Aviv Grafi: There needs to be fundamental changes in security. [CEO]
Aviv Grafi: My name is Aviv Grafi. I'm the CEO and Founder of Votiro.
Aviv Grafi: I'm based in Tel Aviv. I live in Israel, so after high school, I was recruited for the intelligence forces here in Israel in the IDF. So I was working on security for almost five years. I learned a lot about security, uh, defense and offense. So that was really great experience, and a lot of learning, it's learning that almost everything is possible. And I think that's actually shaped a lot of my thinking and problem solving.
Aviv Grafi: So after that service, I started to work for a startup in the development of security. I was one of the core team developers. And after two years of having some more business and real world experience, I actually started my own business. I was doing pentesting, penetration testing, so I was traveling around the world, doing audits for companies for IT security staff. And that was one of the first experiences I had with understanding there are problems that need to be solved. That two years afterwards became what is now Votiro with slightly a different idea and approach, but that was the root or the seed for what today I have in the company that I'm heading.
Aviv Grafi: I'm accommodating. I treat my management team as my peers, as a team. Usually I'm expecting them to own and to be responsible for their area. I expect them to improve. I expect them to come to me and say, and this is a very, uh, I would say reasonable if someone would step into my office, say look Aviv, "I'm sorry. I've done a mistake on this path." And, that's completely fine. And I appreciate that admitting mistakes and weaknesses, but at the same time, expecting him to say, "This is how we're going to fix it." And I believe that admitting mistakes that's the, I would say the number one principle, getting better as a person, as a team, as a company.
Aviv Grafi: The approach that I'm taking and what I believe in that there need to be fundamental changes in security and the way that I'm seeing what I'm building. And what I believe in is that you need to turn the problem on its head. And in my world, in the company that I'm running, that deals with the weaponized documents and emails, I want, for example, in ten years from now that people will say, yeah, Votiro, Aviv Grafi, yeah, he was, uh, the mind that thought how we really solved that problem. And it was really crazy. But we see now that it's really working,
Aviv Grafi: I think that one thing that I've learned that the roller coaster of running a venture, in my case, the roller coaster, this is something that you need to understand that the highs are not that high and the lows are not that low. That's something I've learned that I was taking very personal, a lot of things that happened in that roller coaster. I think that a few years now, I understand that you need to take that in proportion.