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.

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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. Join us for an evening highlighting made-in-Canada solutions from this year’s Cyber Challenge companies, each driving the future of cybersecurity across Ontario’s most critical sectors. 📅 Thursday, December 11, 2025 ⏰ 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM 📍 The Rose Theatre, 1 Theatre Lane, Brampton, ON L6V 0A3 At the Showcase, you’ll be able to: ● Get early access to innovative Canadian cyber technologies ● Watch live demos featuring real-world industry applications ● Gain insights to strengthen your organization’s digital resilience ● Network with experts, tech providers, and business professionals Register today: https://luma.com/xxl336v2

Ross Young joins Evgeniy Kharam to talk about his new book Cybersecurity Secret: Why Most Budgets Go to Waste — and how the industry can do better. From optimizing spend and retiring underperforming tools, to writing a book using AI and creating onboarding frameworks for developers, Ross shares insights every cybersecurity leader can use.

Topics Covered:

• Why cybersecurity spending often fails
• Who the book is for (CISOs, CFOs, vendors, and tech writers)
• The “Murder Board” framework to evaluate tool usage
• Total Cost of Ownership in cyber planning
• AI and ChatGPT for authorship + productivity
• Developer onboarding as a security risk
• Why Ross self-published and what’s next

Buy your copy

Guest: Ross Young

Host: Evgeniy Kharam

Resources:

https://www.cisotradecraft.com/freetemplates

https://www.cisotradecraft.com/course-master-the-budget-game-in-cybersecurity