Empirical Security | CEO Ed Bellis on Sales Pitfalls for Founders and Vulnerability Management
Wed Jan 07 2026
With me in this episode is Ed Bellis, co-founder and CEO of Empirical Security. Empirical uses a scoring system informed by customer data to create tailored risk prioritization models. Ed started Empirical in 2024 after leaving Cisco, three years after they acquired his previous company Kenna. Kenna was a vulnerability management and prioritization tool that aggregated data from an organization's scanners and enriched that data with threat intelligence to better prioritize risk. In many ways, Kenna helped lead the way in modern vulnerability management by creating an abstraction layer over the scanners themselves. Empirical is now further pushing the bounds following advances in machine learning and AI to go beyond Kenna's limitations. In the episode we discuss the alluring sales pitfalls for new founders, the importance of a "fast no", Cisco's acquisition strategy and execution, modern VM in light of AI penetration testing, and more.
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With me in this episode is Ed Bellis, co-founder and CEO of Empirical Security. Empirical uses a scoring system informed by customer data to create tailored risk prioritization models. Ed started Empirical in 2024 after leaving Cisco, three years after they acquired his previous company Kenna. Kenna was a vulnerability management and prioritization tool that aggregated data from an organization's scanners and enriched that data with threat intelligence to better prioritize risk. In many ways, Kenna helped lead the way in modern vulnerability management by creating an abstraction layer over the scanners themselves. Empirical is now further pushing the bounds following advances in machine learning and AI to go beyond Kenna's limitations. In the episode we discuss the alluring sales pitfalls for new founders, the importance of a "fast no", Cisco's acquisition strategy and execution, modern VM in light of AI penetration testing, and more. Empirical Website