AI's Cyber Boom
Jon Sakoda of Decibel joins me to break down AI's impact on cybersecurity startups, venture funding, and why endpoint is the Super Bowl of cyber.
Jon is the Founding Partner at Decibel, an early-stage firm backing technical founders in security and infrastructure. He started his career founding IMlogic, an IM security company acquired by Symantec, then spent over a decade at NEA working with companies like Cloudflare, MongoDB, and HackerOne before launching Decibel. We got into why he thinks AI is only magical if you have a magic power, why Decibel led a $100M seed into Ent, and where the firm is placing its next bets.
In this episode:
Why Decibel operates like the Navy SEALs next to the big platform funds
The founder community model and finding the early believers among CISOs
What separates the founders who finish now that AI lets everyone start
Ent's $100M seed and the self-driving moment for endpoint security
Telling genuinely AI-native companies apart from AI washing
AI eating venture capital and why cyber's best years are ahead
Open models, frontier labs, and why the cat is out of the bag
The agentic SOC, Dropzone AI, and driver assistance vs. self-driving
Startup consolidation cycles and being an N of one
How buyers and job seekers should evaluate early-stage vendors
Decibel's next bets, from novel AI models to resilience and cyber insurance
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:32 Jon's background and founding Decibel
2:25 Big platform funds vs. specialized firms
3:56 Founders helping founders and early believers
6:22 Scaling beyond the early adopters
7:40 Who finishes the marathon in the AI era
10:19 Founders from outside cyber
12:21 Ent's $100M seed and the endpoint bet
14:53 AI-native vs. AI washing
17:04 AI is eating venture capital
18:55 Open models vs. frontier labs
22:41 The agentic SOC and Dropzone AI
26:03 Consolidation and the startup cycle
29:22 How buyers should evaluate young vendors
31:43 Decibel's next bets and cyber resilience
34:11 Game Day at Black Hat
Connect with Jon:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsakoda/
Decibel: https://www.decibel.vc
Subscribe for more conversations with security practitioners and leaders, and find my writing at https://www.resilientcyber.io
Jon is the Founding Partner at Decibel, an early-stage firm backing technical founders in security and infrastructure. He started his career founding IMlogic, an IM security company acquired by Symantec, then spent over a decade at NEA working with companies like Cloudflare, MongoDB, and HackerOne before launching Decibel. We got into why he thinks AI is only magical if you have a magic power, why Decibel led a $100M seed into Ent, and where the firm is placing its next bets.
In this episode:
Why Decibel operates like the Navy SEALs next to the big platform funds
The founder community model and finding the early believers among CISOs
What separates the founders who finish now that AI lets everyone start
Ent's $100M seed and the self-driving moment for endpoint security
Telling genuinely AI-native companies apart from AI washing
AI eating venture capital and why cyber's best years are ahead
Open models, frontier labs, and why the cat is out of the bag
The agentic SOC, Dropzone AI, and driver assistance vs. self-driving
Startup consolidation cycles and being an N of one
How buyers and job seekers should evaluate early-stage vendors
Decibel's next bets, from novel AI models to resilience and cyber insurance
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:32 Jon's background and founding Decibel
2:25 Big platform funds vs. specialized firms
3:56 Founders helping founders and early believers
6:22 Scaling beyond the early adopters
7:40 Who finishes the marathon in the AI era
10:19 Founders from outside cyber
12:21 Ent's $100M seed and the endpoint bet
14:53 AI-native vs. AI washing
17:04 AI is eating venture capital
18:55 Open models vs. frontier labs
22:41 The agentic SOC and Dropzone AI
26:03 Consolidation and the startup cycle
29:22 How buyers should evaluate young vendors
31:43 Decibel's next bets and cyber resilience
34:11 Game Day at Black Hat
Connect with Jon:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsakoda/
Decibel: https://www.decibel.vc
Subscribe for more conversations with security practitioners and leaders, and find my writing at https://www.resilientcyber.io
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