Risk, Reinvention and Relentless Focus - Empirical Security

In this episode, we sit down with Ed Bellis, Founder of Kenna Security (acquired by Cisco) and now Co-Founder and CEO of Empirical Security, to unpack the highs, lows, and learnings from over two decades in cybersecurity.

Ed shares:

👉 The wild early days of Kenna, including near-bankruptcy and a failed “Kenna in a box” moment

👉 His journey from CISO at Orbitz to founder, and the painful transition from practitioner to CEO

👉 What went wrong — and right — with managed service partners and scaling go-to-market

👉 Why Empirical is taking a radical approach: building thousands of custom AI models for each customer

👉 His honest take on the AI hype wave (“everyone’s suddenly an AI company… really?”)

👉 How he’s applying lessons from Kenna to build smarter, predictive security tailored to your data at Empirical Security 

Plus: advice for founders, raising early capital, and how not to blow your Series A runway.

If you're building in cybersecurity, scaling a startup, or just love a good founder story - this one’s for you.

Ed's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellis/

Empirical Security - https://www.empiricalsecurity.com/

Joseph's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybercoops/

Aspiron Search - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspiron-search/