A Q&A with Iren Reznikov, Director, Venture Investments and Corporate Development at SentinelOne
[00:00:00] Alexandra Aguiar: Hello everyone, and welcome back to Securing the Future, a series dedicated to tapping into the expertise of our very esteemed advisory board here at Noetic. Today, I am especially honored to be joined by Iren Reznikov, an absolute powerhouse in the cybersecurity industry.
Currently, she leads a $100 million fund over at S Ventures, investing in dynamic startups that are really redefining the space including us here at Noetic, but her investment philosophy goes far beyond the numbers. She’s been an absolute trailblazer in promoting diversity in the tech world backing female-led startups and championing underrepresented founders. Iren’s story is one of vision of impact and a commitment to driving real change in the cybersecurity landscape. So, welcome Iren. I’m very excited to have you here today.
[00:00:53] Iren Reznikov: Great to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:56] Alexandra Aguiar: Of course. To kick things off, I’d like to get your take on the general cybersecurity landscape.
So, first things first, I’m keen to get your perspective on what you think will be the most significant cybersecurity challenges that organizations are going to face over the next five or so years.
[00:01:17] Iren Reznikov: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think that obviously cybersecurity has tons of challenges all the time. And if I’m looking at the next five years, I think one of the biggest ones is tackling AI-enabled technologies in the business context as well as just introducing safeguards around AI. It’s something that has been discussed quite a bit in the last, I would say, year or so, since we’re seeing so much innovation around AI and AI being introduced into environments of the workplace.
In the context of cybersecurity, I think that there are two main areas around AI that we need to pay attention to:
One is, as we’re adopting as organizations are adopting these technologies, we need to have a great safeguard around the ability of our employees to use AI in a safe way.
And the second piece is more about fake content generated by AI and we’re already seeing AI generated attacks on organizations. And do we have the efficient and adequate tools to combat these kinds of attacks? So that’s kind of the first big challenge that I’m seeing in the next few years.
The second one is not, it’s not a new challenge, right? But it is something that is being discussed more and more and resources are being allocated to combat that challenge is, how do we create a threat enabled or threat informed, adequate strategy cybersecurity strategy?
Obviously, threat intelligence feeds are out there in the last few years, organizations are using tons of tools across their environments and are leveraging threat intelligence. But, as we’re seeing, more and more companies–although they have tons of security tools that are deployed within their environment– they’re still not able to catch up with the kind of attacks that are being relayed upon them.
So, I think that there is a big challenge around taking a proactive approach and leverage threat intelligence within your existing security investments. So, that’s another huge challenge.
We’re talking a lot about CTEM and continuous threat management tools. So basically, creating a comprehensive strategy that is tapping into threat intelligence, that is tapping into everything you have around exposure management and creating an exposure management program that is reliable and leverages your existing tool set. And how do we create that program to combat real time attacks and real time threats with the mindset of risk, right? How do I decrease the risk of my organization using my existing tool set?
I’m not buying more and more tools kind of creating reduced visibility because of that. It’s just tons of tools that are not communicating with each other. You’re not really leveraging your knowledge of threats or knowledge that you can have of threats. You’re not leveraging your security investments, and then you don’t have that coverage across your environment. So, that’s the second challenge.
And the third one is less around enterprises. I think that we’re seeing more and more attacks on the SMB side. And there is a huge challenge of, how do you up level the security of these SMBs to combat an increasing amount of attacks that is being relayed upon them? You do see that more and more. You see companies that don’t have these huge budgets of security. They understand that they’re being the eye of a lot of targets. And then they need to create a comprehensive strategy for their security investments, but they don’t have the budget to do so.
So, there is an opportunity there for companies to actually create a tailored solution for the SMB side and the demand for these solutions is just going to get higher and higher because the attacks are being generated more and more in that sector.
That’s the third piece that we will be seeing that challenge more and more in the next few years.
[00:05:44] Alexandra Aguiar: I know you mentioned generative AI and ensuring you have the tools to combat Gen AI; threat informed defense and kind of shifting to a more continuous threat exposure management program; and leveraging the tools that you already have to take that proactive stance; and then, of course, a greater demand for safeguarding small and medium sized businesses.
Are there any other ways in which you feel that these challenges will impact security and risk strategies aside from, of course, what you’ve already mentioned?
[00:06:16] Iren Reznikov: There are bigger and bigger budgets that are being allocated to solve these problems. So, you do see CISOs talking about having a security AI budget or allocating existing number of budgets to combat that specific challenge.
So, that’s the first piece that we’re seeing. We do see that mind share being shifted and budgets are being allocated. I think that around threat exposure and CTEM in general, we do see that mindshare influencing budget allocation more and more. So that’s kind of first piece.
I think the second piece is it’s not a secret that there is a huge lack of cybersecurity workforce today and having implemented these strategies around threat exposure can enable organizations to handle these this lack of workforce.
So, I do think that that’s something that is being discussed in parallel of, how do we adopt these technologies, and how can that help us battle the fact that we don’t have enough personnel to make our security investments more efficient and to increase ROI on our security investments.
So that also brings in mind automation that is being more and more discussed. Obviously, you have already automation across a variety of tools. But how do we enable automation across many tools. How do we enable that correlation and aggregation of signals or events across many tools?
And we see that across risks areas, and we see that across threat areas. So it can start around vulnerability management and we can find that around the SOC as well, and actually combating real time threats.
So, we do see that mindset of, how do we create a comprehensive program around many, many tools? How do we create more efficacy around our security investments? That mindshare is being deployed across all the different kinds of stages. Within your security environments from risk to threat.
[00:08:28] Alexandra Aguiar: Great insight, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be tool centric or tool specific.
But of these developments and the trends that you’re noticing in the field, are there any that you’re particularly excited about? And if so, what are they?
[00:08:44] Iren Reznikov: I think that’s what I mentioned around how do we enable organizations to enjoy access to threat intelligence? And how can that influence the way that they’re using their security investments? That’s something that I think will be an important trend as we’re going forward. And we can see that across several categories, but just if we’re looking at risk intelligence obviously, when what’s out there in real time, it can really affect, how do you leverage your existing security investments?
Do you have all your configurations, right? Are all the tools that you bought deployed correctly? Do you have these tools deployed on the right environment?
And so, there’s a lot of ways that, in context of a specific threat, you can influence the way that security tools that you already invested in and deployed, are they deployed adequately to mitigate the threats that you’re seeing out there in the wild. That’s something that I feel passionate about. We’ll see more and more that mindset of CISOs thinking about what they already bought and how do they create better ROI around their security investments.
I think the second piece is, how do we create products that enable better communication across teams within the security environment? How do we create an ability of a CISO to answer super simple questions that the board is asking, but also enabling his staff to understand what they need to do in the next week to combat specific threats. And what are the priorities across the team?
So, I think products that will be able to create a platform for better communication across the security team will win in the next 2 to 3 years. We’ll see that more and more.
And it also ties into that emerging trend of how do we do tie security to ROI? Because that’s something that traditionally was really, really, hard to do. And we’re talking about efficacy, we’re talking about we stopped a specific threat.
We’re not actually putting ROI figures on our security investments. And we can see that being discussed across everything. Across your ability to be protected in light of specific threats and your ability to say, are you actually are my security investments are efficient or not? Are we deploying them correctly? That’s all that all ties into that discussion of security ROI, which I think will be more and more something that we will talk about.
[00:11:36] Alexandra Aguiar: Absolutely. And I think to that point speaking of leveraging your existing tools or maximizing your existing investments and really making the most of them and making communication a lot easier all the way up to the board.
I’d really like to hear your thoughts on how Noetic specifically is going to play a role in addressing those challenges.
[00:12:03] Iren Reznikov: Yeah. So, I think that the philosophy behind Noetic, which is really about there are so many tools that we already invested in across our environment, but they’re not really talking to each other. We’re not really seeing kind of the correlation between all these tools. And it’s hard to assess risk when we have that decreased visibility across our environment.
That’s something that is if it was 2,3,4 years ago, something that was discussed but not really implemented in our environments today because you just can’t ignore it anymore. You have 40-50-60 tools, and you want to answer simple questions and you can’t anymore. It’s not your traditional security perimeter with like, 10+ tools anymore. And the questions are becoming harder to explain, harder to answer because of the hybrid environment that we’re in. Noetic can really be a pivotal platform in that discussion.
One looking at my environment from one single pane of glass. Getting all my tools to play together, having a platform where I can ask super simple questions like, do I have all my SentinelOne agents where they need to be? I bought a specific EDR platform like SentinelOne and I want to know that my agents are where they need to be deployed. And that’s a super simple question. Sometimes it’s really, hard to answer that question.
Noetic enables me to know that my security investments are in place and we’re leveraging them. We’re deploying them correctly. So, when you can answer that question, and you can also recognize the gaps that are within your environment, and then close these gaps that can immediately reduce risk across my environment. And that can be a data point that then a CISO takes to the board and says, from last Wednesday to this Wednesday, we made sure that our EDR is deployed correctly across my environment.
The heartbeats through Noetic. We made sure that assets that are sensitive are being protected. And we found the right kind of toolset to make sure that my assets are protected. So, I think that Noetic, in that sense, is in a really good position to answer that question of, how I reduce risk via using my existing security toolsets without needing to buy another tool and another tool? I would look at Noetic as a platform that enables my security investments to behave the way that they need to behave and to be deployed in the way that they need to be deployed.
[00:14:43] Alexandra Aguiar: Yeah, it’s about nailing down the basics and solidifying that foundation that you’ve already built with your existing investments to be able to do more, like building that proactive approach to security and a continuous threat exposure management approach. You got to have those foundational aspects down before you can do that.
[00:15:03] Iren Reznikov: Exactly.
[00:15:06] Alexandra Aguiar: So, Iren, I’m interested to know, as such an influential investor in space, what are some of the key factors that you consider when you’re evaluating cybersecurity startups or emerging technologies for your own investment opportunities?
[00:15:25] Iren Reznikov: That’s a good question. I think that looking across many, many different startups, and companies across various stages. At the end, it’s all about the three T’s, which are team technology and timing. And I’ll get deeper into each one.
I mean, team. Obviously, that’s the most important thing. Eventually, you’re backing the team that you think is the right team for the job. You want to make sure that there is the right dynamics between team members, you want to make sure that people have the right grit and the right mindsets to start what they want to start. And it’s just the most important factor out there. It’s not a secret that you want to back the right team.
I think the second piece of technology–when I’m looking at deals and I’m usually investing in cybersecurity and enterprise software and deep technologies–I think that having that perimeter of, they’re building something that is very special, they’re building something there that is defensible, they’re building something that will be really hard to build is something that I’m always looking at… especially around enterprise software and cybersecurity products.
Now, we do see tons of products out there and tons of companies out there that are not building something that is super deep or super defensible. So, I would say that sometimes it’s, it’s about the depth of the technology, and sometimes it’s about the depth of the product. And if the product really caters to customers in the right way. And that’s also super difficult to do, right? So, it’s not always about the complexity of the architecture behind the product. Sometimes, it’s the complexity of the product, and how do I really deliver the right experience to my customer? And that’s also something that I would look for and want to make sure that it’s defensible.
The third piece is timing, right? So, I do want to make sure that when I’m investing in the team that I’m backing, we’re looking at the right timing to address that problem. Sometimes problems are out there, but they’re not in the priority of customers. And then they won’t invest in technologies or products in that category. It’s just not the right time to buy, it’s not in their priority to buy right now. So, timing is everything.
Sometimes, you’ll see companies operate in a specific space for years before that space is becoming high demand for purchases and you want to make sure that you’re investing in–especially as a venture capitalist–you want to make sure that you’re investing in the right time of the market where it’s a problem that is being discussed by customers, or a bit before it becomes a problem that is being discussed by customers. So, you can take mindshare of a specific market. So, I think that’s the third piece, and it is very important.
Now, looking at Noetic and when we invested in Noetic, the space of cybersecurity asset management–although it was being kind of addressed by other companies for three or four years before Noetic came about–it’s still a super early space, and it’s still space when you’re talking to customers, they’re just figuring out what’s the right strategy for them to address cybersecurity asset management. So, for us, the timing here was really accurate, because we were talking to customers, and we realized that having a sophisticated solution that knows how to look at assets holistically is something that customers are also starting to talk about.
They’re looking at their assets in a different kind of way. It’s not about just endpoints anymore. It’s about endpoints, and it’s about every edge out there, and it’s about business applications, and it’s about identities. Everything is an asset nowadays, and we did want to back a company that understands assets in a holistic way, knows how to look at assets across that prism of what are the relations between the different assets out there to create different definition of what is an asset? Which kind of combines several types of assets within one category.
So, I think the timing around Noetic was the right timing because we were hearing that from customers that the mindset is shifting around how to protect assets and reduce waste in the environment.
And I think my first two parameters that I mentioned them in team for me when I met Noetic. I mean, the team was like the number one factor—that I really wanted to work with that specific team. It felt like they have the right combination of experience and team dynamics and the right kind of understanding of the market, and that also created the technology behind Noetic and the way that the product was super elegant. And it’s such an early stage, and we were looking at the market, and we were seeing how they created the right market, to create the right products to cater to customers’ needs for sophisticated customers as well as the broader market.
They answered the three T’s for me really easily: Team, technology and, and timing. So, I think that that’s a great example for what I’m looking for when I back companies for sure.
[00:21:03] Alexandra Aguiar: Yeah. I might be a little biased, but I think we have a great team too, but I think what’s unique about our group of founders is that they weren’t necessarily setting out to be in the cyber asset management space, they were setting out to solve it a real problem. It was problem-driven versus just trying to tap into a market that already existed necause, as you mentioned, it was, it was very, very new.
Other than Noetic itself and our team here are, I’d like to focus more so on the timing and the technology aspect for a little bit and hear your thoughts on the emerging trends or like any niche areas that you believe hold real significant potential for growth in the coming years.
[00:21:50] Iren Reznikov: I think that in general, when we’re looking at security investments in the last 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years there was kind of that mindset of we need to solve a specific problem. There is a new attack vector. And we need to solve that new attack vector. There is a gap in my security program. We need to solve that specific gap in the security program.
I think that nowadays, as security organizations are becoming more and more sophisticated, I think one thing that everybody’s talking about from different kind of angle is, how do we use the fact that there’s so much security data that is being generated across my security environment, that is not being leveraged. So, you have so many security tools that are producing so many logs, and so many events, and so much information and there’s no kind of the right tool to correlate that information and know how to better my security environment based on security data that is existing already in my environment. So that combination, that fusion of security and data is becoming kind of the foundation to how security companies are looking at the world.
It’s so important to own the infrastructure when you’re a security company. And if you’re not owning the security infrastructure, know how to leverage the infrastructure that you’re relying upon.
So, we’re seeing it in Sentinel, I’m seeing it in companies that we back, that mindset that there is the world of security and data, [and] they’re not separated anymore. They’re fused into one, and you need to have that connection and you need to know how to leverage security data that is being generated and create very deep analytics across your data and enable cost efficiency, obviously, but also enable CISOs to answer simple questions on your data, on your security data.
That is something that definitely I think we will see more and more out there, and we will see more investments of existing security companies that are trying to create their platforms to be more intelligent and to leverage the data that they already are in possession of.
[00:24:19] Alexandra Aguiar: I think security teams and security leadership are being held more accountable. And with that solutions and vendors need to follow suit. So really appreciate your insight there.
I’d like to shift gears a little bit and dive a little bit deeper into your own personal experience.
You’re not just a prominent female figure in the field, you’re a prominent figure in the field, so I’d like to get your thoughts on how you perceive the unique challenges and opportunities for us as women within this male-dominated field?
[00:24:52] Iren Reznikov: When I started in this field 10 years ago, there weren’t a lot of women investors in general, but also in cybersecurity. I mean, the number was very low, and it’s still very low, unfortunately. And I think that looking back, one of the things that really helped me is not being afraid to ask questions and kind of be super focused on developing my own kind of knowledge set and my unique niche that I’m passionate about and being super focused on that.
I came with the mindset of research oriented and how can I acquire as much knowledge as possible on an industry that I think is super interesting and am industry that I see myself growing at, and how can I find within that industry people that I can kind of rely on answering any questions or any stupid questions that I have. There is no such thing as a stupid question. That’s something that I realized quickly and, and I found the right people to help me through that, to help me navigate that and kind of built year after year, my own knowledge base on cybersecurity and cybersecurity investments.
And I think sometimes, when we’re in this industry, we’re used to thinking short-term, and I do think that careers in general are a marathon. And very opportunity that you have, be focused on what can you learn from that opportunity?
I think for women, it’s even more important just because the first time that you’re getting into this industry it’s, it’s pretty scary–it’s true. There are not a lot of women, there are not a lot of role models in this industry. Try to be your own role model. Try to think who you will be like four, five, six, seven years from now, and what would you want to say to yourself seven years from now? I think that’s something that I try to do. And remember that it’s a marathon. Remember that with each step that I take, I’ll learn what I can, and I’ll get to the next day a bit smarter than what I started.
The second piece of advice that I’m always giving it for young women that are starting out. I would always have three groups of people surround me:
One is people that are a couple of steps beyond me, like five years or 10 years older than me. And there’ll be my advice group where I’m like, where am I going? Where am I going? And what can I achieve?
And the second group will be people that are peers that are in the same kind of. boat is me right now. And these are people that I can trust, and I can talk about things that I’m going through right now.
And then the third group is people that is a bit behind me, younger women and men like three, four years that are younger than me. And that’s my favorite group, because usually when people ask you questions about how did you get where you are right now? How did you end up here? Or questions around how can they better themselves, it actually makes your journey more accurate, because you need to answer questions of other people on like, how did you get here? or what’s important to get where you need to go.
So, I, I feel like having that group is helpful being, having a mentor, being a mentor and having friends that are in your corner. That’s the three groups that I would invest in. To get to where I want to get.
[00:28:26] Alexandra Aguiar: Yeah, absolutely. Surrounding yourself with like-minded community.
You mentioned starting in the industry over 10 years ago. Over this past decade, are there any examples of, specifically how you’ve leveraged that network and influence to facilitate meaningful partnerships and, and maybe even some joint initiatives?
[00:28:48] Iren Reznikov: Yeah, I mean, for sure. I think that in general in our industry, it’s a long-term game. So, a lot of the entrepreneurs that I’ve collaborated with 10 years ago, even I see them now in their second- or third-year startup. And sometimes it’s an investment opportunity for me right now. And sometimes it’s an M&A opportunity.
And sometimes it’s also from our role in SentinelOne, our ability to create a partnership with a startup where the founders are people that I know for the last five, six years. Remembering that this is a long-term game, a lot of people, a lot of the people are on their like second or third or fourth startup. A lot of times that’s something that’s creates an opportunity for me that other others don’t have just because I’m in this game long enough. And I invest in relationships and investing in relationships is the most important thing that you can do in our line of work. So absolutely. It enables from my point of view to create opportunities for SentinelOne as well, from a partnership and collaboration perspective, and I think that’s my advice in general for people.
Remember that it’s a long-term game and it’s a marathon and you need to invest in relationships because these people you’ll meet again and again over the years. You’ll meet these people, in different kinds of hats over the years, and that can enable you to create new opportunities for your place of work and for yourself. So, for sure, that’s something that has been super helpful for me.
In the case of Noetic, for instance TenEleven invested in Noetic. I knew them from my previous firm, my venture capital firm, and I already knew that they are making some great investments, and they have a great reputation as investors.
So, when I started to engage with Paul and Noetic, that was a great signal for me to know that that’s a company that I also want to be involved in. Obviously, we did our own due diligence process and decided to invest and partner with Noetic, but that was something that obviously influenced my decision to work with the firm. So, I think that’s something that is super helpful, to have that knowledge base when you’re operating in a field for so long.
[00:30:59] Alexandra Aguiar: I’ve certainly recognized that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
[00:31:04] Iren Reznikov: I think in general, we need to look at our careers as a marathon. And you will see how opportunities kind of present themselves because of that perspective. And because you’re looking at everything that you’re sowing in the ground right now, you’ll see the flowers bloom sometimes five and 10 years from now. You just don’t know it yet.
So, try to think long-term, and try to look at opportunities is something that doesn’t have an expiration date of like 12 months. You just never know where it can lead you or where it can lead you. So, invest in relationships and look at your journey as long term is something that I feel like would really help people within that.
[00:31:46] Alexandra Aguiar: I love that. Planting the seed. I can appreciate that.
Before we wrap this section up, I did want to ask how you approach the challenge of aligning your overall cybersecurity investment decisions with SentinelOne’s broader business goals and objectives. Have you run into issues in the past? And if so, how do you address this?
[00:32:10] Iren Reznikov: Yeah, that’s a great question. So obviously we’re a cybersecurity platform and we have so many different. And a product and we’re developing in so many different areas and we’re looking to develop in other areas and launch other products. S
o, when we invest in companies through S Ventures, we always ask ourselves the question of why should SentinelOne care? Why should we care? And we usually try to answer this question with this is a space that will be important for SentinelOne down the line, three to five years from now. So that’s a really great way for us to know that this is a space that we want to invest in.
We’re not operating in it right now. We’re not planning to build within this space right now, but we recognize that this is a space that will be strategic for the company at some point. And I think that for my team, this is kind of the right prism to look at the world. We’re not focused on the 12-month roadmap that our business is focused on and we’re the team that looks to the future.
We’re part of a broader team that wants to make sure that SentinelOne is well placed into the future for five years from now. And venture is one of our ways to do that because we partner with companies that are developing in spaces that are still nascent or answering questions and challenges that we as a security platform, we’re not there yet. We’re focused on our core product. So, venture is our way to partner with these. The trailblazers that are kind of pioneering areas that we think will be important for sentient one. So, in that sense, the question of why we should care becomes pretty easy to answer.
Why should we care? Because we think that this is a strategic area and it will be important for the company as time passes by and when it will be important when we get to that stage, we already established a relationship with a company that we think is the right company to do so. And we already introduced our customers to their technology and to their product and learn from their journey and learn from the way that they’ve looked at the world and that will be our answer to why we invested in the space, five years from that decision. So, for sure, that’s something that makes us more aligned with the companies that we invest in. And we try to take that mindset into every investment that we make at S Ventures.
[00:34:51] Alexandra Aguiar: Of course, there are a lot of multifaceted considerations that go into that, but I’m sensing a reoccurring theme here where it truly is a marathon.
Lots of invaluable insights on what goes into those investment decisions from the pivotal role of the three Ts to the depth of the product. So really appreciate you for sharing that insight.
Noteworthy is your emphasis on the significance of partnerships and joint collaborations in really driving the industry forward. So, what role do partnerships and collaborations play in driving innovation and addressing complex cybersecurity challenges?
[00:35:32] Iren Reznikov: Yeah, I think that from my perspective, it’s one of the most important ways to foster innovation–is through partnerships because, when you think about it, even if you’re a big cybersecurity company and you have a broad platform and you’re developing tons of products like SentinelOne, you can’t develop everything at the same time and you want to make sure that you’re creating the right partnerships with companies that you believe in. And you think that there is a value in partnering with them to give that value to your customers. So, you can do that easily through partnerships and it’s not time consuming, it’s not resource consuming when you’re doing the right partnerships with the right companies.
And it’s, it’s a kind of a quick way to deliver value to your customers in a way that, also kind of supports companies in the ecosystem in the broader ecosystem, especially when you’re the bigger company in that partnership, and you’re collaborating with smaller scale startups that can also develop faster than you can also kind of be that faster pace company within that partnership. I think that that’s the role of a good partnership is kind of understanding what is the combined value that you’re offering to your customers. And the second piece is how do you create that value quickly in a way that is resource efficient to both sides.
[00:37:07] Alexandra Aguiar: So, speaking to delivering value and driving value on both ends, are there any specifics that you can provide around how you measure success and measure the value and impact of those partnerships in this space?
[00:37:22] Iren Reznikov: It’s a great question, and I think that it’s one of the questions that is not being discussed in the context of partnerships because eventually you can measure how many customers adopt a specific partnership, and how it is being received on the other side. Sometimes though, it’s not the best measurement for a successful partnership because it answered a very narrow segment of your customers, but it is invaluable for them, so it’s not about the amount of customers that is using, or is leveraging that partnership, but what’s the value that is being driven out of this partnership per customer, right?
So, it’s really a case-by-case basis. I would say that the number one measurement is that value piece—is when you talk to customers, they’re saying because of this partnership, I’m leveraging better my existing security investment. I am leveraging better my SentinelOne investment, I’m leveraging better Noetic, and one plus one equals three. When you can get a customer to kind of recognize that a specific partnership is one plus one equals three for him or her, that’s something that I would say is a very, very strong measurement for a successful partnership.
[00:38:41] Alexandra Aguiar: Thinking of it more so as a quality over quantity thing, I think in many facets of the industry is important.
[00:38:48] Iren Reznikov: Yes.
[00:38:49] Alexandra Aguiar: And one last question before we wrap up is managing conflict that may come up in joint initiatives.
How do you approach cross organizational challenges to ensure that collaboration remains productive and you’re still creating that value on both sides?
[00:39:04] Iren Reznikov: I think that one of the most important things is just get people involved pretty early on from the different kind of business units that can be relevant for a specific partnership and get their take early on. So, you can understand how you address a future conflict that can arise a year from now.
Now, they don’t need to be involved in the day to day of the partnership. But realizing what types of conflicts can arise through a partnership by being informed is really, really important. So, I think that having that kind of perspective from the teams that you identified that can be relevant for a specific partnership and from their work you can identify a future conflict. That is something that is detrimental for the success of a partnership.
I think the second piece is more of an emotional intelligence piece, is when people are involved from early on, they also kind of feel more responsibility towards something. So, when you can get them to be part of the team or get their perspective or get their advice–even though they don’t have kind of a specific role within a project–that can be really helpful when you go forward a year from now. So, identify the right people across the organization that can be detrimental at some point to your project and then get their perspective and advice and get them be a champion for you would be something that I would advise to do at an early stage of a potential partnership.
[00:40:46] Alexandra Aguiar: Ties back into the three Ts, the team aspect.
Well, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you here today. And I personally eagerly anticipate the continued impact that you will have on shaping the future of the industry for many years to come. So, thank you so much for your invaluable insights today. We really appreciated having you.
[00:41:12] Iren Reznikov: Thank you. It’s a pleasure.
About Iren Reznikov
Iren Reznikov leads a $100 million fund at S Ventures, investing in dynamic startups that are redefining the cybersecurity space, including Noetic Cyber™. Beyond her financial acumen, she has been a trailblazer in promoting diversity in the tech world, backing female-led startups, and championing underrepresented founders. Her story is one of vision, impact, and a commitment to driving real change in the cybersecurity industry.
