AI, Speed, and Startup Chaos: Is ‘Minimum Viable Security’ the Fix? ⎜ Kalyani Pawar

02/05/2025 50 min

Listen "AI, Speed, and Startup Chaos: Is ‘Minimum Viable Security’ the Fix? ⎜ Kalyani Pawar"

Episode Synopsis

Today, I’m joined by Kalyani Pawar, an Application Security Engineer at Zipline and a seasoned AppSec expert with a deep commitment to the startup ecosystem. Beyond her day job, she actively advises startups and VCs on what really matters in application security. Kalyani is also the co-host of the Application Security Weekly podcast and a speaker at top conferences like DEFCON, BSides SF, and RSA.She’s been a driving force behind the scenes too, serving on reviewer boards for DEFCON, WiCyS, and several BSides chapters—helping shape high-impact security content for the community.In today’s episode, we dive into her experience designing security programs from scratch across startups of all stages—and ask the big question: Can ‘Minimum Viable Security’ be the fix to all the AI-fueled chaos in startups? We also explore how VCs impact security decisions, the role of interns on security teams, and how to tackle the beast of security debt.Dive right in!

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