The following interview is a conversation we had with Ben Kliger, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenity, on our podcast Category Visionaries. You can view the full episode here: $21.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security and Governan
Ben Kliger
Hey, Brett. Thanks for having me.
Brett
Not a problem. So I see you were in unit 8200, which is very famous and very well known. So I’d love to ask you, what was that like for you, and what were some of the valuable life lessons that you walked away with from that life experience?
Ben Kliger
That was one of my life changing moments, I think. I think what’s very unique about unit 8200 is that at very early stage, you get to do pretty amazing stuff and lead very important initiatives that has direct impact on our country’s national security. It’s very empowering as young adults to be granted with such an amazing opportunity at such a young age. And also, it’s very common for people to simply brainstorm together and allow conflicting discussions to happen because they’re part of what makes a Unit 8200. And the idea of, in general, very special is that we embrace challenging our mindset continuously. So I think those are two things that are very unique about the unit 8200 and about my personal experience.
Ben Kliger
Obviously, I’ve gotten to meet some lifelong friends and that I’m still in touch with a sense of 17 years ago, people that went to school together, we saw each other getting married, having kids. So these are people and the culture that we all take care with us throughout our personal and courage journeys.
Brett
When I look through your history, I see you’ve worked at some incredible companies. So you’re at Deloitte, you’re at Fort scale, you’re at Microsoft. As you were moving through these companies and through these different positions, in the back of your mind, did you have the idea, someday I’m going to go out and build a technology company? Or when did that idea start for you? Of, yes, I want to go and build?
Ben Kliger
Sure. So, obviously, deciding to be an entrepreneur is not an easy decision, of course. Right. It’s a hell of a ride. There are ups, there are downs, and that I always tell people, it’s really a roller coaster. When you’re up, when you’re down, it could be hard, right? But I think for me personally, I grew up in a house of entrepreneurs. It was something that was clear to me that I want to do from a very young age. I was also in a lot of entrepreneuring programs when I grew up. So it always was about trying to get as much experience as I can before starting one thing, trying to get as many perspectives as I can about what it means to build a team, to develop relationships, understand customer pain points, and of course, to build a meaningful business.
Ben Kliger
So to me, it was always there in my mind. I think I can say a few.
Brett
Other questions we like to ask. And the goal here is really just to better understand what makes you tick when it comes to leaders who really inspire you. And this can be a founder, it can be a CEO, it can be a. I guess maybe a politician if that happens to be your thing. But leaders who inspire you, what leader really inspires you?
Ben Kliger
So it’s a tough one, to be honest. We need to select just one. We started talking about my experience at IDF, and you hate wonder. So it’s like the first person that comes to my mind would be David Ben Gurion was the first prime minister and sort of the founder of Israel. And if I need to select someone from the business side, I would actually go with, I need to be loyal to myself. It would probably be Satya and Adela, the currency of Microsoft. I was there when I saw firsthand the big change of culture, of execution that you brought all across the organization with, of course, the two leading aspects of empathy towards our colleagues, towards our peers, towards our customer, and being customer obsessed. That’s how we used to call it internally at Microsoft. That’s what I also use today.
Ben Kliger
I think that we’re all in a world that when we try to focus on real value that we can bring to the table, real pain points that we can address, whether it’s in a technology firm, in, if you’re selling groceries, whatever, you have good impact on the people, right? So being obsessed with the customers about making sure that you’re doing what’s right for them, not just what’s right for us as a business. I really like that approach. I admire that. And we try to apply it zenith on a daily basis.
Brett
This could just be my outside view. But my perception, and kind of seems like the market’s perception maybe five or six years ago is Microsoft wasn’t the place on the cutting edge of new technology. It wasn’t necessarily where people wanted to go to innovate and build. But that whole narrative seems to have dramatically changed in the last twelve months, maybe twelve to 18 months. And it’s been a hell of a ride for Microsoft and they’re really at the middle or the center of a lot of incredible innovation that’s happening. When you were at Microsoft, was it obvious that change was coming and that trajectory was going to change so much?
Ben Kliger
100% I wasn’t the cybersecurity side of the organization building a product for our enterprise customers and some of the world’s best enterprise security solutions today are coming from Microsoft. Not a lot of people know it. Microsoft is probably one of the largest cybersecurity vendors today in the world, right. With both external acquisitions that they were made as well as internal incubations. One of the best endpoint security solutions today in the market, Microsoft defender for Endpoint, was incubated internally as well as the product group I was part of and leading Microsoft Defender for cloud. It was one of the first cloud security products out there in the market for enterprises. Not a lot of people know that. So yes, 100%. We saw that firsthand when I was there eight years ago or so in the last few years before I left to start zealot.
Ben Kliger
Yes, innovation was core to anything that we’re doing. Again, we combine it with the fact that were always customer obsessed, trying to think what we can do best to meet the needs. I think it pays off. Microsoft is an excellent place. They have some of the best technology solutions in the market, whether it’s for consumers, whether it’s for enterprises. You know, I’m a big gamer as well. You see what they’re doing. On the gaming side, we see the acquisition of the activity in Blizzard. It’s mind blowing to see where the company is going and the future that is ahead of them. Of course, as you brought up the recent changes and releases with regards to the OpenAI partnership, the enterprise copilot development with Microsoft Copilot, it’s one hell of a ride for Microsoft for sure.
Brett
I’d love to switch gears now let’s dive a little bit deeper into what you’re building today. How we like to begin this portion of the interview is really getting clarity and focusing on the problem that you solve. What problem does Zenity solve?
Ben Kliger
Zeniti is helping organizations that have citizen development taking place, making sure that the same application security principles that used to have for the professional development activities also applied for the citizen development realm. When you look today at enterprises in North America and across the globe as well, Citizen Development today is a core strategy to make sure that organizations can really advance and continue to digitally transform their businesses. Citizen development at Git Core, it’s about people building stuff on their own without waiting for it, or professional developers addressing their needs. It’s about using no code, drag and drop interfaces. It’s about using AI assistance or AI copilot to automate their processes to build external applications. New digital solutions. When you think about it’s a new world of development that any person in the enterprise is taking part of.
Ben Kliger
How do you make sure that what these people are building were less tech savvy or of course less security savvy than traditional professional developers? How do you make sure that what they’re building is secure and is not exposing their respective organizations to risks? So that’s where we come in. We basically bring application security know how from visibility, risk assessment and governance to make sure that the development activities that are being performed by the business units are not causing new risks to their organizations.
Brett
Who’s the ICP of the solution, and what was the journey like to uncover that ICP and narrow that focus on that ICP?
Ben Kliger
Sure. So the ICP for us today, we target very large enterprises, I want to say a Fortune 1000 type of organizations who are relying heavily on major SaaS platforms such as Microsoft Salesforce or service. Now, because these SaaS platform, they’re full fledged development platforms, they write CRM is not only just a CRM, and it’s also true for email clients and for ERP, no code and AI is everywhere and it enables people to simply use those systems better, customize them and build on their own. So when you look at these top three, but also on other SaaS like Google and SAP and Oracle, they’re everyone, right? Especially in the large corporates in the US.
Ben Kliger
So the SAP for us is basically any organization that is leveraging these platforms heavily today in their line of businesses, because we know that citizen development activities are taking place heavily in those platforms. For example, Gartner estimated that by 2025, 75% of development in enterprises will be carried by citizen developers, not by professional developers. So obviously the ICP for us is a large enterprise with leveraging any of the office with teams, Salesforce. So it’s now on the other platforms.
Brett
That I’ve mentioned, this show is brought to you by Front Lines Media podcast production studio that helps b two B founders launch, manage and grow their own podcast. Now, if you’re a founder, you may be thinking, I don’t have time to host a podcast. I’ve got a company to build. Well, that’s exactly what we built our service to do. You show up and host and we handle literally everything else. To set up a call to discuss launching your own podcast, visit Frontlines.io podcast. Now back today’s episode. And who are you typically targeting in that organization? From a sales, marketing and messaging perspective? Is it like the CISO of the or the CTO? Or just go down director vp level? Or are you targeting the practitioners and individual contributors?
Ben Kliger
Our vanity is an application security platform, and with that, of course, the security organization we target the CISO head of application security type of performance. We also see a wide spectrum of people who are responsible for security aspects of platforms or productivity platforms internally. In such organizations. Usually that’s the CIS or the uptake, as I brought up. But sometimes it can also be on the CIO initiatives. But we as an organization, we look at our go to market activity. We target the security leadership.
Brett
I’ve been going to black hat for the last, probably three or four years now. And whenever I walk around I just think, wow, everyone seems to kind of be saying the same thing. How the hell is a company supposed to stand out and rise above all of this noise? What are you doing to stand out in such a crowded market of security products?
Ben Kliger
I think they’re challenging, right? And people who don’t say that are not being accurate. Right? But I think what’s very unique about our story is that it’s a story of enablement, right? I mean, these technologies are helping organizations. At the end of the day, they’re not coming. People or citizen developers are not building stuff to harm the organization or exposing the organization to risks. It’s a story of enablement. Organizations need zanity for a win situation in order for them to feel comfortable to make sure that they empower their end users with low code, no code and AI development capabilities. They need the platform like Zenith to make sure that they do so responsibly. So I think that’s a big part of our messaging that is very unique.
Brett
How would you describe your marketing philosophy and your general approach to marketing?
Ben Kliger
So first, we believe, again, we’re customer obsessed and we believe that we need to show value to our prospects clients, whether it’s with their thought leadership activities, content, publications that we’re doing participation in respectful security organizations, top leadership organizations such as OWA, such as Mitre. We’re working very close with these organizations to make sure that we share knowledge, right? That people understand where the risks are and how they can empower the users with no code and AI responsibly. And we believe, and we’re seeing that it’s fruitful to work in this way by sharing knowledge, by doing a lot of talk edition activities.
Ben Kliger
That of course brings us inbound leads of people who want to hear more and want to make sure that they can apply with Zeneti and application security process that they need to apply with that, of course, we also have a direct self organization that we built where we target a specific organization. When we target specific leaders that we think can benefit from the value added zenity has, we never try to scare people off. It’s not the way that we operate at Zenerty. It’s not like a FUD motion. But we have, again, I mentioned the win situation for organizations to leverage together with their AI no code initiatives.
Brett
When it comes to your market category, how do you think about it? I know security loves to have abbreviated terms, and even in Appsec you have what? ASPM, ASOC, Appsec, Ops, all these different terms, all these different categories. What’s your category?
Ben Kliger
So I think it’s quite obvious that we’re creating a new category here. Right? When we started Zenith almost three years ago, we started as the first company to target this world of cities and development. Then it was with local. Today it’s also with generative AI. But that’s of course a unique category. It’s also a unique category because we’re again doing or applying an application security approach to this world, meaning that we’re very deep in our analysis of what people are building. So yes, it’s a standalone category. Of course, there are some common areas of things that we do that makes sense for our buyers. So whether it’s AI SPM, whether it’s some sorts of secret scanning and personal data detection, and of course, detective. But the category is a standalone category.
Ben Kliger
From the perspective of how do you make sure that no code and air development is secure?
Brett
What role do analysts play in defining this category or creating this category?
Ben Kliger
I should say analysts are of course, very meaningful. Right. It’s important to work closely with those respectful organizations such as Gartner and Forrester and IDC. They have such an amazing perspective on the industry. They get to talk to so many different types of organization, buyers, leaders. It’s of course important to work closely with them and making sure. That knowledge is being shared basically in two ways. So, yes, I would say it’s important.
Brett
What type of growth are you seeing today? Are there any numbers or metrics that you can tease our audience with?
Ben Kliger
We don’t really share a lot of numbers externally. I can say that we just recently, about five months ago, finished our a round. Of course, we’re seeing very nice growth sense, expediting our activities across go to market engineering, working with some of the largest brands in the world. And that’s also something that’s very unique to Zenati as a company. The fact that we’re working with Fortune 100 organizations in production, paying customers that are leveraging our platform on a daily basis. And we’re very proud of it, of course. So, yeah, I mean, traction looks really nice. We’re very proud of it.
Brett
How do you get a Fortune 100 company to give you a shot? Obviously, something that every startup struggles with is the trust problem, the credibility problem, because they’re new, they’re unproven. How do you get Fortune 100 to give you a chance?
Ben Kliger
I wouldn’t say it’s easy. Right, of course. But let’s again, keep in mind, once you’re focused on making sure that you deliver value, and again, being customer obsessed, that helps a lot. Right? I mean, when you talk to these leaders and it’s not like just, hey, I want to sell you this and that, when you actually listen to what they have to say, to their feedback, especially when you’re early in your journey, that helps you get better. Right. It helps you with making sure that what you’re building make sense. Right? So I think that’s the point that I would say is the most important. Working with such a large organization, making sure that you actually listen and apply the learning from these goals.
Brett
As I mentioned there in the intro, you’ve raised 21.5 million in funding. What have you learned about fundraising throughout this journey?
Ben Kliger
So I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is that people always say that life is short. It’s all about finding people that you really want to partner with and work with. Right? Think about investors are going to be with you through bad times and good times, and they’re going to be with you throughout your journey, right? So it’s about making sure that you find partners that share the excitement that you have for what you’re building and people that, first and foremost, are there with you, not for you, with you in the trenches that can help you with some good advice, some good perspectives. People want to be part of a real journey of building a company, if that makes sense.
Brett
Let’s imagine I come to you and I say, Ben, I want to start a cybersecurity technology company. Apart from being customer obsessed, what would be the number one piece of advice that you’d give me before I embark on that journey?
Ben Kliger
So I think with cybersecurity, there are just so many companies out there, right? So many companies going after similar problems, similar aspects of trying to get a budget line. I think it’s important in the cybersecurity industry to also think about what’s coming next. Again, I’m sorry for repeating myself. It actually goes underneath the main customer service, but actually seeing where your potential clients are going to be in a year time from now, in two years, trying to find something really interesting to solve instead of going after similar problems that were already addressed in the past. I think having a replacement sort of a story that’s probably much harder, especially when you are building and selling to large enterprises.
Brett
Final question for you. Let’s zoom out three to five years into the future. What’s the big picture vision that you’re building?
Ben Kliger
I hope it’s clear that sales were creating a new category. We went to solve a problem that, first of all, huge. And with that, of course, there is a large opportunity to build something massive here, like a real company. That’s the real goal for us, to go big and to be the next cyber security israeli success story. Building another checkpoint, as they say. That’s what we wanted it.
Brett
I love it. Ben, this has been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it and you’ve definitely turned me into a fan. I’ll be rooting for your success. We are up on time, so we’re going to have to wrap here. Before we do, if there’s any founders that are listening in that feel inspired, they want to follow along with your journey, where should they go?
Ben Kliger
Of course, I’m happy to connect on LinkedIn and share more from my experiences and help. The entrepreneurial community is a closed community where people try to help each other. I’m in different stages of the journey, so I’m happy to help and share for my knowledge. And of course, follow our Zenity page and Zenity.io website.
Brett
Amazing. Ben, thanks so much for taking the time. It’s been a lot of fun.
Ben Kliger
Thanks, Brett. Appreciate it a lot. Looking forward to doing this again.
Brett
All right, let’s keep in touch.
Ben Kliger
Cheers.
Brett
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