When David Kennedy created TrustedSec, he set out to assemble the most technically advanced team of consultants and advisors with a goal of changing the security industry for the better. Investing in exceptional people allows TrustedSec to enhance client security, elevate the InfoSec community, and create a more secure world.
David Kennedy, the CEO and founder of TrustedSec, joins Rosemarie Miller on "New Money" to discuss his pivot from being in the U.S. marines to becoming a professional hacker and cybersecurity entrepreneur.
0:00 Introduction
0:40 David On His Background And Growing In The Cybersecurity field
2:14 David On Being In The Marines
3:23 David Kennedy On The Importance Of Leadership Skills
5:07 Being A Cybersecurity Influencer
6:18 David Kennedy On Having A Great Mindset
8:52 David On Working With His Spouse And Being A Team
11:29 David Shares How His Wife Completes Him In Life And Business
12:43 David Kennedy On Started His Own Business, TrustedSec
17:03 It All Pays Off
18:37 Discipline: What Is David's Routine To Be Successful?
20:51 How David Gives Back
23:38 How David Manages His Funds/Tips
24:27 What Is David's Best Purchase vs. Worst Purchase
27:25 David's Journey From Humble Beginnings To Present
29:29 David Kennedy's Advice To Young Entrepreneurs
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Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
David Kennedy, the CEO and founder of TrustedSec, joins Rosemarie Miller on "New Money" to discuss his pivot from being in the U.S. marines to becoming a professional hacker and cybersecurity entrepreneur.
0:00 Introduction
0:40 David On His Background And Growing In The Cybersecurity field
2:14 David On Being In The Marines
3:23 David Kennedy On The Importance Of Leadership Skills
5:07 Being A Cybersecurity Influencer
6:18 David Kennedy On Having A Great Mindset
8:52 David On Working With His Spouse And Being A Team
11:29 David Shares How His Wife Completes Him In Life And Business
12:43 David Kennedy On Started His Own Business, TrustedSec
17:03 It All Pays Off
18:37 Discipline: What Is David's Routine To Be Successful?
20:51 How David Gives Back
23:38 How David Manages His Funds/Tips
24:27 What Is David's Best Purchase vs. Worst Purchase
27:25 David's Journey From Humble Beginnings To Present
29:29 David Kennedy's Advice To Young Entrepreneurs
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
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Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 And there was a time when I was in Iraq where, and I won't go through the details, but our convoy was, was, got, got hit by, by IEDs and ambushes and things like that.
00:10 And I didn't think I was gonna make it through the convoy. And so that day I looked up at the sky and I was like, hey, if I can make it through this, I'm going to treat every day like it's a gift.
00:19 And I'm going to help others with that.
00:24 Hi everyone and welcome to New Money where we talk to movers and shakers about how they made it. I'm your host, Rosemary Miller here with David Kennedy, the founder and CEO of Trusted Sec in Binary Defense.
00:37 Thank you so much for joining me today, David.
00:39 Rosemary, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
00:40 Absolutely. So David, I want to know your origin story. Like what brought you all the way from what you were a Marine all the way to owning multiple companies and primarily in cybersecurity?
00:52 Yeah, you know, ever since I was a kid, I was super fascinated with technology computers. I lived in an inner city school, you know, raised with lower to middle, middle class parents, great parents, and always wanted to get into computers.
01:04 I actually failed out of high school because I was always obsessed with computers, tearing them apart. Remember my first Teddy Ruxpin, if you can remember that.
01:10 It was a toy back in the late 80s and my parents got it for me for a gift. And I just remember the first day I got it, I tore the whole thing apart to figure out how it works.
01:18 Like I think I got grounded for like a week. But, you know, technology has always just been something that's embedded in me.
01:24 And so when I got out of high school, I decided to join the military and I scored very highly on what they call their aptitude test, the ASVAB test.
01:32 And I went into intelligence. So I had a top secret government clearance. I worked for the NSA.
01:36 And I started doing cyber warfare early, early stages of cyber warfare in the security industry for the United States Marine Corps and eventually deployed twice to Iraq and Bahrain, a number of other locations.
01:47 But I was there the initial invasion, as well as during the major insurgencies over there doing cyber warfare activities to help our troops and understand where the infiltration of the terrorists were at and those types of things.
01:59 And really honed in a lot of my craft. And, you know, the rest is kind of history. The military gave me some really good training.
02:05 And from there, I was able to kind of build upon that and start to build my career in cybersecurity.
02:10 Yeah. And so after the military, you had a nine to five for a good amount of years, right?
02:15 Yeah. As soon as I got out of the military, I joined a small consulting shop that I mean, I think I think they had like four or five people.
02:20 You know, cybersecurity was still a really new industry. This is, you know, circa 2005 or so.
02:25 And I got out and I was a consultant for a number of years and eventually ended up running their entire consulting practice.
02:30 We went from like four or five people to like 55 people because the demand was so big.
02:34 And I got offered a position to become the chief security officer for Diebold Incorporated.
02:39 And I was 26 years old at that time. So I was the youngest vice president in Diebold history.
02:44 I didn't have a degree at that point yet. And I was like, well, you have to go back and get a degree.
02:47 So I had to go back to college to get it's got a business management degree.
02:51 And I became the chief security officer for a global Fortune 1000 company based on a lot of talents.
02:56 I was able to do and build my reputation in the industry as well as being kind of forward thinking in the industry.
03:01 And I was there for about five or six years running a global cyber program.
03:05 And then one day, you know, went home to my wife who just had twins, by the way. So great timing.
03:09 I said, honey, I know we got only got three or four months of mortgage in the bank.
03:13 I think I want to leave this perfectly amazing stable job at, you know, you know, 30 years old and start a company in the basement of our house.
03:20 And that's really what kicked off my two companies.
03:23 Yeah. So let's take it back a little bit. You're 26 years old with this leadership position.
03:28 Where did you learn those leadership skills? You know, I had a lot of great mentors throughout my career.
03:33 One of them was an individual named Scott Angelo, who worked for DARPA as well as worked at the consulting agency and eventually went over to Diebold.
03:40 And he was really a big inspiration for me because I was extremely technical on, you know, reverse engineering and hacking and breaking into computers.
03:49 And Scott really taught me a lot of the software skills of how to communicate, how to run teams, how to manage, how to build things.
03:56 And coming from a smaller consulting company, I learned the business aspects, the accounting, the financials, the sales, the marketing.
04:01 So I was becoming really well rounded in how I was able to communicate.
04:06 And during that period of time, there was a lot of need for cybersecurity experts in the media.
04:11 So I started doing news interviews on global networks. I started writing a lot of posts on different organizations.
04:17 And my name started to amplify and grow. Spoke at some of the largest cybersecurity conferences in the world.
04:23 Testified in front of Congress on numerous occasions on cybersecurity and really became a subject matter expert in our industry and one of the top leaders of really the forefront of what is cybersecurity today.
04:35 And so I think a lot of it was timing, but it was also, you know, really my passion of trying to make the world a safer place because I saw what was happening, you know, with these nation states like China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, you know, building up their cyber capabilities and what was happening on the war field and applying that to corporations and what we see now with ransomware.
04:53 And I really was trying to get ahead of that to help companies and organizations and people out to really protect them.
04:58 And that really kind of catapulted and skyrocketed my reputation industry and eventually my career and eventually what turned into two highly successful large companies.
05:07 So basically you were kind of like a cybersecurity influencer before being an influencer was a thing.
05:12 That's right. And it's so funny because you look at content generation now, right?
05:17 And the biggest thing was there wasn't these formalized cybersecurity industries, you know, these big companies and these companies focused on cybersecurity.
05:25 And so my area was I was publishing all of this data for free out there around how to protect your, you know, your corporations, how to protect your information, releasing tools that helped test the security of your programs.
05:37 And so, you know, a lot of my tools became world renowned in the cybersecurity industry.
05:42 In fact, I got to work on the TV show Mr. Robot with Rami Malek and Christian Slater.
05:47 They use a lot of my tools. I helped them with some of their skits and stunts they use for the TV show on USA.
05:52 And, you know, the whole hacker culture really started to push forward and the industry started to push forward.
05:57 And I was definitely leading a lot of that in the beginning, as well as, you know, still today with the industry has always been a passion of mine and just something I always like love doing.
06:04 It's like, you know, you know, a lot of people go to work, they come home and they don't want to do work anymore.
06:08 For me, it's a hobby. It's, you know, going there and figuring things out that have never been done before, tearing things apart and being able to communicate that in a way, you know, to the masses has been something that I've been really focusing on.
06:18 So communicating that to the masses, what was going through your mind to make you realize like, okay, I have to put this out there.
06:27 Like I, when you came home, I can't just be a job. This can't just be a job. I have to put this out there to a larger audience.
06:35 What went through your mind to get you there?
06:37 You know, a lot of it is your mindset, right?
06:40 I think, you know, one of the biggest traits that the Marines taught me was, I may not be the best at something, but you can build a foundation off of something and continue to build up from there, as long as it becomes kind of an obsession or a hobby or something that you're passionate, passionate about.
06:54 And cybersecurity for me is all of those. Right.
06:56 So it became my hobby, what I enjoy doing.
06:58 You know, I remember my wife is amazing, by the way. I want to keep caveating that because my early days, I just spent, you know, weeks in the basement figuring out, you know, how to get around Microsoft's protection mechanisms to make them stronger and work with Microsoft.
07:10 Right. And, you know, it's it was one of those things that became kind of an obsession for me, you know, where I really focused on trying to do things that have never been done before in an innovative industry that was just emerging and really get in the front of it.
07:25 And I think, you know, you look at anything in business, et cetera. I mean, I think a lot of hackers are really good, but they struggle in other areas around building businesses or understanding how you can monetize that or to be able to, you know, bring awesome people in that help you as well.
07:38 And so all of those were kind of running through my head as I was doing all of this. And I remember, you know, when I first started TrustedSec, so TrustedSec I started first and then Binary Defense two years later.
07:47 TrustedSec I started in the basement of my house, you know, I'm like, I don't need an office. And then I heard, I think my twins like, you know, destroying each other upstairs.
07:54 And I'm like, OK, I need an office really quick. But, you know, I had no idea how to even start an LLC or any legal documents or, you know, MSAs or, you know, anything like that, statements of work.
08:04 And I just kind of, again, made that my passion, my obsession and started building upon that. And, you know, I have to credit my wife as well. She took a lot of the aspects that I'm weak at.
08:16 And so she helped me with the finance. She's our CFO today at TrustedSec. And she took all of the stuff that I'm weak at, you know, the finances and things like that.
08:23 I care less about the money aspect of things. I just want to go and do cool stuff. And we were able to build some really successful businesses and continue to build new businesses.
08:31 I think I have like 11 or 12 businesses that I've started since then, and they're all growing. They're all profitable. And it's all been from a grassroots perspective, too.
08:38 I didn't take any funding initially, you know, grew the companies very large. And then eventually, for minor defense, we just a year and a half ago took some funding to grow.
08:46 Grew 150 percent last year, which is amazing in this industry. So we're definitely hitting it hard.
08:52 There is a lot to unpack there. But what I'm most interested in is what's it like working with your wife?
08:59 You know, a lot of people say, don't hire your friends, don't hire family members, don't work with your wife. I go against all those grains.
09:05 My dad actually works for Binary Defense. He's an amazing person. He's the one that got me into technology early at an age.
09:13 And it wasn't because he's my dad. He's actually he worked for a school district and became an expert on our products that we're using early on.
09:20 We had to test our security software and we did kind of pro bono work for a lot of schools. And so he became an expert.
09:25 And so we ended up hiring him over or he doesn't report to me. That'd be weird. But, you know, so we have a lot of data lines around that.
09:31 But, you know, but working with my wife is is fantastic. We have a great working relationship.
09:36 You know, I, you know, as the CEO run the company, but it's such a joint decision with our entire leadership team of how we tackle problems or how we go forward.
09:46 And it's input from everybody to kind of hit that strategy and that vision to continue to grow, to continue to do innovative things.
09:52 We work really well together. In fact, you know, you know, we've been married for 17 years and marriage has never been stronger.
09:59 It's just it's just an awesome thing. Yeah. 17 years. What was it like at the beginning?
10:03 What was your financial situation like at the beginning? Well, funny story, my wife.
10:06 So I had been dating her for 24 days and then I deployed to Iraq for a year.
10:11 So I was in Iraq and I was in what's called the Sunni Triangle of Death. So it's the worst area you can possibly imagine of Iraq.
10:17 So Fallujah, Ramadi, a number of other areas. So, you know, I was doing convoys all the time and, you know, a lot of bad things happening.
10:23 And we made it through that whole year. And, you know, when I got out of the military, you know, I wasn't making a lot of money.
10:29 We didn't have a lot of money in our pockets. You know, we were just starting a career off coming out of the military.
10:34 And we didn't really know what to do. But, you know, we she was a sign language interpreter for the deaf.
10:40 So she knows how to sign language. She didn't have a finance background or anything like that.
10:43 And we kind of just went through and kind of trudged forward and learned as we went along.
10:47 And that has been really successful for us. And, you know, it's funny because I got people like, oh, you read this book, read this book, read this book on business.
10:53 I don't read any books on business. Like I just that's someone else's experience to me.
10:56 You know, like I want to live my experience of doing something that I trust myself in and the people around me and learn from those mistakes and build, build more.
11:03 Now, I try to learn, you know, ways of doing things differently. But at the end of the day, we kind of forge our own path forward.
11:09 And she she rode with you through a lot. So after 24 days, she stuck around with you while you were deployed.
11:17 Yep. Entire time. And then we moved as soon as I got back. She actually flew out to Hawaii with me as I was stationed in Hawaii.
11:23 OK. And we lived in Hawaii for a year before I got out of the military.
11:27 And then we started our family then. You started your family then and you knew she was the one.
11:31 Absolutely. After 24 days, we both knew. Yeah. How? Just know it's just one of those things that happens.
11:36 It's just like you're you know, you're the same person. You complete each other.
11:40 You figure out where your weaknesses are, where their strengths are. And it just is the perfect yin and yang of everything.
11:47 She's very financially, you know, fiscally conservative and everything, which is great.
11:52 And I'm not, you know, like I you know, I don't I don't look at the bank account or things like that.
11:55 I just focus on, you know, the other things. And we balance each other out extremely well.
11:58 And, you know, it's it's you know, it's not say marriages are perfect.
12:02 You know, you go through ups and downs and challenging times and businesses which can impact personal as well.
12:06 But, you know, we always rode through those and became even stronger every time.
12:09 And, you know, businesses go through ebbs and flows like, you know, when you had covid, you didn't know what was going to happen.
12:16 And a lot of uncertainty. We ended up having a record year, luckily.
12:19 But, you know, preparing for that and trying to figure out how do you take your business that a lot of it's consulting,
12:24 which is in person, and then shift that to online to be able to, you know,
12:28 allow the same type of services that you're providing to organizations in a seamless way.
12:33 So, you know, there's a lot of uncertainties when you do this. But, you know, if you if you have a good partner,
12:38 whether it's your spouse or a really good partner in your business or great leaders, you can really overcome anything.
12:43 And I imagine there was a lot of compromise there. So you said at a certain point you had a really good job.
12:48 Perfect. And you decided to do away with that and go start your own business.
12:53 What was that conversation with her like when you decided to do that?
12:56 You know, it's funny because when you when I look back at that day, I'm glad I did it.
13:02 I don't think I would do the same thing today. It just be knowing everything.
13:06 I know I would do it. But at my age, you know, I'm in my 40s now. I don't think I would take that risk.
13:10 And that's exactly what I was playing in my head. You know, I was I was 30 years old.
13:14 I just turned 30. And I was thinking, I'm like, right now is the opportunity for me to try to do something and make this a business
13:21 and do something I've never done before because I'm passionate about it. I know that what I built at Diebel,
13:26 we had one of the most advanced cybersecurity programs in the world at time.
13:30 We were recognized by SE Magazine and a lot of others were winning awards. We had a great team.
13:34 You know, I had a dotted line directly to our board of directors, report directly to our CEO.
13:37 Again, at 26 years old, you know, it's crazy. And and we had an amazing job, an amazing team.
13:42 We had built something really special there. And, you know, I remember driving home.
13:47 I remember driving home one day. So we lived in in Bree at the time, which is about an hour drive from the office.
13:52 I was driving an hour there, an hour back every day to North Canton, where Diebel headquarters is at.
13:56 I remember driving home and I've had this in my head for for a long time, like six months.
14:00 But, you know, you're like, should I do it? Should I not? And we've had conversations about it.
14:04 But it's like, yeah, maybe maybe we'll do it a little bit. And I went home one day.
14:07 I remember having a conversation with her. I'm like, hey, you know, I think I want to go and leave Diebel and start my own company.
14:14 And I remember talking to her at the time and she said, listen, you know, everything you've ever done that you you're passionate about,
14:19 you've been successful at. So let's figure out a way to make this work. What can I do to help?
14:22 And that was it. That was that was the conversation. And then from there, you know, started working on getting, you know, an LLC set up,
14:28 stood up. You had to go online to some place to go register an LLC somewhere.
14:31 I had no idea. No legal or law firms or anybody telling me how to run a business or anything like that.
14:35 I just knew that, you know, one, I believe in myself.
14:39 I believe in Aaron and we believe in each other. And it was going to go go forward from there.
14:42 And I imagine you had to look at yourself in the mirror many days and say, how am I going to make this work?
14:48 How am I going to make this profitable? So, first of all, how long was that window between starting and this is profitable?
14:55 So what's nice about the way that we, you know, I looked at this was I always had the idea for for Binary Defense,
15:01 but to build a services organization that, you know, is heavily on development and, you know, security operation centers,
15:07 which are manned by 24/7 staff, it's a big expenditure. Right. And then you have that type of capital to start a company like that.
15:13 But I knew I wanted to build a company like that because there was a big need in the industry with with TrustedSec.
15:19 Consulting is is your biggest expense are going to be your people. Right.
15:22 So for me, I was the consultant. I was the salesperson. I was the marketing.
15:27 You know, I was everything else, you know, running all of those roles at the time.
15:29 So I traveled probably 80 to 90 percent, you know, the first few years of TrustedSec to really get it to a point where, you know,
15:37 we were able to bring on additional people and add new folks and, you know, eventually had dedicated salespeople and everything else.
15:43 And now, you know, TrustedSec has over 150 employees and Binary Defense has over 350 employees.
15:49 So I think together, you know, we have close to 500 employees, which is crazy to think about.
15:52 Like, you know, you're like, I don't know everybody's name sometimes.
15:55 You know, like, oh, my gosh, this is so weird. You know, but we maintain a really big family culture.
16:00 You know, our people stay there for years and years and years. We have in consulting. It's a really difficult job.
16:04 You're traveling a lot. You're doing a lot of things. Our retention rate is like we lose one or two people maybe a year.
16:09 And that's only because of like usually a family situation.
16:12 They get amazing job from like Google or Microsoft because we're known as some of the best cybersecurity companies in the industry.
16:17 So we're able to retain a lot of people. And, you know, it's just it was a lot of hard work and effort.
16:22 I would say, you know, things got really tight because we only had three months of of rent in our bank account.
16:28 And I think, you know, when you when you first started business, you don't realize payment terms.
16:32 So I think we're like net 60. And so when you look at that, you're like, oh, hey, well, I have to build this work.
16:37 I have to complete it. Then I have to wait 60 days to go and get paid.
16:39 So we had to take a line of credit out, you know, just to kind of keep that going.
16:42 But eventually, you know, things started kicking in. I had already established my name in the industry is pretty well.
16:48 So I was able to really get some folks to believe in early stage trust a sec and give us some work.
16:54 We worked for an entire country early on, which is really great.
16:57 Helped us a lot. Worked over some of the largest law firms out there. And by the first year, we were already profitable.
17:03 David, you said eventually things started kicking in.
17:06 I want to know about those nights, what you went through before that eventually happened.
17:13 You know, you start having conversations of like, you know, is this really going to work out or are we going to be able to pay ourselves or, you know, how are we going to pay rent?
17:21 How are we going to pay our mortgage? How are we going to feed our kids and things like that?
17:24 And so, you know, when when those times happen, you go into overdrive. Like I just I didn't sleep.
17:30 I just, you know, focused on pounding work out, getting the work done, making sure it's quality work.
17:34 But I'd work, you know, three or four or five engagements at a time. I would write sales and proposals.
17:39 I'd go out and speak at conferences all over the country to generate work.
17:43 And then Erin is in the back end, you know, learning the financing. You know, she had never touched QuickBooks before.
17:47 So now we're doing QuickBooks and trying to figure things out. And so, you know, all of these things were we're starting to to build the foundation of what we had.
17:56 But there was times where, you know, I wouldn't sleep for two, three, four days.
18:00 Or if I did it'd be for like two hours. And I can't do that anymore.
18:03 But I definitely need my good six or seven hours of sleep.
18:06 But I was, you know, hacking all night and then I was a business person all day, hacking all night, business person all day, traveling in between there, speaking, you know, places.
18:14 And I was still, you know, a figurehead in the industry. So I'm a figure in the industry. But I had to release, you know, cutting edge research.
18:20 So in that period of time, I'd have to figure out how to how to spend time researching, getting new content out there to promote the company itself.
18:28 So it was a lot of work to go into it that, you know, look back and I'm like, man, I can't believe I did all that.
18:32 I can't believe we did all that. But it was really, really foundational to what it is today.
18:37 Yeah, you're wearing a lot of hats. How did you come up with a daily routine to get it all done?
18:42 It's, you know, for me, even today, I wear a lot of hats, right?
18:46 Everything from CEO to, you know, I have another title, chief hacking officer.
18:50 So when you own your own company and come up with really cool titles, but, you know, it's a lot of hats today.
18:55 And it all comes down to what is most important from a prioritization perspective.
18:59 And I think a lot of people lose focus of that. There's a million things that can be going on in a day that you have to complete.
19:06 But are there really a million things that need to be completed in a day?
19:09 What are the top 10 things that you need to complete in a day that you need to knock out that are critical for what you're doing?
19:16 So for me, it was looking at it a day to day basis, but also not losing focus of I needed help.
19:21 I needed to get people in the door to be able to hire so that I can start to take some of my responsibilities away.
19:26 And that's one thing that I've always done. I don't have an ego. I don't think I'm better than anybody else.
19:32 We're all peers in our companies. You know, we just wear different hats and roles and we have different experiences.
19:37 And one of the things that I recognize is that if I can get responsibility off of me so I can free up my time,
19:44 I can focus on those areas that are most important. And so within six months, we had hired a staff consultant to come aboard.
19:52 I think it was actually eight months, eight months. We had a staff consultant that came aboard.
19:56 And so that person was doing a lot of the technical work while I then focused on the sales, the marketing,
20:00 making sure the delivery was was was proper, talking to the customers, doing all the traveling that was going on there.
20:05 So, you know, it was always with the mindset of I'm going to have to do this for it's going to be painful for six months to a year to two years.
20:13 But with the goal of I will have folks with me to be able to help me out as I go through this journey.
20:18 And, you know, I was able to hire a lot of my great friends. Eventually, one of my friends, Scott White, who worked at me,
20:24 worked with me at my consulting company, I first got out. He then joined Diebold and built our application security team and then hired Scott.
20:31 I think he was employee number four. And Scott was just a foundational person because he knew Web applications and cybersecurity really well.
20:38 And he was able to really take most of the technical work away from me so that I can focus on growing the company, the business, going on, speaking,
20:45 releasing tools, doing research. And I still did a ton of work, but I was able to really focus on the things that helped grow the business.
20:51 Your whole journey, it sounds like giving back, giving back. You gave back to your country.
20:56 You're giving back to your family and friends by helping them with careers. Do you feel like you're living in your purpose right now?
21:04 Yeah. So there's there's a there's a time in life where you look at things and you're like, man,
21:10 there's a there's a point in your life where something just clicked in your brain. And there was a time when I was in Iraq where and I won't go through the details,
21:17 but our convoy was was got got hit by by IEDs and ambushes and things like that.
21:24 And I didn't think I was gonna make it through the convoy. And so that day I looked up at the sky and I was like, hey, if I can make it through this,
21:30 I'm going to treat every day like it's a gift and I'm going to help others with that.
21:34 Just so just hear me out, God, if you're out there, let me know, you know, and I made it through.
21:38 And and ever since that day, I've always had the drive and passion of helping others.
21:42 In fact, where I graduated from is a place called Bedford High School.
21:47 It's in it's an inner city school just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. It's one of the worst.
21:53 It's one of the worst school districts, I think, in the area, just from a crime perspective.
21:57 They actually shut the whole high school down, not for covid, but because of gang related activities, guns, things like that.
22:04 Metal detectors get inside. It's a really bad spot. These kids have no opportunity to really get stem or to learn, you know, I.T. and tech.
22:12 And so a few years ago, I built their e-sports gaming facility and they call it the David Kennedy Center of Leadership and Gaming.
22:19 I think it's what's called. And it created 20 scholarship opportunities a year into e-sports and eventually technology and I.T.
22:26 And that was a great start, but it wasn't where I wanted to go with it.
22:29 And what I'm working on right now, we just released it this year is Bedford High School is the first school,
22:36 believe in the Midwest, even in the country that now offers college level nine through 12 cybersecurity related courses.
22:42 And I funded that whole program and worked with a company called Paradigm Security to build these course materials out for these kids.
22:49 And it's giving them opportunities, scholarships, as well as our whole goal with it is, you know, skip college is good,
22:56 but you can skip college and go directly into trusted sec as a paid internship eventually to, you know,
23:01 you know, full time employees from these kids that would never have an opportunity.
23:04 So they can go nine through 12, go through these programs and then come right into trusted sec and learn that, you know,
23:08 the tricks of the trade and cybersecurity stuff. We can get these kids jobs where they never have opportunities to.
23:13 So since then, we released that at the beginning of this year. Other schools in northeast Ohio are now onboarding this program as well.
23:21 And now cybersecurity is really taking off in high school, nine through 12, K-12,
23:25 and really kind of helping the shorters of cybersecurity professionals we have.
23:29 We're teaching them the right way and giving them opportunities.
23:31 And that's been my whole goal is to help others and to, again, you know, make the world a safer place,
23:35 which is our mission statement, both at Pioneer and Trusted Sec.
23:38 So you put a lot of your money into giving back and helping others. Where else do you put your money?
23:45 So, you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur now at this point. So whenever there's a need for something, I like to invest in that.
23:53 So I invested and I'm a partner and help run basketball training facilities for youth.
23:58 So we have, I think, seven facilities now.
24:02 They're franchising franchises now. And it's great because you can have AU tournaments there for basketball.
24:07 We have this technology, these shooting guns that you can get like 500 shots off for basketball per half hour.
24:12 It tracks all your data and metrics from a technology perspective.
24:15 You can see where you're getting better at basketball. And it's got its own app.
24:18 And the parents can see how well their kids are improving at basketball.
24:21 So just, again, more on the helping theme of trying to get other things with there.
24:25 So I would say investments in businesses that are helping kids, helping people, being able to do that is a dream come true.
24:33 I also have spent my money on a DeLorean. So I have a fully converted Back to the Future machine DeLorean.
24:38 Yeah, it's a whole other thing. But when I was a kid, Back to the Future is actually what got me into cybersecurity, believe it or not.
24:45 So that movie, the future of what is possible and the technology and everything else, it spurred my interest into technology computers.
24:52 And that's when I actually started it. So Back to the Future to me is like one of the things as a kid that got me into cybersecurity.
24:57 And that is an interesting purchase. Well, tell us about some of your smartest purchases and your dumbest purchases.
25:05 So the DeLorean is probably one of my dumbest purchases.
25:10 You know, when it comes to investments, I like to invest in friends as well.
25:15 And I invested in a longevity clinic. I'm big into health and fitness.
25:21 And I invested in one of my friends that was helping others, both military that, you know, our medical system is kind of weird.
25:28 So it helps with understanding your blood work and getting you the right type of things that you need to kind of balance your hormones and make sure you're doing them.
25:35 And that company is doing amazing and doing great. One of my best investments, I think, was was working with with Emil and getting that company started and helping there.
25:42 But, you know, I also threw it throughout these different times.
25:48 The companies have gone through like different evolutions. So Binary Defense, we took investment last year from a company called Invictus, a firm called Invictus.
25:56 And they're phenomenal. And I've always been hesitant on taking investment money before because I've always loved, you know, one, I guess, owning 100 percent of the company.
26:07 But to making sure that if I take investment, it doesn't impact our culture, our people, our friends that are working there and those types of things.
26:14 And last year we decided to take investment. We got it's public information.
26:19 We took a thirty nine million dollar investment into Binary Defense and one of the single best decisions that I've ever made because we were able to bring in a brand new leadership team over Binary Defense.
26:30 That came from Lockheed Martin and Capgemini. And they they're just amazing people.
26:37 They kept our culture, but they were so smart on running this business that we grew over 150 percent last year just alone.
26:45 And, you know, so single handedly, one of the best decisions that I've ever made.
26:50 So, you know, and and, you know, Bob, our CEO over Binary Defense is incredible.
26:54 He brought in his folks that he had worked with previously in the past.
26:58 And, you know, it was just just a culmination of the stars aligning to get Bob in the first place,
27:05 but also the ability to bring in an amazing leadership team that knows what they're doing in cybersecurity, is experienced in cybersecurity and executes at a high level.
27:13 It was a complete game changer for for Binary Defense.
27:15 And he went from even Bob joined a year and a half ago.
27:18 We were probably 150 and we're at 350 now and we're looking at hiring another hundred and some people this year.
27:23 So we're exploding. David, you're talking about having a leadership team who knows what they're doing.
27:29 How do you know what you're doing? You started off with humble beginnings.
27:33 How did you learn how to manage all this wealth? You know, it's it's Aaron.
27:37 My wife still struggles with that, you know, because, you know, we're not we're not living in an apartment anymore with our parents houses anymore.
27:42 Right. And, you know, it's a matter of one staying humble with it, but also recognizing that, you know,
27:49 we need to set succession plans up for our kids and our families and those types of things.
27:54 And I stay very in tune to the businesses themselves. So I'm very heavily involved every day, you know, the day to day of trust.
28:00 The second day to day of Binary Defense. So I don't lose focus of that.
28:04 But we're also recognizing that, hey, these companies are getting to a point that, you know, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
28:10 Like this doesn't happen to folks normally. Right. You know, and so it's still weird.
28:15 It's still shocking because we still view ourselves as, you know, Dave and Aaron from, you know, 25 years old or 24 years old when, you know,
28:21 she's just graduating college and I'm just getting out of the Marines.
28:24 And, you know, we have these these upbringings where, you know, we came from nothing to something.
28:27 And it's it's definitely life changing. But, you know, we still live very humble lives.
28:31 We have one house, you know, I have three cars to the DeLorean, but, you know, you know, two cars.
28:35 And we have amazing kids. You know, I have three kids. We have twins and a 15 year old.
28:39 And, you know, they're all in sports. So, you know, what's great is, you know, while I had to travel pretty substantially during the first few years,
28:45 never lost focus of family. The importance of family was number one.
28:49 So, you know, I coach all my kids basketball teams. You know, I'm I'm heavily involved in all their sports and activities.
28:55 I've got them into weight training. And, you know, so I go to their basketball games, go out there, volleyball games.
29:00 I don't do some meets. I can't handle swimming. I'm not a big swimming fan, but everything else I can handle.
29:04 But but baseball and everything else. So just enjoying this family time and the success and, you know, teaching our kids responsibly.
29:12 What to what with what to do and how to handle things. But it's been it's been an amazing ride.
29:16 Like, you know, everybody asks, you know, what would you change if there's one thing you go back and change?
29:19 And I won't change a thing because, you know, I've had failures. If I messed up on something, I would.
29:24 You know, that's something I learned from that I was able to build upon to be successful next time.
29:28 So I wouldn't I wouldn't change a thing. So what three pieces of advice would you leave for entrepreneurs these days who are kind of winging it?
29:35 They don't really know what they're doing. They're winging it. Yeah. The three biggest things I would say, number one, believe in yourself.
29:43 Like you have to believe in yourself because that's the difference between entrepreneur and non-entrepreneur.
29:48 You know, a non-entrepreneur will will work the same job the rest of her life or go to different jobs and continue to go there.
29:54 An entrepreneur will say, this is awesome, but I can do this by myself.
29:58 And it's scary because you're you're uplifting, you know, your family members or twins or kids, you know, and and you really have to be conscious of that.
30:05 But you believe in yourself. You're going to be successful at whatever you do in some capacity or not.
30:10 The second thing is recognizing that it being an entrepreneur only take you so far and that you're going to need other people to help you along the way.
30:18 I think that's the most important thing that a lot of people forget and why I think a lot of businesses either fail or really struggle is because the entrepreneur is the person that's still leading the charge in sales and marketing or whatever they're good at.
30:28 And they may not be the best person in that role that fit. You know, as an entrepreneur, you need to take a step back after a certain period of time and say, I have a great team.
30:36 They're smart in all those other areas. I don't need to be that person anymore to go and do the day to day.
30:42 And that's hard for a lot of people to take a step back and say, I'm no longer really the leader of these teams. Right.
30:49 You know, Bob, our CEO, he's running our company every single day, you know, without asking me anything for permission. Right.
30:55 And you have to be really comfortable with that and trust them, but also recognize that they're much stronger in what they do than I am.
31:02 Right. I took it to a certain point. I got to a certain step. But at a certain point in time, I have to say, listen, there's going to be a time where I'm not going to be the best for this.
31:09 And I need to step back and allow people, you know, my team to grow, allow the company to grow a lot of the go in the right direction the right way without losing focus of your culture and your people.
31:17 The third one, which is probably the most important, is that companies are made of people and people are your most important asset.
31:24 Treat your people like royalty, regardless if they're just coming in as a junior or if they're, you know, someone that's been there since the very beginning.
31:33 One of my best friends still work at Binary Defense. I was actually when I flew out from Cleveland to here today, I was out having drinks with my best friends, Dave the Simon.
31:41 We went to a steakhouse and I hadn't seen him in like a couple of weeks. He's one of my best friends. He's been there since, I think, the first month of Binary Defense.
31:49 Right. And, you know, don't lose focus of the people that put in all the work every day to make that company successful.
31:56 But most importantly, they believe in you leading that company and the mission that you're providing. And I think that's where a lot of CEOs miss this newer generation.
32:05 You know, you hear a lot of CEOs say, oh, this newer generation doesn't work. They don't you know, they don't know how to do things.
32:09 It's not that at all. They're the best workers I think I've ever hired before. These younger generations are amazing, but they want to be a part of something that is historic or that they believe in.
32:20 That's doing a difference for the world. Right. They're very big on helping others. And if you can align your company with those values, treat your people with as much care and respect as you possibly can and understand, you know, they go through troubles in their own personal lives.
32:34 And, you know, at the office, you can come in if you want to. You know, there's no work from home, but you come in when you want to. We have video games, we have massage chairs.
32:41 You know, it's a cool, cool place to go. It's a super high tech facility, but you don't have to come in the office, you know, and you can work whenever you want. You can come in at 10 o'clock or 12 o'clock as long as you get your work done. Right.
32:51 And I think it's just treating people like human beings, having a fun culture, being able to, you know, recognize that everybody contributes to the organization's success. It's all about people. Companies are all about people.
33:01 David, God really answered your prayer that day. He did. He sure did. He came back and man, it was it was like a whammy when I made it through and I got got to my base.
33:09 And my whole life was was changed for the for the for the better. I have to ask, what's your faith like today? Very strong. Very strong. Yes.
33:17 You know, it's as well as my my what my whole family, you know, I think I think faith is is an important aspect in regards of, you know, beliefs.
33:26 I think the fact that, you know, you're helping others and making the world a better place, regardless of religion or what you believe in, is a powerful thing. Right.
33:36 And for me, you know, faith has always been something that, you know, has been a guiding force for me and my family to try to do the right things, you know, across the world and not lose focus of what what the most important thing is, which is living this life and having a great time with it.
33:51 Right. And how many people that you can help change or make for the better, you know, while you're on the surf for a very short period of time.
33:58 I hope, you know, when my day comes, you know, that I've helped so many people on here that maybe I get a little a little bit of passageway through or whatever for the mistakes I made.
34:07 But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, just just yesterday we hired somebody and this individual, his name's Ricky.
34:14 I've known him for a few years, but he was working as a security guard for a mall and I'm sorry, for a hospital.
34:22 And I've been trying to break into cybersecurity and I could see the passion in Ricky, you know, like just wanted to do it.
34:28 And to his own credit, he studied, he took certifications.
34:31 Every time I talked to him, he was online trying to figure things out, just gave him a job offer yesterday.
34:37 And he responded back literally in tears saying, man, you know, this is the biggest life changing event that I've ever had in my entire life.
34:43 Thank you. Right. To be able to provide those opportunities for others. That's the best thing you can be doing.
34:47 That's what keeps me going, is seeing the success of other people and that they grow in their own shoes and they have opportunities to be successful,
34:55 because that's at the end of the day what I want for everybody else.
34:58 Yes. God blesses those who bless others. I agree.
35:01 Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me.
35:04 Really appreciate it. And always happy to answer your questions. So feel free to reach out. Absolutely. Thank you.
35:09 Thank you.
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