S12 E2: Pukar Hamal, SecurityPal AI

S12 E2: Pukar Hamal, SecurityPal AI

Author: Noah Labhart - Startup Founder & CTO January 20, 2026 Duration: 26:18
Pukar Hamal was born in 1991, and is originally from Katmandu, Nepal. He grew up with no plumbing and no electricity, prior to moving to the states to grow up in Queens. Eventually, he moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford, and fell in love with the area and the forward thinking culture. Outside of tech, he's been married for a few years. He enjoys listening to podcast about tech, finance, and economics, along with playing tennis every now and again. In his past venture, Pukar was on the one yard line for making a deal on his company. Before it could close, his team was hit with a security due diligence questionnaire that halted the process. Having that experience drove him to build something to speed up the execution and experience of customer assurance. This is the creation story of SecurityPal AI. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Behind every successful software product is a story, often untold, about the pivotal choices and challenges that shaped its journey. Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders brings those narratives to the forefront, hosted by Noah Labhart, a startup founder and CTO who understands the terrain. This podcast moves beyond theory to focus on the real-world experiences of SaaS founders, engineers, and product leaders. You'll hear firsthand accounts of building an initial MVP, the grind of securing those crucial first customers, and the delicate process of finding true product-market fit. Conversations delve into the technical and strategic crossroads that define early growth, from foundational engineering decisions and pricing experiments to the unforeseen infrastructure bottlenecks that emerge when scaling accelerates. It’s a resource for technical founders in the trenches, offering practical insights into navigating the complexities of building, launching, and growing a software business. Each episode of this podcast serves as a candid case study, revealing the lessons learned behind the code.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders
Podcast Episodes
S12 Bonus: Tyler Hochman, FORE Enterprise [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:31
Tyler Hochman got started early in the world of entrepreneurship. In Middle School, he got into Gemology, fascinated by the formation of gems, becoming a young GIA certifier. This taught him to get out of his comfort zon…
S12 E15: Meghan Joyce, Duckbill [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:33
Meghan Joyce comes from a long line of people living life to the fullest. She takes a lot of influence from her grandmother, who was an entrepreneur, making and selling dresses in the early 1900's, influencing her to tak…
S12 E14: Catalina Turlea, Lovelaice [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:29
Catalina Turlea is originally from Romania, growing up in the countryside there. Post getting her bachelors, she moved to Austria for her masters, and landed in Germany for 13 years. She is married with a 3 year old daug…
S12 Bonus: Dr. Aqib Rashid, Glasswall [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:50
Dr. Aqib Rashid was born and raised in London. He spent a lot of time around computers and tech growing up, and his parents pushed him towards becoming an expert in a discipline, being a positive influence on society. Bu…
S12 E13: David Matalon, Venn [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:19
David Matalon grew up in Great Neck, outside of New York City. He's always been interested in tech, way back in the early days of PCs, DOS, Windows and even Novell. In fact, he was the high school kid with an IT Consulti…
Founder Chats - Vadim Dedov [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:14
Today, we are dropping another episode in our "chats" series, specifically on the Founder side, - hearing from those scaling the companies themselves. In this episode, we are talking with Vadim Dedov, CEO at Catchers. Va…
S12 Bonus: Yoav Crombie, Pragatix by AGAT Software [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:39
Yoav Crombie was born and raised in Israel, serving in the army for 6 years as an engineer. He's been in the tech industry of 35 years, but doesn't see this work as work. He thoroughly enjoys what he is doing, especially…
S12 E12: Robert Brennan, OpenHands [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:29
Robert Brennan grew up in Boston and loved it so much that he ended up calling it home again. He spent time in New York between his bookend times, but he enjoys the chill pace and great music of Boston over the fast pace…
S12 Bonus: Tobias "Tobi" Konitzer, Growthloop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:17
Tobi Konitzer was born in Germany, and studied cultural studies as an undergraduate student. Eventually, he went to Duke to get a PhD in political science. And that eventually changed to be a PhD in computational social…