Inside The Silicon Mind

When AI drives the cost of writing software close to zero, what will still matter in 10 years?
Lenny Pruss - General Partner at Amplify, a venture firm managing over $2.5 billion - sits down with Firas to answer the question every founder, engineer, and VC is wrestling with: if anyone can ship software fast and cheap, what actually makes a software company durable anymore?
His answer isn’t what you’d expect.
 
In this episode:
- Why lead time has collapsed from years to weeks – and what that means for defensibility
- The point‑solution companies Lenny believes will be “absolutely railroaded” by foundation models
- Why distribution, trust, and ecosystem now matter more than code quality alone
- What Lenny looks for in a company today to decide if it will still matter in 10 years
 
Timestamps:
00:00 - The existential question: will this matter in 10 years?
01:17 - Why traditional technical moats are collapsing
04:07 - The classes of companies that get railroaded by AI
06:27 - What a real moat looks like in 2026
09:00 - Trust, maintenance, and ecosystems as the ultimate software value
17:52 - What happens to engineers when agents write the code
18:11 - Tokens, models, and the trillion‑dollar question
 
Book recommendation:
The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich A. Hayek
 
About Lenny Pruss:
Lenny Pruss is a General Partner at Amplify, a venture capital firm with over $2.5 billion under management. He focuses on early‑stage software and infrastructure investments, backing companies at the intersection of developer tools, data, and AI.
 
About the show:
Inside the Silicon Mind takes you behind the scenes with the founders, CEOs, and VCs building the future of technology. Every week, Firas Sozan sits down with the operators and investors rewriting the rules – from zero‑to‑one startup journeys to the decisions that define industries.
Hosted by Firas Sozan.
Powered by Harrison Clarke.
 
🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives on:
• AI and the future of software
• Venture capital and company building
• Developer tools, infrastructure, and engineering careers
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMind
Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsm
Spotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm
 
Follow the host on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
 
Website links:
https://www.harrisonclarke.com/
https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/
https://thepmfplaybook.com/
 
#VentureCapital #AI #Startup #SoftwareEngineering #AmplifyPartners

Coding used to require years of training and a full engineering team. That era is over.
In this episode, Eli Chen, Principal Technical Architect at AI Fund, explains how and why the cost and effort of coding is quickly dropping toward zero - and what that means for early-stage founders, engineers, and anyone building in the agentic AI era.
Eli has spent 25 years at the frontier of software engineering, from early machine learning to today’s AI-native startup landscape. His central argument is simple: when coding becomes automated, the human skills - architecture, judgment, taste, and customer understanding - become even more important.
 
In this episode:
How MVP build time went from 2 months to 2 hours
Why the cost and effort of coding is dropping toward zero
How agentic AI is changing software building and iteration speed
Why engineering judgment matters more than ever in an AI-first world
How founders should think about technical hiring right now
Advice for anyone navigating the shift from writing code to directing AI
 
Who this episode is for:
Early-stage founders building AI-native products
Engineers thinking about their edge in a world where coding is increasingly automated
Product-led builders trying to find real product-market fit in the AI era
Anyone asking what still matters when code becomes cheap and fast
 
Timestamps:
00:00 – The Acceleration of AI Development
02:51 – The Changing Landscape of Software Engineering
06:03 – The Future of Talent in Software Engineering
09:04 – Navigating the Rapid Changes in Entrepreneurship
12:13 – The Importance of First Principles Thinking
14:58 – Challenges in the Fast-Paced AI Market
17:53 – Identifying Value in a Noisy Market
21:10 – The Role of Speed in Startup Success
23:59 – The Future of Work and Talent Dynamics
26:51 – Book Recommendations and Closing Thoughts
 
Book recommendation:Dune by Frank Herbert
 
About Eli Chen:Eli Chen is Principal Technical Architect at AI Fund, where he helps founders build AI-native products on dramatically accelerated timelines using rapid engineering techniques. He was an early engineer at cloud platform iGware, helping scale from zero to hundreds of millions of Nintendo devices before its acquisition by Acer. He later joined Netflix as one of the first streaming engineers during its shift away from DVDs, and then Twitter, where he worked on scaling the platform through its IPO. Eli went on to found a startup in neural network explainability and co-founded Credo AI, a pioneer in AI governance, before focusing on working directly with founders at AI Fund. He believes that in the current era, coding ability matters less than deep AI literacy, taste, and the ability to navigate a landscape where the pace of change keeps accelerating.
 
Follow Eli on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elichen/
 
About the podcast:
Inside the Silicon Mind goes behind the scenes with the founders, CEOs, and venture capitalists building the future of technology. New episodes every week.
 
Listen and subscribe:
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
 
Follow the host on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
 
Website links:
Harrison Clarke
Harrison Clarke Ventures
The PMF Playbook
 

Prevention is dead. The companies still building walls are already losing - and a $70M cybersecurity founder is ready to prove it.
In this episode of Inside the Silicon Mind, Firas sits down with Shachar Hirshberg, co-founder of Artemis - an AI-native cybersecurity platform helping enterprises detect and contain attacks before they cause irreversible damage.
Shachar paints a stark picture: we’re entering an era of fully autonomous AI-driven cyberattacks that can move from initial access to full data exfiltration in mere seconds. Zero-day exploits that once struck every few months will soon number in the hundreds per day. Nation-state-level sophistication that once cost millions is now available to cybercrime gangs for the price of a ChatGPT subscription.
But defenders aren’t powerless. Shachar’s core argument: attackers will never know your business the way you do. The future of cybersecurity isn’t prevention – it’s intelligent, contextual containment that stops damage without stopping your operations.
 
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why AI hacking has permanently changed the threat landscape
Why the prevention-first security model is fundamentally broken - and what replaces it
The “inevitable breach” mindset every CISO needs to adopt now
How Artemis detects and contains attacks in seconds - not hours
The defender’s advantage: leveraging internal business knowledge against attackers
How to design your security program around the assumption of an inevitable breach, not a perfect perimeter
What a “good day” looks like in a world of autonomous AI attacks - and how to measure success when attacks never stop
What the next wave of cybersecurity startup opportunities looks like
Advice for founders building in AI-driven markets
 
Who this episode is for:
CISOs, security leaders, founders, and technical operators who are ready to move beyond prevention and want a battle-tested playbook for detecting, containing, and surviving AI-driven attacks.
 
Book recommendation:
The Mom Test, by Rob Fitzpatrick
 
About Shachar Hirshberg:
Shachar Hirshberg is a cybersecurity and AI product leader who’s built and scaled world class enterprise security products at companies like AWS and Demisto. He led product management for Amazon GuardDuty and key cloud security initiatives at AWS, and previously helped define the SOAR category as an early engineering leader at Demisto, acquired by Palo Alto Networks for 560M. With a background in computer science, economics, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Shachar focuses on building new security categories that solve the most critical challenges for global customers.
 
Follow Shachar:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shachar-hirshberg/
 
About the podcast:
Inside the Silicon Mind goes behind the scenes with the Founders, CEOs, and Venture Capitalists building the future of technology. New episodes every week.
 
Subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMind
Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsm
Spotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm
 
Follow the host, Firas Sozan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
 
More from Inside the Silicon Mind:
https://www.harrisonclarke.com/
https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/
https://thepmfplaybook.com/
 
Keywords:
AI hacking, AI cyberattacks, autonomous cyberattacks, AI security, zero day exploit, zero day exploit explained, cybersecurity startup, future of cybersecurity, cybersecurity founder interview, AI threat detection, CISO strategy, CISO, cybersecurity 2025, cyber threats AI, AI attacks, cybersecurity playbook, startup founder interview, Shachar Hirshberg, Artemis cybersecurity, AI driven attacks, nation state cyberattacks, inevitable breach, Inside the Silicon Mind

When Russia invaded Ukraine, 80% of Cyberhaven’s engineering team was in Kyiv. Employees were stopped at the border. Families were being separated. And one CEO had to decide what kind of leader he was going to be.
In this episode, Howard Ting - CEO of Cyberhaven - shares the moment he thought it was the end of the company, and the bold decisions that saved it. You’ll hear how he led through a live-fire crisis, why he believes most companies fail because of people rather than product, and what “people-first leadership” really looks like when everything is on the line.
 
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The moment all hell broke loose - and what Howard did in the first 24 hours.
Why he told his team: “Family first. Country second. Company last.”
How they explored every option, including bribing border officials, to get employees out.
The operational playbook for building fault tolerance under fire.
What crisis leadership actually looks like when your company is on the line.
Why most companies don’t fail on product or market, but on people, culture, and stage-wrong hires.
How this experience changed his view on success, sacrifice, and the different “types of wealth” in a career.
 
Chapters:
00:00 Navigating Crisis: The Impact of War on Business
11:46 The People Factor: Why Companies Fail
15:01 Leadership and Personal Growth: A Shift in Perspective
20:02 Work-Life Integration: Balancing Ambition and Family
22:49 Redefining Wealth: Beyond Economic Success
 
Book recommendation: The 5 Types of Wealth, by Sahil Bloom
Time charting link mentioned: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFu4TTnxt66/
 
About Howard Ting
Howard Ting is the CEO of Cyberhaven, a data security company protecting the world’s most sensitive information. He has led teams through some of the most extreme operational challenges in startup history and has spent his career building and scaling go-to-market and product teams in high-growth enterprise companies.
 
About Inside the Silicon Mind
Inside the Silicon Mind goes behind the scenes with the Founders, CEOs, and Venture Capitalists building the future of technology. New episodes every week.
Subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode.
Video version: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMind
Website: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/
 
Follow & Subscribe:
Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.
 
Keywords: Howard Ting, Cyberhaven, CEO, startup, Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship, crisis leadership, cybersecurity, wartime CEO, why startups fail, people-first leadership, Ukraine war

You Don’t Realise What You’re Giving Up When You Become a Founder | Cosmin Nicolaescu
Most people talk about the upside of being a founder.
Cosmin Nicolaescu (Microsoft → Stripe → Brex → founder & CEO of Accrual) talks about the cost – losing your optionality, carrying the weight of every hire, and living with a handful of decisions that can define your entire career.
 
In this episode, we dive into:
- Why becoming a founder means giving up the “I’ll just go do something else” optionality.
- The loneliness of the role and why even the best co‑founders can’t fully remove it.
- How Cosmin’s time at Microsoft, Stripe, and Brex prepared him – and what still shocked him as a founder.
- Why growth problems are the “best problems” to have, and the hidden downside of losing small‑team camaraderie.
- How he thinks about keeping Accrual small and focused while still scaling fast.
- The idea that only a handful of decisions truly change a company’s trajectory – and how he decides which ones to sweat.
- What he optimises for now: impact, learning, and building from within rather than hiring “free agents”.
 
Chapters
00:00 Introduction – “Locked In” and the Long‑Term Cost of Founding
01:56 The Loneliness and Constant Trade‑Offs of Being a Founder
04:10 Cosmin’s Journey: From Microsoft to Stripe and Brex
06:54 Leaving Stripe for Brex – Using the Regret Minimisation Framework
10:01 Starting Accrual – Deep Domain Knowledge and Customer Impact
14:12 Choosing an Industry – Why Accounting and Financial Infrastructure
16:13 Solving for Impact – Automating Mundane Work for Accountants
19:07 Customer Obsession – Acquisition, Retention, and Expansion
23:05 Growth Problems, Change Management, and Staying Small While Scaling
25:48 From Operator to Founder – What Actually Changes
27:56 Books, Parenting, and How Cosmin Thinks About Learning
 
Book recommendations
- Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
- The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt
 
Connect with Cosmin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosminn/
 
About Inside the Silicon Mind
Inside the Silicon Mind is a podcast powered by Harrison Clarke, exploring how builders, founders, and technical leaders use AI and frontier tech to change industries from the inside out.
 
Subscribe for more Silicon Valley operator insights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMind
Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsm
Spotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm
 
Follow the host on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
 
More from Harrison Clarke
https://www.harrisonclarke.com/
https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/
https://thepmfplaybook.com/
 
#founder #startups #entrepreneurship #leadership #InsideTheSiliconMind

AI has just lowered the bar to hacking. In this episode, cybersecurity founder Peyton Smith explains how script‑kiddie teenagers, China, and Russia are all using AI to probe critical infrastructure - and what defenders have to do next.
Peyton spent years on CrowdStrike’s red team, paid by Fortune 1000 companies to break into “secure” environments and show them where their defences really failed. Now he’s building an AI‑powered platform to continuously stress‑test legacy infrastructure before attackers find the holes.
 
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How AI has lowered the barrier to entry for hacking and made “script kiddies” far more dangerous.
Why older, more complex organisations - from airlines to the energy grid - are often the least secure.
How China and Russia are systematically targeting US and Western critical infrastructure.
What really happens on a red‑team engagement inside large, well‑funded companies.
Where AI actually helps defenders today - and why fully autonomous cybersecurity is still mostly marketing.
How Peyton is using large language models to automate proactive security without taking humans out of the loop.
Advice for founders trying to build high‑signal security products in an AI‑noisy market.
 
Timestamps:
00:00 The Evolving Landscape of Cybersecurity
04:56 Geopolitical Implications in Cyber Warfare
09:56 Proactive vs Reactive Cybersecurity Strategies
15:02 The Role of AI in Cybersecurity
20:00 Building a Better Cybersecurity Product
24:53 Navigating the Cybersecurity Market
30:12 The Future of Cybersecurity and AI
 
Book mentioned:
The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz
Listen if you work in tech, security, or you’re just trying to understand how AI is reshaping the offence-defence balance in cyberspace.
 
Video version: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMindWebsite: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/Follow & Subscribe:
Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.
 
#ai #CyberSecurity #Hacking #CriticalInfrastructure #InsideTheSiliconMind

In this conversation, Neil Patel breaks down how AI is quietly transforming healthcare delivery, improving workflows, reducing administrative waste, and changing the future of work in healthcare. We explore what this means for doctors, patients, families, and the broader healthcare system.
We cover:
AI in healthcare and how it is reshaping care delivery
The future of work in healthcare and what it means for clinicians
How AI can reduce administrative waste and improve efficiency
Why the future of healthcare may move more toward the home
How better systems could improve access, quality, and consistency
What this means for healthcare strategy, innovation, and adoption
Neil also shares why he believes AI could help raise the quality of care, reduce variation across providers, and unlock a more accessible healthcare system for more people..
Key moments:
00:00 The state of healthcare access
12:06 How AI can transform healthcare
15:31 The future of patient care with AI
18:00 Investing in healthcare innovation
20:11 Building the future of healthcare AI
22:06 The hospital of the future
Book recommendation: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari
 
Video version: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMind
Website: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/
 
Follow & Subscribe:
Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.
 

Mike Kropp built products at Microsoft and AWS that scaled to millions. Now at Iridius, he's creating AI for highly regulated industries - and warns most AI startups face an extinction event.
Discover:
Why apps/bots get copied while platforms with moats survive
Microsoft's "customer connected development" (17K developers giving weekly feedback)
Discipline that separates Microsoft/AWS winners from startup failures
Why enterprises reject non-deterministic AI
How founders must set the pace - or lose their team
Timestamps:
00:00 - "Mass extinction event coming for AI startups"
02:30 - How Microsoft nailed product-market fit at scale
09:00 - Discipline vs impatience in enterprise vs startups
15:00 - The compliance crisis blocking enterprise AI
25:00 - "Founders set pace. Team rises - or leaves"
 
Book recommendation: Quantum Supremacy, by Michio Kaku
About Mike Kropp: Microsoft patterns & practices leader, AWS product builder, Iridius CEO (AI for regulated industries)
Video version: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMindWebsite: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/Follow & Subscribe:
Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.
#AI #Startups #Microsoft #ProductMarketFit #FounderLessons #EnterpriseAI #VentureCapital

They sold their software to Microsoft for $50,000.
It helped create a trillion-dollar company.
In this episode of Inside the Silicon Mind, Jim Harding - who worked on one of the earliest PC operating systems later acquired by Microsoft - shares what really happened during one of the most important moments in technology history.
But this isn’t just a story about the past.
It’s about how inflection points actually work - and why most people miss them while they’re happening.
From the rise of the IBM PC to today’s shift toward AI and autonomy, Jim explains why the next wave isn’t about better prompts - it’s about autonomous systems, platform dynamics, and a completely new layer of the internet.
 
Key Topics:
- The real story behind the MS-DOS / IBM deal- What an inflection point actually is- Why most companies miss major shifts- Platform strategy vs product innovation- AI vs autonomy - what’s actually changing- The idea of “Layer 8” of the internet
 
Why This Matters:
Every major technology shift rewrites the rules.
But the biggest opportunities go to the people who understand what’s changing early - and act differently because of it.
We are entering another one of those moments now.
 
In This Episode:
00:00 Intro
01:05 What an inflection point really is
03:10 How Microsoft won the IBM deal
06:46 Why others missed the opportunity
08:29 Platform strategy & ecosystems
12:46 The disk that changed everything
18:41 Why autonomy is bigger than AI
22:25 The 3 shifts behind autonomy
24:35 “Layer 8” explained
28:41 Nature & resilient systems
32:10 Rethinking business strategy
35:00 Final thoughts
 
About the Guest:
Jim Harding is a technology pioneer who played a role in the early days of personal computing, working on software that became foundational to the IBM PC ecosystem and Microsoft’s rise. He has spent decades building and scaling technology companies across multiple industry shifts.
 
About the Show:
Inside the Silicon Mind is your masterclass in high stakes innovation, business strategy, and the Silicon Valley mindset. Hosted by Firas Sozan, we interview Founders, CEOs, and Venture Capitalists shaping the future of technology.
 
Links and Resources:
Spotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm
Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsm
Website: https://insidethesiliconmind.com/
Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/
 
Follow & Subscribe:
Don’t forget to follow the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.
 
 

Every cybersecurity breach has a warning.
The problem is - nobody sees it in time.
Monzy Merza spent 12 years as an applied security researcher in a nuclear weapons lab before going on to lead teams at Splunk, Databricks, and HSBC.
In this episode, he shares the moment that changed everything - when he realised the industry had been ignoring what customers were saying for years:
“We’re never going to put all our data in one place.”
That insight led him to leave his executive role, become an operator, and build Crogl - an AI system designed to investigate every alert so nothing gets missed.
 
Key topics:
Founder–market fit explained
Why most founders misunderstand customer problems
The reality of cybersecurity operations
Why 399 out of 400 alerts don’t matter
How AI is transforming security teams
Turning weeks of analysis into minutes
 
Why this matters:
The biggest risks in cybersecurity aren’t hidden - they’re missed.
Understanding how real problems are discovered, validated, and solved is critical not just for security leaders, but for founders, operators, and investors building in complex markets.
 
In this episode:
00:00 Why listening to customers is harder than it sounds
06:22 What founder–market fit actually means
12:14 The problem Crogl solves
14:42 The aha moment on a Databricks customer call
18:01 Leaving an exec role to become an operator at HSBC
24:52 Why being an operator first changes everything
27:28 400 alerts a day: the barbell effect of cybersecurity
30:38 How Crogl turns analysts into heroes
34:45 The long-term vision for Crogl
 
About the guest:
Monzy Merza is the founder and CEO of Crogl. Previously, he spent a decade at Splunk, served as an executive at Databricks, and worked as a security operator at HSBC - all after 12 years as an applied security researcher in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.
 
About the podcast:
Inside the Silicon Mind explores how founders, investors, and operators think - unpacking the decisions, insights, and patterns behind building in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Stay curious. Stay consistent. Stay Inside the Silicon Mind.
 
Follow & Subscribe:
Don’t forget to follow the podcast for more conversations with founders, operators, and investors shaping the future of technology.