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Santiago Rosenblatt has been hacking since he was a kid growing up in Uruguay. Curiosity turned into a career: as an ethical hacker, Santi led cybersecurity efforts at companies like AstroPay and PedidosYa, now part of Delivery Hero.

But he had a hunch that this pain was actually massive, and faced by businesses of all sizes, sectors, and headquarters. Chats with company leaders proved that they were trying, but failing, to cover their safety vulnerabilities.

That’s how Santi created Strike – a startup that makes offensive cybersecurity accessible, fast, and actually effective. Strike has grown all the way to raising a $13.5M Series A, led by Fintech Collective. Now it supports over a hundred companies such as Santander, Telefónica, MercadoLibre, Clip, and PedidosYa.

As investors in Strike’s pre-seed round, we’ve been following that journey since the beginning. In this chat, Santi shares both valuable advice and what’s next.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

— Santiago’s battle with Crohn’s disease and what he realized from that journey;
— His interest in hacking since childhood, and his career as an ethical hacker for large tech companies;
— How he found the problem that would turn him into a startup founder with Strike;
— Strike’s zero to one journey, including its validation and go-to-market strategies;
— How to stay ahead of the curve, artificial intelligence adoption included;
— Santiago’s most important learnings from his fundraising journey, all the way to a Series A;
— What’s next for Strike;
— And the advice Santiago would share with other startup founders across LatAm.

My name’s Tomas Roggio and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!