Can cybersecurity keep up when AI agents can discover vulnerabilities and launch attacks at machine speed? Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler discuss how AI is changing both sides of cybersecurity, from new threats to the tools helping defenders respond. With only 8% of organizations meeting the highest readiness standards, the gap between AI innovation and security preparedness is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

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The discussion covers three challenges: Coverage, Speed and Friction. AI agents, MCP connections and non-human identities are expanding what organizations need to protect, while automated attacks are forcing security teams to rethink detection and response. Michael and Raz explore agent permissions, AI-powered security operations, honeypots and why defending at machine speed increasingly requires AI working alongside humans.

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🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

🔗 Resources

• Cisco Relentless Defense Report 2026: https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/solutions/security/cybersecurity-reports/relentless-defense-report.html

• Theory Ventures, AI in Practice 2026: https://theoryvc.com/surveys/ai-in-practice-2026

• PHP2Shell Vulnerabilities: https://cybermagazine.com/news/how-critical-php2shell-bugs-put-70-websites-at-risk

• Cisco Security: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/security/index.html

• Splunk: https://www.splunk.com/

• Model Context Protocol (MCP): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

• Wiz: https://www.wiz.io/

• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/

• OpenAI Codex: https://openai.com/codex/

• Scouter: https://scouter.sg/

#aicybersecurity #cybersecurity #aiagents

Val from WEKA joins Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler, two days after the US midterms, to discuss why the world needs twice the tokens its power supply can generate, why AI inference is wasting most of its compute, and what the Binance hack says about defending at machine speed.

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Val explains why falling inference costs haven't slowed demand: agents keep getting more elaborate, so token consumption keeps exploding. He breaks down KV cache engineering, the agent swarm architecture behind consumer agents like Meta's Muse and Instinct, and why redundant prefill is one of the original sins of inference. He also covers DeepSeek's DeepInfer release and the shift from peer-to-peer prefill/decode toward a publish-subscribe memory pool. The conversation moves from the data center backlash after the midterms to why open models run about six months behind the frontier, and what that gap means for cybersecurity heading into 2027.

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The discussion also covers why the labs behind frontier models treat efficiency as an afterthought, why Anthropic paid a premium for compute while DeepSeek had to engineer around export controls, and why Val thinks the closed labs lose the medium term. He and Raz debate whether CrowdStrike and Palo Alto must now understand inference economics to deliver real managed security, and why ambitious agents, not nation-states, may become the defining threat. Val closes with quantum error correction and his forecast for a wave of uncensored open models.

🔥 Watch Our Other Videos:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqX49du3mY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFNU_Sbsvyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snct0XjAavo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209V_xEBViM

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast•

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest

• Val, WEKA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentinbercovici/

🔗 Resources

• WEKA: https://www.weka.io/

• DeepSeek: https://www.deepseek.com/

• Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/

• Reflection AI: https://reflection.ai/

• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/innovators-dilemma/clayton-m-christensen/1100196911

#DeepSeek #AIAgents #BinanceHack

Amir Boldo, co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer of Above Security, joins Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler to discuss why AI agents are creating a new category of insider risk, how cybersecurity startups are changing in the AI era, and why he returned to cybersecurity after building companies in networking infrastructure and fintech.

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Amir explains how Above Security uses AI agents to monitor the behavior of both employees and autonomous AI systems, giving security teams greater visibility into actions that could put company data and systems at risk. As organizations give AI agents more permissions and access, traditional insider threats are becoming harder to manage. The conversation explores why Amir believes this wave of AI is fundamentally different from previous technology shifts, why cybersecurity companies increasingly need AI to defend against AI, and how his experience at Zerto, DriveNets, Silverfort and Trullion shaped his approach to building Above.

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The discussion also gets into Israel's advantages in cybersecurity, from its military technology talent and specialist venture funds to the networks that help founders reach US customers. Amir shares why building a startup today can require dramatically fewer people, how AI is changing product development and customer expectations, and what he learned about choosing the right co-founder after building his previous company. They also debate founder work culture, five-day office schedules, the difference between early employees and later hires, and why company values mean little unless founders actually live by them. Amir closes with his advice on ambition, learning, listening and the books that have shaped his approach to entrepreneurship.

🔥 Watch Our Other Videos:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqX49du3mY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFNU_Sbsvyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snct0XjAavo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209V_xEBViM

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest

• Amir Boldo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirboldo/

🔗 Resources

• Above Security: https://www.above.security/

• Above Security Insider Risk Platform: https://www.above.security/insider-risk-management

• Above Security Blog: https://www.above.security/blog

• Trullion: https://trullion.com/

• Silverfort: https://www.silverfort.com/

• DriveNets: https://drivenets.com/

• Zerto: https://www.zerto.com/

• Merlin Ventures: https://www.merlin.vc/

• Norwest: https://www.nvp.com/

• Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/

• Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code

• Model Context Protocol (MCP): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

• Decart: https://www.decart.ai/• Bringg: https://www.bringg.com/

• What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz: https://a16z.com/books/what-you-do-is-who-you-are/

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz: https://a16z.com/books/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things/

• Confessions of a Unicorn Founder by Ra'anan Cohen: https://www.raanancohen.com/

#Cybersecurity #AIAgents #StartupFounders

Siddhartha “Sid” Ahluwalia, co-founder and Managing Partner of Neon Fund and host of The Neon Show, joins Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler to explain how a podcast that started with a $100 Samsung phone became part of the operating system for a venture fund. Sid shares how he and Nansi Mishra went from podcasting and small SPVs to raising multiple funds, building a portfolio of around 70 companies, and now raising Neon Fund IV.

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Sid explains why media is much more than marketing for Neon. The podcast gives the fund access to founders, operators and LPs, while Neon turns that network into customer introductions, deal flow and distribution for its portfolio. He breaks down why the fund targets second-time founders before they even have an idea, why Neon increasingly focuses on companies building for the US market, and how a $300,000 early investment returned $2.1 million and helped shape the fund’s approach to investing.

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The conversation also gets into India’s changing startup and exit ecosystem, why Sid believes great founders create their own “surface area for luck,” and why Neon would be materially weaker without its podcast. Sid shares the economics behind spending heavily on content without trying to monetize it, his ambition to build a $100 billion combined portfolio, why Neon hires operators rather than traditional VCs, and how AI may change the classic startup founding team by allowing deeply technical founders to reach product-market fit before hiring a traditional GTM leader. He also talks candidly about extreme drive, learning from his father’s repeated business failures, Vipassana meditation, and why even successful creators still struggle with the numbers.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snct0XjAavo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209V_xEBViM

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest

• Siddhartha Ahluwalia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

🔗 Resources

• Neon Fund: https://neon.fund/

• Neon Portfolio: https://neon.fund/investments/

• The Neon Show: https://neon.fund/podcasts/

• Zencastr: https://zencastr.com/

• AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/

• SHEROES: https://sheroes.com/

• Flipkart: https://www.flipkart.com/

• Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/

• Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/

• Ather Energy: https://www.atherenergy.com/

• Blinkit: https://blinkit.com/

• eBikeGo: https://ebikego.com/

• Atomicwork: https://www.atomicwork.com/

• MantisGrid AI: https://mantisgrid.ai/

• Zenduty: https://www.zenduty.com/

• Cyberstarts: https://www.cyberstarts.com/

• SagePilot: https://sagepilot.ai/

• OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/

• Ritholtz Wealth Management: https://ritholtzwealth.com/

• Vipassana Meditation: https://www.dhamma.org/

#VentureCapital #StartupInvesting #TheNeonShow

Karina Cady, co-founder and CEO of Nandina REM, joins Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler to explain how a Singapore deep-tech company went from asking what happens to retired aircraft to recovering advanced materials for aerospace, defense, drones, and other high-performance applications.

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Karina takes us inside the aircraft recycling industry, where valuable components are stripped from retired planes but advanced materials can still end up crushed, incinerated, or discarded. Nandina REM saw a different opportunity: recover high-grade carbon fiber and turn it into new materials for customers that need performance, supply-chain security, and locally controlled production.

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The conversation also gets into the much harder parts of building a deep-tech hardware company: finding manufacturing space in Singapore, navigating US export controls, entering defense supply chains, protecting IP from “vampiring,” and learning when a prestigious innovation opportunity can actually destroy a startup’s runway. Karina also explains how constraints pushed Nandina REM toward portable microfactories and a network of more than 200 manufacturing partners, why Singapore remains a powerful place to develop advanced technology even when growth requires going overseas, and why she remains optimistic about sustainability after spending most of her career in the environmental sector.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snct0XjAavo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209V_xEBViM

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest•

Karina Cady: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinacady/

🔗 Resources

• Nandina REM: https://www.nandinarem.com/

• Southwest Airlines: https://www.southwest.com/

• Halliburton Labs: https://halliburtonlabs.com/

• Halliburton: https://www.halliburton.com/

• U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security: https://www.bis.gov/

• U.S. Department of Commerce: https://www.commerce.gov/

• U.S. Embassy Singapore: https://sg.usembassy.gov/

• CFIUS: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/international/the-committee-on-foreign-investment-in-the-united-states-cfius

• University of Queensland: https://www.uq.edu.au/

• Soilbuild: https://www.soilbuild.com/

• Boeing 787 Dreamliner: https://www.boeing.com/commercial/787

• Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/

• Northrop Grumman: https://www.northropgrumman.com/

• AUKUS: https://www.defense.gov/Spotlights/AUKUS/

• Jennifer Lewis: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507338/

• Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela: https://www.nelsonmandela.org/

• Calvin and Hobbes: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes

#CarbonFiber #CircularEconomy #DefenseTech

Matt Ward, former founder and CEO of Workmate and now founder of Catalyst Six, sits down with Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler for a candid conversation about startup exits in Southeast Asia and what actually happens behind the press release.

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Matt takes us inside the Workmate acquisition process, including the moment the deal was pulled with just three weeks of runway left. He explains how exclusivity left him without alternatives, why the eventual deal came back on different terms, and the lessons he now shares with founders about modeling the downside before entering an acquisition process.

The conversation goes deeper into the mechanics of building for an exit: identifying potential acquirers years in advance, using strategic investment to build relationships, understanding what buyers value differently from VCs, managing boards and preference stacks, and why raising at a higher valuation can sometimes leave founders worse off.

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Matt also makes the case for a different Southeast Asian startup model: staying lean, getting profitable, raising capital to grow rather than survive, and considering whether owning most of a $10–20 million business can produce a better founder outcome than chasing a $100 million valuation.

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

• Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

• Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest

• Matt Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewward/

🔗 Resources

• Workmate: https://www.workmate.asia/
• PERSOL: https://www.persol-group.co.jp/en/
• SEEK: https://www.seek.com.au/
• Job&Talent: https://www.jobandtalent.com/
• Wavemaker Partners: https://wavemaker.vc/
• Catalyst Six: https://www.catalystsix.com/
• Outlive by Peter Attia: https://peterattiamd.com/outlive/
• Peter Attia: https://peterattiamd.com/
• Wait But Why: https://waitbutwhy.com/

#StartupExit #SoutheastAsiaStartup #SellingAStartup

Nadir Izrael, co-founder and CTO of Armis, sits down with Raz Kotler for a candid conversation about winning, ambition, building a $7.75 billion cybersecurity company, and the lessons he learned over a decade of building Armis.

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In this episode, Nadir explains why financial success hasn’t reduced his hunger to win, why the best founders stay both hungry and humble, and how becoming a father has changed the way he thinks about ambition, hardship, and raising resilient children.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDZg3mr684

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H24ck-is5Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW2bxHjUl-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzdzT_L8zAw

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

Nadir also shares the pivotal question from Armis’ difficult Series A that changed how he thought about the company: “What are your customers buying?” He breaks down why founders need to stop describing their technology and instead understand three things from the customer’s perspective: pain, outcome, and value.

The conversation also covers building an early team, why Armis isn’t the right company for someone optimizing primarily for work-life balance, maintaining a decade-long co-founder relationship through heated disagreements, and why Nadir still makes time to answer founders who reach out for help.

👤👤 Hosts

Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

👤 Guest

Nadir Izrael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiriz/

🔗 Resources

Armis: https://www.armis.com/

ServiceNow: https://www.servicenow.com/

ServiceNow acquisition of Armis ($7.75B): https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-completes-Armis-acquisition-closing-the-gap-between-asset-visibility-and-cyber-risk/default.aspx

Yevgeny Dibrov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/y-dibrov/

Gili Raanan: https://www.cyberstarts.com/team/gili-raanan

Cyberstarts: https://www.cyberstarts.com/

Google: https://www.google.com/

XM Cyber: https://xmcyber.com/

Deep Instinct: https://www.deepinstinct.com/

For All Mankind: https://tv.apple.com/sg/show/for-all-mankind/umc.cmc.6wsi780sz5tdbqcf11k76mkp7

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/

#FounderMindset #StartupLessons #Cybersecurity

Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler celebrate the 100th episode of The Generalists with an honest conversation about what it really takes to build a podcast from Singapore. Rather than celebrating milestones, they unpack the realities behind long-form content, why most podcasts never make it past eight episodes, and whether building media is even worth it.

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In this episode, Michael and Raz reflect on two years of The Generalists, discuss why consistency beats chasing virality, debate the economics of podcasting in Southeast Asia, and share why they continue despite the challenges. They also explore why video still matters in an audio-first world, the search for great short-form editors, and how AI is changing the way both of them build.

Raz also shares the launch of Scouter, his new cybersecurity company connecting leading Israeli security vendors with enterprise customers in Singapore, along with lessons learned from building his business almost entirely with AI.

🔥 Watch Our Other Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_dknB50qM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eitqzpiqUs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDZg3mr684

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H24ck-is5Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW2bxHjUl-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzdzT_L8zAw

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalists/id1756861150

👤👤 Hosts

Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/

Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

Links:

Scouter: https://scouter.sg/

Attio: https://attio.com/

Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/

Claude: https://claude.ai/

OpenAI: https://openai.com/

Warp: https://www.warp.dev/

Wiz: https://www.wiz.io/

Mate: https://mate.ai/

Oligo Security: https://www.oligo.security/

Harry Stebbings: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrystebbings/

#Podcasting #SingaporeStartups #AIBusiness