Security is another issue we all deal with, but the hassle and complexity of maintaining and proving you are secure can be burdensome, especially for growing startups. Our guest today, Pukar Hamal, Founder and CEO of SecurityPal a platform that aims to be an all-in-one solution that combines bleeding-edge, yet simple, customer-facing technology with in-house squadrons of trained, equipped, and efficient “security analysts in-the-loop” to effectively solve the security review process once and for all. We talk with Pukar about his journey through tech starting as an undergrad at Stanford, how he navigated being a part of two separate acquisitions in his career, and what the opportunity was in starting SecurityPal.
About Pukar Hamal:
Pukar Hamal is the Founder and CEO of SecurityPal. He started his career as the first campus ambassador for Square at Stanford. He went on to for the government, PwC, and the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation, before landing at TalentBin prior to its acquisition by Monster. He was the first business hire at Teamable Software, which was acquired in 2020. He has a strong track record of angel investing and is a scout for Craft Ventures. He did his undergrad at Stanford.
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In this episode we discuss:
02:49 Pukar’s journey into tech
06:42 What the environment at Stanford was like and how it inspired him to break into tech
10:09 Lessons from the two acquisitions he experienced
16:15 How he became a scout with Craft Ventures
18:53 The problem SecurityPal works to solve
29:25 What is a security questionnaire
35:45 Types of questions asked in security questionnaires
40:25 What a typical security questionnaire process is like for most startups
44:19 Why it is important to be honest on security questionnaires
48:45 How SecurityPal instills trust in its clients
50:53 How Pukar raised a $21M Series A after bootstrapping to $1M in revenue
53:42 The importance of the long game and relationships in success
Fast Favorites
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📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Air purifiers
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📚- Favorite Book: Shoe Dog
🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Play the long game
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