Vulcan CEO Yaniv Bardayan has a special standard for hiring members of his team. “I don’t just hire anyone,” he says. “I look for people who are 20 times smarter, 20 times more talented and 20 times more capable than I am. I give them the authority to execute the business and market theses – which we have created from gathering various impressions – in a manner…
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Most young men in Israel devote about three years of their lives to military service. Yaniv Avidan went over and above the call of duty, giving ten years of service to his country. Upon discharge from the army, he enrolled at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and got his B.Sc. in Information Systems Engineering. During…
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No silver bullets For Stu Sjouwerman, deciding which road to take did not come easy. Whereas other kids had some idea of what they wanted to be when they grew up, he did not immediately know what he was going to do with his life. At 16 he became obsessed with reading science fiction and…
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Srinivas Mukkamala, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder, RiskSense Srinivas Mukkamala grew up in India, where he attained his undergraduate degree in Computer Sciences and Engineering. His focus of study was artificial intelligence (AI). He began his career working as an intern for the Indian Space Research Organisation, the space agency of the Government of India, working…
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Some of the most successful business people pattern themselves after a role model and are helped in life by a mentor. Saryu Nayyar is fortunate to have grown up the daughter of the woman who was both her role model and mentor. Nayyar was born in India and she came to the United States when…
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Tufin CEO and Co-founder Ruvi Kitov has dual citizenship for both Israel and the United States. After he completed his required military service in Israel, he moved to the U.S. to be close to his family, and to attend the University of Maryland at College Park. That’s where he was exposed to computer security for…
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It was in his birthplace in the mountains of Kashmir where Ratinder Ahuja began his journey to become a cybersecurity entrepreneur. Ahuja, CEO of ShieldX, a U.S.-based firm that specializes in cloud security, has a reputation for establishing tech startups that get acquired by big companies. His first venture, Internet Junction, attracted the interest of…
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Distil Networks Co-founder and Chief Product and Strategy Officer Rami Essaid has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. His family immigrated to the United States from Syria when he was in second grade. He didn’t speak English so his new elementary school placed him in English as a Second Language courses. None of the other children…
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Scaling mountains It’s no coincidence that Pravin Madhani’s company K2 was named after the second-highest mountain in the world. “Imagine looking at a mountain from the base,” he says. “You are impressed by its sheer size but you also realize how daunting it is to climb it.” There is fear in your heart. “Will it…
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Carbon Black is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, and that’s just where CEO Patrick Morely wants to be. He grew up in New England and has spent his entire career there, and although he has traveled quite a bit, he’s a New Englander at heart. Morley went to Providence College in Rhode Island to study math…
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As a young boy growing up in the Turkish city of Antioch, Melih Abdulhayoglu – Melih to all who know him – was highly driven by two characteristics. One, he was very protective—of his friends and family, of his possessions, of everything he valued. And two, he felt a need to “build stuff.” He was…
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My job is simple,” says Manish Kalia, co-founder and CEO of cloud cybersecurity firm Orkus. “I have to make sure that the organization is going in the right direction.” The not-so-simple part of the job, however, is defining and refining that long-term vision in an industry that is dynamic and ever-changing. It’s the constant evolution…
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