Technology (QUT), was the Co-founder and CEO of QuadMetrics, ultimately acquired by FICO. We chat about his path to acquisition, product-to-market fit, and pain killers vs vitamins.

Our guest for this episode is Pieter Danhieux. He’s the Co-founder and CEO of Secure Code Warrior, a platform that empowers developers to write secure code from the beginning. SCW was founded in 2015, currently employs 170+ staff, and has secured over $50M USD in funding. We chat about early customers, cofounder dynamics and why it’s lonely as a CEO.

Pieter's book recommendation is Powerful, by Patty McCord: https://www.amazon.com.au/Powerful-Building-Culture-Freedom-Responsibility/dp/1939714095

We talk about Eddy Sheehy. He's the former CEO of Nuix, an investor, an advisor, and all-round legend. We was also a guest on this podcast and you can listen here: https://soundcloud.com/cyrisesessions/cyrise-sessions-with-eddie-sheehy

Our guest is Mohan Koo, Cofounder and CTO at Dtex systems. He’s spent over 20 years building Australian-grown technology into a hugely successful global business. 2020 sees Mohan and Dtex Systems navigating their third global economic crisis. We talk strategies to navigate through the challenging period, and how to maintain morale while you do it.

Our guest is Saket Modi. Saket is the Founder and CEO of Lucideus, a self-confessed geek and nerd, and who at 29 is one of India’s most well-known cyber startup founders. We chat about the transition from services-only to having both services and product, what it's like to have John Chambers as an investor, and what vision and values offer to a startup.

Notes:

Tim Cook's address to Stanford graduates: https://youtu.be/2C2VJwGBRRw

Saket's book recommendation:

Trillion Dollar Coach, Bill Campbell

Our guest for this episode is Elizabeth Lawler. Elizabeth is an Entrepreneur and Angel investor who, having founded and sold a cyber startup, most definitely understands the game. We recorded this conversation a few weeks ago, when she so generously gave up her time on a stormy Boston night to share some incredible advice.

Interested in the books Elizabeth mentioned? Here are the two she references.

From her France getaway:

My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle, by Marcel Pagnol

Her pick for a great startup book?

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914, by David McCullough

Eddie Sheehy is a tech entrepreneur, investor and director. He’s the co-founder and former CEO of Nuix, and led their global expansion from June 2006 to January 2017. Under his leadership Nuix grew from almost no customers or revenue and two developers, to a profitable $100M+ business with over 2,000 customers across the world. We talk about the Panama Papers, hiring the right people, bad leaver clauses for shareholder agreements, and the importance of marketing and brand for business success.

Our guest for this episode is Casey Ellis, Founder and CTO of Bugcrowd. Bugcrowd is a crowdsourced security platform for security testing on web, mobile, source code and client-side applications.. They’ve secured 51M USD in funding. Team of 150. Offices is Sydney, London, and San Francisco . Having been through the Startmate accelerator program and seen incredible success in the years since, Casey’s story is rich with learnings for startup founders.