From Hacker to Founder ft. Tal Kollender of Gytpol

At 13, Tal Kollender wasn’t playing games - she was hacking them. By 16, she had built one of the first email protection systems and made her first million. The IDF then turned her from black-hat to white-hat, channeling her skills into national defense.

After years in cyber units and at Dell EMC, Tal co-founded Gytpol, tackling one of cybersecurity’s most overlooked problems: device misconfiguration. Bootstrapped from day one, profitable early, and scaling globally, Gytpol is now trusted by Fortune 50 companies.

In this candid conversation, Tal shares:
- How teenage hacking shaped her entrepreneurial mindset
- Why she left money on the table to serve in the army
- The reality of building a startup without VC funding
- Why 80% of attacks stem from simple misconfigurations
- How Gytpol grew from a napkin sketch in a Tel Aviv pub to millions in ARR

Tal’s story isn’t just about cyber. It’s about grit, culture, and building Israeli companies differently — proudly bootstrapped, globally relevant, and unshakably bold.

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