In this episode, of How I'm Building This, Prateek interviews Ambuj Kumar, founder of Simbian, who shares his journey as an entrepreneur and the challenges he faced in raising funds and building a unique board. He discusses his approach to hiring and the qualities he looks for in early hires. Ambuj also explains the pain point Simbian is solving in the cybersecurity industry and how they are using AI agents to enhance security. He shares his strategies for attracting customers and managing mental health as a founder.
Takeaways:
- Raising funds as an entrepreneur is always tough, but having past success can give you more credibility.
- Successful entrepreneurs have a valuable business problem in mind and are always seeking truth and finding ways to create a giant company in an area where nobody else is interested.
- In the early days of a startup, it's important to hire doers who have a go-getter attitude and a hunger to learn.
- Simbian is solving the problem of a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals by building AI agents for cybersecurity.
- Transparency, trust, and responsiveness are key in attracting and retaining customers.
- Managing mental health as a founder involves setting boundaries between work and personal life, exercising, and focusing on your actions rather than the outcome.
- Simbian's goal is to solve security and become a large multi-generational company.
Sound Bites:
- "You have to have belief that what you are doing is valuable and you will go find the last person on the planet Earth who is willing to give you money."
- "We value hustle, we value go-getter attitude, we value people who are hungry to learn."
- "You need AI to fight AI. And so what Simbian is doing is building AI agents for cybersecurity."
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:44 Overcoming the Challenges of Fundraising and Building a Board
07:01 Hiring for Hunger and a Go-Getter Attitude
13:15 Solving the Shortage of Skilled Cybersecurity Professionals with AI Agents
18:35 Attracting and Retaining Customers through Transparency and Trust
26:11 Managing Mental Health as a Founder
29:10 Symbian's Vision: Solving Security and Becoming a Multi-Generational Company
Where to find Ambuj:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambujkumar
Simbian: https://www.simbian.ai
Where to find Prateek:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateekmathur
Activated Scale: https://www.activatedscale.com
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email prateek@activatedscale.com
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