The Wake UP X Podcast - With Efren L. Salazar | Securing Tomorrow, Empowering Today

Why can the biggest companies in cybersecurity see disruption coming and still not stop it?

In this episode, Larry Switzer breaks down the innovator's dilemma and why business model is the real battleground for the next generation of cyber companies. When an incumbent is locked into how they charge customers, a startup running pure consumption pricing can win ground they simply cannot defend without burning down their own revenue engine.

Larry also shares his playbook for staying ahead in one of the fastest moving industries on the planet. Follow the top venture capital firms. Study what the leaders at Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Zscaler are doing and why. And above all else, find people who have actually done the work and get in the room with them. Training is useful. Experience is irreplaceable.

This is a conversation about disruption, business model innovation, and what real growth looks like in cybersecurity.

Featuring Larry Switzer and the team at Ziggiz.AI.

🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for another phenomenal conversation on Wake Up X. Your perspective on business model innovation and staying ahead in cybersecurity is exactly what this industry needs to hear. Honored to have you on the show. 🎙️

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643

⚡ 25 times more efficient than any SIEM. 980 times faster threat detection. Petabyte scale data ingestion at a fraction of the cost.

In this episode of Wake Up X, Larry Switzer goes deep on the technology behind Ziggiz.AI and why it represents a fundamental rethinking of how cybersecurity platforms are built for the AI era.

Most security platforms were designed around search. You collect logs, store them, and search for threats after the fact. That model is broken at modern scale, especially for healthcare organizations and highly regulated industries dealing with AI driven attacks and massive data volumes.

Ziggiz.AI does detections on the stream. As data flows in, threats are identified, data is enriched with geolocation and threat intelligence in real time, and insights surface immediately. No waiting. No prohibitive storage costs. No leaving critical log sources unmonitored because ingestion is too expensive.

Larry walks through exactly what that unlocks for security teams:

Full visibility into every asset across the environment. Instant blast radius analysis when an intrusion occurs. Toxic combination detection before incidents escalate. New use cases built with Databricks, SQL, or Sigma without rebuilding from scratch. And a fully open, plug and play architecture built on Databricks Spark with Delta Share, so teams can connect any tool and any partner instantly, including AlphaLevel for advanced ML and statistics based detection engineering.

You own your data. You control who sees it. You can revoke access at any time. One source of truth at petabyte scale.

This is what it looks like to build security infrastructure that is actually ready for the world we are living in now, not the one from ten years ago.

🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for bringing this level of technical depth and clarity to the Wake Up X podcast. The work being done at Ziggiz.AI is genuinely moving the needle for healthcare and highly regulated industries that need it most. Grateful to have you on the show. 🎙️

👇 Subscribe and listen on your favorite platform so you never miss an episode.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/28GZnRBrIV2efHOhZdiftt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643

#Cybersecurity #ZiggizAI #SIEM #DataLake #AI #Databricks #HealthcareSecurity #ThreatDetection #InfoSec #WakeUpX #LarrySwitzer #CyberDefense #DeltaShare #StreamProcessing #RSA2026 #PetabyteScale #MachineLearning #AlphaLevel

“Trying is not failing. I don’t care what the outcome is. If you tried — you did not fail. Period.”

That is how John Cuellar thinks. And after 30 years of building businesses from the ground up — through dot-com booms, market crashes, a deal that closed one month after September 11th, $130 million raised in a SaaS venture, and now an AI-driven enterprise built to solve the organizational problems nobody else wants to touch — that mindset makes complete sense.

John is the CEO and co-founder of Cascade Clarity, a serial entrepreneur, UC Santa Barbara biomedical engineer, Cal Berkeley Haas MBA, and one of the most well-rounded business minds WakeUpX host Efren Salazar has ever sat across from.

This conversation covers everything.

John started his career wanting to be a doctor. He studied for the MCAT and came close to getting into UCSD medical school. When that did not pan out he went to work for the US Navy as a civilian engineer. That did not fit either. So he got his MBA from Cal Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, did an internship with Swiss Bank Corporation, and then walked away from all of it to volunteer in Bulgaria for two years through the MBA Enterprise Corps.

When he came back he built his first business — a systems integration firm — from zero to $10 million in revenue with no outside capital. No investors. No rounds. Just profitable growth funded entirely by the profits of the business. Six years later he sold it to Mellon Financial Corporation — and closed the deal on October 5th 2001, less than a month after September 11th, while the buyers sat in New York still processing what they had witnessed from their windows.

The lesson he took from that first business — you cannot go broke making a profit.

Then he learned the opposite lesson.

His second venture raised $130 million across multiple venture rounds over 15 years and never scaled to meet expectations. When the dust settled he had made 10X more on the first business — the one built with no capital — than on the one that raised nine figures of other people’s money.

Now he runs Cascade Clarity — a fractional CTO firm and enterprise AI consultancy focused on the problem most organizations ignore until it is too late. Organizational governance. Data accuracy. The infrastructure that AI agents need to actually work. Because here is the truth — an AI agent is only as good as the data it operates on. And in most organizations that data is a mess of dual entry systems, siloed departments, outdated org charts, and spreadsheets that only one person knows exist.

John breaks down why security and governance are the biggest risks in AI deployment right now. Why ServiceNow got hacked. Why any public-facing agent is exposed. And why the stories coming out of companies deploying AI without proper security infrastructure are — in his words — absolutely horrific.

He also raises the question nobody in the executive world is asking yet.

Executives have spent their entire careers learning to manage people. But if AI agents are doing the work of five people — who manages the agent? How do you measure its performance? How do you know if it went off the rails? That skill does not exist in most organizations yet. And it needs to.

That is what his Executive Leaders Lab is being built for — a tight-knit group of executives getting their hands dirty with real AI use cases, learning what governance and security actually look like at the practitioner level, and building the skills to manage non-human actors alongside their teams. Launching late July. Details at the Cascade Clarity website.

John also shares how his van broke down in Ecuador during a trip through the Andes and a stranger who helped him get to Quito became one of his business partners six months later. Because networking is never where you expect it to be.

And he ends with a line that will stay with you.

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-Tt2XKA1-jw?si=RbauZ9upUstQ5NJ6

🌐 Full episodes: www.wakeupxpodcast.com

🔐 Cybersecurity isn't just an IT problem — it's everyone's responsibility.In this episode of The Wake Up X Solutions Podcast, Efren sits down with Jorge Avila of Paleo Tech Group — recorded LIVE at RSA Conference 2025 — to talk about why protecting your data is a community effort, and how one simple LinkedIn message sparked this whole conversation.If you think cybersecurity doesn't affect you — think again. Your data lives on someone else's data. And theirs lives on yours. 🛡️🔥 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why no single company or government can protect your data alone✅ How ransomware and cybercrime target entire communities, not just individuals✅ What the RSA Conference is and why the cybersecurity community is MASSIVE✅ The power of LinkedIn networking — how Jorge found Efren in under 30 minutes✅ How Paleo Tech Group is empowering Latinos in cybersecurity and AI💬 The bottom line: Data protection is not a solo mission. It takes all of us working together to stop cybercriminals in their tracks.👇 Connect with Jorge Avila:🌐 paleotechgroup.com💼 LinkedIn: Search Jorge Avila — Paleo Tech Group🎙️ Listen on your favorite platform:🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gNNknZKj▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gugPZpFK🎵 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 Why cybersecurity is a community effort04:00 How your data is connected to everyone else's07:00 Ransomware and real cybercrime threats10:00 Efren's first time at RSA Conference13:00 How Jorge found Efren on LinkedIn in 30 minutes16:00 The power of networking and community📲 Follow The Wake Up X Solutions:Subscribe for weekly episodes on entrepreneurship, tech, AI, cybersecurity, and empowering the Latino community to build wealth and freedom.#Cybersecurity #RSAConference #DataProtection #CommunityFirst #WakeUpXSolutions #PaleoTechGroup #LatinoInTech #Ransomware #CyberAwareness #Networking #LinkedIn #Podcast2025 #LatinoPower

This one is different.

No studio. No prep. Just real people, real stories, and a microphone open to anyone willing to share their journey.

WakeUpX host Efren Salazar showed up to the ISACA Sacramento Appreciation Day and did what he does best — started conversations that needed to be heard. He opened by sharing his own story. Growing up in West Sacramento in the 1990s surrounded by gangs. Isolated. No siblings. Discouraged in school. The friends who pushed him toward computers instead of the streets. The reality check that changed everything. And the 10X Rule that turned a mindset shift into a movement — tattooed on his arm as a daily reminder to never settle for the original goal.

Then he handed the mic to eight people who are proof that the path into cybersecurity looks nothing like what you expect.

Irene Shaju started in astrophysics, pivoted to MIS and business analytics, and chose cybersecurity because of a clear-eyed view of where AI is heading. It's either controlled by the people who understand it — or it controls everyone else. She chose to understand it.

Harmanjot Singh was born in India, came to the US during COVID, earned the Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service, holds a Security+ and ISC2 certification, and had a US Department of Justice interview for a digital investigation analyst position the same week this was recorded.

Jared Holloway grew up as a former foster youth, interned at Golden 1 headquarters, and is finishing his MIS degree at Sac State while building toward a career that bridges cybersecurity and project management. Resilience isn't a word he uses lightly — it's how he got here.

Zankar Vaishnav transferred from Sierra College, joined ISACA his very first semester at Sac State, and is working toward his CompTIA Security+ after being pulled into the defensive side of cybersecurity by managers who let him shadow their work behind the scenes.

Kevin Bali is the student chapter president of ISACA at Sacramento State and president of the MIS Association. He's studying business administration, MIS, business analytics, AI management, and minoring in criminal justice — all in pursuit of one goal. Digital forensics. Bringing justice to families and making communities safer through technology. He said something in this episode that stopped everything in its tracks.

"The job can be really great. The duties can be really great. But if it's not the people you work with that you enjoy — then it's for nothing."

Solomon Lee moved from Chicago to Sacramento six years ago. He chased the CS six-figure dream, got rejected by big tech over and over, pivoted to cybersecurity, and never stopped grinding. He's building a SIEM lab on Azure, preparing for his CCNA, working a job that has nothing to do with cyber, and studying and labbing every single day anyway.

Jesse Telles came from software engineering and found his direction in cybersecurity through his love of architecture and system design. His focus now is supply chain security — the vulnerabilities that get baked into systems when AI automates supply chain creation at scale, and the knock-on effects that ripple across everything connected. Companies like Stryker are finding out in real time how costly those vulnerabilities can be.

Eight stories. Eight completely different paths. One community holding them all together.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like they started too late, switched directions too many times, or didn't fit the traditional mold of a tech professional. These people are proof that there is no single path. There is just the decision to start — and the drive to keep going.

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1axM1mSsAWo🌐 Full episodes: www.wakeupxpodcast.com

Special thanks to videographer Alvin Jue 🎥Huge thank you to ISACA Sacramento for making this event possible 🙏

Follow the guests on LinkedIn:Kevin Bali • Solomon Lee • Irene Shaju • Zankar Vaishnav • Jarred Holloway • Harmanjot Singh • Ethan Ng • Jesse Telles

💡 What happens when 20 years of experience meets AI? You build a cybersecurity platform from scratch — and change your family's legacy forever.In this powerful episode of The Wake Up X Solutions Podcast, Efren sits down with Jorge Avila of Paleo Tech Group to talk about how Jorge went from working a traditional job to building his own cybersecurity software platform — powered by AI and driven by a legacy that started with migrant farm workers in Texas. 🌾➡️💻This is not just a business story. This is a story about roots, hustle, and what's possible when you bet on yourself.🔥 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ How Jorge and his partner used 20 years of knowledge to build an AI-powered cybersecurity platform✅ Why COVID was the turning point that pushed Jorge into entrepreneurship✅ The difference between the business mindset and the technical mindset in cybersecurity✅ How Jorge's dad — a migrant farm worker always hustling across Utah, Idaho & California — inspired his entrepreneurial drive✅ How AI is being used to run powerful platforms on a thin client✅ What it really takes to go from employee to founder and make it grow💬 Jorge's story is proof: Your background is not a barrier. It is your fuel. Whether your family picked crops or built companies — that hustle lives in you.👇 Connect with Jorge Avila:🌐 paleotechgroup.com💼 LinkedIn: Search Jorge Avila — Paleo Tech Group🎙️ Listen on your favorite platform:🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gNNknZKj▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gugPZpFK🎵 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 Building a cybersecurity platform with AI04:00 How 20 years of experience became their foundation07:00 Jorge's background — business side vs technical side10:00 How COVID changed everything and sparked entrepreneurship13:00 Building a company you own and can grow16:00 Jorge's dad — a migrant farm worker who never stopped hustling19:00 How family roots fuel the entrepreneurial drive22:00 Where to find Jorge and Paleo Tech Group📲 Follow The Wake Up X Solutions:Subscribe for weekly episodes on entrepreneurship, tech, AI, cybersecurity, and empowering the Latino community to build wealth and freedom.#LatinoEntrepreneur #Cybersecurity #AIForBusiness #WakeUpXSolutions #PaleoTechGroup #MigrantStory #LatinoPower #StartupStory #COVID19Entrepreneurship #BuildWithAI #FamilyLegacy #Podcast2025 #TechFounder

Is your organization’s security architecture prepared for the era of AI-driven threats? In this episode of the Wake Up X Solutions Podcast, host Efren Salazar sits down with Larry Switzer, Head of North American Sales at Ziggiz, to dissect the critical flaws in legacy cybersecurity models and explore the future of cyber defense.

As the cyber landscape evolves, traditional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems are struggling to keep pace with petabyte-scale data ingestion and real-time threat detection. Larry explains how Ziggiz, a DARPA-funded innovator, is fundamentally rethinking security by building a 'cyber data plane' on Databricks. This shift from search-based legacy tools to advanced analytics allows for 25x greater efficiency and deeper insights, ensuring that security teams aren't just reacting to incidents, but proactively defending their infrastructure.

🚫 "I don't have the resources." That's not a reason. That's an excuse.Let me say that louder for the people in the back. 👇We're all limited on technology, knowledge, and resources at some point. But guess what? That has NEVER been the real barrier.Right now, TODAY you have:📌 LinkedIn to connect with literally anyone in your industry📌 ChatGPT & AI tools to learn ANYTHING, for free📌 Cybersecurity 30,000+ open jobs in California ALONE 🤯📌 AI skills that fast-track you into high-paying careers📌 Entrepreneurship waiting on the other side of each step you takeThe path isn't a giant leap. It's steps.Learn → Build knowledge → Grow your network → Level up → Repeat.And here's something nobody talks about enough:💡 Entrepreneurship might actually be EASIER than being an employee.Why? Because as an employee you have to sell yourself over and over again.As an entrepreneur? You build something that speaks for itself.So if you're sitting on the sidelines waiting for the "right moment" or the "right resources"…🎯 The resources are already here. The question is, are YOU showing up?Reach out. Connect. Hustle. Get out there and DO it. 💪This conversation came from an incredible episode on The Wake UP X Solutions with my guest Jorge Avila, MS Cyber, PMI-ACP/PMP, CMS, and ITILv4 of paleotechgroup.com, connect with him on LinkedIn too.🎙️ Listen to the full episode here:🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gNNknZKj▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gugPZpFK🎵 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gv7reiuvDrop a 🙋 below if you're taking that next step, I want to hear where you're headed!hashtag#Entrepreneurship hashtag#Cybersecurity hashtag#AISkills hashtag#NoExcuses hashtag#LinkedInCommunity hashtag#TheWakeUpXSolutions hashtag#LatinoPower hashtag#LevelUp hashtag#CareerGrowth hashtag#TechJobs hashtag#Hustle hashtag#Podcast

What does it really take to go from entry-level help desk to network architect and cybersecurity expert — without a four-year degree?

In this episode, we sit down with Devin, a seasoned network architect and CISSP-certified cybersecurity professional, who shares the unfiltered story of how he built a 20-year career in IT from the ground up — starting with a high school electronics and robotics academy and a scrappy student internship with a school district.

Devin breaks down:

• Why he turned down higher-paying job offers to chase upward mobility

• The power of learning routing, networking, and cybersecurity from the bottom up

• How working help desk and desktop support gave him a career advantage most senior engineers don't have

• The real reason the best cybersecurity engineers come from a networking background

• How mentorship, curiosity, and staying after hours (for free) accelerated his growth

• His journey to earning SSCP, CISSP, and CCSP certifications — and what actually makes those exams hard

• What zero trust architecture and software-defined networking look like in the real world

• Why visualization, empathy, and technical skill are the three pillars of a great network architect

Whether you're trying to break into IT, level up in cybersecurity, or just want a raw, honest conversation about building a tech career without shortcuts — this episode is for you.

🎙️ No fluff. No gatekeeping. Just real talk from someone who lived it.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

#ITCareer #NetworkArchitect #Cybersecurity #CISSP #HelpDesk #TechCareer #Networking #ZeroTrust #CCNA #CareerGrowth #ITAdvice #BGP #CyberSecurity101 #BreakIntoIT

💪 Entrepreneurs aren't fearless. They're just built different — they feel the fear and do it anyway.In this episode of The Wake Up X Solutions Podcast, Efren sits down with Jorge Avila of Paleo Tech Group to break down one of the biggest questions in business:What separates entrepreneurs from people who stay on the traditional path?The answer? Tenacity. Resilience. And a community that's been told NO so many times — it just doesn't land anymore. 🚀🔥 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ The real mindset difference between entrepreneurs and traditional employees✅ Why Latinos are uniquely built for entrepreneurship✅ How hearing "no" over and over actually becomes your greatest strength✅ Why showing up — even when scared — is the whole game✅ How Jorge Avila and Paleo Tech Group can help YOU get started💬 Jorge's message: Whether he can help you directly or connect you to someone who can — he will get you started. That's the community mindset in action.👇 Connect with Jorge Avila:🌐 paleotechgroup.com💼 LinkedIn: Search Jorge Avila — Paleo Tech Group🎙️ Listen on your favorite platform:🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gNNknZKj▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gugPZpFK🎵 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 Entrepreneurship vs the traditional path03:30 Entrepreneurs don't show fear — they just move06:00 Why Latinos have built-in tenacity09:00 Hearing NO and still pushing forward12:00 How Jorge Avila can help you get started14:00 Where to find Jorge and Paleo Tech Group📲 Follow The Wake Up X Solutions:Subscribe for weekly episodes on entrepreneurship, tech, AI, cybersecurity, and empowering the Latino community to build wealth and freedom.#LatinoEntrepreneur #Entrepreneurship #LatinoPower #WakeUpXSolutions #PaleoTechGroup #BusinessMindset #Tenacity #StartYourBusiness #LatinoInBusiness #NeverGiveUp #Podcast2025 #HearNoKeepGoing